Earl Humphrey De Bohun HEREFORD, VIII

   Cause of his death was Killed in Battle.

   Other names for Humphrey were HEREFORD 4th Earl, DEVON Earl and ESSEX 3rd Earl.

   Ancestral File Number: 84ZR-LS. User ID: 1181858.

   General Notes:

Earl of DEVON, 3rd Earl of ESSEX, 4th Earl of HEREFORD, High Constable of ENGLAND.

BOOKS
Robert the Bruce King of Scots, Ronald McNair Scott, Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc, New York, 1982.
p43: "News had reached Scotland of a clash between King Edward, his Church and his barons. The Archbishop of Canterbury had instructed his clergy to pay no taxes on pain of excommunication, and the two great magnates in England, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, the Earl Marshall, and Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford, the Constable, had refused to serve overseas, retiring to their fiefs and calling up their vassals. Many other of the barons had followed their example.There was the possibility of civil war in England...
p152: [Stirling Castle-Battle of Bannockburn- 23 Jun 1314] "A consultation was held among the leaders at which Sir Philip, who had been able to observe the preparations of the Scots from the battlements of the castle, warned that the English could not attack from the western flank as the bridle ways through the forest had been barricaded and that elsewhere the growth was too thick, and that to the immediate front the Scottish forces were drawn up in the New Park...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...
p160: "Every armoured knight who had not been unhorsed or killed put spurs to his steed. The Earl of Hereford, High Constable of England, with some of the foremost barons, pled, to their shame, along the route which their King [Edward II] had taken and made for Bothwell. Others less fortunate penned in by the Scots, attempted to cross the Bannock burn but got bogged in its muddy depths and were rolled over and crushed by those who were crowding after them. Between its banks the burn became so choked by struggling men and horses that the latest comers could pass dryshod over a causeway of drowned and drowning bodies...
p164: "But the greatest catch of all was that brought back byy Edward Bruce from Bothwell. Sir Walter Fitz Gilbert, the constable of the castle, had for some time been sitting gingerly on the fence, with one foot in the English camp. He received therefore into his halls, at their request, the Earl of Hereford, the Earl of Angus, Sir Ingram de Umfraville, Maurice, Lord of Berkeley, John Lord of Segrave, Antony Lucy and fifty of their followers. The remainder of their party, for whom he had no room, continued towards Carlisle and were almost all destroyed in the course of their journey. When Sir Walter heard from his distinguished guests the reason for their presence, his duty immediately became clear. His men removed their arms and made them prisoners, and on the arrival of Edward Bruce at the castle gates, Sir Walter handed them over to his keeping with protestations of loyalty to his brother...
p200: "The truce signed in December 1319 held throughout 1321 and the northern counties had a short reprieve from the ravages of the Scots. But elsewhere in England events moved towards civil war. Hugh Despenser the younger, who after the death of Piers Gaveston had become the chief object of Edward II's affections, roused the anger of the Marcher Lords by his territorial aggrandizement in Wales. Taking to arms, they joined forces with the Earl of Lancaster and, marching on London, intimidated the King into sending the favourite and his father into exile. Their triumph was short-lived. Five months later their opposition had lost cohesion. Edward II, seizing his opportunity, raised an army, recalled the Despensers and advanced against the Marcher Lords. Some surrendered withouth a fight: others, under the Earl of Hereford, fled north to join the Earl of Lancaster at Pontefract. The final clash between King and earl was now to take place...
p201: "The English King, gathering his forces at Coventry, bypasseed Burton-on Trent, where Lancaster and Hereford had posted theirr army to block his passage of the river, and made for their headquarters at Pontefract. The earls hastily retreated northwards, hoping to link up with the Scots. But Andrew Harclay, the governor of Carlisle, by a brilliant move raised the leview of Cumberland and Westmorland and, avoiding the Scots in Teesdale, took up a position at Borooughbridge covering both the ford and the bridge by which the rebels would hve to cross the River Ure. Mindful of the lessons of Courtrai and Bannockburn, he posted his pikemen in schiltron formation opposite the bridge and ford supported by archers on both flanks.
"On 16 March Lancaster advanced to the attack, sending Hereford and the infantry to seize the bridge while he himself with the cavalry attempted to cross by the ford. Hereford was killed on the bridge as he led his men and Lancaster repulsed by the hail of arrows that decimated his horses. The next morning, with most Hereford's men deserting, he surrendered to Andrew Harclay. He was taken before Edward II at Pontefract who, without holding Parliament or consulting his peers, had his head cut off as ten years before the earl had done to Piers Gaveston."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III, The Three Edwards, Thomas B Costain, 1958, Doubleday & Co
p93: [Falkirk] "Edward came back from the continent and proceeded atonce to organize this forces for the reconquest of Scotland. He summoned Parliament to meet him at York on May 25 and included the Scottish noblemen. The order was a peremptory one; anyone who did not obey would be considered a traitor... "There is much difference of opinion as to the size of the army the English king led into Scotland, some estimating it at more than eighty thousand, some convinced that he had no more than a tenth of that number, three thousand horse and four or five thousand foot soldiers, mostly archers...
"Wallace, lacking the support of the nobility (not one earl was with him in the fatal battle which followed), had a much shrunken army to meet the threat. As at Stirling, the ranks were madeup almost exclusively of recruits from the lowest orders...
"By the time the English army reached Queensferry, where they hoped to receive supplies, they were close to the point of starvation. Edward, who was now in his sixtieth year andgrowing irascible with the passing of time, had to wait for several days before venturing farther inland to find and attack the Scots. Among his foot soldiers were many Welshmen armed with a new weapon, the importance of which had not yet beenfully realized. It was a bow of unusual length which discharged arrows with sufficient force to pierce the thickest armor and could be used three times in the space required to wind and discharge a crossbow once. The Welsh are given credit forthe conception of the deadly longbow, but the English took it over and improved it both in design and deadliness. In the following century the English yeomen would display such skill with this lethal weapon that the whole face of medieval warfare would be changed.
"The presence of the Welsh, in spite of their powerfull equipment, was not deemed an unmixed blessing. They are described as a cantankerous lot, which is not strange in view of past relations between the two races. There was a clash in camp in which eighteen priests were said to have been killed while trying to restore peace. The Welsh threatened to leave and join the Scots...But, as things came about, it was a good thing for England that the Welsh did not leave.
