Giles d'Argentine

Sir Giles d'Argentine (* around 1210, † December 1282 ) was an English nobleman who was one of the leaders of the aristocratic opposition in the Second War of the Barons .

Origin and youth

Giles d'Argentine was a son of Sir Richard d'Argentine , a little baron from Hertfordshire . Before 1231 he was knighted. During the Anglo-Welsh War from 1231 to 1234 , he was captured by the Welsh near Montgomery in 1231 . After his release he resigned from the king's service. After his father's death in late 1246, he inherited four estates in Hertfordshire, Essex , Cambridgeshire and Suffolk which gave him annual income of around £ 200. This made him one of the smallest crown vassals in England.

Role in the war of the barons

After there was a revolt of dissatisfied nobles against the rule of King Henry III in the spring of 1258 . had given, d'Argentine was elected during the Parliament of Oxford in June 1258 as one of the twelve representatives of the barons who were to represent the barons in parliaments. Before September 30, 1258, the new government of the barons appointed him steward of the king's household , a position his father had already held. Why he was able to rise to such important positions as a little baron is unknown. Despite their small possessions, d'Argentines family was considered to be respected, but most of all he was patronized by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , who had become the leader of the aristocratic opposition and for whom he had previously attested at least two documents. In October 1259 he was re-elected as a representative of parliament. Presumably around this time his eldest son married Reginald Laura, daughter of Hugh de Vere, 4th Earl of Oxford , who was also a representative of the barons in Parliament.

Because of his office, d'Argentine belonged to the closest environment of Henry III. and accompanied him to France in November 1259, where he signed the Treaty of Paris . While still in France, the king dismissed him from his position as steward on February 21, 1260, probably because of his support for Montfort. At the end of 1260, d'Argentine resigned from parliament, but through the influence of Montfort, who had again taken over the government, he became the highest royal judge of the Midlands in November 1260 . However, he did not take up this office. During the troubles of 1261 he is said to have supported the supporters of Montfort in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire as sheriff . When it came to the open power struggle between Montfort and the king in the summer of 1263, Montfort appointed him on August 3, 1263 as the commandant of Windsor Castle . When the king regained power in November, he immediately deposed d'Argentine. During the open war of the barons, d'Argentine was captured on May 11, 1264. He was set free after Montfort's victory at the Battle of Lewes and was tasked with restoring peace in Cambridgeshire. At the end of June 1264 he was elected to the new, nine-member State Council of Barons. His duties again included running the household of the largely disempowered king, for which he received an annual salary of £ 120. He used the captivity of Robert de Stuteville , a follower of the king, to buy his estate Withersfield in Suffolk . After the final defeat of Montfort, he was accused of having participated in the Battle of Evesham in August 1265 , which is why his possessions were confiscated by the king's supporters. However, he was pardoned in February 1266 and was able to repurchase almost all properties by 1267 against a fine. Then he withdrew to his estates.

Family and offspring

Before 1239, d'Argentine had married Margery, a daughter of the East English knight Sir Robert d'Aguillon. His heir became his eldest son, Reynold .

Web links

• HW Ridgeway: Argentine, Sir Giles d '(c.1210-1282). 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
• Giles d'Argentine on thepeerage.com , accessed August 25, 2016.