Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall

Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall (also Reginald FitzRoy , Raynald , lat. Rainaldus de Dunstanivilla , fr. Réginald de Dunstanville ) (* around 1110 , † 1 July 1175 in Chertsey , Surrey ) was an English nobleman .

He was an illegitimate son of King Henry I out of association with Sibyl Corbet, daughter of Sir Robert Corbet, lord of Alcester in Warwickshire .

The nickname “de Dunstanville”, with which Ordericus Vitalis describes him, probably refers to the place Dénestanville in Normandy , where he was possibly born. He is not related to the Dunstanville family, also from there, who owned large estates in Wiltshire at the time .

In the civil war for the successor to Henry I , he stood on the side of his half-sister Matilda , who probably enfeoffed him in April 1141 with the dignity of Earl of Cornwall . When Matilda withdrew from the Battle of Winchester in September 1141, Reginald led the vanguard. Matilda's rival King Stephen later recognized Reginald's earl title. In 1153 he was present as a witness at the settlement between Stephan and Heinrich II .

From 1173 he held the office of sheriff of Devon and fought in October 1173 in the Battle of Fornham on the side of King Henry II against revolting barons .

After his death in 1175 he was buried in Reading Abbey.

Marriage and offspring

He married Beatrice FitzRichard, daughter of William FitzRichard, who owned a number of fiefs in Cornwall, and had the following children with her:

• Nicholas de Dunstanville (1136-1175);
• Hawyse de Dunstanville (1138–1162) ⚭ Richard de Redvers, 2nd Earl of Devon ;
• Maud de Dunstanville (* 1143) ⚭ Robert II. De Beaumont , Count of Meulan ;
• Ursula de Dunstanville (* 1145) ⚭ Walter de Dunstanville, Lord of Castle Combe ;
• Sarah de Dunstanville (* 1147) ⚭ Adémar V , Vice Count of Limoges ;
• Beatrice de Vaux (* 1149) ⚭ William de Briwere II, Lord of Horsley;
• Reginald de Dunstanville (* around 1152).

In addition, he also had illegitimate children:

• Henry Fitz-Count , Sheriff of Cornwall, 1st Earl of Cornwall († 1222);
• William Fitz-Count.

Apparently he outlived his legitimate sons; in any case, his earldom had been withdrawn from the crown in December 1175 at the latest. In 1217 the earl title was reassigned to his illegitimate son Henry Fitz-Count.

literature

• Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr .: The Children of Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall. In: The American Genealogist. No. 29, pp. 13-17, June 1953; No. 31, p. 118, April 1955.
• George Edward Cokayne (Ed.): The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom Extant, Extinct, or Dormant . Volume 2, George Bell & Sons, London 1889, p. 361.

Web links

• Rainald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall on thepeerage.com