"It was at this point that a spy, alleged to be in the employ of two Scottish earls, March and Angus, was brought to the king. The army of Wallace, the spy reported, was no more than a few miles away, near the town of Falkirk, in readiness to strike as soon as hunger forced the English to retreat.
"Edward was delighted with the news. `They need not follow me!' he cried. `I go to meet them. This very day.'
"The army set out at once and by nightfall was close to Linlithgow, where, as the crow flies, they were only a few miles from Falkirk. The troops settled themselves there for the night. It was now that an incident occurred which displayed the mettle of the English king. He was sleeping on the ground, wrapped in his robe stamped with the royal leopards, when his horse, which was tethered beside him, became restive and trampled on him. Two of his ribs were broken. To prevent any panic, the old king got to his feet, vaulted into his saddle without assistance, and gave orders to strike camp. It was still dark, a murky night without a glimpse of moon or stars. They went so slowly that they covered a few miles only; but when dawn broke, the cuatious troops saw the bonnets and spear points of the enemy on a high ridge ahead.
"It was to be a different battle from the miracle at Stirling, but Wallace had made the best possible plans for the test. The hillside where his forces waited was high and steep...As a further advantage, a moss stretched across part of the front, of sufficient softness to hamper, if not actually prevent, the free use of cavalry in attack.
"In this position the Scottish leader had drawn up his men in three schiltrons...a hollow circular formation, with the spearmen in the front rank, where the length of their weapon was well suited to defense, and with reserves in the center to fill the gaps which would develop in the line. The Scottish archers were stationed between the schiltrons to hamper further the English attack. Little was expected of them, for archery had been neglected in Scotland and the bows they used were completely outdated by the deadly longbow of the Welsh. The cavalry, such as it was, was held in the rear as a reserve.
"Although scholars fighting the battle over and over again with pen and ink have been inclined to criticize the Scottish dispositions, it has been acknowledged by military authories that the brave Scot made the best use of the ground with the forces at his command. [Indeed] it has been pointed out that Wellington fought Waterloo on similar ground and with the same distribution of his regiments...
"When Bigod and Bohun, the hereditary holders of those two eminent posts in the English army, came to the moss, they were checked temporarily...and had to divert their forces to right and left, for the moss was wide and dank and a much better aid to Wallace than his blue-blooded lieutenants. This took much of the sting and the force from the first blow of the cavalry. The schiltrons stood firm, the spear points as lethal as bayonets, the spirit of the men who formed the lines undaunted and leal...But the [Scottish] cavalry melted away at the first sign of attack. They never came back. For the rest of that bitter day the brunt of the heavy, steel-mounted attack was borne by the ill-equipped foot soldiers in their woolen tunics...
"The battle continued, and for a time it seemed that the stout defense of the schiltrons must prevail. At this critical stage of the struggle it must have occurred to Edward that the pattern of the battle of Hastings was being repeated. He decided to do as William the Conqueror had done on that fateful day. He fell back on the archers. Whether the Welsh had any great part in what followed is uncertain, but the credit undoubtedly goes to the mighty longbow. The shafts, launched up over the rising ground, fell in the schiltrons like hail. What chance had those stouthearted Scots with no protection save shirts stuffed with wool?...The ranks began to break. Edward, sitting cramped in his saddle and suffering agonies with his broken ribs, was still the best captain in Christendom. He was his chance and sent a strong body of cavalry to swing far wide of the moss and attack the Scots from the rear.
"The sudden appearance of this body completed the rout. The Scottish ranks broke. It was fortunate that Wallace had given consideration to the consequences of failure. The land behind the hillside at Falkirk was heavily wooded, and so the pursuit of the beaten Scots was very much hampered...
"Ten thousand Scots were killed in this battle and the back of the defense against invasion was, for the second time, broken..."
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 picture of the Lowlands...
"There is a reason why the indolent English king [Edward II] was compelled in 1314 to assemble the strongest army of the day and advance to fight the Scots at Bannockburn, which lies three miles south of the castle...Robert the Bruce and his valiant leutenants...had all been so insistently at work that only three castles of any strength remained in the hands of the English...In 1313 the Black Douglas took Roxborough and Randolph captured Edinburgh by a daring climb up the steep rock. That left Stirling; and it fell to the lot of Edward Bruce, the most daring and ingenious of them all. to lay siege to the granite towers on the precipitous hill.
"The constable of Stirling,...Mowbray agreed to lay down his arms and surrender if he were not relieved by the English king before midsummer of 1314. "...The English king considered the situation at Stirling Castle a national challenge. The stronghold must not be allowed to fall. The test of strength which had been pending since the death of Edward I could no longer be postponed. It wasdecided that the strength of England must be mustered for an attack in force.
"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 untilsuch time as the royal army moved up to the attack. A writ was dispatched to no fewer than ninety-three barons to meet the king at Newcastle with 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, in cluding 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...
"There was a moment when even the stout heart of the Scottish king almost failed him. It was early on the morning of Sunday, June 23, 1314...Two of the Scottish leaders...had ridden out before dawn to catch a first glimpse of the English. These two stout campaigners gazed with awe when the mist rose and the early sun shone on the burnished arms of the invaders. It was their lot to see first the approach of `proud Edward's power, chains and slavery.' The cavalry was in the van; and two thousand mounted men with polished shields and helmets, with pennons flying and trumpets sounding, can look formidable...Behind the horsemen came files of foot soldiers stretching back as far as the eye could see, marching steadily with swaying of shields.
"...Robert the Bruce was seated on a pony, because it was more sure- footed on such rough and marshy ground, and he was wearing a gold crown over his helmet, to identify him to his men. It would identify him also to the enemy and so can be classed as jactance, an open flouting of the foe, as though he said, I am Robert the Bruce, crowned at Scone, and if I fall the flag of Scotland will fall; and make what ye may of it, bold knights of the Sassenach!
"...His position, in fact, was stronger than the one Wallace had chosen at Falkirk. But what of the archers who had won at Falkirk for the English. Douglas and Keith had said nothing of them,having seen only the chivalry of the Sassenach in their stell harness and the foot soldiers with shields and spears. Had the English forgotten the lesson of Falkirk?...
