Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford

Clare family coat of arms

Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford (also called Earl de Clare ; * around 1153 - † between October 30 and November 28, 1217 in Oxfordshire , England) was an English magnate .

origin

Richard was from the Clare Anglo-Norman family . He was the second son of Roger de Clare, 2nd Earl of Hertford and his wife Maud de St Hilary, so he belonged to the younger branch of the Tonbridge family .

Head of the Clare family

When Gilbert de Striguil, 3rd Earl of Pembroke , the minor heir to Richard Strongbow of the main Welsh branch of the family, died in 1185 with no descendants, Richard became head of the Clare family until his death. After his father's death in 1173 he inherited Tonbridge Castle and the family's estates in England. Richard de Clare participated in the coronation of the English King Richard I on September 3, 1189 in Westminster . The king, desperately in need of money for his crusade , gave Richard half of the estates of the Giffard family , the Earls of Buckingham , that same year . After the death of the last Earl Walter Giffard in 1164, this property initially fell to the crown as a reverted fiefdom . Richard de Clare, like his cousin Isabel , daughter of Richard Strongbow and wife of William Marshal , had a claim to the inheritance as a descendant of Rohese Giffard, an aunt of Walter Giffard and wife of Richard de Bienfaite , so that finally the inheritance between Richard and Isabell was split. In 1195, after the death of his mother Maud, he was able to enforce his inheritance claim to the rule of St Hilary , although his mother also had a son from her second marriage to William d'Aubigny, 2nd Earl of Arundel . The inheritance for which he had to pay the high fee of £ 360 to the king included possessions in Norfolk and Northamptonshire which later became part of the Clare reign. After the French king had conquered Normandy in the Franco-English War , he finally lost his family's possessions in Normandy in 1204. The largest expansion of the family estate came about through his marriage to Amicia FitzWilliam , the second daughter of William, Earl of Gloucester and Hawise de Beaumont. After the death of her father in 1183, Amicia and her two sisters were co-heirs of their father's extensive legacy, which included over 260 knights' fees in England and extensive estates in Wales and the Welsh Marches . Due to the troubled situation in south-east Wales, King Henry II administered the Welsh lands himself for the time being and then handed them over to his youngest son Johann Ohneland , who also married Amicia's sister Isabell in 1189 . Richard's wife, Amicia, outlived her sisters, who had both remained childless, and after Isabel's death Richard was able to claim his claim to part of the inheritance a few weeks before his own death. He did not see the confirmation of the legacy and the title, but his son Gilbert became Earl of Gloucester and Lord of Glamorgan and Gwynllŵg in south-east Wales.

Political role

Despite his large estate, which he was able to expand considerably through the inheritance, Richard did not play a significant role politically under the kings Henry II and Richard I. As one of the richest noblemen in England, he took part in the coronation of King John Ohneland on May 27, 1199. He was also present at the homage to the Scottish King William I in Lincoln . Only in 1215, during the rebellion of the barons against King John, which led to the king's recognition of the Magna Carta , did he play a major role. He is named as one of the 25 barons charged with overseeing compliance with the Magna Carta regulations. However, he probably owed this less to his personal abilities than to the importance of his family. As he and his son Gilbert continued to side with the rebelling barons during the ensuing Barons' War , the king captured Tonbridge Castle in December 1215 and declared Richard forfeit his possessions in Cambridge , Norfolk , Suffolk and Essex . He gave this to Robert de Betun . As a rebel against the king, Richard and his son were excommunicated by the Pope . After the death of King John and the victory of the royal party at the Battle of Lincoln in May 1217, he negotiated with the regent William Marshal in Gloucester, but he recognized his son Henry as the new king. After the Peace of Lambeth concluded on September 30, 1217 , Richard de Clare got his confiscated property back.

Family and offspring

From his marriage to Amicia FitzWilliam in 1172, Richard had several children, including:

• Gilbert de Clare (* 1180 in Hertford, Hertfordshire - † 25 October 1230), 4th Earl of Gloucester, 4th Earl of Hertford
• Maud (Matilda) de Clare (* 1184 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire; † after 1220)

1. ∞ Sir William de Braose , son of William de Braose and Maud de St Valery ,
2. ∞ Rhys Gryg († 1234), son of Lord Rhys , Prince of Deheubarth

• Richard de Clare (* 1184 in Hertford; † March 4, 1228 in London )

Because of the close blood relationship, Pope Innocent III ordered. 1198 the divorce. From 1200 Amicia lived in seclusion, probably in Clare in Suffolk.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ is only mentioned at www.peerage.com
2. ↑ Personal data (English) www.fmg.ac
3. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 24
4. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 25
5. ^ David Walker: Medieval Wales . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1990. ISBN 978-0-521-31153-3 , p. 39
6. ↑ Magna Carta 800th: Nigel Saul, Richard de Clare and Gilbert de Clare. Retrieved March 23, 2015 . 
7. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 54
8. ↑ Profiles of Magna Carta Sureties and Other Supporters. Retrieved March 23, 2015 . 

Web links

• Magna Carta 800th: Nigel Saul, Richard de Clare and Gilbert de Clare
• Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford on thepeerage.com , accessed August 7, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger de Clare	Earl of Hertford 1173-1217	Gilbert de Clare