Roger of Leybourne

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Coat of arms of Sir Roger of Leybourne

Sir Roger of Leybourne (also De Leyburn ) (* around 1215; † before November 7, 1271 ) was an English military man and knight.

origin

Roger of Leybourne was the son of his father of the same name, Roger of Leybourne, and his first wife, Eleanor of Thornham from Kent . From his father, who died before 1251, he inherited lands in Kent and Oxfordshire with seven knight's fees , for which he owed Margaret fitzGerold , the heiress of Warin fitzGerold and widow of Baldwin de Redvers. To this end, he inherited property in Kent through his mother. When he died, however, he also had to take on his father's debts to the crown and to Jewish moneylenders. His debts to the crown were forgiven him in 1253 when he was part of the expedition of King Henry III. took part in Gascony .

Courtier and rebel

In 1252 he killed Arnulf de Munteny , a knight of the royal household, in a tournament accident in Walden . As atonement he made a crusade vow , after which he was pardoned by the king. In 1253 he was given lands in Kent that had returned to the Crown after the death of Roger Connell . In 1257 he took part in a campaign by the heir to the throne Edward to Wales . At that time he belonged to a group of young knights and nobles that had formed around the heir to the throne, and was administrator of the possessions of Edward . In autumn 1259 he joined Lord Eduard's alliance with Simon de Montfort , leader of the aristocratic opposition to the king, and was appointed administrator of Bristol Castle by Lord Edward in November 1259 while the king was in France. In early 1260 he was part of the armed entourage of Lord Edward and the Earl of Hertford trying to occupy London. After the king returned from France and was reconciled with his son, Leybourne was also pardoned by the king, but released on May 18, 1260 as administrator of Bristol Castle. However, the heir to the throne rewarded his service with the award of the Elham Estate in Kent. In 1262, however, he had to hand the estate back to the heir to the throne, as the transfer to Leybourne had violated the feudal law. Subsequently, Lord Eduard accused him of embezzling funds from the estate. As compensation he imposed a fine of £ 1,820 which the sheriff of Kent was supposed to collect from Leybournes property. This failed, however, as Leybourne had previously managed to get his cattle and movable property away from his estates in southern England. However, the chronicler Gervase of Canterbury blames Queen Eleanor above all for this charge . The rift between Leybourne and the heir to the throne led to a separation between Edward and many of his former followers.

In August 1262, when King Henry III traveled to France again, he banned tournaments in England while he was away, and Leybourne and other knights were expressly forbidden from carrying weapons. However, Leybourne began in the spring of 1263 together with other former followers of the heir to the throne as well as disaffected Marcher Lords a guerrilla war against the government. He captured Bishop D'Aigueblanche of Hereford and conquered Hereford , Gloucester and Bristol . The rebels then turned their troops south to attack Windsor Castle . Together with Simon de Montfort they then moved to Kent, where they attacked and looted Romsey and the Cinque Ports . In August 1263 they resumed negotiations with the king, who had to hand over the government to Montfort again. On August 18, however, Leybourne and other knights made an agreement with Lord Edward, to which they submitted in recognition of the Provisions of Oxford . The reason for this change of sides is unclear, possibly the alliance of Montfort with the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the natural enemy of the Marcher Lords, was decisive.