"The English arrived at Bannockburn late in the afternoon following a twenty-mile tramp over heavy roads. They were tired and hungry, but Edward, basing his course on the precepts of his father, who always struck early and hard, decided to attach the two Scottish divisions which were in sight. A regiment of cavalry was sent forward to advance by the Carse Road...
"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 morethan 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 open with 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 from his own ranks. 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 the head 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 hecould extricate himself. Twenty-seven other barons fell in the pandemonium...
"Edward and his closest advisers had watched the confusion into which the army had fallen with bitter wonder and dismay. When the retreat from the hillside turned into a rout, Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who knew a defeat when he saw one, having figured in many in his time, seized the reins of the king's horse. It was time for Edward to leave. Surrounded by the five hundred picked horsemen whoserved as the royal guard, they rode at a furious gallop around the left of the Scottish lines and cut north in the direction of Stirling Castle...they shook off a fierce attack by Edward Bruce...
"On other occasions Edward [II] had not shown much courage in battle, but now, perhaps in desperation, he showed some of the Plantagenet mettle. They encountered more pursuers and an effort was made to drag him from his horse. He beat the enemy off. With a mace, which became a lethalweapon in his strong hands, he cut his way through to safety.
"A Stirling Castle the royal party was refused admittance. It was pointed out that, inasmuch as the effort to relieve the fortress had failed, the castle must now capitulate. They did not want the king stepping into that kind of trap. Accordingly Edward and his morose followers rode sixty miles to Dunbar, where they made their escape by sea...
"The pursuit of the English was conducted briskly but not to the exclusion of looting. The equipment of the beaten army had not only been ample but luxurious...In addition to what had been left on the field there were many hundred knights captured, and the Scots saw that each of them paid a heavy ransom...
"There were exchanges, of course, The Earl of Hereford had been taken prisoner on the field and the Scots demanded for him fifteen prisoners held by the English. These included the wife and daughter of Robert the Bruce and the venerable Bishop of Glasgow."
p152: "The stage was now set for tragedy. The violent Earl of Warwick, still smoldering from the favorite's impudence to him, came to Deddington with a number of other magnates. That so many of the baronial leaders were in the party makes it clear that this was not a matter of chance, that Warwick and his friends had been waiting for just such an opportunity as this. Learning where Gaveston was being held, they roused him out of his bed and took him forcibly from thetown...
"The feeling against Gaveston was so violent that the barons could not wait to have him tried by a proper court; and yet it was not so much because of of his interference in state matters as it was resentment over smaller things: his wealth, his insolence, his desregard of their rights and privileges, the names he had coined for each of them. What followed the forcible removal of the Gascon is not very clear. One version has it that he was taken to Warwick Castle and that Lancaster and several other noblemen arrived soon after. A consultation was held and it was decided to put him to death without more ado. He was taken to Blacklow Hill the next night and beheaded there. According to another version, the judging occurred on the hillside at Blacklow and the evidence against the prisoner was discussed at some length. He was charged with having an evil influence over the king, and it was even claimed that he had practiced sorcery to gain it. In support of this charge it was advanced that he was the son of a witch who had been burned at the stake in Guienne for sorcery. This, unfortunately for Gaveston, was true.
"There is no evidence to prove either version right, but it seems certain that all of the barons who had taken part in the decision were present at his death. There was clearly a desire for anonymity in everything they did; in their choice of so late an hour and so isolated a spot as Blacklow Hill, in their relianceon the moon and the stars for light. There was surreptitiousness in the manner in which they sat closely together on the damp sod, knee to knee, hats drawn down low..."
p196: "It was soon realized by all that the younger Despenser had taken the place of Gaveston, and the feeling against him ran high...
"Lancaster, acting for once with some acumen, saw his chance to regainthe confidence of his fellow barons. He came out strongly for action against the new favorites, and thenobility almost to a man rallied behind him: the aggrieved brothers-in-law of the younger Despenser; the Mortimers, who had always been a tough and hard-bitten lot; the earls of Hereford, Warenne, and Arundel. Without waiting for parliamentaryaction, the neighbors in Marcher country invaded the lands of the favorites and burned their houses..."
p203: "All that remained for Edward to do now was to deal with Cousin Lancaster.
"The latter found himself in a desperate dilemmabecause of his inability to make up his mind. Several courses had been open to him, but he had taken none. He could have moved down to support the Marcher barons, as he had promised to do before they took up arms, in which case the king would have found himself between two arms of a pincer...
"Whatever the reason, he sat at Pontefract while the king captured Berkeley Castle and began his march to the north...Finally, he was aware that Sir Andrew Harclay, who was in command of royal troops to check Scottish raids, had thrown himself across his, Lancaster's line of retreat. His main supporter, the Earl of Hereford, joined him at Pontefract, full of alarm and convinced that nothing could save them.
"Then Lancaster did the worst thing possible. He made a halfhearted effort to prevent Edward from crossing the Trent, thereby stamping himself as a traitor. Then he turned with such troops as were left him and ran for it.
"Harclay took prompt measures at this point. He brought his troops down to intercept the runaway earls and defeated them easily at Boroughbridge in Yorkshire. Hereford was killed while crossing the bridge. A soldier hidden under the bridge trust a lance into him through a crevice in the boarding. Lancaster was taken prisoner. He was turned over at once to the king.
"It was on March 6, 1322, that Lancaster fell into the hands of Harclay..."
p206: "The most damaging piece of evidence was proof found on the slain Earl of Hereford of an effort made to form a confederacy with Robert the Bruce. Lancaster had been corresponding with the Scottish king earlier, using the nom de plume `King Arthur', an indication, clearly, of the high vaulting nature of his inner ambitions. It will be recalled also that the country had seethed at one stage with rumors that Lancaster was actually in the pay of the Scottish king. The communication found on Hereford's body contained a direct invitation to come intoEngland with an army, offering in recompense the good offices of Lancaster in getting for Scotland `a good peace.'"

