Roger de Clifford (around 1221–1286)

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Funerary monument to Roger de Clifford in Dore Abbey

Sir Roger de Clifford (* around 1221; † before April 3, 1286 ) was an English knight, military man and civil servant. He played an important role during the Second Barons' War .

origin

Roger de Clifford came from an Anglo-Norman noble family from the Welsh Marches . He was the son of Roger de Clifford of Tenbury in Worcestershire , the second son of Walter de Clifford, Lord of Clifford at Hay in Herefordshire . His grandfather was the brother of Fair Rosamund Clifford . His mother was Sybil († 1253), the widow of Robert de Tregoz and William of Newmarch and daughter of Robert de Eywas. He was still a minor when his father died in 1230 or 1231 and was under the tutelage of his uncle Walter de Clifford, Lord of Clifford, until he came of age, probably 1242. His legacy, which included estates in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Berkshire, was administered by his cousin, another Walter de Clifford.

Rise as a young knight

Clifford began his career as a knight in the service of Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford , whom he accompanied on a pilgrimage to France in 1248. In 1254 he accompanied Clare when this to King Henry III. in the Gascogne traveled. At the end of 1258, Clifford was one of the knights who supported the heir to the throne, Lord Edward , during the barons' rebellion . In 1259 he was part of the king's entourage when he traveled from Paris to France to seal the peace . In the absence of his father, the heir to the throne appointed Clifford to steward the three strategically important Welsh castles Skenfrith , White and Grosmont Castle , but after the king's return, Clifford was removed from office on May 18, 1260.

Role in the war of the barons

When Lord Eduard accused his administrator Roger of Leybourne in 1262 of having embezzled income from his property while he was away, Clifford believed Leybourne's innocence. Together with numerous other followers of the heir to the throne, he changed sides and joined Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , the leader of the aristocratic opposition to the king. In May 1263, as representative of the Marcher Lords , he wrote a letter to the king demanding compliance with the Provisions of Oxford . The king forbade him and his friends to take part in tournaments or to take up arms without the king's permission, but Clifford waged a guerrilla war with other rebels in the Welsh Marches. At the beginning of June, together with Roger of Leybourne, John Giffard and other rebels, in Hereford Cathedral he captured Bishop Peter D'Aigueblanche , who was widely hated as a foreigner and diplomat of the king. He and many of his canons locked up in Eardisley Castle . Presumably afterwards they conquered the royal Gloucester Castle after a violent, short siege . After Simon de Montfort came back to power in July 1263, Clifford became commandant of the royal castles of Marlborough and Ludgershall in Wiltshire in August . In addition, he was Constable of Gloucester Castle, but after a meeting with Lord Edward he switched back to the side of the King. The King made him Sheriff of Gloucester in December 1263, and Clifford loyally supported the King's side during the Barons' Open War that began shortly thereafter . On April 5, 1264 he took part in the conquest of Northampton , where he was able to take Simon de Montfort the Younger prisoner. However , he was himself captured at the Battle of Lewes . The victorious rebels released him and other Marcher Lords on condition that they answer before De Montfort's Parliament when asked .

However, Clifford did not adhere to the conditions, but started a guerrilla war with Roger Mortimer in the Welsh Marches. He captured Bridgnorth and Marlborough and besieged Hanley Castle , a castle owned by Gilbert de Clare, in October . Gilbert de Clare reached in December 1264 in negotiations with Clifford that he would hand Gloucester Castle over to the supporters of Montfort and that he would go into exile in Ireland for a year. But he did not keep this promise. He stayed in England and secured with Roger of Leybourne in May 1265 the escape of Lord Edward, who had escaped from the supervision of the rebels. Clifford subsequently belonged to the leaders of the army of the royal party. On the morning of August 1, he is said to have urged the hesitant heir to the throne to attack an army of barons in front of Kenilworth Castle . Clifford is said to have seized the standard of the heir to the throne and led the surprise attack that dispersed the barons' troops. A few days later he was a member of the army of the king's supporters who won the decisive victory over the rebels in the Battle of Evesham .

