William de Braose, 4th Baron of Bramber

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Coat of arms of the 4th Lord Bramber

William de Braose, 4th Baron of Bramber (also William de Briouze ; * 1144/53; † August 9, 1211 ) was a cambro-Norman nobleman from the House of Braose . He was the most important baron of the Welsh Marches at the beginning of the 13th century , but died in exile as a rebel against the king.

Origin and family

William de Braose was the son of William de Braose, 3rd Baron of Bramber and his wife Bertha of Hereford . He was probably entrusted with the management of the family's Welsh estates while his father was still alive. He married Maud de St Valery around 1166 , a wise and virtuous woman according to Giraldus Cambrensis' description . The couple is said to have had 16 children, including:

After the death of his father (after 1179) William became Baron of Bramber and Seigneur de Briouze and inherited the dominions of Rape of Bramber , Builth and Radnor . Through his grandmother Aenor de Totnes , a daughter of Judhael de Totnes , he was Baron von Barnstaple and Totnes and had claims to one of these fiefs, through his mother Bertha, the second eldest daughter of Miles of Gloucester , he inherited after the childless death of their four brothers in 1176 with Brecon and Abergavenny extensive estates of his grandfather Bernard de Neufmarché in Wales. In 1196 he was able to acquire Barnstaple through an agreement with his co-heirs .

Rule as Marcher Lord in Wales

At the beginning of his reign in Wales he drew the hatred and enmity of the Welsh people when he invited the Welsh prince Seisyll ap Dyfnwal and two other princes to his castle Abergavenny at Christmas 1175 , and they and their entourage in revenge for the murder of his Uncle Henry FitzMiles , a son of Miles of Gloucester, treacherously murdered. William was High Sheriff of Herefordshire from 1192 to 1199 . In 1195 he accompanied Richard I to Normandy . In 1197 he had another Welsh chief murdered when he mistreated and executed Trahaern Fychan, a Welsh chief from Brycheiniog en route to negotiations in Llancors in Brecon. This murder took Trahaern's cousin Gwenwynwyn of Powys Wenwynwyn as an opportunity to invade Elfael in 1198 and besiege Colwyn Castle and Painscastle . The two castles were appalled by the victory of Justiciars Geoffrey Fitz Peter over the besiegers at Painscastle. In 1199 William took part in the siege of Châlus-Chabrol Castle in the French Limousin and was present when King Richard died.

The ruins of the hall of Abergavenny Castle, the presumed site of the Abergavenny massacre

Promotion under Johann I.

After Richard's death on April 6, 1199, he was a leading proponent of the succession to the throne of Johanns Ohneland and made it possible for him to land in England in his port of Shoreham-by-Sea , which is why he was soon in high favor with Johann and in 1200 received permission to continue in Wales conquered territories to add to its dominions. In exchange for a payment of 5,000 marks to the king, payable in installments of 500 marks annually, he received the rule of Limerick in 1200 , which his uncle Philip had already received from Henry II in 1172 . In October 1202 the king appointed him administrator of Glamorgan, in February 1203 the king transferred the rule of Gower to him . During the war with France , on July 31, 1202, during the attack on Mirebeau, King John's nephew Arthur I , who also claimed Johann's possessions, was captured. In April 1203 William was with Johann in Rouen , probably he was involved in the murder of Arthur. In July of that year he also received the city of Limerick from the king . In 1206 the king gave him the three castles Skenfrith , Grosmont and White Castle on the border between England and Wales. His son Giles became Bishop of Hereford , while his other sons married women who could expect rich inheritance.

Fall, rebellion and death

In 1207 he suddenly lost the favor of the king, presumably because instead of the agreed 5000 Marks for Limerick, according to the Pipe Rolls' records, he had only paid 700 Marks. In 1207 Johann asked him to hand over his lands in Glamorgan and Wentloog to Falkes de Bréauté . At the request of William's friends, the king allowed him to meet him at Hereford in late 1207 , and William gave the castles of Hay , Brecon, and Radnor to the king as security for his debts. The debt was not repaid, however, and when William's son Giles, Bishop of Hereford since 1200 , went into exile to Stephen Langton , Archbishop of Canterbury in France because of the Pope's interdict against England , Johann suspected the family was betrayed. Williams' possessions were to be confiscated and the family held hostage. His wife Maud refused to hold their eldest son William hostage, allegedly with reference to the fate of Arthur, Johann's nephew. Johann sent his mercenary leader Gerard d'Athée to Wales in April 1208 , who occupied the Williams possessions there, and fined William. When he did not obey a summons from the king, the king wanted to arrest him. William then attempted surprise attacks to retake his mortgaged castles, and when this failed, he captured and sacked the royal city of Leominster . When royal troops approached, he fled with his family to Ireland in autumn 1208, whereupon his estates in England and Wales were occupied by the royal troops. In Ireland he was taken in by his brother-in-law Hugh de Lacy . The admission of Williams by the local Hiberno-Norman barons prompted Johann to land in Ireland with an army in 1210 in order to emphasize his rule. William fled again to Wales and fought there together with the Welsh prince Llywelyn from Iorwerth against the king. William's wife Maud was currently besieged in Meath , Ireland, but was able to flee to Scotland with her eldest son William and his children. There she was seized by Donnchadh, Earl of Carrick and handed over to Johann. Johann was able to assert himself against the rebels in Wales, William was ostracized and fled from Shoreham to his son Giles in France in the autumn of 1210. There he died on August 9, 1211 in Corbeil and was buried by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was still in exile, in the Abbey of St-Victor near Paris.

His wife and eldest son William are said to have starved to death in the dungeons of Windsor or Corfe Castle in 1210 , the four grandsons Williams, John , Giles, Philip and Walter remained in captivity until 1218. It was not until 1215 that William's son Giles got his father's lands back, and when he died shortly afterwards, they returned to the Crown. It was not until May 1216 that Johann gave the property back to his younger son Reginald, who later passed some of them on to William's grandson John, the eldest son of William, who died in dungeon.

Significance of the Braoses case for the Magna Charta

The harsh treatment of his former favorite by the king and the cruel fate of his family showed the Anglo-Norman nobility that no one could be safe from the king's tyranny. Braose's case contributed decisively to the fact that the nobility completely lost confidence in the king, united against him and finally wrested him the recognition of the Magna Carta in 1215. The fate of William de Braose probably influenced Article 39 of the Magna Carta: No free man should be arrested, imprisoned, robbed of his goods, ostracized, banished or otherwise attacked; nor will we do anything else to him, or have him thrown into prison, than by the legal judgment of his own kind, or by the national law.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matthäus Paris , Historia Anglorum, Chronica maiora , Part III (1250-59), British Library MS Royal 14 C VII f. 29v
  2. ↑ William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 6, 2012 ; Retrieved July 4, 2013 .
  3. ^ Robert R. Davies: The age of conquest. Wales, 1063-1415. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford 2000. ISBN 9780198208785 , pp. 100f
  4. ^ Oxford DNB: Briouze [Braose], William (III) de
  5. ↑ Wilfred L. Warren: King John . University of California Press, Berkeley, 1978, ISBN 0-520-03494-5 , p. 188
  6. ↑ Alona Gordeew: The Magna Carta - Who Rebelled in 1215? . GRIN, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-640-82661-2 , p. 8
  7. ↑ The Barons de Braose: Magna Charta. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 4, 2013 .
  8. ↑ The Great Charter (Magna Carta Libertatum) of July 15, 1215. Retrieved July 4, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Braose, William de, 4th Baron of Bramber
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bramber, 4th Baron of; Briouze, William de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Norman nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1150
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1211
Place of death Corbeil