Sir Richard de Clare, b. 4 Aug 1222, d. Ashenfield 15 July 1262, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford; m. (2) on or bef. 25 Jan 1237/8, Maud de Lacy. [Magna Charta Sureties]

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HOLDERS OF THE HONOUR OF CLARE (VIII) 1230

RICHARD DE CLARE, EARL OF GLOUCESTER and HERTFORD, also Lord of Clare, &c., son and heir, born 4 August 1222, died 15 July 1262, and was buried at Tewkesbury. [Complete Peerage III:244, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

EARLDOM OF HERTFORD (V) 1230

RICHARD DE CLARE, Earl of GLoucester and Hertford, also Lord Clare, son and heir. He d. 1262. [Complete Peerage VI:503]

EARLDOM OF GLOUCESTER (V) 1230

RICHARD DE CLARE, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, 1st son and heir, b. 4 Aug 1222. The custody of his lands and his wardship and marriage were given to Hubert de Burgh, the Justiciar, on whose fall from power in July 1232, the King resumed the wardship. In 1243, being of full age, he did homage and all his lands in the King's hand were ordered to be surrendered to him. . .

He m. 1stly, Margaret, daughter of Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent. She d. in Nov 1237, her body resting a night at St. Albans on the way to burial. He m. 2ndly, on or before 25 Jan 1237/8, Maud, daughter of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, by Margaret, daughter of Robert de Quincy. He d. at John de Criol's manor of Ashenfield in Waltham, near Canterbury, 15 Jul 1262 (h), it being rumoured that he had been poisoned at the table of Piers of Savoy. On the following Monday, he was carried to Canterbury, where a mass for the dead was sung and his bowels were buried before the altar of St. Edward, after which his body was taken to the canons' church at Tonbridge and interred in the choir. Thence it was taken to Tewkesbury and buried 28 Jul 1262, with great solemnity in the presence of two bishops and eight abbots in the presbytery, at his father's right hand. His widow, who erected a splendid tomb for him there, had the manor of Clare and the manor and castle of Usk, for her dower. She was living 1287, but d. before 10 Mar 1288/9. [Complete Peerage V:696-702]

(h) . . . In a book by a monk of Evesham or Pershore there is a story in which he figures relating to Sabbath day observance. At Tewkesbury in 1260 a Jew fell into a privy on a Saturday and refused to be pulled out, whereupon the Earl refused to take him out on Sunday, and on Monday the Jew was dead. [Sounds like a sorry joke to me.] The Earl's character is given by Matthew Paris in 1253: "The Earl was young, graceful, eloquent, careful, well skilled in the laws, and generally such a man as that the hope of all the English nobles might well rest upon him and he could have the favour and good will of all. This hope was, however, deceptive, for base avarice grievously obscured his nobility." . . .

. . . Besides his son and successor in title, Gilbert, the Earl had two sons: (1) Thomas de Clare, who had a public career and was a friend of Prince Edward, with whom he went on a Crusade. In July 1257 and later he and his brother Bevis or Benet were allowed oaks from the forest of Shotover for their fuel at Oxford. Thomas was knighted by Simon de Montfort before Lewes and in Apr 1265 the castle of St. Briavel's was given into his charge. He d. in Ireland Feb 1287/8, leaving a son and heir Thomas, and a son Richard, a clerk. (2) Bevis or Benet, the Earl's 3rd son, b. 21 July 1248, was a clerk of Oxford, and received various benefices and preferments from 1259 on. He d. suddenly in Oct 1294. There was possibly another son, Robert de Clare, mentioned in 1290 by Bartholomew de Cotton. The Earl left 4 daughters: (1) Isabel, b. May 1240, m. Jun 1257, the Marquess of Montferrat at Lyons. (2) Margaret, b. 1249, m. 1272, Edmund, Earl of Cornwall. (3) Roese, b. 17 Oct 1252, m. 1270, Roger de Mowbray. Roese's date of birth is probably later than 1252, since she was apparently under 15 years of age in 1270. (4) Eglentine, b. 1257, buried at Tewkesbury, aged 15 weeks. [Complete Peerage, V:700-1 note (h), corrected by XIV:340]

Note that, according to the website "Some Corrections and Additions to CP", Volume XIV, removed references to Thomas as son of Richard de Clare elsewhere in CP (but not in the above note), however Thomas' identification as Richard's son appears to be justified by record evidence; therefore the "removal" should itself be removed.

