Person Page - 1344

     John FitzAlan (1223-1267), Lord of Oswestry and Clun, and de jure Earl of Arundel, was a Breton-English nobleman and Marcher Lord with lands in the Welsh Marches.

The son and heir of John Fitzalan, Lord of Oswestry and Clun, in Shropshire, and Isabel, daughter of William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel by his wife, Mabel of Chester, he obtained possession of his paternal estates on May 26, 1244, aged 21 years.

After the death without direct heirs of his mother's brother Hugh d'Aubigny, 5th Earl of Arundel, he inherited jure matris the castle and honour of Arundel in 1243, which, according to the admission of 1433, he was held to have become de jure Earl of Arundel.[1]

In 1257 the Welsh Lord of Gwenwynwyn, in the southern realm of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys, sought the aid of the Lord of Oswestry against Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and John Fitzalan was a member of the English force that was defeated at the hands of the Welsh at Cymerau in Carmarthenshire, which he survived.

In 1258 he was one of the key English military commanders in the Welsh Marches and was summoned yet again in 1260 for further conflict against the Welsh.

Arundel vacillated in the conflicts between Henry III and the Barons, and fought on the King's side at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, where he was taken prisoner.

By 1278 to 1282 his own sons were also engaged in Welsh border hostilities, attacking the lands of Llywelyn the son of Gruffydd ap Madog.

He married Maud le Botiller, daughter of Theobald le Botiller (Boteler) and Rohese or Rohesia de Verdon. His son and successor was:

John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel.¹

     John Fitzalan, Lord of Clun and Oswestry (1200–1240[1]) in the Welsh Marches in the county of Shropshire.

John succeeded his brother, William FitzAlan, Lord of Clun and Oswestry, who died in 1216 without issue. They were sons of William FitzAlan of Oswestry (d. c1210) and Isabel, daughter and heiress of Ingram de Say, who brought Clun to the marriage. The FitzAlans were descendants of Alan fitzFlaad, a Breton.[2]

He was one of the feudal barons who became a target for the anger of King John of England, whose forces attacked Oswestry town and burned it in 1216. John Fitzalan was close to Llywelyn ap Iorwerth until 1217.

He was also a representative of the Crown in a dispute between King Henry III of England and the Welsh leader, Llywelyn the Great in 1226. In the same year he mediated between a neighbour, William Pantulf, Lord of Wem in Shropshire and Madog ap Gruffydd (died 1236), Lord of Powys and a cousin to Llywelyn ap Iorwerth.

In 1233/4 during the conflict between King Henry III, the Earl Marshal, and Llywelyn the Great, John Fitzalan sided firmly with the Crown and Oswestry was again attacked, this time by Welsh forces.

He married Isabel, daughter of William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel and Mabel of Chester, and were parents of:

John FitzAlan, Lord of Clun & Oswestry, who inherited jure matris, in 1243, the castle and honour of Arundel and became de jure Earl of Arundel.¹

     William d'Aubigny, 4th Earl of Arundel (b. circa 1203 - before 7 August 1224) was the eldest son of William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel and Mabel of Chester (born c. 1173), daughter of Hugh de Kevelioc, 3rd Earl of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort of Evreux. He became Earl of Arundel and Earl of Sussex on 30 March 1221. He was buried at Wymondham Abbey, Norwich. There is no evidence that he married or had children. He was the Chief Butler of England and was succeeded by his brother, Hugh d'Aubigny, 5th Earl of Arundel.[1]¹

     Adeliza of Louvain,[2] sometimes known in England as Adelicia of Louvain,[3] also called Adela and Aleidis; (1103 – 23 April 1151) was queen consort of the Kingdom of England from 1121 to 1135, the second wife of Henry I.[4] She was the daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Landgrave of Brabant and Count of Louvain and Brussels.

Adeliza married Henry I of England on 2 February 1121, when she is thought to have been in her late teens and Henry was fifty-three. It is believed that Henry only married again because he wanted a male heir. Despite holding the record for the most illegitimate children of a British monarch, Henry had only one legitimate son, William Adelin, who predeceased his father on 25 November 1120 in the White Ship disaster.

Adeliza was reputedly quite pretty and her father was Duke of Lower Lotharingia. These were the likely reasons she was chosen. However, no children were born during the marriage.