A History of the English Speaking People, Winston S Churchill, Vol I, Dodd Mead & Co, 1956, p313 [Bannockburn]:
"The English army was so large that it took three days to close up from rear to front. The ground available for deployment was little more than two thousand yards. While the host was massing itself opposite the Scottish position an incident took place.An English knight, Henry de Bohun, pushed his way forward at the head of a force of Welsh infantry to try by a surprise move to relieve Stirling Castle which was in English hands. Bruce arrived just in time to throw himself and some of his menbetween them and the castle walls. Bohun charged him in single combat. Bruce, though not mounted on his heavy war-horse, awaited his onset upon a well-trained hack, and, striking aside the English lance with his battle-axe, slew Bohun at a single blow before the eyes of all."

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 Gilbert of 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..."
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 entirely under hissway..."
239: "..[1308] Discontent was already simmering at the elevation of the Gascon knight [Peter Gaveston] into their circle...At a tournament given by him at his own castle of Wallingford, to celebrate his marriage with the king's niece, the new-nade earl, with a party of valiant knights, challenged a troop, which included the Earls of Hereford, Warenne, and Arundel, and utterly discomfited his rivals. The victory of the upstart over magnates of such dignity was accountedfor by treachery..."
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 side with 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 and the 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 resolvedthat the place of their sitting should be London, that none of the ordainers should receive gifts from 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 Great Charter 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..."
p251: "...Lancaster was then at Kenilworth; Hereford, Arundel, and other magnates were also present...On Monday morning, June 19, the three earls rode the few miles from Kenilworth to Warwick, and Earl Guy handed over Peter [Gaveston] to them. They then escorted their captive to a place called Blacklow hill, about two miles out of Warwick on the Kenilworth road...On reaching Blacklow hill, the three earls withdrew, though remaining near enough to see what was going on. Then two Welshmen in Lancaster's service laid hands upon the victim. One drove his sword through his body, the other cut off his head. The corpse remained where it had fallen, but the head was brought to the earls as a sign that the deed was done. After this the earls rode back to Kenilworth..."
p252: "...But the four earls still held the field, and answered the summons to parliament by occupying Ware with a strong military force. A thousand men-at- arms were drawn by Lancaster from his five earldoms, while the Welsh from Brecon, who followed the Earl of Hereford, and the vigorous foresters of Arden, who mustered under the banner of Warwick, made a formidable show...The four earls' violence damaged their cause, and many who had no love of Gaveston, or desire to avenge him, inclined to the king's party..."
p253: "...At last, on December 22, [1312], terms of peacewere agreed upon. The earls and barons concerned in Gaveston's death were to appear before the king in Westminster Hall, and humbly beg his pardon and good-will. In return for this the king agreed to remit all rancour caused by the death of the favourite. Finally, in October, 1313, Lancaster, Hereford, and Warwick made their public submission in Westminster Hall. Pardons were at once issued to them and to over four hundred minor offenders. Feasts of reconciliation were held..." 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 sluggish patriotism 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 oppositionearl, 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] 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 ofWelsh infantry, was slain, and his troops dispersed. Gloucester was unhorsed, and thereupon the English retreated to their camp..."
p262: "...[Battle of Bannockburn] The Scots, whose losses were slight, showed a prudent tendency to capture rather than slay the knights and barons, in order that they might hold them up to ransom, and though many desisted from the pursuit to plunder the baggage train, those who followed the English fugitives reaped an abundant harvest of captives.Hereford was chased into Bothwell castle, which was still held for the English. But next day the Scottish official who commanded there for Edward opened the gates to Bruce, and the earl became a prisoner. Pembroke escaped with difficulty on foot, along with a contingent of Welsh infantry..."
p264: "...The earls resolved that the question of an expedition was to be 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 to Scotland. The release of Hereford soon added to the king's troubles..."
p267: "...After Bonnockburn, the captivity of Hereford, the lord of Brecon, and the death without heirs of Gloucester, the lord of Glamorgan, removed the strongest retraints on the men of south Wales..."
"...[1315] Llewelyn's hill strongholds threatened Brecon on the north and the vale of Glamorgan on the south; and Hereford, then released from his Scottish captivity, was entrusted with the suppression of the revolt. Before long all the lords of the March joined Hereford in stamping out the movement. Among them were the two Roger Mortimers, the Montagues, and the Giffords, and Henry of Lancaster, Earl Thomas' brother, and lord in his own right of Monmouth and Kidwelly. Overwhelmed by such mighty opponents, Llewelyn surrendered to Hereford, hoping thus to save his followers..."
p270: "...The death of Earl Gilbert at Bannockburn broke his nearest tie with England, and the release of Elizabeth Bruce in exchange for Herfeford gave [Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster]'s daughter the actual enjoyment of the thone of Scotland..."
