Earl Richard De Clare GLOUCESTER

   Another name for Richard was GLOUCESTER Earl.

   Ancestral File Number: 8503-D3. User ID: 9454940/39486300.

   General Notes:

Earl of GLOUCESTER.

Signer of Provisions of Oxford, first English Constitution 11 Jun 1258.

BOOKS
Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, AMS Press, 1905, p100: "...On June 11 [1258] the magnates once more assembled, this time at Oxford. A petition of twenty-nine articles was presented, in which the abuses of the [Henry III] administration were laid bare in detail. A commission of twenty-four was appointed who were to redress the grievances of the nation, and to draw up a new scheme of government. According to the compact Henry himself selected half this body...
"...In strong contrast to these creatures of court favour were the twelve nominees of the barons. The only ecclesiastic was Walter of Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, and the only alien was Earl Simon of Leicester. With him were three other earls Richard of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Roger Bigod, earl marshal and Earl of Norfolk, and Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford. Those of Baronal rank were Roger Mortimer, the strongest of the marchers, Hugh Bigod, the brother of the earl marshal, John Fitz Geoffrey, Richard Grey, William Bardolf, Peter Montfort, and Hugh Despenser.
"...The twenty-four drewup a plan of reform which left little to be desired in thoroughness. The Provisions of Oxford, as the new constitution was styled, were speedily laid before the barons and adopted...For the first time in our history the king was forced to stand aside from the discharge of his undoubted functions, and suffer them to be exercised by a committee of magnates. The conception of limited monarchy, which had been foreshadowed in the early struggles of Henry's long reign, was triumphantly vindicated, and, after weary years of waiting, the baronial victors demanded more than had ever been suggested by the most free interpretation of the Great Charter..."

Barber Grandparents: 125 Kings, 143 Generations, Ted Butler Bernard and Gertrude Barber Bernard, 1978, McKinney TX, p96: "451G Maud De Lace, (D of 442,M of 461); married 452P Richard De Clare, Earl of Clare, (S of 445, F of 461); born in 1222 and died in 1262."

Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Edmund Earl of Cornwall, Son ofRichard 1st Earl of Cornwall and Sanchia Provence, Mar Margaret De Clare Gloucester Daughter of Richard De Clare Earl of Gloucester, Divorced 1293, Died 1300.

