Earl Gilbert De Clare GLOUCESTER

   Cause of his death was Killed in Battle.

   Another name for Gilbert was GLOUCESTER Earl.

   General Notes:

9th Earl of GLOUCESTER 1291-1314.

Killed in the Battle of Bannockburn 1314.

BOOKS
Robert the Bruce King of Scots, Ronald McNair Scott, Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc, New York, 1982.
p152: [Battle of Bannockburn] "...It was decided then that the vanguard should advance along the Roman road under the King's nephew, the Earl of Gloucester, with the expectation that the power of his army would cause the Scots to retire. If not Gloucester would sweep them away with a charge of his heavy cavalry...Some delay was caused by the intervention of the Earl of Hereford, who claimed that as High Constable it was his hereditary right to lead the army: but this was shortly resolved by making him joint commander of the van with Gloucester...
"The English vanguard came down across the meadow and their lines gradually contracted into a column as they approached the ford over the burn with the Earls of Hereford and Gloucester in the lead...
"The Earl of Gloucester, the previous evening, had urged Edward II to rest his army for twenty-four hours before engaging in battle and, in a heated argument, had been accuse by him of disloyalty. Now still smarting from the unjust attack on his honour, he mounted his norse so precipitately, when he heard the sommons, that neither his squires had time to put his surcoat over his armour nor his vanguard to saddle and range behind him before he had charged headlong at Edward Bruce's schiltron. Unrecognized, he was slain on their spears far in advance of his van who, following him peacemeal as fast as they could, lost many of their bravest knights, among them the veteran Sir Robert Clifford, Sir John Comyn, son of the murdered 'Red' Comyn, Sir Edmund Manley, steward of the English King's household, and Sir Pain Piptoft..."

Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Gilbert De Clare Earl of Gloucester, Mar Matilda De Burgh, Killed 1314 at Battle of Bannockburn."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III, The Three Edwards, Thomas B Costain, 1958, Doubleday & Co
p143: "...A Parliament was held at Stamford on July 27, 1309, and an active minority headed by the Earl of Gloucester worked hard for [Gaveston]. Gloucester was his brother-in-law, still a minor and a young man of some instability. Gloucester's sister was not too happy in her marriage with the vain Gascon, but the brother nevertheless used all the influence he could bring to bear and finally succeeded in getting a favorable vote. It was agreed that Gaveston could remain and the earldom of Cornwall was restored to him.
"This was a great victory, and if the insolent alien had possessed any common sense at all he might have settled down to a peaceful life on his share of the immense Clare holdings which had come to him with his wife..."
p145: "His own brother-in-law, Gloucester, was loudly libeled [by Piers de Gaveston] as `Filz a puteyne', the whore's son, an allusion to willful Princess Joanna, who had run away and married a man not even a knight when her elderly first husband died..."
p168: [Bannockburn] "A first visit to Stirling Castle is an experience never to be forgotten. The deep interest aroused is not supplied by the castle itself. It is large and old, but it is not the stark gaunt structure which stood so high on the edge of the precipice of rock in the days of Wallace and Bruce. Some of the original foundations may still be there.
"It is the view from the battlements which fills the eye and causes the imagination of the visitor to soar. A glance to the south, across the battlefield of Bannockburn, provides a pictureof the Lowlands...
"Edward, who had become more dynastic-minded since the birth of his son, sent the Earl of Pembroke to take charge of the defense of the northern counties until such time as the royal army moved up to the attack. A writwas dispatched to no fewer than ninety-three barons to meet the king at Newcastlewith all their men-at-arms and feudal retainers. At the same time he commanded Edward de Burgh, the Earl of Ulster, to cross the water with an Irish force numbering four thousand, including archers, the Gascons to come out in force, and a supply fleet under the command of John of Argyll to operate along the east coast...
"Four of the powerful earls did not put in an appearance- Cousin Lancaster, Warenne, Warwick, and Arundel- although they sent troops...
"The upshot was the assembling, finally, of an imposing army. Never before had such a well-equipped force of such size marched to the north to try conclusions with the Scots... "The English vanguard, commanded by the earls of Gloucester and Hereford, made an urgent advance in the hope of seizing the entry to the flat lands of the Carse, a strategic necessity. They found themselves opposed by a strong corps commanded by a knight on a gray pony and with a high crown fitted over his helmet.
"`The king!' ran the word through the English ranks.
"Perceiving that what they had thought was no more than a scouting party was in reality a formidable force led by the great Bruce himself, the English hesitated. Before they could retire, however, there happened one of the incidents which are told and retold in the annals of chivalry. One of the English knights, Sir Henry de Bohun, rode out into openwith his lance at rest and shouted a challenge to the Scottish king. Robert the Bruce lacked a lance but he seemed content with the battle-ax he was carrying, and so accepted the challenge by advancing form his own rinks. Bohun charged furiously, but almost at the point of contact the king's knee drew the pony to one side and the iron-clad challenger thundered past. Rising in his stirrups, Bruce had a second's time in which to deal a blow with his battle-ax. It landed squarely on thehead of the charging knight and almost split his skull in two.
"Returning to his party, the Scottish king was upbraided for having risked his life in this way. Bruce made no direct response but looked ruefully at the shaft of his ax. "`I have broken it, he said,
"The shadows of night were falling by the time the English vanguard, very much chagrined by the defeat and death of their champion, had galloped back in a disorderly retreat..."
"The English attack had been badly conceived...
"The faltering English line broke...Gilbert of Gloucester tried to rally the troops but was killed. Clifford fell into one of the pits and was killed before he could extricate himself. Twenty-seven other barons fell in the pandemonium...

The Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, AMS Press, 1905,
p223: "...The heavy hand of Edward I fell upon earls as well as upon bishops. Even in the early days of his reign when none, save Gilbertof Gloucester, dared uplift the standard of opposition, Edward had not spared the greatest barons in his efforts to eliminate the idea of tenure from English political life. A subtle extension of his earlier policy began to emphasise the dependence of the landed dignitaries on his pleasure. The extinction of several important baronial houses made this the easier...The Earl of Hereford died in 1299, and in 1302 his son and successor, another Humphrey Bohun, was bribed by a marriage with the king's daughter Elizabeth, the widowed Countess of Holland, to surrender his lands to the crown and receive them back, like the Earl of Gloucester in 1290, entailed on the issue of himself and his consort...The old leaders of oppositionwere dead or powerless. Ralph of Monthermer, the simple north-country knight who had won the hand of Joan of Acre, ruled over the Gloucester-Glamorgan inheritance on behalf of his wife and Edward's little grandson, Gilbert of Clare..."
p224: "...[1302] Even more important as adding to Edward I's resources than these direct additions to the royal domains, was the increasing dependence of the remaining earls upon the crown. His sons-in-law of Gloucester and Hereford were entirelyunder his sway..."
p236: "...Of the befitting comrades of [Edward II's] youth, the only one of the higher aristocracy with whom he had any true intimacy was his nephew, Gilbert of Clare..."
p239: "...[1307] Gilbert of Gloucester wasbut newly come to his earldom. He was personally attached to the king, his old playmate and uncle, and was not unfriendly to his Gascon brother-in-law..."
p241: "...[1308] Only Hugh Despenser and a few lawyers adhered to the favourite [Gaveston]. Gloucester did not like to take an active part against his brother-in-law, but his stepfather, Monthermer, was conspicuous among the enemies of the Gascon..."
p244: "...[1309] The barons drew up a statement of the `great perils and dangers' to which England was exposed throught the king's dependence on bad counsellors. `Wherefore, sire,' the petition concludes, `your good folk pray you humbly that, for the salvation of yourself and them and of the the crown, you will assent that these perils shall be avoided and redressed by ordinance of your baronage.' Edward II at once surrendered at discretion, perhaps in vain hope of saving Gaveston. On March 16 he issued a charter, which empowered the barons to elect certain persons to draw up ordinances to reform the realm and the royal household. The powers of the committee were to last until Michaelmas 1311...Four days later the ordainers were appointed, the method of their election being based upon the precedents of 1258."
"Twenty-one lords ordainers represented in somewhat unequal proportions the three great ranks of the magnates. At the head of the seven bishops...All the eight earls attending the parliament became ordainers. Side by sidewith moderate men, such as Gloucester, Lincoln, and John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, were the extreme men of the opposition, Lancaster, Pembroke, Warwick, Hereford, the king's brother-in-law, and Edmund Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel. Warenne andthe insignificant Earl of Oxford do not seem to have been present in the parliament, and are therefore omitted. With these exceptions, and of course that of the Earl of Cornwall, the whole of the earls were arrayed against the king. The six barons, who completed the list of nominees...
"Two days after their appointment, they issued six preliminary ordinances by which they resolved that the place of their sitting should be London, that none of the ordainers should receive giftsfrom the crown, that no royal grants should be valid without the consent of the majority, that the customs should be paid directly into the exchequer, that the foreign merchants who had lately farmed them should be arrested, and that the GreatCharter should be firmly kept. During the next eighteen months they remained hard at work..."
p249: "...[1312] The ordainers looked upon Gaveston's return as a declaration of war. Winchelsea pronounced him excommunicate, and five of the eight earls who sat among the ordainers, bound themselves by oaths to maintain the ordinances and pursue the favourite to the death. These were Thomas of Lancaster, Aymer of Pembroke, Humphrey of Hereford, Edmund of Arundel, and Guy of Warwick. Gilbert of Gloucester declined to take part in the confederacy, but promised to accept whatever the five earls might determine. Moreover, John, Earl of Warrene, who had hitherto kept aloof from the ordainers, at last threw in his lot with them..."