p274: "...[1318] The treaty of Leek marks the truiumph of the middle party...The ordinances were once more confirmed, and a new council of seventeen was nominated, including eight bishops, four earls, four barons, and one banneret. The earls were Pembroke, Arundel, Richmond, and Hereford. Of these the Breton Earl of Richmond was the most friendly to the king, but it was significant to find so truculent an politician as Hereford making common cause with Pembroke..."
p276: "...On July 22, the feast of St. Mary Magdalen and the anniveersary of Falkirk fight, the barons assembled at Newcastle. Thomas of Lancaster was there with his brother Henry. Warenne, newly reconciled with Lancaster by a large surrender of lands, also attended, as did Pembroke, Arundel, Hereford, and the husbands of the three Gloucester co-heiresses. There was a braver show of earls than even in 1314..."
p279-280: "...[1321] Despenser took advantage of a family arrangement for the succession to Gower, to strike the first blow. The English-speaking peninsula of Gower, with the castle of Swansea, was still held by a junior branch of the decaying house of Braose, whose main marcher lordships had been divided a century earlier between the Bohun and the Mortimers. Its spendthrift ruler William of Braose, was the last male of his race. He strove to make what profit he could for himself out of his succession, and had for some time been treating with Humphrey of Hereford. Gower was immediately to the southwest of Hereford's lordship of Brecon. Its acquisition would extend the Bohun lands to the sea, and make Earl Humphrey the greatest lord in south Wales. At the last moment, however, Braose died in 1320, Mowbray took possession of Gower in accordance with the
custom of the march'...Despenser covet Gower for himself.. He declared that the custom of the march trenched upon the royal prerogative, and managed that Gower should be seized by the king's officers, as a first step towards getting it for himself.
"Despenser's action provoked extreme indignation among all the marcher lords. They denounced the apostate form the cause of his class for upsetting the balance of power in the march, and declared that in treating a lordship beyond the Wye like a landed estate in England, Hugh had, like Edward I,
despised the laws and customs of the march.' It was easy to form a coalition of all the marcher lords against him. The leaders of it were Humphrey of Hereford, Roger Mortimer of Chirk, justice of Wales, and his nephew, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, the head of the house, who had overthrown Edward Bruce's monarchy of Ireland..."
p283: "...[1321] During the siege of Leeds, the magnates of the march, headed by Hereford and Roger Mortimer, collected a force at Kingston-on-Thames, where they were joined by Badlesmere. But they dared not advance towards the relief of the Kentish catle, and after a fortnight they dispersed to their own homes..."
p284: "...Humphrey of Hereford, Roger of Amory, and a few other marchers managed to escape the king's pursuit, and rode northwards to join Thomas of Lancaster..."
p285: "...On March 16 the fugitives reached Boroughbridge, on the south bank of the Ure, where a long narrow bridge, hardly wide enough for horsemen in martial array, crossed the stream. The north bank of the river, and the approaches to the bridge, were held in force by the levies of Cumberland and Westmoreland which Harclay had summoned at the king's request, in order to prevent a junction between the Lancastrians and the Scots. Harclay was a brave and capable commander and had well learnt the lessons of Scottish warfare [for the tactics of Boroughbridge see Engl. Hist. Review, xix (1904), 711-13]. He dismounted all his knights and men-at-arms, and arranged them on the northern side of the river, along with some of his pikemen. The rest of the pikemen he ordered to form a
shiltron' after the Scottish fashion, so that their close formation might resist the cavalry of which the Lancastrian force consisted. He bade his archers shoot swiftly and continually at the enemy.
"Seeing this disposition of the hostile force, the Lancastrian army divided. One band, under Hereford and Roger Clifford dismounted and made for the bridge, which was defended by the schiltron of pikemen. The rest of the men-at-arms remained on horseback and followed Lancaster to a ford near the bridge, whence, by crossing the water, they could take the schiltron in flank. Neither movement succeeded. Hereford and Clifford advanced, each with one attendant, to the bridge. No sooner had the earl entered upon the wooden structure than he was slain by a Welsh spearman, who had hidden himself under it, and aimed a blow at Humphrey through the planking. Clifford was severely wounded, and escaped with difficulty. Discouraged by the loss of their leaders, the rest of the troops made only a feeble effort to force the passage. The same evil fortune attended the division that followed Lancaster. The archers of Harclay obeyed his orders so well that the Lancastrian cavalry scarcely dared enter the water. Lancaster lost his nerve, and besought Harclay for a truce until the next morning. His request was granted, but during the night all the followers of Hereford dispersed, thinking that there was no need for them to remain after the death of their lord. Lancaster's own troops were likewise thinned by desertions. The sheriff of York came up early in the morning with an armed force from the south joined Harclay, and cut off the last hope of retreat. Further resistance being useless, Lancaster, Audley, Clifford, Mowbray, and the other leaders surrendered in a body."
p291: "...[1324] The Despensers' continuance in power rested more on the absence of rivals than on their own capacity...the successors of Humphrey of Hereford and Guy of Warwick were minors, suspected by reason of their fathers' treasons. The only new earl was Henry of Lancaster who in 1324 obtained apartial restitution of his brother's estates and the title of Earl of Leicester..."

