John Horace Round

“ The men of Ulster, thirsting for revenge, soon rallied, and headed by their king made a desperate effort to recover their stronghold. John sallied forth to meet them in the open, and swept them before him in headlong rout. ”

“ It is admitted by William of Newburgh that his followers bewailed him bitterly as a martyr. Miracles were wrought with the chain that hanged him. The gibbet was carried off as a relic, and the very earth where it stood scooped away. Crowds were attracted to the scene of his death, and the primate had to station on the spot an armed guard to disperse them. ”

“ VERE, Family of, is supposed to have derived its name from Ver, near Bayeux, and was founded in England by Aubrey (‘Albericus’) de Vere, who obtained from the Conqueror vast estates, chiefly the property of Wulfwine, a great English thegn, in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Cambridge, with two manors in Huntingdonshire and that of Kensington in Middlesex (Domesday) . The continuance of his family in the male line and its possession of an earldom for more than five and a half centuries have made its name a household word. ”

“ Almost the arbiter of the barons' war, he became under Edward I the most powerful subject in the kingdom, and married, in 1290, the king's daughter Joan. With the death of his son Gilbert [q. v.] , who fell gloriously at Bannockburn (24 June 1314) , there passed away this famous house, of which it has been said with much truth that 'for steady hereditary influence, supported on the whole by moderation of conduct, and always by great personal valour, no family at all approached to that of the earls of Gloucester and Hertford' (ib. p. 338) . ”

“ It was about Christmas 1070 that the earl was sent by William to Normandy to assist his queen in administering the duchy. But at the same time Baldwin, count of Flanders, died, leaving him one of the guardians to his son Arnulf. The count's widow, Richildis, attacked by her brother-in-law, offered her hand to the earl if he would come to her assistance. He did so, and was slain at the battle of Cassel, where her forces were defeated early in 1071. He was buried at Cormeilles, one of the two monasteries which he had founded in Normandy. ”

“ BREMBRE, Sir NICHOLAS (d. 1388) , lord mayor of London, was the chief supporter among the citizens of Richard II. The ‘worthie and puissant man of the city’ of Grafton (who wrongly terms him a draper) , and ‘the stout mayor’ of Pennant, he was a son of Sir John Brembre (Hasted, ii. 258) , and, becoming a citizen and grocer of London, purchased in 1372–3 (46 Ed. III) from the Malmains family the estates of Mereworth, Maplescomb, and West Peckham, in Kent (ibid. i. 290, ii. 258, 264) . ”

“ BASSET, ALAN (d. 1232–3) , baron, was a younger son of Thomas Basset of Hedendon, Oxfordshire [see Basset, Thomas] . In favour alike with Richard I and with John, he received from the former the lordships of Woking and Mapledurwell, and from the latter those of Wycombe and Berewick. With his brothers Gilbert and Thomas he accompanied John to Northampton, when the king of Scots did his homage (22 Nov. 1200) , which he tested (Rog. Hov. i. 142) , and continued throughout John's reign in close attendance on the court, accompanying the king to Ireland in 1210 (Rot. de Præst.) ”

“ Hugh de Lacy returned to the attack, and this time with complete success. The forces of Ulster were utterly defeated and John himself taken prisoner (Annals of Loch Cé, i. 135; Chronicle of Man) . It is to this battle that reference is made in the grant of Ulster to Hugh de Lacy (29 May 1205) , ‘as John de Curcy held it on the day when Hugh conquered and took him prisoner in the field’ (Cart. 7 John, m. 12) . So erroneous are the histories of this warfare that Mr. Gilbert represents this battle as a victory for John de Courci (Viceroys, p. 61) . ”

“ The second son, the bishop of Hereford, returned to England with the primate on 16 July 1214, and paid a fine of 9,000 marks for his father's lands on 21 Oct. 1215 (Pat. VI John, m. 14) . As he died very soon after, John allowed the lands to pass without further fine to the third son Reginald on 26 May 1216 (Pat. 18 John, m. 9) , who also, under Henry III, recovered the Irish estates.
William's daughter, Margaret, married Walter de Lacy, and on 10 Oct. 1216 received a license' to found a religious house for the souls of her mother Maud and her brother William, the victims of John's revenge. ”

“ At daybreak, on Sunday, 10 June, the Earl of Warwick, with 100 footmen and forty men-at-arms, surprised him and carried him off to Warwick Castle (Trokelowe, 76, Chron. i. 206) . On the arrival of Lancaster, with Hereford and Arundel, Gaveston was handed over to them and beheaded by them on Blacklow Hill, outside Warwick's fief (19 June 1312) , the earl himself declining to be present, and refusing to take charge of the corpse (Chron. i. 210) . Edward instantly threatened vengeance, and Warwick and his confederates met at Worcester to concert measures for their mutual defence (ib. ii. 182) . ”