p259: "...[1314] At first it seemed sufficient to raise the feudal levies and a small infantry force form the northern shire, but as time went on the necessity of meeting the Scottish pikemen by corresponding levies of foot soldiers became evident, and over 20,000 infantry were summoned from the northern counties and Wales. But the notice given was far too short, and June was well advanced before anything was ready.
"Even the Scottish peril could not quicken the sluggishpatriotism of the ordainers. Four earls, Lancaster, Warenne, Warwick, and Arundel, answered Edward's summons by reminding him that the ordinances prescribed that war should only be undertaken with the approval of parliament, and by declining to follow him to a campaign undertaken on his own responsibility. They would send quotas, but begged to be excused from personal attendance. Yet even without them, a gallant array slowly gathered together at Bersick, and one at least of the opposition earl, Humphrey of Hereford, was there, with Gilbert of Gloucester and Aymer of Pembroke and 2,000 men-at-arms. An enormous baggage train enabled the knights and barons to appear in the field in great magnifi- cence, though it destroyed the mobility of the force...The splendour and number of the army inspired the king and his friends with the utmost confidence...The presence of the king meant that there was no effective general, and Hereford and Gloucester quarrelled for the second place...
p260: "...[1314, Battle of Bannockburn] It was not until Sunday, June 23, that Edward at last took up his quarters a few miles south of Stirling, with a wornout and dispirited army. Yet, if Stirling, were to be saved, immediate action was necessary. Gloucester and Hereford made a vigorous but unsuccessful effort to penetrate at once into the castle, and Bruce came down just in time to throw himself between them and the walls. Henry Bohun, who had forced his way forward at the head of a force of Welsh infantry, was slain, and his troops dispersed. Gloucester was unhorsed, and thereupon the English retreated to their camp..."
p261: "...The English had feared that the Scots would not fight a pitched battle, and were astonished to see them at day break prepared to receive an attack. Their contempt for their enemy made them eager to accept the challenge, but Goucester, who though only twenty-three, had more of the soldier's eye than most of the magnates, urged Edward to postpone the encounter for a day, that the army might recover from its fatigue, and the clergy advised delay out of respect to St. John the Baptist. Unmoved by prudence or piety, Edwar denounced his nephew as a coward, and ordered an immediate advance...
"...Many of the English fell into the pits prepared for them, and the Scottish shields and pikes broke the attack of those who evaded these obstacles. Gloucester fought with rare gallantry, but was badly seconded by his followers. At last his horse was slain under him, and he was knocked down and killed. The troop which he led fled panic stricken from the field..."
p264: "...The earls resolved that the question of an expedition was tobe postponed until the next parliament, on the ground that it was imprudent to take action until Hereford and the other captives had been released...But the victor of Bannockburn showed surprising moderation. He suffered the bodies of Gloucester and the slain barons to be buried among their ancesteors, and released Gloucester's father-in-law, Monthermer, without ransom, declaring that the thing in the world which he most desired was to live in peace with the English. He welcomed an exchange of prisoners, by which his wife, Elizabeth de Burgh, his sister, his daughter, and the Bishop of Glasgow were restored toScotland. The release of Hereford soon added to the king's troubles..."
p267: "...After Bannockburn, the captivity of Hereford, the lord of Brecon, and the death without heirs of Gloucester, the lord of Glamorgan, removed the strongest restraints on the men of south Wales..."
p269: "The easiest way to keep up a show of English government was to form an alliance between the crown and some of the baronial houses. Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, the most powerful of the feudal lords of Ireland, was the only one who at that period bore the title of earl. He had long been interested in general English affairs, and his kinswomen had intermarried into great British houses. One of his daughters married Robert Bruce when he was Earl of Carrick, and another was more recently wedded to Earl Gilbert of Gloucester...
p270: "...Thedeath of Earl Gilbert at Bannockburn broke his nearest tie with England, and the release of Elizabeth Bruce in exchange for Hereford gave his daughter the actual enjoyment of the throne of Scotland..."