A History of The Plantagenets, Vol II, The Magnificent Century, Thomas B Costain, 1951, Doubleday & Co
p130: "Hubert de Burgh tumbled into disgrace a second time when Meggotta, his daughter, contracted a secret marriage with the young Earl of Gloucester, Richard of Clare. The earl was a minor and had been a ward of Hubert's. The King, who wanted to bestow the young man, the most eligible bachelor in England, on one of his own choosing, promply charged Hubert with having arranged the match. Hubert entered a weary denial, declaring that the young couple, who werevery much in love, had been married clandestinely and with out the knowledge of either of Meggotta's parents. There was plenty of evidence to support this, but Henry, who needed money as usual and hankered for what little his ex-minister had left, contended that the marriage was a breach of the conditions under which the boken man's estates had been restored to him. While a suit to deprive Hubert of his land dragged along, the young couple were separated and poor Meggotta died of abroken heart. The sixteen-year-old bridegroom, who seems to have been deeply attached to his young wife, was forced into a second marriage before Meggotta had been three months in her grave. Hubert mourned his daughter deeply and did not seem to mind what might happen to him after that."
p241: "The Earl of Leicester was now a dominant figure among the malcontents, but two other noblemen loomed up strongly.
"The first of these was Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who for one reason or another had been a spectacular character all his life. A grandson of William the Marshal, he had been made a ward of Hubert de Burgh at the age of eight, when his father died. His secret marriage when fourteen with Hubert's pretty and ill-fated daughter Meggotta had plunged his guardian still deeper into the bad graces of the King. As poor Meggotta died almost immediately thereafter, the youthful earl was married off promptly to Maud de Lacey, a daughter of the Earl of Lincoln. On growing up he was considered the most prominent of the old nobility, and he had played his part in all the important events of the reign. In 1253 his ten-year-old son Gilbert, called the Red because of the color of his hair, was married to Alice of Angouleme, daughter of Guy de Lusignan and therefore a stepniece of the King. The Earl ofGloucester took this alliance with royalty seriously, but as he was intensely proud and most tenacious of his rights as a leading peer,Henry had never been able to count on his support. At the Hocktide Parliament he had, somewhat reluctantly and with a great deal of grumbling, placed himself in opposition.
"If there had been any doubt as to the Earl of Gloucester's final position, the loose tongue of Henry's evil genious, William of Valence, settled the issue. In the course of an angry discussion the latter charged that the earl was in league with the Welsh because the lands of Gloucester had been spared in thelast raids. It was an idle and senseless assertion,exactly the king of thing the King was in the habit of saying at the wrong time. The insult certainly could not have been timed worse. Richard de Clare ranged himself at once on the side of the King's enemies.
"The spokesman of the barons was a more attractive figure than the unpredictable Earl of Gloucester. Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, had been initiated as marshal of England when the last of the five Marshal sons died, hismother being the oldest daughter of the Good Knight..."
p244: "The King who had stammered and gasped when he saw his barons sitting in Parliament in their armor had double reason to pause at the spectacle of Oxford in arms, and he met their demands in a mood which could only be described as submissive. This session, which later was geiven erroneously the title of the Mad Parliament, could not have been held at Beaumont palace, which lacked the space for such numbers. More likely the magnates assembled in Oxford Castle, where the keep and the square lower tower afforded plenty of room. One chronicle places the meeting in the monastery of the Dominicans.
"The principles which had been approved at London were expeditiously applied to a reorganization of the machinery of state. A committee of twenty-four, half chosen by the King, half by the magnates, was appointed to handle the details of the operation. Henry's nominees included his threee half brothers,John Mansel, and the leading peers who were standing by him. The baronial half included Gloucester, Simon de Montfort, Roger Bigod, adn Walter Cantilupe, the Bishop of Worcester. This body set to work at once.
"Out of their deliberationscame the creation of two new administrative bodies. The first was a permanent council of fifteen men who would sit continuously with the King and advise him on all points of policy and who would have moreover, the power to restrain him; a gentle method of applying the right of veto. The second was a body of twentyfour to deal specifically with the difficulties of the King andfind ways of meeting them. It was ordained that three sessions of Parliament were to be held each year at spcified times for the discussion of state problems. The filling of the responsible offices under the King was to be a function of the council of fifteen.
"It will be seen that these regulations, which came to be called the Provisions of Oxford, were more than a curb of the King's power. Cloak their intent in the most careful and polite of phrase and they still constitute a transfer of final authority to the council of fifteen. That Henry agreed to terms as humiliating as this can be accepted as evidence of the panic into which he had been thrown by his recent mistakes and failures. Early in August he published his consent, after taking a solemn oath to abide by the Provisions, a step which was demanded also of Lord Edward."
p249: "It is certain that [de Montfort] had become by this time almost fanatical in his devotion to the cause of better government. This he demonstrated in his first serious altercation with the Earl of Gloucester. During the meeting of Parliament in February of the following year the two earls clashed over the terms of ordinance. Gloucester wanted the advantages gained at Oxford to apply only to the nobility. Leicester stood out for an engagement whereby the peers would extend to their dependents the same rights they were exacting from the Crown for themselves. Gloucester was so insistently opposed that Simon flared into anger.
"`I care not to live and act with men so fickle and so false!' he cried.
"Henot only withdrew from the deliberations but from England as well, crossing the Channel into France, where he moodily concerned himself with personal matters.
"This outburst was not the chagrin of a leader balked by the opposition of hissupporters. Simon was the heart and soul of the cause, but Gloucester's name had appeared first in the Provisions; they still shared the command. It was an impulsive and irrational act and it endangered the success of the cause. Why did Simon behave in this way? It was not in keeping with his usual statesmanlike attitude. Perhaps he saw in the quarrel an opportunity to bring things to an issue and to oust Gloucester from the equality they were sharing. Perhaps- and this is the more reasonable assumption- it was caused by the passionate resentment of an overworked and overwrought man who saw something very close to his heart being weakened and debased..."
p261: "Edward answered his father's appeal by returning and taking charge of operations along the Welsh frontier. He found things in a badly disorganized state. The old Marcher barons had been dying off. Richard of Gloucester, who had been the commanding figure in the West because of his immense landholdings in Gloucester and Blamorganshire, had died in July of the previous year..."

The Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, AMS Press, 1905, p99: "...An opposition party formed itself under the Earls of Gloucester, Leicester,Hereford, and Norfolk...
"...On June 11 [1258] the magnates once more assembled, this time at Oxford. A summons to fight the Welsh gave them an excuse to appear attended with their followers in arms. The royalist partisans nicknamed the gathering the Mad Parliament, but its proceedings were singularly business-like. A petition tion of twenty-nine articles was presented, in which the abuses of the [Henry III] administration were laid bare in detail. A commission of twenty-four was appointed who were to redress the grievances of the nation, and to draw up a new scheme of government. According to the compact Henry himself selected half this body. It was significant of the falling away of the mass of the ruling families from the monarchy, that six of Henry's twelve commissioners were churchmen, four were aliens, three were his brothers, one his brother-in-law, one his nephew, one his wife's uncle...
"...In strong contrast to these creatures of court favourwere the twelve nominees of the barons. The only ecclesiastic was Walter of Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, and the only alien was Earl Simon of Leicester. With him were three other earls Richard of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Roger Bigod, earl marshal and Earl of Norfolk, and Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford. Those of Baronal rank were Roger Mortimer, the strongest of the marchers, Hugh Bigod, the brother of the earl marshal, John FitzGeoffrey, Richard Grey, William Bardolf, Peter Montfort, and Hugh Despenser.
"...The twenty-four drew up a plan of reform which left little to be desired in thoroughness. The Provisions of Oxford, as the new constitution was styled, were speedily laid before the barons and adopted...Forthe first time in our history the king was forced to stand aside from the discharge of his undoubted functions, and suffer them to be exercised by a committee of magnates. The conception of limited monarchy, which had been foreshadowed in theearly struggles of Henry's long reign, was triumphantly vindicated, and, after weary years of waiting, the baronial victors demanded more than had ever been suggested by the most free interpretation of the Great Charter..."
p110: "...At the same time the renewed dissensions of Leicester and Gloucester paralyzed the baronage...The death of Richard of Gloucester during 1262 increased Montfort's power. His son, the young Earl Gilbert, was Simon's devoted disciple, but he was stilla minor and the custody of his lands was handed over to the Earl of Hereford..." p119: "...[1264] In this assembly [following the Battle of Lewes] the final conditions of peace were drawn up, and arrangements made for keeping Henry under control for the rest of his life, and Edward after him, for a term of years to be determined in due course. Leiscester and Gloucester were associ- ated with Stephen Berkstead, the Bishop of Chichester, to form a body of three electors. By these three a Council of Nine was appointed, three of whom were to be in constant attendance at court; and without their advice the king was to do nothing..."

The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 1975, p1095, Gloucester Richard de Clare 7th Earl of: "English nobleman. He succeeded his father as Earl in 1230. For some years Gloucester vacillated in his allegiance to Henry III; he served the king in diplomatic missions to Scotland and Germany, but in 1258 he bacame a leader of the baronial party that forced Henry to accept the `Provisions of Oxford'. Gloucester and Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, were now the leading political figures in England. They soon quarreled, however, and in 1259 Gloucester was reconciled with the king. When Henry repudiated (1261) the provisions Gloucester briefly rejoined the opposition but made his peace with the king within the year. Gloucester also held the titles of Earl of Clare and Earl of Hertford."

ANCESTRY.COM
World Ancestral Chart No. 17450 Ancestors of Wayne G Thorpe and Olive Loraine Slade.

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral FileVer 4.10 8503-D3 Mar 2 Feb 1236 Died 15 Jul 1262 Canterbury Kent Ver 4.13 Mar 2 Feb 1236 Died Canterbury Kent England Ver 4.13 Mar On or Bef 25 Jan 1237 Lincolnshire England Maud De LACY (AFN:FSLG-6W) Died 15 Jul 1262 Ashenfield Manor Waltham Kent England.

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX
IGI Birth T990361-185-0884798 Gilbert DE CLARE Earl of Gloucester Father RichardDE CLARE Earl of Gloucester Mother Maud De LACY 2 Sep 1243 Christchurch Hampshire England.

   Marriage Information:

Richard married Countess Margaret De Burgh GLOUCESTER, daughter of Earl Hubert De Burgh KENT and Princess Margaret De Lamvallie SCOTLAND, about Sep 1236 in St Edmunds, Wexford, Ireland. (Countess Margaret De Burgh GLOUCESTER died about Oct 1236.)

   Marriage Information:

Richard also married Countess Maud De Lacy GLOUCESTER, daughter of Earl John De Lacy LINCOLN and Countess Margaret De Quincy LINCOLN, about 25 Jan 1237 in , Lincolnshire, England. (Countess Maud De Lacy GLOUCESTER was born about 1223 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England and died before 10 Mar 1288-1289.)