Roger Bertram (nobleman, 1224)

Sir Roger Bertram (also Roger Bertram III ) (* 1224 ; † before April 1272 ) was an English nobleman and rebel.

origin

Roger Bertram was a son of his father of the same name, Roger Bertram , his mother was probably his wife Agnes, whose origin is unknown. His father died in 1242. After Bertram had come of age and had paid homage to the king for his possessions, he received his inheritance on June 28, 1246, which mainly included properties in Northumberland with Mitford Castle .

Service under Heinrich III. and increasing debt

From the 1240s he took part in the campaigns of King Henry III. to Wales, Scotland and Aquitaine . For reasons that are no longer known, however, the king ordered the temporary confiscation of Bertram's goods in 1257. In 1261 he had to answer again before a royal court.

Bertram's retinue included at least two knights, and the cost of the king's campaigns and aristocratic lifestyle exceeded the income from his possessions. As early as 1253 he was heavily indebted to Jewish moneylenders. In 1257 they sold debts of 400 marks to William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke , a half-brother of the king. Valence now asked Bertram to repay the debts, which is why Bertram had to start selling property before 1262.

Role in the Second War of the Barons

Bertram's hatred of Valence drove him to the side of the aristocratic opposition to the king. During the Second War of the Barons he was part of the rebel army as Knight Banneret in 1264 , but was captured on April 5th during the conquest of Northampton . His possessions were declared confiscated by the king and handed over to Valence. After the victory of the rebels under Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester over the king at the Battle of Lewes on May 13, 1264, Bertram was released. On June 14th he received his possessions back from the new government of the barons. The government of the barons forgave Bertram the debts he owed to Jewish moneylenders, and Montfort appointed him to his parliament on December 14, 1264 as one of 18 barons . Impoverished after the king's victory over the rebels, Bertram died in 1272.

Family and offspring

Bertram was probably married twice, although the name and origin of his presumed first wife is unknown. Around 1252 he married Ida, whose origin is also unknown. His heiress was his daughter Agnes, who had married a son of Peter de Montfort around 1253 . To settle the debts of her father, she sold the remaining lands of the Barony Mitford to Queen Eleanor of Provence after his death , who had acquired the rights to Bertram's debts. Bertram also had an illegitimate son named Thomas. Bertram's widow Ida was second married to Robert de Neville, Lord of Raby .

Web links

• JH Round, HW Ridgeway: Bertram, Sir Roger (1224-1272). 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
• Sir Roger Bertram on thepeerage.com , accessed August 28, 2016.