Roger Damory, 1st Baron Damory

The ruins of Tutbury Castle, which Damory was captured in the defense

Roger Damory, 1st Baron Damory (also d'Amory ; † March 13 or 14, 1322 in Tutbury Priory ) was an English nobleman and courtier.

origin

Roger Damory came from an Anglo-Norman family. He was a younger son of Sir Robert Damory , who owned extensive estates in Bucknell and Woodperry in Oxfordshire , Thornborough in Buckinghamshire and Ubley in Somerset . His father died around 1285, and despite the family's relatively extensive estates, Roger Damory remained a poor, landless knight as a younger son, while his older brother Richard Damory inherited their father's estates.

Favorite of the king

In 1309 Roger Damory served in the entourage of Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester , and probably in his entourage he fought at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 . Despite the British defeat, King Edward II later awarded him real estate for his bravery, through which he received an annual income of 100 marks . His brother Richard, who had been steward of the Royal Household since 1311 , could have been supported in this. The award made the king aware of him, which started his steep career. In December 1314 he became constable of Knaresborough Castle in Yorkshire . In January 1315 he served as a knight in the royal household, and for the next two years the king presented him with numerous gifts, goods and money. From the end of 1316 Damory was the leader of a group of courtiers, including Hugh le Despenser and Hugh de Audley , who, as royal favorites, had great influence over the king. He reached the high point of his career in April 1317 when he was allowed to marry Elizabeth de Clare , a widowed niece of the king and sister and co-heiress of the Earl of Gloucester, who had fallen at Bannockburn. Through his wife's inheritance, Damory became a wealthy landowner and was first appointed to the English Parliament as Baron Damory with Writ of Summons on November 24, 1317 .

Damory was considered the most greedy of the royal court's favorites. England was at this time in a serious crisis because of the defeats in the wars against Scotland and the famine of 1315/17 , which is why the favoritism of the king led to the formation of a nobility opposition under the leadership of Thomas of Lancaster, 2nd Earl of Lancaster . Lancaster's opposition to the courtiers shaped English politics until 1319. In October 1317 Lancaster occupied the royal castles of Knaresborough and Alton in Staffordshire , both of which had been administered by Damory. He later accused Damory of pursuing his life. In November 1317, Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , and Bartholomew de Badlesmere , both members of the moderate barons, brought Damory a letter asking him to moderate his acceptance of gifts from the king. In August of 1318, the Treaty of Leake concluded an agreement between Lancaster and the royal favorites, and Lancaster and Damory were reconciled in the meantime.

Change from favorite to rebel

Damory's position at court was ultimately endangered not by Lancaster, but by the young Despenser, who had become royal chamberlain in 1318 and quickly gained decisive influence over the king. Despenser had married Eleanor de Clare and thus another heiress of the Clare family. He ruthlessly tried to increase his share of the inheritance, thereby incurring the enmity of his two brothers-in-law Damory and Hugh de Audley. In early 1321, the two therefore joined the rebellious Marcher Lords , who occupied Despenser's possessions in South Wales in the so-called Despenser War in May 1321. Damory was in Sherburn in June 1321 , where Lancaster was trying to form a coalition of barons against Despensers and the King. When it came from the end of 1321 to new armed clashes between the king and the rebel barons, Damory occupied Worcester in January 1322 . Together with Hugh Audley, after the surrender of most of the Marcher Lords to Lancaster, he fled to Pontefract . He defended Tutbury Castle against royal troops. After the Battle of Burton Bridge , the royal troops captured the castle and the fatally wounded Damory was captured. The king had him sentenced to death on March 13 as a traitor, but as the husband of one of the king's nieces, the sentence was not carried out. Damory died a little later in neighboring Tutbury Priory . He was buried in Ware , Hertfordshire .

progeny

From his marriage to Elizabeth he had a daughter and heiress:

• Elizabeth Damory (1318–1360) ⚭ John Bardolf, 3rd Baron Bardolf .

Web links

• JR Maddicott: Damory, Roger. 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. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 407.