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..."
p108: "...The assembly of an army to invade France at the beginning of 1297 provoked resistance, partly because the King was trying to extend the duty of military service to all men with more than L20 annual income from land, partly because of objections by two leading magnates, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who led an opposition which refused to go to Gascony if the King himself was going to Flanders. In the summer Edward tried to raise another tax from the laity without proper consent from a full assembly of knights and burgesses. The earls forbade its collection. When Edward did at last sail in August, it was with the country half in revolt behind him...
"The King's opponents had a traditional weapon to hand in the two Charters- Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest- originally extracted from King John and Henry III in 1215 and 1217 and acknowledged thereafter as expressing the fundamental limitations on royal power. In the political crisis these documents came to the fore again and for several years became the centre of political debate. In the King's absence the Regent was driven in October 1297 to grant the
Confirmation of the Charters' (Confirmatio Cartarum), which added an important statement of principle to the original documents: no taxation should be levied by the king without the consent of the whole
community of the realm'..."
p109: "...The magnates insisted anxiously on the Carters, the basis of their liberties...
"Their fears were justified for, as Edward recovered his hold on affairs in his last years, he became more grasping. In 1302 the Earl of Norfolk surrendered his lands to the King ot receive them back only for life, and the Earl of Hereford's heir was married to one of Edward's daughters with the stipulation that his lands too should revert to the King if he had no children...
p113: "...[Lancaster] was supplanted in 1318 by a group of men who had acquired the King's confidence since 1314, the Earls of Pembroke and Hereford and the knights, Bartholomew de Badlesmere, Roger d'Armory, Hugh d'Audley, and Hugh Despenser the younger. These men have been called the
Middle Party', and the phrase is just in so far as it emphasizes that they aimed neither at the rule of a single, all-powerful courtier, like Gaveston, nor at destroying the King's independence from outside, like Lancaster..."
p114: "...The parliament of York (October-December 1318) confirmed the power of the knights of the Middle Party in the royal household...
p114: "...But [Despenser's] use of these powers raised up a powerful opposition to him from two quarters. The first was in the Welsh Marches...When he added to this offence by trying to acquire the nearby lordship of Gower with royal influence, he aroused the violent opposition of the other Marcher lords, including the Earl of Hereford and the Mortimers. The King stood by Despenser and finally, in the summer of 1321, the Marcher lords advanced on London.... Thomas of Lancaster and his followers in the north held a meeting at Pontefract in May, and in June sealed the so-called
Sherburn Indentures', pledging to support the Marchers and oust the evil counsellors. In July 1321 Despenser was condemned in a parliament at London, dominated by the armed force of his enemies, and he and his father were banished...
p115: "...The story of Gaveston, however, was repeated and this time with a more lasting success. By the end of the year the Despensers were back again and Edward had raised a large army, with the help of some of the earls, to confront the rebels. He advanced towards Wales, forcing the Marcher lords to submit in January 1322. Lancaster was defeated in his own country at Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, by royal supporters in March. Boroughbridge was one of the great civil battles of English history; immediately after it Lancaster and Badlesmere were executed. Hereford and Amory died. Many other lords perished or, like Mortimer, were imprisoned. The estates of many contrariants' were taken into the King's hands and a parliament at York soon after the battle finally revoked the Ordinances. Edward was vindicated as never before..."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p70: "Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford & Essex, mar Elizabeth (2), died 1322..."