Adeliza, unlike the other Anglo-Norman queens, played little part in the public life of the realm during her tenure as queen consort. Whether this was personal inclination or because Henry preferred to keep her nearby in the hope she'd conceive, is unknown. She did, however, leave a mark as a patron of literature and several works, including a bestiary by Philip de Thaon, were dedicated to her. She is said to have commissioned a verse biography of King Henry; if she did, it is no longer extant.

When Henry died on 1 December 1135, Adeliza retired temporarily to the Benedictine convent of Wilton Abbey, near Salisbury. She was present at the dedication of Henry's tomb at Reading Abbey on the first anniversary of his death. At about that time, she founded a leper hospital dedicated to Saint Giles at Fugglestone St Peter, Wiltshire.[5]

As she was still young, she came out of mourning before 1139 and married William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, who had been one of Henry's chief advisors. She brought with her a Queen's dowry, including the castle of Arundel. King Stephen of England created d'Aubigny Earl of Arundel and Earl of Lincoln.

Although her husband was a staunch supporter of Stephen during the Anglo-Norman civil war, her own personal inclination may have been toward her stepdaughter's cause, the Empress Matilda. When Matilda sailed to England in 1139, she appealed to her stepmother for shelter, landing near Arundel and was received as a guest of the former Queen.¹

     Master Butler of the Royal household.¹

     Roger Bigod (died 1107) was a Norman knight who came to England in the Norman Conquest. He held great power in East Anglia, and five of his descendants were Earl of Norfolk. He was also known as Roger Bigot, appearing as such as a witness to the Charter of Liberties of Henry I of England.

Roger came from a fairly obscure family of poor knights in Normandy. Robert le Bigot, certainly a relation of Roger's, possibly his father, acquired an important position in the household of William, Duke of Normandy (later William I of England), due, the story goes, to his disclosure to the duke of a plot by the duke's cousin William Werlenc.[1]

Both Roger and Robert may have fought at the Battle of Hastings, and afterwards they were rewarded with a substantial estate in East Anglia. The Domesday Book lists Roger as holding six lordships in Essex, 117 in Suffolk and 187 in Norfolk.

Bigod's base was in Thetford, Norfolk where he founded a priory later donated to the great monastery at Cluny. In 1101 he further consolidated his power when Henry I granted him licence to build a castle at Framlingham, which became the family seat of power until their downfall in 1307. Another of his castles was Bungay Castle, also in Suffolk. Both these were improved by successive generations.

In 1069 he, along with Robert Malet and Ralph de Gael (the then Earl of Norfolk), defeated Sweyn Estrithson (Sweyn II) of Denmark near Ipswich. After Ralph de Gael's fall in 1074, Roger was appointed Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, and acquired many of the dispossessed earl's estates. For this reason he is sometimes counted as Earl of Norfolk, but he probably was never actually created earl. He acquired further estates through his influence in local law courts.

In the Rebellion of 1088 he joined other Anglo-Norman barons against William II, who, it was hoped, was to be deposed in favour of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. He seems to have lost his lands after the rebellion had failed, but got them back again.

In 1100, Robert Bigod was one of the King's witnesses recorded on the Charter of Liberties, an important precursor to the Magna Carta of 1215.

In 1101 there was another attempt to bring in Robert of Normandy by unseating Henry I, but this time Roger Bigod stayed loyal to Henry.

He died on 9 September 1107 and is buried in Norwich. Upon his death there was a dispute between the Bishop of Norwich, Herbet Losinga, and the monks at Thetford Priory, founded by Bigod. The monks claimed that Roger's body, along with those of his family and successors, was due to them as part of the foundation charter of the priory (as was common practice at the time). The issue was apparently resolved when the Bishop of Norwich stole the body in the middle of the night and dragged it back to Norwich.

For some time he was thought to have two wives, Adelaide/Adeliza and Alice de Tosny. It is now believed these were the same woman, Adeliza(Alice) de Tosny(Toeni,Toeny). She was the sister and coheiress of William de Tosny, Lord of Belvoir.

He was succeeded by his eldest son, William Bigod, and, after he drowned in the sinking of the White Ship, by his second son, Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk, who later became Earl of Norfolk. He also had 3 daughters: Gunnor, who married Robert, Lord of Rayleigh; Cecily, who married William d'Aubigny "Brito"; and Maud, who married William d'Aubigny "Pincerna", and was mother to William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel.¹

     Robert de Stafford (Robert de Toeni) (c.1036 - 1088) was a Norman nobleman, the builder of Stafford Castle in England.