As a thank you, Heinrich III. Nearly £ 400 in debt owed to the Crown and made him profitable judge for the Forests south of the Trent . Then he was one of the king's followers, who violently subjugated the remaining rebels. He received lands in Warwickshire , Leicestershire and other counties that were taken from defeated rebels. In addition, he received guardianship over Isabel de Vieuxpont, the eldest daughter and co-heir of the former rebel Robert de Vieuxpont from Westmorland , whom he married to his eldest son Roger in 1269 . Roger of Leybourne received tutelage over Isabella's sister Idonea, whom he married to his eldest son. As a result, there was a dispute between Clifford and Leybourne over the division of the legacy of Vieuxpont.

Follower of Edward I.

From 1270 Clifford accompanied Lord Eduard on his crusade to Palestine , for his loyalty the heir to the throne promised him the transfer of a rich guardianship. On the return journey from the crusade, he accompanied Edward, who had meanwhile become Edward I's successor, to Savoy and in 1273 to Gascony . There he married a Countess von Lerett or Lauretania , whose exact identity is unclear. In 1274 the king sent him to Wales with William de Beauchamp , where they negotiated an armistice with the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd . In the autumn of 1275 he traveled to France as an envoy, where he represented the English king before the French parliament . In 1276 he brought the rebellious French nobleman Gaston de Béarn to Westminster , where he had to answer to the king. In the same year there was an incident between his bailiffs and a royal messenger, in which his bailiffs threatened the messenger with death. Thereupon Clifford lost the Eardisley Castle, which he administered. Despite his extensive possessions, he seemed to have had limited financial resources at this time, as he was selling houses in London for 300 marks in the late 1270s .

Between 1277 and 1280 Clifford served again as a forest judge , and after the successful campaign of the king against Wales he became justiciar of almost all of Wales in 1279 , where he tyrannically abused his power. Among other things, he is said to have extorted their property rights from Welsh for small sums by applying the English common law instead of the traditional Welsh law. At the beginning of the Welsh uprising, he was attacked by Dafydd ap Gruffydd on March 22, 1282 at Hawarden Castle . He is said to have been put in bed by the Welsh and was wounded in captivity, so that he could not take part in the subsequent counter-attack by the king to conquer Wales . During the campaign, his eldest son, Roger, was killed in the Battle of Menai Strait on November 6th . After the death of Lord Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in late 1282, his brother Dafydd ap Gruffydd sent the captured Roger de Clifford to the king to plead for peace, but the king insisted on Dafydd's complete submission and sent Clifford back into captivity, from which he was first released the English victory was freed. He died before April 3, 1286 when the crown confiscated his goods due to his outstanding debts. He was buried in Dore Abbey in Herefordshire.

Family and offspring

In his first marriage, Clifford was married to Hawise, presumably the widow of John de Boterel. His father had acquired the right to marry her to his son in 1230. His second wife, the French Countess von Lerett, survived him. She was buried in Worcester Cathedral in 1301 . Since his son, the eldest Roger, had fallen from his first marriage in 1282, his son, Clifford's grandson Robert , inherited his property.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 33
  2. ^ JN Langton: The Giffards of Brimpsfield . In: Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 1944 (65), p. 113 ( Online, pdf )
  3. ^ Gloucestershire Archives: Gloucester Castle in the Second Barons War. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on June 13, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gloucestershire.gov.uk
  4. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 50
  5. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 105
  6. ^ Rees R. Davies: The Age of Conquest. Wales 1063-1415. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-820198-2 , p. 348
  7. ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 187
  8. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 978-0-520-06266-5 , p. 194
  9. ↑ Britain Express: Dore Abbey. Retrieved February 14, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME De Clifford, Roger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English knight, rebel and civil servant
DATE OF BIRTH around 1221
DATE OF DEATH before April 3, 1286