Richard of Chilham

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Richard of Chilham (also Richard Fitz Regis , Richard Fitzroy or Richard of Dover ) († before June 24, 1246 ) was an English nobleman and military man.

origin

Richard of Chilham was the illegitimate son of King John Ohneland of England and his lover Adela, daughter of Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey , who was also his cousin. He was believed to be born in the 1190s. In the medieval sources he can often be confused with his half-brother Richard of the same name , especially before he received the title Earl of Poitou in 1225 and Earl of Cornwall in 1227 . There was also another Richard of Dover († 1244/45).

The Battle of Sandwich in 1217. Illumination of the 13th century

Role in the war of the barons

Richard is the king's only illegitimate son to become baron. Around July 10, 1214 he married Rose of Dover , daughter and heiress of Fulbert II of Dover . This made him Lord of the Honor of Chilham in Kent . The honor included Chilham Castle and around 15 Knight's fees in Kent and Essex . In 1215 Richard was knighted. During the First Barons' War, he served as captain of the royal troops and as constable of several royal castles. He received his most important assignment in June 1216 when he became constable of the strategically important Wallingford Castle in Berkshire . He administered the castle including the associated honor with about 120 Knight's fees until at least March 1218, and from 1217 he served as sheriff of Berkshire. On August 24, 1217, he distinguished himself in the naval battle of Sandwich , which decided the war of the barons militarily. Richard was in command of a ship that attacked and eventually boarded the French flagship. According to the chronicle of Roger von Wendover , Richard himself beheaded the commander of the French fleet, the notorious pirate Eustache le Moine . After the end of the War of the Barons, he was again transferred to the administration of Castle and Honor of Wallingford in May 1218, although it is open whether he had previously given up this office. In the same year he set out on the crusade to Damiette , presumably with other English barons and knights . He reached Egypt and probably returned to England in 1220 after the failure of the Crusade.

Next life

While his father Johann had apparently fully trusted him, Richard had to his half-brother King Heinrich III. no close relationship. At the end of April 1220 he returned Wallingford Castle to the Crown, but remained sheriff of Berkshire. It is unclear whether he or his half-brother Richard served in the English army in Wales in 1223 and went on a pilgrimage to Canterbury with the Scottish King Alexander II in 1225 . What is certain is that in 1225 he collected the tax on the Fifteenth in Kent, which Parliament had approved for a campaign in Poitou . In 1227 he probably resigned from his post as constable of Wallingford when he again set out as a crusader for the Holy Land and returned after 1228. In 1230 he took part in the campaign of Heinrich III. part of Brittany . In May and June 1242 he led the sea operation against the island of Lundy together with William Bardolf , where the pirate William de Marisco and his comrades were captured and taken to London for execution.

Richard died in 1246, on June 24th his widow Rose paid homage to the king for her lands. He had at least two children with her:

His heir was first his son Richard, after his death his daughter Isabel Chilham inherited, through whose marriage to Maurice de Berkeley the property fell to the Berkeley family.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 185
personal data
SURNAME Richard of Chilham
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richard Fitz Regis; Richard Fitzroy; Richard of Dover
BRIEF DESCRIPTION illegitimate son of King Johann Ohneland of England
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH before June 24, 1246