“ CLARE, WALTER de (d. 1138?) , founder of Tintern Abbey, was probably son of Richard de Clare (d. 1070?) , founder of the house of Clare [q. v.] In Dugdale’s ‘Baronage’ (i. 207) he is also son of Gilbert, a brother of the Richard de Clare who died about 1070. His history is sadly confused. The few facts related concerning him have been mainly taken from two documents (Mon. Angl. v. 269-70) , of which the one, his ‘Genealogia,’ is clearly based upon the continuation of William of Jumièges (viii. 37) , itself inaccurate, but is sadly garbled; while the other, a chronicle, is even more erroneous. ”

“ William of Malmesbury (Gesta Regum, iii. 256) asserts that he attracted a large number of warriors to his standard by liberal rewards, and made a special ordinance reducing the penalties to which they would be liable by crime. During his brief tenure of the earldom he was almost always engaged in border warfare with the Welsh, and Meredith, son of Owen, was among the princes of South Wales whom he fought and overthrew. ”

“ In the conflict between the crown and the baronage, he joined the moderate or middle section, who remained in attendance on the king till the eve of the Charter, but went over to the extreme party on their obtaining possession of London (24 May 1215) . Accompanying them to Runnymede (15 June) , he was elected one of the twenty-five barons of the Charter (Matt. Paris) , but then withdrew to his castle of Belvoir, and, though included by name in the excommunication of the barons, refused to attend the Hounslow tournament (6 July) . ”

“ Dying without issue in the same year (1155) his earldom became extinct, but the shrievalty of Hereford and Gloucester passed to his brother Walter. On the death of the latter and two other brothers without issue the family possessions passed to their sisters, Bertha bringing Abergavenny to Braose, but Margaret, the eldest sister, taking the bulk (Liber Niger) to the Bohuns afterwards (1199) , in recognition of their descent from Miles, earls of Hereford, and constables of England. ”

“ His death was the signal for a general rising, and his castles were besieged by the rebels. His widow was rescued by Giles of Gloucester, but his brother Baldwin, whom Stephen despatched to suppress the rising and avenge his death, failed discreditably (Gesta, pp. 10-13) . Richard, who was buried at Gloucester, was founder of Tunbridge Priory, and about 1124 removed the religious house which his father had founded at Clare to the adjacent hill of Stoke (Mon. Angl. vi. 1052) . ”

“ Meanwhile John had secured his release (Chronicle of Man) , whether, as implied by the ‘Annals of Loch Cé’ (but the passage is obscure) , by submitting to take the cross, or, as distinctly asserted in the records, by swearing to submit to the crown, and giving hostages as a pledge for his doing so (‘sic se venturum [in servitium nostrum] juravit et unâ obsides suos dedit’) . ”

“ The date of her marriage to William de Albini [see Albini, William de, d. 1176] is unknown; but as she left by him seven children, it cannot have been long after Henry's death. Her only recorded acts after 1139 are her foundation of the small priories of Pyneham and of the Causeway (De Calceto) , and her benefactions to that of Boxgrove, all in Sussex, with her gifts to Henry's abbey of Reading and to the cathedral church of Chichester. ”

“ The primate now determined to crush him, took hostages from his supporters for their good behaviour, and then ordered his arrest. Guarded by his followers, William defied him, and the panic-stricken magnates were in hourly expectation of a general rising and of the sacking of the city. Soon, however, surprised by a party of armed men, the demagogue slew one of his assailants and fled for refuge to Bow Church, together with a few friends, and, his enemies said, with his mistress. He trusted that the sanctuary would shelter him till his followers assembled ”

“ At Puiset's death (March 1195) the castles of Norham and Durham were surrendered to him (ib. pp. 249, 261, 285) , and, remaining faithful to Richard, he retained his counties (Northumberland and Cumberland) till John's accession (1199) . From John he received the counties of Nottingham and Derby and the custody of Tickhill Castle. He continued to act as an itinerant justice and to sit in the Curia Regis till his death in 1203 (Ann. Wav. p. 255) . He appears from the rolls to have acted as a baron of the exchequer in all three reigns. ”

“ His marriage with the heiress of Gilbert de Sanford brought the family the office of chamberlain to the queen (Liber Rubeus, p. 507) , which Gilbert had exercised in 1236, when the earl's father had similarly acted as chamberlain to the king (ib. p. 759) . The earls eventually added to their titles that of Lord Sanford in virtue of this marriage. The seventh earl, John de Vere [q. v.] , married a coheiress of the Lords Badlesmere, whose title was similarly assumed by his descendants. ”

