Richard de Gray (nobleman, † before 1272)

Richard de Gray (* before 1198, † before 1272) was an English nobleman. Originally a knight of the royal household and Seneschal of Gascony , he was one of the leading rebels against the king during the Second Barons' War .

origin

Richard de Gray was born in 1198 at the latest as the eldest son of Henry de Gray and his wife Isolda († 1246). His father was a little baron who owned lands in Derbyshire with Codnor Castle and Thurrock in Essex , his mother was a sister and partial heir of Robert Bardolf of Grimston , Nottinghamshire . After the death of his father in 1219, Gray inherited Codnor and Thurrock.

Knight in the service of the king

During the First War of the Barons , Gray supported King John , who rewarded him with lands taken from rebels. This included the lands of John de Humez († 1223), to whose daughter and heir Lucy Gray was probably already married. Prior to 1220, Gray and his younger brother John Gray were among the Knights of Henry III's royal household . for which they received an annual pension of £ 20. In the service of the king he served in Poitou during the Franco-English War in 1224 and as administrator of the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey in 1226 . In 1230 he took part in the king's unsuccessful campaign to France . In 1232 he went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela . From 1235 to 1236 he served as Sheriff of Northumberland and 1239 as Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire . He served frequently in the Welsh Marches in the late 1230s and 1240s . In 1241 he took part in the tournament in Hertfordshire in which Gilbert Marshal, 4th Earl of Pembroke, was killed. In 1242 he donated property to the Carmelite Order in Aylesford in Kent. There the Order established its first settlement outside the Holy Land .

Service in Gascony

In 1248 Gray was appointed Seneschal of Gascony . In this office, however, he was quickly replaced by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , whose vassal he was in Northamptonshire. After Gray had already taken a crusade vow before 1241, he swore again in 1252, together with his brother John and other members of the royal household, to go on the crusade to the Holy Land . In 1252 he was reappointed administrator of the Channel Islands, in this position he was replaced in 1254 by the heir to the throne, Lord Edward . In 1253 he served briefly again as Seneschal of Gascony. Together with his son John and his brothers John and William, he followed Henry III in 1254. to Gascony , where the king had to put down a revolt against his rule. From Gascony he accompanied the king to Paris. After his return to England he resigned from the service of the king in 1255 and retired to his estates. There is evidence for 1256 that he owned a ship called the Portjoye that imported Gascon wine to England.

Supporter of the aristocratic opposition

In 1258 he emerged as a supporter of the reform movement and a close ally of Simon de Montfort. He was elected by the supporters of the aristocratic opposition as one of the twelve representatives of the barons who were to work out a reform program for the rule of the king. After Parliament passed this reform program, the Provisions of Oxford , in June 1258 , Gray was elected to the fifteen-member Council of State. He also became Constable of the strategically important Dover Castle , Warden of the Cinque Ports and Chamberlain of Sandwich . As the commander of these important south-east English ports, he was supposed to prevent the exiled royal favorites, the so-called Lusignans , from sending money out of the country. When Gray, according to royal orders, left a papal messenger ashore at Dover in 1259 , this contradicted the wishes of the State Council. Accordingly, he was replaced in his offices by the Justiciar Hugh Bigod . Nevertheless, he was still a member of the State Council and accompanied the king to Paris at the end of 1259, where he concluded a peace treaty with the French king . In January 1260 Gray returned to England with Simon de Montfort. It probably belonged to the group of barons who in early February, despite the ban on was staying on in France King's due to the Provisions of Oxford Parliament on Candlemas wanted to keep. When the government of the barons dissolved, Gray submitted to the king in the fall of 1260 and withdrew to his possessions.

Role in the war of the barons

When Montfort resumed government in July 1263, Gray returned to court and was again Constable of Dover Castle. In this position he refused in December 1263 to hand over the castle to the king himself. Then he was a member of the delegation of the aristocratic opposition who traveled to France in the conflict over the Provisions of Oxford to receive an arbitration award from the French King Louis IX. expected. When this in the Mise of Amiens declared the commission invalid, it came in England to the open Second War of the barons against the king. Along with his son John, Gray was part of the crew of Dover Castle. He supported Montfort in April 1264 in the unsuccessful siege of Rochester Castle . As commandant of Dover Castle, he did not take part in the Battle of Lewes , but after Montfort's clear victory over the king, the latter took over the government again and on May 27th appointed Gray commander of Rochester Castle, while Montfort's son Henry took his place in command by Dover Castle. Apparently he stayed in south-east England for the next few months until, in July 1265, he was part of the army of Simon de Montfort the Younger , which moved to Kenilworth Castle via Winchester , Oxford and Northampton . There they were surprised in their sleep outside the castle by the troops of the heir to the throne, Lord Edward, on the night of August 1st. Gray came with his son John and numerous other supporters of Montfort into the captivity of the supporters of the king. Shortly thereafter, after the royal party had decisively defeated Montfort at Evesham , Gray was declared the king's enemy and his possessions were immediately confiscated. Most of his possessions were given to his brother John, who had sided with the king during the Barons' War. Deprived of their possessions, Gray and his son John joined the remaining rebels after their release as so-called disinherited ones, a large number of whom had holed up in Kenilworth Castle. After a long siege, the garrison of Kenilworth, including Gray, surrendered on December 14, 1266. According to the Dictum of Kenilworth , he was allowed to buy back his possessions.

Gray must have died a little later, because his son John died on January 5, 1272 in the possession of the Codnor and Thurrock family estates, which he must have inherited from his father.

Web links

• Robert C. Stacey: Gray, Richard de (d. Before 1272). 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
• Richard de Gray on thepeerage.com , accessed June 16, 2016.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Friars - Aylesford: History. Retrieved June 17, 2016 .