He held a large number of lordships in the Domesday Survey, a high proportion lying in Staffordshire.[1] They included Barlaston[2], and Bradley[3].

He is buried in Evesham Abbey

He was son of Roger II of Tosny, and so brother of Raoul III of Tosny.[4]

He married[5] Adelisa de Savona, with whom he had a daughter Adelisa de Toeni, who married Roger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk. He then married Avice de Clare, with whom he had sons

Nicholas de Stafford
Nigel de Stafford
Robert II de Stafford[6]
The Gresley family of Drakelow, baronets, were descendants of the de Tosny family through their de Stafford ancestors, including Robert.[7]¹

     Lord of Belvoir.

     Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk (1095 - 1177) was born in Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, England.

He was the second son of Roger Bigod (also known as Roger Bigot) (d. 1107), Sheriff of Norfolk, who founded the Bigod name in England. Hugh Bigod became a controversial figure in history, known for his frequent switching of loyalties and hasty reactions towards measures of authority.

Hugh inherited large estates in East Anglia on the death of his brother William, who perished without issue in the sinking of the White Ship on 26 November 1120. He succeeded his aunt Albreda – and by extension, her eldest brother Berengar – as heir both to Berengar's tenancy-in-chief in Lincolnshire and the Norman lands of Robert de Tosny of Belvoirwas. He became Constable of Norwich Castle and Governor of the City of Norwich in 1122. He enjoyed the favour of Henry I.¹

     Roger Bigod (c. 1144/1150 – 1221) was the son of Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk and his first wife, Juliana de Vere. Although his father died in 1176 or 1177, Roger did not succeed to the earldom of Norfolk until 1189 for his claim had been disputed by his stepmother for her sons by Earl Hugh in the reign of Henry II. Richard I confirmed him in his earldom and other honours, and also sent him as an ambassador to France in the same year. Roger inherited his father's office as royal steward. He took part in the negotiations for the release of Richard from prison, and after the king's return to England became a justiciar.

In most of the years of the reign of King John, the earl was frequently with the king or on royal business. Yet Roger was to be one of the leaders of the baronial party which obtained John's assent to Magna Carta, and his name and that of his son and heir Hugh II appear among the twenty-five barons who were to ensure the king's adherence to the terms of that document. The pair were excommunicated by the pope in December 1215, and did not make peace with the regents of John's son Henry III until 1217.

Around Christmas 1181, Roger married Ida, apparently Ida de Tosny (or Ida de Toesny)[1], and by her had a number of children including:

Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk who married in 1206/ 1207, Maud, a daughter of William Marshal
William Bigod
Ralph Bigod
Roger Bigod
Margery, married William de Hastings
Mary Bigod, married Ralph fitz Robert[2]
Many historians, including Marc Morris have speculated that the couple had a third daughter, Alice, who married Aubrey de Vere IV,Earl of Oxford as his second wife. If so, the marriage would have been well within the bounds of consanguinity, for the couple would have been quite closely related, a daughter of the second earl of Norfolk being first cousin once removed to the second earl of Oxford.¹

     Aubrey de Vere II (c. 1080-1141) was also known as "Alberic[us] de Ver". He was the second of that name in post Norman Conquest England, being the eldest surviving son of Alberic or Aubrey de Vere who had followed William the Conqueror to England in or after 1066.

Their lineage is probably Norman, possibly originally from the eponymous town of Ver/Vire in western Normandy, and were [erroneously] said to descend from Charlemagne himself through the Counts of Flanders or Guînes by later antiquarians. In fact, their connection with Guînes, in Flanders, was temporary; Aubrey de Vere III was briefly married to Beatrice, heiress to that county, from 1137 to about 1145.

Aubrey II served as sheriff of many shires and as a Justiciar under kings Henry I and Stephen.[1] King Henry I had declared the estates and office of the first master chamberlain, Robert Malet, to be forfeit, and in 1133 awarded the office of master chamberlain of England to Aubrey. The chronicler William of Malmesbury reports that Aubrey represented King Stephen in 1139, when the king had been summoned to a church council to answer for the seizure of castles held by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury. He was killed by a London mob in May, 1141, and buried in the family mausoleum, Colne Priory, Essex.

