Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford

Coat of arms of the Earls of Hereford

Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford (also Humphrey VI. De Bohun ; * around 1249 , † December 31, 1298 near Pleshey , Essex ) was an English magnate .

origin

Humphrey VI. de Bohun came from the Anglo-Norman family Bohun . He was a son of Humphrey V. de Bohun and Eleanor de Braose, a daughter of William de Braose and Eva Marshal. His father was captured as a rebel against the king at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 during the Second Barons' War and died a little later. From his mother, who had died before 1251, Humphrey VI inherited. Portions of the holdings of the Braose and Marshal families in the Welsh Marches .

Dispute over Breconshire in Wales

Until he came of age, the possessions inherited from his mother in the Welsh Marches fell under royal administration. Breconshire was handed over to Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford . When Bohun came of age in 1270, he promised Hertford to pay £ 1000 in order to obtain the right to marry. Large parts of Breconshire had been conquered from 1262 by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd , the Prince of Wales . In the Treaty of Montgomery , the ownership of Breconshire had not been clearly established, and Bohun began a guerrilla war against Llywelyn ap Gruffydd for Breconshire from 1272 onwards. By 1275 Bohun was able to recapture most of the barony, whereas Llywelyn ap Gruffydd with King Henry III. and protested to King Edward I after his death . At the royal council in 1276, however, Bohun accused Llywelyn ap Gruffydd of aggression against him, which led to the campaign of King Edward I against Wales . Bohun served in the royal army during the campaign, and after the successful end of the war, the king guaranteed the protection of his possessions so that Bohun could make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela .

More conflicts in Wales

After the death of his grandfather Humphrey IV. De Bohun in 1275, Humphrey VI. inherited his extensive possessions in England, especially in Essex and Wiltshire , as well as the titles of Earl of Hereford and Earl of Essex and the office of Lord High Constable . In addition to the Earl of Hertford and Richard of Cornwall , the king's cousin, Bohun had risen to become one of the most powerful English magnates.

Bohun also took part in the second campaign to conquer Wales from 1282 to 1283, after he had put down unrest in Breconshire at the beginning of the war. After the war, however, Bohun began conflicts with the neighboring Marcher Lords , which led to open feuds . King Edward I rewarded John Giffard in 1284 with the Iscennen bordering on Breconshire. However, Bohun considered the area as his own, having occupied it during the conquest of Wales, and raided the possessions of Giffard. A royal court, however, confirmed Giffard's possession and King Edward I also confirmed the donation in 1289. There were also further difficulties with the Earl of Hertford, who complained that Bohun would never have paid in full the fee agreed in 1270 for his marriage. Bohun, however, had not got over the fact that he was subordinate to Hertford during the campaign against Wales of 1282. Also during the Rhys ap Maredudd rebellion in 1287, Hertford and not he was appointed commander of the English army. When Hertford began building Morlais Castle on the Glamorgan- Breconshire border , Bohun claimed the castle was on his territory. His claim was questionable, especially since he had never completely succeeded in subjugating the Welsh in Breconshire. Contrary to the law of the Marcher Lords, Bohun turned to the king in 1289, whereupon Hertford attacked Breconshire in February 1290, contrary to the express prohibition of the king in an open feud, invoking his right as Marcher Lord. After two more raids and counter-actions, the king intervened and summoned Bohun and Hertford to a royal court. In January 1292 both were sentenced to prison terms by Parliament while Glamorgan and Breconshire were seized by the King. Bohun was soon released, but he was not returned to Breconshire until July 15 for a fine of 1,000  marks .

Conflict with King Edward I.

Humphrey de Bohun and Roger Bigod in dispute with King Edward I. Historicizing illustration from 1864

Bohun was very conscious of his titles and dignity. As the hereditary constable of England, he waived his payment during the Wars of Conquest in Wales from 1277 onwards, but asked in 1282 for his share of the conquests that was due to him. When he was supposed to answer to the king for unjustified mistreatment during the war in 1281, he refused to appear on the grounds of his status as Marcher Lord, which the king had to accept with anger. In 1280, during the vacancy of the Diocese of St David , he claimed the income from the bishop's possessions in his Welsh possessions, which resulted in an armed feud. Even after the death of Bishop William de Braose von Llandaff in 1287, Bohun claimed the income from the bishop's property for himself as long as no successor was elected. After conquering Wales, King Edward I tried to break the power of the Marcher Lords. In 1287 he quickly forced the Bohun and Marcher Lords to hand over the estates of the diocese to him, and in 1293 he sharply rebuked Bohun in Parliament , and in 1297, contrary to the Marcher Lords' rights, he sent investigators to Brecon to investigate complaints about Bohun's rule and placed the applicants under the protection of the king.

This led to Bohun opposing the king in 1297. Due to the high cost of the Franco-English War , there was opposition to royal policy. When the king asked the magnates in parliament in February 1297 to accompany him on a campaign in Gascony , Roger IV Bigod, Earl of Norfolk and Marshal of England refused . The king nevertheless called up an army, but Bigod as marshal and Bohun as constable did not fulfill their duties. When there was a meeting between representatives of the king and the barons near London in July 1297, Bohun explained in a long speech the reasons for his refusal and demanded that the king respond to his complaints. This speech became the basis for the remonstrances , the written demands of the barons. The king tried desperately to collect money for the war, whereupon Bohun and Bigod appeared in front of the Exchequer with armed entourage in August to prevent the collection of taxes. When the Scots invaded northern England, the king had to make concessions to the barons in de tallagio and confirmatio cartarum . He pardoned Bohun and Bigod, who then took part in the campaign against Scotland.

He was buried in Walden Abbey , the Essex family monastery that he had sponsored through large foundations.

Family and offspring

Bohun married Maud de Fiennes in 1275, a daughter of Enguerrand de Fiennes, Seigneur de Fiennes in Guînes , and his wife, a daughter of Jacques, Seigneur de Condé, Bailleul and Moriammez in Hainault . He had a son, Humphrey (VII) , who became his heir.

Web links

• Cracroft's Peerage: Hereford, Earl of (E, 1200 - merged in the Crown 1399)
• Scott L. Waugh: Bohun, Humphrey (VI) de, third earl of Hereford and eighth earl of Essex (c.1249-1298). 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. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 147
2. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 274

predecessor	Office	successor
Humphrey de Bohun	Lord High Constable Earl of Hereford Earl of Essex 1275-1298	Humphrey de Bohun