The New Columbia Encyclopedia 1975 p323 Bohun Humphrey VIII De 4th Earl of Here- ford 3rd Earl of Essex: "1276-1322, English nobleman, son of Humphrey VII de Bohun. One of the lords ordainers who attempted to curb the powers of Edward II in 1310, he took part in the execution (1312) of the hated Piers Gaveston. Hefought for Edward at Bannockburn (1314), was captured by the scots and was exchanged. He was killed at Boroughbridge fighting on the baronial side against and the Despensers."

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Humphrey V, second earl of Hereford, first earl of Essex, and constable of England, was also called the good earl of Hereford. He was a contemporary of Henry III and died 24 September 1274/5. Born before 1208, Humphrey married twice. His first wife was Maud (Mathilda), daughter of Ralph of Lusignan, count d'Eu (who died 1219). His second wife was Maud (Mathilda) of Avebury, daughter and heiress of Roger of Tosny (who died 1264). The Tosny (Tony, Toeni) family was a very important one originating in France. Hugh de Tosny, archbishop of Rouen, was the source of their fortune. Roger I de Tosny fought the Muselmans in Catalogne. Robert de Toeni was on the list of companions of William the Conqueror at Hastings and was lord of Stafford with the possessions of seven earls. His brothers, Roger II and Beranger, also had considerable domains. The former (Roger II) was builder of Clifford castle (Herefordshire). Their sister, Alice, married William, son of Osborn. The following generation Ralph III married the daughter of Walthof, the sister of Baldwin, earl of Boulogne. In 1204, the Tosnys, like the Bohons, supported John and lost their lands in Normandy. Humphrey succeeded his father on 1 June 1220, then came into possession of his lands and was confirmed earl of Hereford. After the death of his maternal uncle, William of Mandeville, he inherited the title of earl of Essex (28 April 1228). In 1227 Humphrey V helped solve a quarrel between Henry III and his brother, Richard, earl of Cornwall (whom Humphrey supported). He declared his intentions to postpone the judgment of the king's court and royal lords. The king refused and ordered him to submit or give up his titles. With other important barons Humphrey took the side of Richard. The conspirators raised an army, and at Stamford (Lincoln) they demanded the reinstatement of the earl's duties, an apology, and the confirmation of the liberties guaranteed by the document. The king conceded. Humphrey was reinstated as marshall of the king's house. He served at the marriage of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence (1236), and was one of nine godfathers at the christening of the future Edward I (1239). From 1239-1241 Humphrey was sheriff of Kent and constable of Dover castle. He also distinguished himself in the Welsh and French wars. In 1242 Henry II led an expedition to reconquer Poitou, which was occupied by Louis VIII of France. Humphrey accompanied him in Gascogny, but became irritated by the influence of the strangers/counselors under the king. He returned to England with the duke of Cornwall. The expedition later ended as a loss. Two years later with the earl of Clare, Humphrey took part in the suppression of a Welsh revolt. After an initial success, they were defeated, partly because the earl had been accused of embezzling part of the inheritance of his sister-in-law, Isabelle (wife of David who was son of Llewelyn). In 1246 Humphrey joined in a letter to Pope Innocent IV denouncing the oppression exercised over England by the court of Rome. In 1248 Humphrey was presented to Parliament. In 1250 he took the cross and went to the Holy Land. In the meantime the queen was lavishing favors on the French in her entourage and the king increased his spending, causing discontent among the barons. In 1253 Humphrey participated in a grand remonstrance made to the king at Westminster Hall with the "bell, book, and candle" for violations against the Magna Carta, a prelude to the revolt. The same year he founded the church of the Augustin Brothers on Broad Street in London. In 1254 he was in Gascogny with the king. From 1256-1258 "Mr. Humphrey de Boun" participated in many battles with the Welsh. In 1259 he was one of the barons who worked to re-establish a truce between King Henry III and Llewelyn, Prince of Wales. But the following year there were again hostilities between the two. The king summoned Richard of Clare and Humphrey de Bohon to the army with other lords, Humphrey de Boun Jr. and Frank de Boun. Humphrey was one of the councillors to draw up the Provisions of Oxford in 1258 which affirmed the Magna Carta and reformed its misuse. He was one of the Council of Fifteen that advised the king. The next year he was commissioner to ratify a treaty between France and England. In 1260 Humphrey was a traveling judge for the counties of Hereford, Gloucester, and Worcester. In 1262, he negotiated peace with Llewelyn of Wales. Humphrey V's attitude toward the new conflicts between the king and the barons has been confused with that of his son. When the barons divided their confederation Humphrey sided with Simon de Montfort. In 1263 he was one of the important barons who supported the king while his son was on the opposite side. Humphrey was taken prisoner at the Battle of Lewes. Humphrey V was chosen one of 12 arbitrators to bring peace between the king and Simon. He died 24 September 1275 on the way to Kenilworth (Warwick). There the king stated the principles he was willing to compromise on to end the revolt surrounding Kenilworth Castle. Humphrey was buried with his ancestors at Lanthony. He had one son from his first wife, Humphrey VI, his successor, and four daughters: Mathilda (Maud) who married Anselme Marshall, earl of Pembroke (died 1245); Cecilia or Alicia, who married Ralph de Toni; a third who married Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester; and a fourth. From his second marriage he had one son, John, lord of Haresfield, who participated in the Battle of Evesham as one of the rebels. John then reconciled with the king and was the father of Edmond de Bohon.

