Robert de Vieuxpont

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The ruins of Brougham Castle begun by Vieuxpont

Robert de Vieuxpont (also Veteri Ponte or Vipont ) († before February 1, 1228 ) was an Anglo- Norman magnate .

Origin and advancement as a royal official

Robert de Vieuxpont came from an Anglo-Norman family who named themselves after the village of Vieux-Pont-en-Auge in Normandy . He was a younger son of William de Vieuxpont († around 1203) and his wife Maud de Morville († around 1210). His father was a powerful baron who owned properties in both England and Scotland. While his older brother Ivo inherited his father's estates in Northamptonshire and Northumberland , Robert entered the service of King Richard I of England before 1195 and eventually became administrator of the honors of Peverel , Higham Ferrers and Tickhill . Under King Richard's successor, Johann Ohneland , Vieuxpont served as a military in Normandy. He took over the office of paymaster , but also supervised the expansion of the fortifications of the castle of Rouen . In 1203 he became Vogt of Roumois . The king rewarded his services with the bestowal of the rule of Vieux-Pont itself, whose previous owner, Vieuxpont's uncle, had joined the French King Philip II in the war with France . In addition, Vieuxpont received further possessions in the French part of the Angevin Empire and in February 1203 the administration of the English castles of Appleby and Brough , before he was transferred to the administration of the Barony Westmorland in March 1203 . King Henry II had confiscated these from Vieuxpont's maternal grandfather Hugh de Morville in 1173 . In October 1203 King Johann gave Westmorland to Vieuxpont as a fief against the service of 4.5 knight's fees , so that Vieuxpont rose to become one of the leading barons in northern England. Through lucrative guardianship, Vieuxpont was able to increase his wealth, and his wife Idonea de Builli brought estates in Bedfordshire and a claim to the Honor of Tickhill in Yorkshire as a dowry. Since Alan of Galloway , a leading Scottish nobleman, also claimed Westmorland through his mother Helen de Morville, Vieuxpont built Brougham Castle to protect his barony .

Loyal official of King Johann

Together with King John, Vieuxpont left Normandy in December 1203. As a result, he was often part of the king's entourage until the end of 1205. With the conquest of Normandy by France in 1204, he lost his possessions there. He then increasingly took on administrative tasks in the north of England. In October 1204 he was sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire , which gave him the management of the important Nottingham Castle . In 1206 he served as a royal judge and tax collector in northern England. In 1207 he became administrator of the Archdiocese of York after Archbishop Geoffrey went into exile after a dispute with the king. After the death of Bishop Philip of Poitou in April 1208, he was also administrator of the temporalities of the vacant Diocese of Durham . In August 1209, he was among only two witnesses to testify to the Norham treaty with the King of Scotland.

In the end, Vieuxpont could no longer fulfill all of the extensive tasks that his numerous offices brought with it. In addition, he was considerably in arrears with payments to the king, so that in 1208 he had to give up the office of sheriff of Nottingham again. In addition, the king asked him to pay a high fee of 4,000 marks . In spite of these high debts, Vieuxpont managed to keep the king's favor and in the end he was waived 3,000 marks of the fee. In 1210 he also gave up the administration of the Diocese of Durham. During the Anglo-Welsh War , he served as a royal lieutenant in Powys in 1211 . When there was a Welsh uprising there in 1212, he had to be appalled by royal troops in the besieged Mathrafal Castle . Vieuxpont's loyal service to the king resulted in the chronicler Roger von Wendover counting him among the king's poor advisers. The king himself trusted Vieuxpont so much that he temporarily entrusted him with his younger son Richard and his niece Eleanor of Brittany (1184-1241). Vieuxpont had already kept large sums of money for the king in Nottingham Castle as sheriff, and in May 1213 John entrusted him and Henry of Braybrooke with the enormous sum of 30,000 marks for safekeeping. In 1214 Vieuxpont took part in the failed campaign of the king to France .

Supporter of the royal party in the First Barons' War

When it came to the open First War of the barons against the king in the autumn of 1215 , Vieuxpont was one of the chief commanders of the king, who defended the royal castles in Yorkshire against the rebels. From January 1216 he was also responsible for the defense of Cumberland and Carlisle Castle , in addition he had to protect his own possessions from raids by the rebels. However, he could not prevent the Scots, allied with the rebels, under Alan of Galloway from occupying Cumberland and Vieuxpont's barony of Westmorland for one year from 1216. After the death of King John in October 1216, Vieuxpont supported the Regency Council, which was responsible for the minor King Henry III. led the government. In 1217 he fought in the Battle of Lincoln , which helped the royal party to remain victorious in the War of the Barons. After the end of the civil war with the Peace of Lambeth in September 1217, the Regency Council ordered on September 23, that several former rebels, including Roger Bertram Vieuxpont , should assist in the occupation of Carlisle , which was abandoned by the Scots .

Mighty baron when Henry III was a minor.

However, as a result of the civil war and the king's minority, royal authority in northern England was weak, and Vieuxpont became a difficult vassal of the king as a powerful, almost autonomous baron . Roger von Wendover accused Vieuxpont of having committed raids and looting even after the Peace of Lambeth. His claim to the Honor of Tickhill, which he had occupied during the War of the Barons, but which was also claimed by Countess Alice von Eu , developed into a major dispute . The Regency Council had made him Sheriff of Cumberland in September 1217, and to appease Vieuxpont he was allowed to keep the income from that office for himself in 1218 until his claim to Tickhill was decided. Ultimately, the dispute over Tickhill was not decided in favor of Alice von Eu until 1222. Tickhill had earned nearly £ 300 a year as a sheriff by then, and in addition he received a fief with 6.5 knight's fee and £ 100 as compensation . He had to resign immediately from his position as sheriff. There had been numerous lawsuits against its strict administration in Cumberland, including by William of Lancaster, Lord of Kendal . Vieuxpont himself had served the king as a traveling judge in Yorkshire and Northumberland from 1218 to 1219. Apparently dissatisfied with the negative decision about Tickhill for him, Vieuxpont was among the opponents of Justiciars Hubert de Burgh in 1223 like the Earls of Chester and Gloucester , John de Lacy , William de Forz , Falkes de Bréauté , Brian de Lisle and others . He protested against the reclamation of former royal castles by the Regency Council, but ultimately, like most other barons, he had to accept the authority of the Justiciars. In February 1225 he witnessed the re-recognition of the Magna Carta by Henry III, and from 1226 to 1227 he headed a group of traveling judges in Yorkshire. After that he obviously fell ill and probably died shortly before February 1, 1228.

Death and inheritance

Vieuxpont had already made foundations for the benefit of St Bees and Shap Abbey in Cumberland during his lifetime . In view of his illness, he bequeathed his lands near Wycombe in Buckinghamshire to the Knights Templar in 1227 . Before June 1213 he had married Idonea, a daughter of John de Builli . With her he had a son and a daughter who survived him. He married his daughter Christian to his ward Thomas, the son of William of Greystoke and heir to the barony of Greystoke in Cumberland. Vieuxpont's heir was his son John de Vieuxpont († 1241) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 248.
  2. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 199
  3. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 69
  4. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 89
  5. ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 275
personal data
SURNAME Vieuxpont, Robert de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Veteri Ponte, Robert; Vipont, Robert de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Norman magnate
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH before February 1, 1228