Supporters of the Crown in the War of the Barons

From now on Leybourne fully supported the king. He quickly became a leading supporter of the king again, who rewarded him with various offices. In September 1263 he was appointed Steward of the King's Household and Administrator of Kent, Surrey and Sussex . In December 1263 he became Warden of the Cinque Ports and the Weald and High Sheriff of Kent . In October 1263, as a follower of Lord Eduard, he testified to the attempt at arbitration of the French king between Henry II and the rebellious barons, and at the end of the year he accompanied the king to France, where the French king in the Mise of Amiens the dispute in favor of Henry III. decided. In the following open war of the barons Leybourne took part in the conquest of Northampton in April 1264 , then he was one of the defenders of Rochester Castle , who successfully defended the castle against Simon de Montfort and Gilbert de Clare . He was badly wounded during the siege. However, on May 14, he fought in the Battle of Lewes. After the victory of Montfort, Leybourne was released along with other Marcher Lords on condition that they answer during the next parliament . Like the other Marcher Lords, however, he did not appear before Parliament, but instead waged a guerrilla war in the Welsh Marches against the government of the barons to support the king . Together with Roger de Clifford , Leybourne was to go into exile in Ireland for a year in January 1265, but he did not keep this agreement either. Instead, he contacted the king and especially Lord Eduard, both of whom were in the hands of the barons. With Leybournes help, Eduard escaped his guards on May 28th. As a result, Leybourne fought on Edward's side in the Battle of Evesham , during which he recognized the king, who was still in the power of Montfort and was therefore mistakenly attacked by the supporters of Lord Edward, and thus saved. Although with the decisive victory of Evesham the war of the barons had been decided in favor of the king, it was still more than two years before the last resistance of the rebels was broken. In combating this resistance, Leybourne served as Lord Edward's deputy, who led the royal troops. Leybourne was primarily responsible for the pacification of the south-east and north-west of England. He was administrator of Westmorland and again sheriff of Kent in August 1265 , in October 1265 he was appointed administrator of Carlisle Castle , sheriff of Cumberland and the submission of the City of London . In November 1265 he undertook a campaign against the rebels in the area of ​​the Weald in Kent. At the beginning of 1266 he conquered the Cinque Ports together with Lord Eduard, where they undertook an attack from sea and land on Winchelsea , which then quickly surrendered. Then Leybourne led an attack against the rebels in Essex on behalf of the heir to the throne in May . The king rewarded him with the administration of Nottingham Castle and with the office of judge for the royal forests north of the Trent , in addition he became a member of the Privy Council and received confiscated houses in London and extensive land holdings in Kent, north-west England and other parts of England transferred. Among these possessions was Leeds Castle in Kent, which he expanded into his headquarters. His marriage to Eleanor , the widow of William de Vaux and Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester, was likely another reward from the king. Eleanor was the granddaughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, a co-heiress of the Marshal estates, and she owned lands in Huntingdonshire and Leicestershire from her two previous marriages as a Wittum . Next Leybourne received 1265 the guardianship of Idonea de Vieuxpont , a daughter and co-heir of the former rebel Robert de Vieuxpont from Westmorland. He married her to his younger son Roger.

Next life

After the final end of the Barons' War, Leybourne took another vow of crusade in 1269, for which the papal legate Ottobono Fieschi paid him 1,000 marks. Nevertheless, he did not take part in Prince Edward's crusade , but was appointed Eduard's deputy in Gascony on November 29, 1269 . During his brief tenure, he founded the Libourne , named after him , a bastide to defend the possessions of the English king in south-west France. In December 1270 Leybourne was back in England.

Leybourne tried in old age to concentrate his property in south-east England, which is why he exchanged, for example, in 1271 possessions in Huntingdonshire for Ashford and other goods in Kent. Even before his death, he gave his estates to his eldest son William , which was unusual. Perhaps the reason for this was Leybourne's concern that despite being pardoned by the king, he would still be prosecuted for his crimes during the civil war. After his death in 1271 his heart was buried in a shrine in the parish church of Leybourne , for which he had donated a chapel and two chaplain positions. He had also made foundations for the benefit of the Bermondsey Priory in Surrey and Combwell in Kent.

Family and offspring

Leybourne was married twice. The identity of his first wife is unknown, with her he had two sons:

Between 1264 and 1267 he married the second marriage to Eleanor († 1274), a daughter of William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, who was widowed twice . His son William became his heir.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 33
  2. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 43
  3. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 54
  4. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 310
personal data
SURNAME Roger of Leybourne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Leyburn, Roger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English knight and military
DATE OF BIRTH around 1215
DATE OF DEATH before November 7, 1271