Stephen of Seagrave

Sir Stephen of Seagrave (also Segrave or de Seagrave ) († October 11, 1241 in St Mary des Prés Abbey near Leicester ) was an English knight and lord judge . From 1232 to 1234 he served as royal justiciar .

origin

Stephen of Seagrave was a son of Gilbert of Seagrave , who owned in 1166 as a vassal of William de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Warwick Brailes in Warwickshire and owned land in Seagrave in Leicestershire . Gilbert served as under-sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire during the reign of Richard the Lionheart and as a traveling judge in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire in 1195 . In recognition of the services of his brother-in-law Hugh Despenser , Stephen of Seagrave was forgiven in 1208 half of the debt of 112 marks that he owed the Crown as his father's heir.

Promotion under Johann Ohneland and Heinrich III.

Stephen remained a loyal supporter of King John Ohneland during the First War of the Barons , who in 1216 gave him the administration of the confiscated estates of the rebel Stephen de Gant in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire and the estate of Kineton in Warwickshire as a fief. After the death of King Johann Ohneland in 1216 and the assumption of rule by the minor Heinrich III. Seagrave's importance rose rapidly. From 1217 he served regularly as a judge, including from 1218 in Westminster . He was knighted by 1219 at the latest. In 1219 he served as Crown Attorney , who represented the king's position in a dispute with the Scottish king in Norham before the papal legate Pandulf . In 1220 he became administrator of Sauvey Castle in Leicestershire, and the king gave him the estate of Alconbury in Huntingdonshire . From 1220 to 1224 he was sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire and from 1221 to 1223 of Lincolnshire. He was later sheriff of Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire from 1228 to 1234 and sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire from 1229 to 1234. Through these lucrative offices he came to great wealth and was able to acquire further lands. When the king set out for France on his campaign in 1230 , Seagrave was made one of the regents of England in the king's absence.

Justiciar of the King

When the king dismissed Justiciar Hubert de Burgh in 1232 , he appointed Seagrave as his successor, although he only belonged to the knighthood . Previously the king gave him the administration of the castles of Dover , Rochester , Canterbury , Windsor , Odiham , Hertford and Colchester . Seagrave was a bitter opponent of Hubert de Burgh and convinced the king to keep him prisoner. He even tried to have de Burgh sentenced to death as a traitor. The real power, however, was not with Seagrave, but with Peter des Roches , the Bishop of Winchester from southwest France, who had become the young king's leading favorite. In 1233 Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke , Gilbert Basset and other barons rebelled against his rule . Seagrave convinced the king to put down the rebellion by force, which led to a bitter civil war with the rebels who had retreated to the Welsh Marches . Thereupon the English bishops described him in October 1233 as a bad advisor to the king and threatened him with excommunication . This ecclesiastical punishment was ultimately not imposed, but the bishops initially left it to express their disapproval of Seagrave's influence on the king, who took action against his own vassals. In November 1233 Seagrave accompanied the king when he went on a campaign in the Welsh Marches. At Grosmont Castle they were surprised by the rebels and had to flee into the castle, giving up all their luggage. In December 1233, the king offered Marshal that he would pardon him if he submitted. Seagrave was responsible for getting this message to Marshal. In early 1234, however, Richard Siward , a retainer of Marshal, and his men raided the village of Seagrave in Leistershire. They burned the mansion, stables and granaries of the Seagrave estate there and retired to the Welsh Marches with rich booty. A little later, Siward raided Alconbury and burned the Seagrave properties there. Seagrave was believed to be partly responsible for Marshal's treason captivity in April and death of his wounds shortly afterwards. Under pressure from the bishops, the king reconciled himself with the remaining rebels in May 1234, while the des Roches and Seagrave, who were hated by many barons, were dismissed from their offices.

After his release, Seagrave had to return five of his properties to the king on June 14, who asked him to submit an overview of the goods received during his tenure. Seagrave fled to the Augustinian monastery of St Mary des Prés near Leicester and is said to have been ready to enter the monastery as a monk. When Edmund Rich , the Archbishop of Canterbury, assured him safe conduct, Seagrave appeared before the King on July 14 at Westminster. The latter insulted him as a disgusting traitor who had incited him against Hubert de Burgh and other barons, and demanded an account of him. At the request of the Archbishop of King Seagrave granted to Michaelis postponement. Seagrave tried to shift the main responsibility to Peter des Roches and Walter Mauclerk and in February 1235 paid the king a fine of 1,000 marks . Nevertheless, it was not until June 1236 that he succeeded in obtaining a full pardon from the king. In 1237 the papal legate Oddone succeeded in reconciling him with the former rebels.

Next life

In June 1237, Seagrave was appointed Judge for Chester . It appeared that Seagrave had regained the king's trust, perhaps because, like the Queen and Richard of Cornwall, he had been exempted by name from the excommunication imposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury on a number of royal advisors in 1239. In February 1239 he became a judge at the King's Bench and in April succeeded William Raleigh as a lord judge . He remained an influential courtier until shortly before his death, before he retired to the monastery of St Mary des Prés, where he died.

Family and offspring

Seagrave's first marriage was Rohesia, a daughter of Thomas Despenser and sister of Hugh Despenser († 1238). In his second marriage he married Ida (also Ela), a daughter of William Hastings . His widow married Hugh Pecche after his death. Failing to obtain the king's permission for this marriage, she was fined £ 500 in 1247.

Seagrave had at least three sons and one daughter:

• John († 1231) ∞ Emma, ​​daughter and heiress of Roger de Caux
• Gilbert of Seagrave († 1254)
• Stephen
• Eleanor

Seagrave was a generous donor who gave rich gifts to St Mary des Prés Abbey, but also to Stoneleigh Priory and the Cistercian Abbey of Combe in Warwickshire. His heir became his eldest surviving son, Gilbert.

Seagrave had risen from a simple knightly background to one of the highest offices of the state and had made great fortune. Matthew Paris found him easy to influence, but accused him of putting his own interests before the tasks of his offices. Other writers respect the decisions he made as a judge.

literature

• Ralph V. Turner: Men raised from the dust. Administrative service and upward mobility in Angevin England . University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1988. ISBN 0-8122-8129-2

Web links

• William Hunt, Paul Brand: Seagrave, Sir Stephen of (d. 1241). 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
• Stephen de Segrave on thepeerage.com , accessed March 29, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
Hubert de Burgh	Justiciar of England 1232-1234	Office vacant (from 1258: Hugh Bigod )