“ Meanwhile he had joined his brother-in-law, Earl Geoffrey, in intriguing with the Empress Maud (ib. p. 178) , and, through his influence, obtained from her at Oxford in 1142 a remarkable charter, granting him lands and dignities, including an earldom, either of Cambridge, or, if that was impossible, of Oxford, Berkshire, Wiltshire, or Dorset, which charter her son Henry confirmed (ib. pp. 179–88) . The title he adopted was that of Oxford, and in January 1156 Henry II by a fresh charter granted him its ‘third penny’ as earl (ib. p. 239) . ”

“ He appears in ‘Domesday’ as a tenant-in-chief in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Warwick, being also styled in it ‘Urso de Wirecestre’ (f. 169 b) from his office as sheriff of Worcestershire. William of Malmesbury, describing him as ‘Vicecomes Wigorniæ a rege constitutus,’ tells the story of his encroaching on the cemetery of Worcester Abbey to make his castle ditch, and of his stern rebuke for it by Archbishop Ealdred: ‘Hightest thou Urse, have thou God's curse’ (Gesta Pontificum) . ”

“ In the anarchy that followed, war broke out between Robert and his hereditary foe, Roger de Toesny (ib. xiii. 22) , whom he eventually captured by his brother's assistance. In December 1137 the twins returned to England with Stephen, as his chief advisers, and Robert began preparing for his great foundation, his Norman possessions being overrun (ib. xiii. 36) in his absence (1138) , till he came to terms with Roger de Toesny (ib. xiii. 38) . ”

“ He was now (1 July 1418) created by Henry count of Harcourt in Normandy (Rot. Norm. 6 Hen. V) . On the approach of Henry to Rouen he sent forward the duke to reconnoitre and summon the town to surrender (20-29 July 1418) . On the siege being formed he took up his quarters on the north, facing the 'Beauvoisine' gate. The keys of Rouen were given up to Henry 19 Jan. 1419, and handed by him to his uncle, the duke, whom he made captain of the city, and who took possession of it the next day. ”

“ At the ‘bride-ale’ there was hatched a conspiracy between the two earls and their friends against William's rule. Roger returning to his earldom rose in revolt, but was prevented by the royal forces from crossing the line of the Severn. ”

“ The baronial justiciary, Hugh Despencer, was his son-in-law, and they seem for about a year to have acted concurrently. Thenceforth the royalists were in full power, and Basset acted alone. In July 1262 the king went to France, leaving the kingdom in the charge of Basset, who presided at a parliament held in October (Rog. Hov. ii. 217) , and kept him informed of the state of affairs. ”

“ FERRERS, ROBERT de (d. 1139) , warrior, was the son and heir of Henry de Ferrers [q. v.] , the founder of the family. He succeeded his father under Henry I, and is first mentioned in the record of a suit between the abbot of Burton and himself (Burton Cartulary, pp. 19, 49, &c.) . In 1130 he is found leasing the lead mines at Wirksworth (Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. I) . ”

“ Gloucester also insisted ‘if he wished to be king,’ Burley must suffer (Rot. Parl. iii. 431) . He was accordingly sentenced in parliament, 5 May 1388, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, which was commuted by the king, On the plea of his services, to beheading. He suffered the same day on Tower Hill (ib. iii. 243) , Stow asserting that he was first led through the city, his hands bound behind him (Chron. p. 204) . His sentence was formally reversed 22 March 1399. The king and queen were enraged at his death, and Froissart grieved for him as a friend and as a wise and gentle knight. ”

“ The story that he went on crusade comes from the utterly untrustworthy account of him in the 'Abergavenny Chronicle' (Mon. Angl. iv. 615) . An authentic charter of 1141–2 (Pipe Roll Soc.) proves that he held Abergavenny, but, like everything else, in right of his wife. She, who died without issue (Notebook, iii. 536) , founded Oakburn Priory, Wiltshire, circa 1151 (Mon. Angl. vi. 1016) . ”

“ A parliament was summoned in February (1388) , and the ministers accused by 'the lords appellant 'were tried and condemned. The lords appellant retained power till 3 May 1389, when Richard, by a coup-d'état, removed them from his council; and the earl, again withdrawing to Warwick, occupied himself in adding to his castle and building the nave of St. Mary's Church. Richard, ever eager for vengeance on the opposition, contrived, in 1396, that Warwick and Nottingham should quarrel over the lands of Gower ”

“ To him chiefly the prince bequeathed the education of his son Richard, on whose accession Burley at once obtained promotion and power, He came to London as the young king’s envoy, and bore the sword before him on the occasion of his visiting the city (Wals. i. 330, 339. He was also made governor of Windsor astle, and obtained grants of lands (Rot. Vasc. 1 Ric. II, m. 15, Pat. 2 Ric. II. p. 1, m. 42) . He was made master of the kings falcons at ‘the Mews,’ constable of Guildford and Wigmore, and was given a residence in Thames Street, by Baynard's Castle (Strow, Annals) . ”