CP Correction - Gilbert de Clare, E. of Gloucester (d. 1314)

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Brad Verity

CP Correction - Gilbert de Clare, E. of Gloucester (d. 1314)

Legg inn av Brad Verity » 27 aug 2004 06:42:41

A minor correction to CP's account of Gilbert de Clare(1291-1314),
Earl of Gloucester.

CP, Vol. 5, p. 712, line 9: "He was knighted by the King 22 May 1306."

This is incorrect, as the following Close Roll entry shows: "26 Nov.
1307, Langley. To Walter de Gloucestre, escheator this side Trent.
Order to permit the king's nephew Gilbert, son and heir of Gilbert de
Clare, late earl of Gloucester and Hertford, tenant in chief of the
late king, to hold all his father's lands, which are in the king's
hands by reason of his minority, the king, out of his affection for
him, having restored them to him in order that he may receive
knighthood (arma militaria recipere) and serve the king."

So Earl Gilbert was knighted by Edward II, not Edward I, in November
(or December) 1307, after his sister Margaret had been married to
Gaveston at the beginning of the month.

The Gilbert de Clare who was knighted on 22 May 1306 (at the festival
of the Swans) was thus Gilbert de Clare of Thomond (1281-1307), first
cousin of Earl Gilbert. It may have been around the time of this
festival that he married Isabel le Despenser since it was at this
festival that Isabel's brother Hugh le Despenser the Younger was also
knighted and married to Eleanor de Clare, Earl Gilbert's sister.

Though custody of Gilbert de Clare of Thomond was granted to Joan of
Acre, Countess of Gloucester, he came of age in 1302, probably well
before his marriage to Isabel, as there were no children. Countess
Joan, likely working with her father Edward I, may have had a hand in
arranging both of the Clare/Despenser marriages. It was through her
Clare marriage that Isabel would've first come to the attention of
Ralph de Monthermer, Countess Joan's second husband, who went on to
marry Isabel in 1318. Born about 1262, he was at least 25 years older
than her.

CP (cont'd): "On 15 Nov. following the escheator was ordered to take
possession of his lands, goods, &c., he having, with eighteen others,
withdrawn from the King's service in Scotland and gone beyond seas."

This would, again, apply to Gilbert de Clare of Thomond, aged 25, who
had full possession of his lands, not Earl Gilbert, aged 15, who had
no lands in late 1306.

CP (cont'd): "After the death of his mother, in Apr. 1307, he was
styled Earl of Gloucester and Hertford."

Interestingly, he wasn't styled Earl in the Chancery Rolls until after
the death of Edward I. In a Patent Roll entry of 24 June 1307, a mere
2 weeks before his father-in-law's death, Monthermer is still styled
"earl of Gloucester" though Countess Joan had been dead for two
months. Gilbert, in the same entry, is styled "Gilbert son and heir
of Gilbert de Clare, sometime earl of Gloucester and Hertford." On 30
August, in one of the earliest Patent Roll entries of new King Edward
II's reign, Monthermer is styled "Ralph de Monte Hermerii" and Gilbert
now "Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford."

Since Gilbert de Clare of Thomond died in the autumn of 1307, there is
no more confusion in the rest of CP's account between the two first
cousins.

Cheers, -------Brad

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