Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester (also de Quency ) (* around 1195 - † April 25, 1264 ) was an Anglo-Scottish magnate and Constable of Scotland .

Origin and heritage

Roger de Quincy was the second son of Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester and his wife Margaret de Breteuil , a younger daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester . He had four brothers and three sisters. Little is known of Roger's youth. After a group of rebellious barons had forced King John Ohneland to recognize the Magna Carta in 1215 , Roger, along with his father and numerous other barons, was rebel against the king by Pope Innocent III. excommunicated . In the following first war of the barons , however, he did not emerge openly. After the end of the civil war, he may have accompanied his father, who set out on the crusade to Damiette in 1219 . His father died in Egypt, and Roger is not mentioned again until 1221, perhaps because he had only then returned from the crusade. Although his older brother Robert , who had died before his father in 1217 , had left a daughter, Margaret , this was passed over in the line of succession after the death of Saer de Quincy. Roger inherited his extensive possessions in England and Scotland, and in 1221 King Henry III paid for the English goods . Homage . However, his mother kept the administration of her inherited estates in England until her death in 1235, and Quincy was only given the title Earl of Winchester after her death. Quincy probably lived mostly on his Scottish estates until her death.

Land reclamation in Scotland

Quincy married Helen , a daughter of the Scottish Lord Alan of Galloway . When his father-in-law died in 1234 without any legitimate sons, Galloway and his other estates were divided among his daughters, with Quincy, husband of the eldest daughter, also inheriting the office of Constable of Scotland. However, the office of constable was primarily a ceremonial office, the holder of which received some scattered goods in Scotland. The other two heirs to Alan of Galloway were the English barons John de Balliol and William de Forz . His wife's inheritance gave Quincy extensive holdings, especially in south-west Scotland, which significantly increased his land holdings in Scotland. King Alexander II of Scotland accepted the division, but in 1235 there was a rebellion against this division in Galloway in favor of Thomas , an illegitimate son of Alan of Galloway. Alexander II was able to put down the rebellion, whereupon the division could finally be carried out. After the childless death of Quincy's sister-in-law Christina, the wife of William de Forz, in 1246 her share was also divided between Quincy and Balliol. This led to another revolt in which Quincy was trapped by insurgents in one of his Scottish castles, believed to be Cruggleton in Wigtownshire . However, he managed to escape and flee to the Scottish royal court, where he successfully asked the king for help in suppressing the revolt.

Aside from these inheritance disputes, Quincy did not play a significant role in Scottish politics, despite his extensive land holdings that made him one of the greatest Scottish magnates and his office as Constable of Scotland. Numerous documents confirm his frequent presence at the royal court, but neither in the king's campaign to Argyll in 1249 nor in the defense of the campaign of the Norwegian king Haakon IV to the West Scottish islands in 1263. Because of his minor involvement in Scottish politics, the English King Henry III appointed him. 1257 to the mediator between the underage Scottish King Alexander III. and the rival supporters of Walter Comyn and Alan Durward . Quincy's efforts were unsuccessful.

Role as an English magnate

In England, Quincy mainly owned land in Leicestershire , Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire , but he also owned numerous, albeit widely scattered, estates in other counties. This made him an influential magnate, but he did not take on the political role that his father had played. In 1241 he took part in the campaign of Henry III to Wales , which was followed by other campaigns to Wales until his death. In 1242 he accompanied the king on his failed campaign to southwest France . In 1239 and 1246 Quincy signed the letters of protest from the English barons to Pope Gregory IX. or to Innocent IV , who was accused of meddling in internal affairs. Between 1257 and 1261 he traveled to Scotland several times as the King of England's ambassador, but presumably he was a member of the embassies mainly because of his contacts in Scotland. He probably didn't play a major role during the negotiations. The discontent of the English barons with the government of Henry III, which had already shown itself during the parliaments of 1248 and 1254, led in 1258 to the formation of a nobility opposition to the king. Quincy supported the aristocratic opposition and was elected by the Oxford Parliament in June as a representative of the barons in the parliaments, which were to take place three times a year. In 1259 he led a delegation to Saint-Omer , who intercepted Richard of Cornwall , the Roman-German king and brother of the English king. They forbade him to return to England until he swore to observe the Provisions of Oxford . After that, Quincy appears to have retired from politics due to his age. He died shortly after the outbreak of the open Second War of the Barons .

Marriages and offspring

Quincy was married three times. After the death of his first wife Helen, he married Maud , the widow of Anselm Marshal and daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 2nd Earl of Hereford . After her death in 1252, he married Eleanor , a third daughter of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby . According to the chronicler Matthew Paris , his third marriage took place soon after the death of his second wife, as he had not yet had any male descendants and was still hoping to have a son as heir. But both his second and his third marriage remained childless, his only children were his three daughters from his first marriage:

  1. Margaret ⚭ William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby
  2. Elizabeth (also Isabella) ⚭ Alexander Comyn, 6th Earl of Buchan
  3. Helen ⚭ Alan de la Zouche

Since Quincy died without male offspring, his vast land holdings were divided among his three daughters and their husbands after his death. The title of Earl of Winchester also expired with his death.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Grant G. Simpson: The Familia of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester and Constable of Scotland . In: KJ Stringer (Ed.): Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland , John Donald Publishers, Edinburgh 1985, ISBN 0-85976-113-4 , p. 103.
  2. ↑ THE Watt: The Minority of Alexander III of Scotland . In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 21 (1971), p. 16.
predecessor Office successor
Saer de Quincy Earl of Winchester
1219-1264 		Title expired
personal data
SURNAME Quincy, Roger de, 2nd Earl of Winchester
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Winchester, Roger de Qincy, 2nd Earl of; Quency, Roger de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English magnate, Constable of Scotland
DATE OF BIRTH around 1195
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1264