Robert of Thwing (Knight, † between 1245 and 1257)

Coat of arms of Robert of Thwing

Sir Robert of Thwing (also Robert III of Thwing or Thweng , alias William Wither ) († between 1245 and 1257) was an English knight.

origin

Robert of Thwing came from the northern English family Thwing . He was the eldest son of Marmaduke I of Thwing . After the death of his father, who died on an unknown date after 1234, he took over the management of the family estates in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire .

Role in the revolt against clergy from Italy

Thwing is first mentioned in 1229 when he sued Richard de Percy over rights in Kilton and Kirkleatham . He had come into possession of these goods because he had previously married Mathilda , the widow of Richard de Autrey, in 1229 . She was a niece and heiress to William of Kilton . In 1231 Thwing stood openly against the Italian clergy, who were provided by the Pope with offices in English churches. The decisive factor was apparently the Italian, who, with the support of Walter de Gray , Archbishop of York, had become pastor of the Church of Kirkleatham. Thwing had acquired the right to fill the church in a trial against the prior of Guisborough last year . Thwing now called himself William Wither or William the Angry . He made himself the leader of a violent protest against the foreign clergy in Yorkshire. At Easter 1232 the storehouses of the clergy were plundered by so-called Withermen and the supplies were distributed among the poor. The rebels were supported by English clergymen who were dissatisfied with a tithing tax levied on their income to the Pope in 1229 . Pope Gregory IX protested against these attacks . with King Heinrich III. He had several leading courtiers arrested who were involved in the revolts, including Justiciar Hubert de Burgh . De Burgh is alleged to have tacitly supported the Withermen because the Pope questioned the legality of his marriage. The king now sent Thwing to Rome, where he was to ask the Pope for absolution . In 1239 Thwing traveled again to Rome, where he brought another letter of protest from the English barons to the Pope. Perhaps through the intercession of Richard of Cornwall , in whose service Thwing had served, Pope Gregory IX secured. now give the patron saints priority over papal decrees when filling spiritual offices.

Next life

At the beginning of 1240 Thwing belonged to the army with which Richard set off from Cornwall on the crusade to the Holy Land . After the army had reached Marseille , Richard Thwing sent to Emperor Frederick II , to whom he was to report the attempts of the Pope to delay the crusade. Because of this mission, Thwing may not get as far as Palestine . Back in England, he was charged in 1244 for assaulting a clergyman in the service of Archbishop Walter de Gray at Windsor Castle . As a result, his possessions were confiscated, but they were returned to him in 1245. Thwing's year of death is unknown, as is the name of his wife. In 1257 his eldest son Marmaduke II of Thwing owned the family estates.

Robert of Thwing is occasionally confused with his grandson of the same name, Robert of Thwing († 1279), who was still a minor in 1266, and with another Robert Thweng, who may have been an illegitimate son of his. This Robert Thweng was married to a Hugolina, took part in negotiations with Scotland and from 1262 served as a knight in the royal household.

Web links

• Nicholas Vincent: Thwing [Thweng], Sir Robert of [alias William Wither] (d. 1245 × 57). 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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nicholas Vincent: Peter des Roches. An alien in English politics, 1205-1238 . Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-521-52215-3 , p. 306