Margaret de Clare (1292-1342)

Margaret de Clare (October 1292 - April 1342 ) was an English noblewoman. After the death of her brother, the last Earl of Hertford, she was one of the heiresses of the Clare family's estates .

Origin and youth

Margaret was the second daughter and third child of Gilbert de Clare and his second wife Johanna , a daughter of King Edward I. Her father was one of the richest and most powerful nobles in England, but died in 1295. Margaret probably grew after the death of her father with her mother and her second husband Ralph de Monthermer . Her mother died in April 1307.

First marriage

At the instigation of her uncle, the English King Edward II , she married his favorite Piers Gaveston on November 1, 1307 in Berkhamsted Castle . A nobility opposition formed against Gaveston's influence on the king, which forced Gaveston into exile in November 1311. After Gaveston returned to England a few months later, he was captured and murdered by the nobles under the leadership of Thomas Plantagenet, 2nd Earl of Lancaster . Thereupon the king took the widowed Margaret into his household.

Second marriage

After the death of her only brother Gilbert , who died in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and left no heirs, her father's extensive property was divided between her and her two sisters Eleanor and Elizabeth in November 1317 . Margaret received Tonbridge in Kent, Thornbury in Gloucestershire and numerous other scattered estates in England as well as the rule Wentloog in the Welsh Marches , plus a third of the Irish rule Kilkenny . She had previously married Hugh de Audley , a confidante of the king, on April 28, 1317 at Windsor Castle . She and her husband moved into Tonbridge Castle , a castle from her father's legacy.

Hereditary dispute with Hugh le Despenser and rebellions

However, as early as 1318, the new royal favorite Hugh le Despenser , who had married Margaret's sister Eleanor, claimed Wentloog for himself. Under pressure from the king, de Audley had to hand over the rule to Despenser. When Despenser claimed his sister-in-law Elizabeth's possessions in south-east Wales a little later, a rebellion of the Welsh Marcher Lords broke out , which de Audley joined. In the so-called Despenser War , however, the king was able to put down the rebellion. De Audley was captured and only avoided execution thanks to his wife's intercession. Their possessions fell under royal administration. While de Audley remained in captivity, Margaret was allowed to retreat to the Priory of Sempringham . After the final overthrow of Despenser and King Edward II at the end of 1326, Margaret and de Audley received Wentloog and their confiscated properties back. However, after de Audley was involved in an unsuccessful rebellion against Roger Mortimer , Queen Isabella's favorite , in 1328 , he was sentenced to pay an extremely heavy fine of £ 10,000, which he did not have to pay because of the overthrow of Mortimer and Isabella in late 1330 .

Later life under King Edward III.

In March 1336, Ralph de Stafford forcibly kidnapped her daughter and heiress Margaret and married her. Presumably because of this, Hugh de Audley received one of the titles of his brother-in-law Gilbert de Clare, which had expired in 1314, and was made Earl of Gloucester . Her husband served the new King Edward III. several times as envoy. Margaret probably died in France when she accompanied her husband on one of these trips.

progeny

Margaret had children from both marriages. From her marriage to Piers Gaveston she had a daughter:

• Joan Gaveston (1312-1325)

From her marriage to Hugh de Audley she had a daughter:

• Margaret de Audley († 1348) ∞ Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford

Aftermath

In Marlowe's drama Edward II , Margaret de Clare is a marginal figure as the bride of Piers Gaveston. Even at this point in time, she is portrayed as the heir to her father's historically incorrectly.

Web links

• Cracroft's Peerage: Gloucester, Earl of (E, c.1122--1314)
• JS Hamilton: Clare, Margaret de, countess of Gloucester. 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

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ In other sources, the years of birth 1291 and 1293 are also given.
2. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 170
3. ↑ Shakespeare and History: Margaret de Clare. Retrieved April 15, 2015 .