His eldest son Aubrey de Vere III, was later created Earl of Oxford, and their descendants were to hold that title and the office that came to be known as the Lord Great Chamberlain until the extinction of the male line in 1703.[2]

Aubrey II married Adeliza/Alice, daughter of Gilbert Fitz Richard of Clare. Their known children: Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford; Rohese de Vere, Countess of Essex, Robert; Alice "of Essex;" Geoffrey; Juliana, Countess of Norfolk; William de Vere, Bishop of Hereford; Gilbert, prior of the Knights Hospitaller in England; and an unnamed daughter who married Roger de Ramis.¹

     Aubrey (Albericus) de Vere (died circa 1112) was a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror in 1086 and also vassal to Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances and to Count Alan, lord of Richmond. A much later source named his father as Alphonsus.[1] The common use of the name Albericus by the Veres in medieval England makes it impossible to say for certain if the Aubrey de Vere named in Domesday Book in 1086 holding estates in six counties is the same Aubrey de Vere who around 1111 founded Colne Priory, Essex, but it is probable.

His origins are obscure and various regions have been proposed for his birthplace. Their lineage may be Norman, possibly from the eponymous town of Ver/Vire in western Normandy, and the Veres were (erroneously) said to descend from Charlemagne through the Counts of Flanders or Guînes by later antiquarians. In fact, their connection with Guînes, in Flanders, was short-lived; his grandson Aubrey de Vere III was briefly married to Beatrice, heiress to Guînes in the early 12th century.

The only certainty is his landholding recorded in Domesday Book, where he and his unnamed wife also stand accused of some unauthorized land seizures.[2] As his spouse's name is recorded as Beatrice in 1104, she may have been his wife in 1086 and the mother of his five known sons.[3] Aubrey's estates held of the king were valued at approximately £300, putting him in roughly the middle ranks of the post-conquest barons in terms of landed wealth.[4]

More difficult to sort out are contemporary references to "Aubrey the chamberlain" and "Aubrey of Berkshire." An Aubrey was chamberlain to Queen Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, but it is unlikely that this was Aubrey de Vere. An "Aubrey of Berkshire" was a sheriff in the early reign of Henry I; it cannot be ruled out that this was Aubrey de Vere. Aubrey de Vere I may also have served that king as a royal chamberlain, as his son and namesake Aubrey de Vere II did.

Before 1104, Aubrey's eldest son Geoffrey fell ill and was tended at Abingdon Abbey by the royal physician, Abbot Faritius. The youth recovered but suffered a relapse and was buried at the abbey. His parents founded a cell of Abingdon on land they donated: Colne Priory, Essex. Within a few years, Aubrey and his son William joined that community. Aubrey died soon after taking the Benedictine habit, William passing away not long after his father. Both were buried at the priory, establishing it as the Vere family mausoleum.[5] His heir was Aubrey de Vere II.

Besides Geoffrey, Aubrey II, and William mentioned above, his sons included Roger and Robert.[6]¹

     Gilbert Fitz Richard d. 1114/7 was son and eventual heir of Richard Fitz Gilbert of Clare, and heiress Rohese Giffard. He succeeded to his father's possessions in England in 1091; his brother, Roger Fitz Richard, inherited his father's lands in Normandy. Earl Gilbert's inheritance made him one of the wealthiest magnates in early twelfth-century England.

Gilbert may have been present at the suspicious death of William II in the New Forest in 1100. He was granted lands and the Lordship of Cardigan by Henry I, including Cardigan Castle. He founded the Cluniac priory at Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk.

He married Adeliza/Alice de Claremont, daughter of Hugh, Count of Clermont, and Margaret de Roucy. She remarried a de Montmorency after his death. They had children:

Walter de Clare, d. 1149
Adelize/Alice de Clare, d. 1163, m. (ca. 1105), Aubrey II de Vere, son of Aubrey I de Vere and Beatrice. She had 9 children and in her widowhood was a corrodian at St. Osyth's, Chich, Essex.
Margaret de Clare, d. 1185, m. (ca. 1108), Sir William de Montfitchet, Lord of Stanstead Mountfitchet.
Baldwin Fitz Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Bourne, d. 1154, m. Adeline de Rollos.
Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare, d. 1136
Hervey de Clare
Gilbert Fitz Gilbert de Clare, d. 1148, 1st Earl of Pembroke
Rohese de Clare, d. 1149, m. (ca. 1130), Baderon of Monmouth.¹