John de Vescy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John de Vescy (born July 18, 1244 , † February 10, 1289 in Montpellier ) was an English nobleman, military man and diplomat.

Life

Origin and youth

John was the eldest son of William de Vesci and his second wife Agnes, daughter of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby . His father died in 1253 when he was King Heinrich III. accompanied on his expedition to Gascony . John became heir to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and Malton and other estates in Yorkshire . The king gave the guardianship and the right to marry John to Peter of Savoy , an uncle of Queen Eleanor . John was raised in the queen's household with Lord Edmund , a younger son of the king, and with Henry de Lacy , later Earl of Lincoln. The Queen and Peter of Savoy finally marry him to their Italian relative Agnes.

Rebel against the king

From May 1263, however, Vescy was one of the young nobles who rebelled against the king under the leadership of Simon de Montfort . Why Vescy joined the rebels is unclear. The king had behaved kindly towards him and made several presents to both him and his mother. His Italian wife was loyal to him. Perhaps Vescy was drawn to the rebel side through his friendship with Henry Hastings and Geoffrey de Lucy, who were also royal wards and now rebels.

During the following Second War of the Barons he fought against the supporters of the king in northern England, and from October 1263 to mid-1264 he waged a guerrilla war against the sheriff of Yorkshire . In January 1264 he was one of the barons in France who attended the arbitration decision of the French king, the Mise of Amiens , in the conflict between the barons and the king. Whether he took part in the Battle of Lewes , which brought the barons provisional rule over England, is uncertain. During the reign of the barons under Simon de Montfort, he received no office, but was appointed to the Model Parliament on January 20, 1265 , in which he presumably participated. On February 24, 1265, he took part in a tournament in Dunstable , and only then did he appear to have been at court, where he received permits in April and May. At the Battle of Evesham in August 1265 he was wounded and taken prisoner by the victorious followers of the king. His possessions were confiscated, but he was able to retreat to Alnwick Castle after his release.

Legend has it that he brought a foot of Montfort's mutilated body to Alnwick Castle after the Battle of Evesham . The foot is said to have been kept in a silver shoe in Alnwick Priory until the monastery was dissolved during the Reformation. In 1266 Vescy rebelled again against the king together with several expropriated rebels, the so-called disinherited ones . The heir to the throne Eduard then moved with troops against him and, with the support of other troops from Bamburgh, took Alnwick Castle by storm. Vescy had to surrender and, according to the provisions of the Dictum of Kenilworth , was able to acquire his lands back for a heavy fine of 3,700 marks . He was able to pay the majority of this sum by Easter 1270.

Reconciliation with the heir to the throne Edward

Despite the heavy punishment, Eduard had been lenient towards Vescy. As a result, Vescy was quickly reconciled with the heir to the throne and obtained pardons for at least three of his vassals. In 1270 he became one of the few former rebels to join Edward's crusade to Palestine . In order to raise the costs for this, he had to pledge several goods. Allegedly in Palestine, after the poison attack on Eduard, he brought Eleanor's wife out of the room before the heir to the throne was operated on, but this legend has not been proven. During the crusade, however, he continued to win the favor of the heir to the throne, to whose entourage he belonged on the return journey. He also accompanied him to Gascony in 1273 , where the heir to the throne first traveled.

Military and diplomat in the service of the king

After her return to England in 1274, Vescy continued to belong to the household of Edward, who had become King of England in 1272 as the successor to his father. In 1274 the king appointed him in command of Scarborough Castle , which he held until 1276. In 1275 Vescy was one of the leaders of the expedition, with the Scottish King Alexander III. a rebellion was put down on the Isle of Man . In early 1276 he went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela , but returned to England at the end of the year to take part in Parliament . As a close confidant of the king, he took 1,277 on campaign against Wales in part and introduced in August together with Otton de Grandson the Seeexpedition that Anglesey conquered and the campaign against Gwynedd decided with. In 1278 he was one of the ambassadors who negotiated the marriage of Margaret , a daughter of the king, with Duke John of Brabant. In 1279 he served as arbitrator in a dispute between the Scottish King Alexander and the Bishop Robert of Durham.

In February 1282 the king sent him to Aragon together with Anthony Bek , where he conducted the preliminary negotiations for a wedding of Prince Alfonso , a son of King Peter , and Edward's eldest daughter Eleanor . In August, Vescy signed the prenuptial agreement in Huesca and served with Bek as the bride's representative at the proxy wedding. Then Vescy recruited together with Antony Bek in Gascony mercenaries for the renewed campaign to Wales . During the campaign he led again together with Otton de Grandson the command in Anglesey. Together with two other barons he was sent to the Netherlands in June 1285 to negotiate the marriage of Elizabeth , another daughter of the king, with Johann , a son of the Count of Holland.

From 1286 to 1289 he accompanied the king back to Gascony. There he took part in the trial of the Seneschal Jean de Grailly in 1287 , who was then removed from office. He then took part in negotiations with King Sancho of Castile in May 1287 to arrange a meeting of the king with the English king. According to the Treaty of Canfranc , he was one of the hostages held by the English king in 1288 until the ransom for Charles II of Anjou was paid. Vescy died in south-west France before the king returned to England.

Marriages and inheritance

Vescy was married twice. His first marriage was Agnes, daughter of Margrave Manfred III of Saluzzo and sister of Alice of Lincoln. She died shortly after the Battle of Evesham and was buried with her sister in the Dominican monastery of Pontefract . It was not until fourteen years after her death that Vescy married Isabel , a daughter of Louis of Acre and Agnes de Beaumont, in 1279 or 1280 . Both marriages remained childless. His brother William became his heir . His widow Isabel was very popular with King Edward II . According to the Ordinances of 1311 , she had to leave the royal court, but soon returned and only died shortly before November 1, 1334.

Vescy sponsored the Alnwick Priory Family Foundation. With the Pope's permission, he acquired a small priory near Newcastle in October 1286 , which he converted into a Poor Clare monastery . He was buried at Alnwick Abbey, and his heart was interred with the hearts of Queen Eleanor and Prince Alfonso in the Dominican Church of London as a token of royal favor .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 57.
  2. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 144.
  3. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 321.
  4. ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , S. 325th
personal data
SURNAME De Vescy, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Vesci, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman, military man and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1244
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1289
Place of death Montpellier