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Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and 2nd Earl of Gloucester, then in minority at the decease of his father in 1229. The wardship of this young nobleman was granted to the famous Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, Justiciary of England, whose dau., Margaret, to the great displeasure of the king (Henry III), he afterwards (1243) clandestinely married but from whom he was probably divorced, for we find the king marrying him the next year to Maude, dau. of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in consideration whereof the said John paid to the crown 5,000 marks and remitted a debt of 2,000 more. His lordship, who appears to have been a very distinguished personage in the reign of Henry III, was one of the chief nobles present in Westminster Hall (40th Henry III) [1256], when Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, with divers other prelates, pronounced that solemn curse, with candles lighted, against all those who should thenceforth violate Magna Carta. In two years afterwards, an attempt was made by Walter de Scotenay, his chief counsellor, to poison the earl and his brother William, which proved effective as to the latter, while his lordship narrowly escaped with the loss of his hair and nails. In the next year the earl was commissioned, with others of the nobility by the appointment of the king and the whole baronage of England, to the parliament of France to convey King Henry III's resignation of Normandy and to adjust all differences between the two crowns; and upon the return of the mission, his lordship reported proceedings to the king, in parliament. About this period he had license to fortify the isle of Portland and to embattle it as a fortress. It is reported of this nobleman that, being at Tewkesbury in the 45th Henry III [1261], a Jew, who had fallen into a jakes upon the Saturday, refusing to be pulled out in reverence of the Jewish sabbath, his lordship prohibited any help to be afforded him on the next day, the Christian sabbath, and thus suffered the unfortunate Israelite to perish. He d. himself in the July of the next year (1262), having been poisoned at the table of Peter de Savoy, the queen's uncle, along with Baldwin, Earl of Devon, and other persons of note. His lordship left issue, Gilbert, his successor, Thomas, Rose, and Margaret. The earl was s. by his elder son, Gilbert de Clare. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

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Richard de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, 8TH EARL OF CLARE, 6TH EARL OF HERTFORD (b. Aug. 4, 1222--d. July 15, 1262, Eschemerfield, near Canterbury, Kent, Eng.), the most powerful English noble of his time. He held estates in more than 20 English counties, including the lordship of Tewkesbury, wealthy manors in Gloucester, and the great marcher lordship of Glamorgan. He himself acquired the Kilkenny estates in Ireland and the lordship of Usk and Caerleon in south Wales, making him the greatest lord in south Wales; in Glamorgan especially he was almost an independent prince.

Son of Gilbert de Clare (the 6th Earl), Richard succeeded to the earldoms in October 1230. He refused to help King Henry III on the French expedition of 1253 but was with him afterward at Paris. Thereafter he went on a diplomatic errand to Scotland and was sent to Germany to work among the princes for the election of his stepfather, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, as king of the Romans. About 1258 Gloucester became a leader of the barons in their resistance to the king, and he was prominent during the proceedings that followed the Mad Parliament at Oxford in 1258. In 1259, however, he quarreled with Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester; the dispute, begun in England, was renewed in France, and he was again in the confidence of the king. This attitude, too, was only temporary, and in 1261 Gloucester and Montfort were again working in concord. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1996, GLOUCESTER, RICHARD DE CLARE, 7TH EARL OF]

• Married: in 1st wife ³

• Married: BEF 25 JAN 1237/38 in 2nd wife ^{7 3}

1. Gilbert de CLARE , Earl Gloucester & Hertford b: 2 SEP 1243 in Christchurch, Hampshire, England
2. Thomas de CLARE , Lord of Thomond, Gov London b: ABT 1246 in Tonbridge, Tunbridge, Kent, England
3. Bevis (Benet) de CLARE , Cleric of Oxford b: 21 JUL 1248 in Clare, Risbridge, Suffolk, England
4. Margaret de CLARE b: 1249 in Clare, Risbridge, Suffolk, England
5. Rohese (Roese) de CLARE b: 17 OCT 1252 in Tunbridge, Kent, England

1. Title: Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999
   Page: 28-3, 33-3, 107-4
2. Title: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
   Page: 2026
3. Title: Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, by G. E Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2000
   Page: V:696-702
4. Title: Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, by G. E Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2000
   Page: III:244
5. Title: Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, by G. E Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2000
   Page: VI:503
6. Title: Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999
   Page: 28-3
7. Title: Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999
   Page: 28-3, 107-4, 33-3