Umfraville (noble family)

Coat of arms of the Earls of Angus from the Umfraville family

The Umfraville family was an Anglo-Scottish aristocratic family who, as lords of the strategically important baronies of Prudhoe and Redesdale , played an important role in England , the Scottish Marches and Scotland from the beginning of the 12th century to the 1330s .

origin

It cannot be definitively determined whether the family originally came from Normandy . Presumably she came from Offranville near Dieppe . The exact time when they acquired their properties in northern England is also unclear. They may have been related to the Umfraville family, who acquired properties in Glamorgan, Welsh around 1100 , but apart from name there is no link between the two families. According to a family legend written at the beginning of the 13th century, Robert with the Beard became the Lord of Prudhoe as the Norman conqueror . According to archaeological research, Prudhoe Castle was built at the end of the 11th century, but there is no evidence of this Robert with the Beard . According to other information from the 13th century, the existence of this Robert is highly doubtful, because the Umfravilles probably only became lords of Prudhoe after 1100 during the reign of King Henry I.

After the family had concentrated on their English possessions after the Anglo-Scottish War from 1173 to 1174 , Gilbert de Umfraville († 1245) re-established the contacts of his ancestors. His marriage to the Countess of Angus made him one of the leading Anglo-Scottish nobles. From 1295 his son Gilbert de Umfraville was invited to the English parliaments as Baron Umfraville . During the First Scottish War of Independence , his son Robert de Umfraville chose the English side and therefore lost his Scottish possessions. Roberts son Gilbert of the same name joined the so-called disinherited in 1332 who invaded Scotland in 1332 and tried to recapture their lost possessions. After years of fighting, the project failed, with which Gilbert de Umfraville finally lost his Scottish possessions. With his childless death in 1381 the main line of the family died out in male succession, his English possessions fell to his niece Eleanor de Barroden .

The Umfraville family from Harbottle

When it was foreseeable that Gilbert de Umfraville died without surviving male descendants, he bequeathed Harbottle , Otterburn and other estates in Northumberland to his nephew Thomas Umfraville in 1378 . Thomas de Umfraville was able to establish a branch of the family. His younger son Robert de Umfraville rose to high rank in the military during the Hundred Years War , and his older son Thomas Umfraville was twice elected Knight of the Shire for Northumberland. With the childless death of his son Gilbert in 1421 at the Battle of Baugé , the family died out in the male line, the possessions were divided among the daughters of Thomas Umfraville.

Coat of arms of Robert de Umfraville as a Knight of the Order of the Garter

Master list (extract)

The main line until 1381

1. Robert de Umfraville († around 1145)
   1. Odinel de Umfraville († around 1166)
   2. Gilbert de Umfraville († 1175)
      1. Odinel de Umfraville († 1182)
         1. Robert de Umfraville († around 1195)
         2. Richard de Umfraville († 1226)
            1. Gilbert de Umfraville († 1245) ⚭ Matilda, Countess of Angus
               1. Gilbert de Umfraville, 7th Earl of Angus (1244 – before 1307) ⚭ Elizabeth Comyn
                  1. Robert de Umfraville, 8th Earl of Angus (1276-1325)
                     1. Gilbert de Umfraville, 9th Earl of Angus (1310-1381)
                     2. Robert de Umfraville
                     3. Thomas Umfraville († 1387) (descendants see below)
                     4. Elisabeth Umfraville ⚭ Gilbert Borrowdon
                        1. Eleanor Barroden (also Borrowdon) ⚭ Henry Tailboys
                  2. Thomas Umfraville († after 1305)
         3. Alice ⚭ William Bertrand (or Bertram) from Mitford
         4. Margery († 1198) ⚭ William d'Aubigné

The Umfravilles from Harbottle

1. Thomas de Umfraville († 1387)
   1. Thomas Umfraville (around 1361-1391)
      1. Gilbert de Umfraville (before 1390-1421)
   2. Robert de Umfraville (before 1378–1437)

literature

• Laurence Keen: The Umfravilles, the castle and the barony of Prudhoe, Northumberland . In: Anglo-Norman Studies. Proceedings of the Battle Conference V, 1982 . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 1983, ISBN 0-85115-178-7 , pp. 165-184

Web links

• Henry Summerson: Umfraville, de, family (c.1100-1245). 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. ^ History of Parliament online: UMFRAVILLE, Sir Thomas (c.1362-1391), of Harbottle, Northumb. and Hessle, Yorks.