Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke

Isabel de Clare, suo jure Countess of Pembroke (* between 1171 and 1176; † 1220 ) was an Anglo- Norman magnate .

Origin, inheritance and marriage to William Marshal

Isabel de Clare came from the Clare family . She was the only daughter of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and his wife Aife . Her mother was the daughter of the Irish King Diarmait Mac Murchada , who her father married in August 1170. Her father died in April 1176, after which her brother Gilbert, born in 1173, became the heir of her father's extensive estates. However, Gilbert died childless between 1185 and 1189, before he came of age. Isabel then became the sole heir to her father's estates in England, Normandy, South Wales and Leinster, Ireland . Shortly before his death in 1189 , King Henry II offered the marriage to the wealthy heiress to his loyal vassal William Marshal as a reward. After Heinrich's death, his son and successor Richard I also gave his consent to the marriage. Marshal picked Isabel up from the Ranulf de Glanville household in London in August 1189 and married her immediately afterwards.

Mistress of Leinster

In the spring of 1207 Marshal wanted to visit Leinster and his other Irish possessions for the first time after his marriage to Isabel. Before leaving South Wales, Isabel attended a council meeting in Chepstow to which Marshal had invited his followers. There she tried in vain to prevent her second son Richard from being handed over to King John as a hostage . She may have persuaded Marshal to go to Ireland after Marshal fell out of favor with the king. In Leinster, Isabel was considered a mistress in her own right. With Walter she had her own clergyman and with Robert her own administrator, and she kept her own seal. After her arrival in Ireland, however, a dispute arose with Meiler fitzHenry , the royal justiciar , who was also her vassal in Leinster. Meiler arranged for Marshal to be called back to the royal court in England, leaving Leinster undefended and allowing Meiler's troops to invade Leinster. In the meantime, the pregnant Isabel remained in Ireland in the care of some knights from Marshal's entourage, possibly she stayed in Ireland deliberately to defend her inheritance. During her husband's absence, several of her vassals, such as Philip de Prendergast and David de la Roche, changed sides and joined the Justiciar. However, Meiler suffered a defeat against Hugh de Lacy and was removed from office. When Marshal returned to Ireland, he pardoned his renegade vassals, against Isabel's opposition.

The ruins of Tintern Abbey, where Isabel de Clare was buried

Last years and death

For the next several years, Marshal remained a loyal vassal of the king and became one of his main supporters during the War of the Barons . After the king's death in 1216, Marshal took over for his underage son Henry III. the chairmanship of the Regency Council. He managed to end the barons' war. When he was dying of old age in 1219, he decreed that Isabel should be given the management of her inherited estates, while his eldest son initially received only Marshal's paternal inheritance. According to a chronicle, there should have been a moving farewell scene between him and Isabel on Marshal's deathbed. After his death she founded Reading Abbey where Marshal was buried, annually 100 shillings to requiem masses to read for her husband. She reached an agreement with the French king after she and her children regained Marshal's estates in France, which the king had confiscated after Marshal's death. But she died the next year and was buried in Tintern Abbey in Wales.

Descendants and inheritance

From her marriage to William Marshal, Isabel had five sons and five daughters:

• William Marshal (around 1190-1231)
• Richard Marshal († 1234)
• Gilbert Marshal († 1241)
• Walter Marshal († 1245)
• Anselm Marshal († 1245)
• Mathilda (also Maud) Marshal

1. ⚭ Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk († 1225)
2. ⚭ William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey (1166–1240)
3. ⚭ Walter de Dunstanville

• Isabel Marshal († 1240)

1. ⚭ Gilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford
2. ⚭ Richard of Cornwall

• Sybil Marshal ⚭ William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby
• Eva Marshal († 1246) ⚭ William de Braose
• Joan Marshal ⚭ Warin de Munchensi

Her eldest son, William, was her heir. By 1245, however, all of her sons died childless, so that the extensive inheritance was then divided up between their daughters and their descendants in an elaborate division of inheritance.

Web links

• MT Flanagan: Clare, Isabel de, suo jure countess of Pembroke (1171x6-1220). 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
• Isabella de Clare, Countess of Pembroke on thepeerage.com , accessed February 4, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 22