ANCESTRAL FILE
84ZR-LS Mar ?8/18 Jan 1296/1297 to Elizabeth Plantagenet Princess ENGLAND, IGI Marriage A178082-178082,178083 Mar ?25 Nov 1302 Hertford England, IGI Marriage A170710-170710 Mar 14 Nov 1302 Rhuddlan Flint Wales, PHE Died 16 Mar 1322, TTE Died 6 Mar 1322.

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX
IGI Birth T990361-173-0884798 Humphrey De BOHUN Earl Father Humphrey De BOHUN Earl of Hereford Mother Maud De FIENNES 1276 Pleshey Castle Essex England, 7221003-94-820472 Humphrey DE BOHUN Father Humphrey DE BOHUN Mother Maud DE FIENES 1276 Pleshey Essex England.

IGI Marriage T990362-113-0884799 Spouse Elizabeth Princess of ENGLAND 14 Nov 1302 Westminster London England, A178082-178082,178083 Humphrey DE BOHUN Mar ?25 Nov 1302 Elizabeth PLANTAGENET Hertford England, A170710-170710 Mar 14 Nov 1302 Rhuddlan Flint Wales.

   Marriage Information:

Humphrey married Princess Elizabeth Plantagenet ENGLAND, daughter of King Edward ENGLAND, I and Queen Eleanor Castile ENGLAND, on 14 Nov 1302 in Abbey, Westminster, London, Middlesex, England. (Princess Elizabeth Plantagenet ENGLAND was born on 7 Aug 1282 in Castle, Rhuddlan, Deheubarth, Flintshire, Wales, died on 5 May 1316 in Quendon, Essex, England and was buried on 23 May 1316 in Abbey, Walden, Hertfordshire, England.)