Robert of Ufford

Sir Robert of Ufford (* around 1235, † beginning of September 1298 ) was an English knight who served twice as royal justiciar of Ireland .

Life

Ufford was named after the village of Ufford in Suffolk , where at the time of his death he was a vassal of the Bishops of Ely and the Earls of Norfolk . Presumably he had inherited these properties from his father before 1256, although his father's name and status are unknown. Before 1257, Ufford had entered the service of the heir to the throne, Lord Edward , to whose army he was part of a campaign to Wales that year . In July 1261 he was part of Edward's entourage when he traveled to France, and in January 1264 he was with Edward in Boulogne . At Edward's request, King Heinrich III. as early as 1261 Ufford's debts were taken over by Jewish moneylenders. During the Second Barons ' War , Ufford was believed to be in the service of Henry of Almain , Edward's cousin, who paid Ufford an annual pension of £ 50 from his estates. Ufford exchanged this pension in 1280 with Edward, who had meanwhile become King of England, for the lifelong administration of the town and castle of Orford in Suffolk.

After the end of the war of the barons, Eduard, who was increasingly leading the government for his father, appointed Justiciar, i.e. deputy of the King, of Ireland in 1268. In his first two-year term, Ufford introduced uniform weights and measures in Ireland, to which he had Roscommon Castle built. In 1270 he returned to England, but there he probably rejoined the army of Edward, who set out on a crusade to the Holy Land that year . In June 1276, King Edward reappointed Ufford as Justiciar of Ireland. In 1277 Ufford led a successful campaign against the indigenous Irish population in the Wicklow Mountains and in 1278 a campaign to Offaly . In addition, he was involved in the lengthy negotiations on the transfer of the English feudal law, which already applied to the English in Ireland, to the native Irish population. These negotiations were unsuccessful, so traditional Irish law continued to apply to the Irish people. During his tenure, the Irish Parliament met in 1278 , which passed a number of laws. Probably in late 1280 or early 1281, Ufford's brother Master John of Ufford came to Ireland. Under the influence of Robert, he became archdeacon of Annadown. In 1281 Robert Ufford fell ill, which is why he was replaced as Justiciar in November 1281 after a second five-year term in office and returned to England.

Family and offspring

Ufford had been married twice. In 1272 or 1273 he married his first wife, Mary, the widow of William de Say. She was the mother of his son Robert and died after August 1280. In 1286 or 1287 Ufford married Joan († after 1307), she was the mother of his son Thomas. It is not known which marriage his daughter Margaret was from. For her, Ufford acquired the right in 1292 to marry her to the underage Roger de Coleville, heir to Castle Bytham . His heir became his son Robert from his first marriage. His son of the same name Robert was made Earl of Suffolk in 1337, while the younger son Ralph in 1344, like his grandfather, became Justiciar of Ireland.

Web links

• Paul Brand: Ufford, Sir Robert of (b. In or before 1235, d. 1298). 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