The Later Middle Ages 1272-1485, George Holmes, 1962, Norton Library of England
p25: "...Lay society was crowned by a group of about a dozen or fifteen earls. Some were of royal blood...others members of ancient families descending from the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, like the de Vere earls of Oxford and the Bohuns of Hereford..."
p83: "...The famous quarrel betweeen the Earls of Hereford and Gloucester was settled in a parliament in 1292..."
p89: "...At the beginning of [Edward I's] reign in 1272, the east and south of what is now Wales were held by English Marcher lords like the Clare earls of Gloucester, who held the lordship of Glamorgan; and the Bohun earls of Hereford, who held Brecon..."

The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 1975, p1094, GloucesterGilbert De Clare 8th Earl of: "...His first marriage was annulled, and in 1290 he married Edward's daughter Joan. He also held the titles of Earl of Clare, and Earl of Hertford, as did his son by Joan, Gilbert de Clare, 9th Earl of Gloucester (1291-1314), who served Edward II faithfully and was killed at the battle of Bannockburn."
p227, Bannockburn: "Moor and parish, Stirlingshire, central Scotland on the Bannock River...In 1314 on the moor, a 10,000-man Scots army led by Robert Bruce routed 23,000 Englishmen under Edward II, thus climaxing Robert's struggle for Scottish independence and establishing him as king of the Scots."

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX
IGI Birth T990361-186-08847798 Gilbert DE CLARE Earl of Gloucester Father Gilbert DE CLARE Earl of Gloucester Mother Joan Princess of ENGLAND 10 May 1291 Winchcomb Gloucester England.

   Marriage Information:

Gilbert married Matilda De BURGH, daughter of Earl Richard De Burgh ULSTER. (Matilda De BURGH was born in , , Ireland and died in 1315.)