Gilbert Basset

Gilbert Basset († July or August 1241 ) was an English nobleman and rebel.

Origin and advancement in the service of the king

Gilbert Basset was believed to be a younger son of the English nobleman Alan Basset . It is unclear whether his mother Alice (or Alina ) de Gai († 1230) or a possible former wife Alice de Gray was. Like his father and brothers, Gilbert entered the service of the king and eventually the service of the family of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke . He was possibly the son of Alan Basset, who took part in the unsuccessful campaign of King John in Poitou in 1214 instead of his father . It was first mentioned with certainty during the First Barons ' War , when the king handed him over to him after 1215 possessions near Sutton in Surrey . For the next ten years he served mostly as a knight in the royal household. In 1229 he was appointed constable of Devizes Castle . In 1230 he took part in the French campaign of King Henry III. part, and in 1231 he became administrator of St Briavels Castle and the Forest of Dean . The king rewarded him by entrusting him with the management of several estates, including Marden and Upavon in Wiltshire . Upavon in particular was a lucrative property that had previously belonged to the courtier Peter de Maulay , who had fallen from grace.

Rebel against the Regency Council

After the death of his father in 1232 Basset inherited his property. In addition he received Kirtlington in Oxfordshire and Speen in Berkshire , which his brother Thomas, who died in 1230, had held as a vassal of William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke . In 1230 or 1231 he gave his younger brother Philip properties near Leeds in Yorkshire , which he held as a vassal of the Earl of Lincoln . Basset's career in the service of the king ended, however, when the Justiciar Hubert de Burgh was overthrown in 1232 and his rival Peter des Roches took power instead . Basset was discharged as steward of Devizes and St Briavels Castle in October 1232. Peter de Maulay , the previous owner of Bassets Gut Upavon, was a close friend of des Roches and sued the court for the return of the estate. Although Basset had a charter from the king, he had to surrender Upavon back to Mauley in February 1233. This arbitrary expropriation of Basset was for many barons a renewed example of the abuse of office by Peter des Roches. Basset, now completely out of favor, began an open rebellion. As a result, in June 1233 his other property was confiscated and arrested. Together with numerous relatives, including his brothers Warin and Philip and Richard Siward , the husband of his cousin Philippa , Basset made an alliance with his liege lord Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, on his estate at High Wycombe in August 1233 . Then they waged a bitter guerrilla war against the Royal Regency Council from the Welsh Marches . They allied themselves with the Welsh under Prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth , who had been at war with Henry III since 1231 . found. Together with Richard Siward, Basset undertook raids to England, on which they raided the goods of the king and his favorites. In October he took part in the attack on Devizes , in which Hubert de Burgh, who had fled to church asylum , was freed. Richard Marshal was killed in action against supporters of Roches in Ireland in April 1234, but under pressure from other magnates and most of the English bishops, des Roches was dismissed from grace by the king in May 1234. Henry III. forgave Basset and the other rebels their rebellion, after which they were allowed to return to court. In addition, Basset received the Upavon and other goods back from the king.

Next life

In the years that followed, he received gifts from the king on several occasions, including venison and wood from the royal forests, which he used to rebuild the goods he had destroyed during the rebellion. From May 1234 until his death, Basset witnessed several documents from the king, from Hubert de Burgh and from Gilbert Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke , who had inherited his brother Richard. After 1237, the papal legate Oddone di Tonengo succeeded in reconciling Hubert de Burgh, Gilbert Basset and Richard Siward with Peter des Roches. Basset died as a result of a hunting accident. He was buried in Bicester Priory in Oxfordshire , the Basset Family Foundation.

Family and inheritance

In the summer of 1234 Basset Isabella de Ferrers († around 1260), a daughter of William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby , married a cousin of Richard Marshal. Isabella brought the Greywell estate in Hampshire into the marriage as a dowry .

Even before his death, Basset had made foundations for the benefit of the Blackmore Priory in Essex and the Augustinian Priory of Bicester. His widow Isabella married Reginald de Mohun of Dunster († 1258) after his death. Basset's only son died as a child on August 22, 1241, a few weeks after his father. His possessions fell to his younger brother Fulk Basset , Bishop of London, and after his death in 1259 to the younger brother Philip Basset.

Possibly Fulk of Sandford , Archbishop of Dublin, was an illegitimate son of Basset.

Web links

• Nicholas Vincent: Basset, Gilbert (d. 1241). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Maulay, Peter (I) de (d. 1241). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
2. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205 - 1238 . Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 397
3. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205 - 1238 . Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2002. ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 475