Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saer_de_Quincy,_1st_Earl_of_Winchester

He was one of the leaders of the baronial rebellion against King John of England, and a major figure in both the kingdoms of Scotland and England in the decades around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The family of de Quincy had arrived in England after the Norman Conquest, and took their name from Cuinchy in the Arrondissement of Béthune; the personal name "Saer" was used by them over several generations. Both names are variously spelled in primary sources and older modern works, the first name being sometimes rendered Saher or Seer, and the surname as Quency or Quenci.

The first recorded Saer de Quincy (known to historians as "Saer I") was lord of the manor of Long Buckby in Northamptonshire in the earlier twelfth century, and second husband of Matilda of St Liz, stepdaughter of King David I of Scotland by Maud of Northumbria. This marriage produced two sons, Saer II and Robert de Quincy. It was Robert, the younger son, who was the father of the Saer de Quincy who eventually became Earl of Winchester. By her first husband Robert Fitz Richard, Matilda was also the paternal grandmother of Earl Saer's close ally, Robert Fitzwalter.

Robert de Quincy seems to have inherited no English lands from his father, and pursued a knightly career in Scotland, where he is recorded from around 1160 as a close companion of his cousin, King William the Lion. By 1170 he had married Orabilis, heiress of the Scottish lordship of Leuchars and, through her, he became lord of an extensive complex of estates north of the border which included lands in Fife, Strathearn and Lothian.

Saer de Quincy, the son of Robert de Quincy and Orabilis of Leuchars, was raised largely in Scotland. His absence from English records for the first decades of his life has led some modern historians and genealogists to confuse him with his uncle, Saer II, who took part in the rebellion of Henry the Young King in 1173, when the future Earl of Winchester can have been no more than a toddler. Saer II's line ended without direct heirs, and his nephew and namesake would eventually inherit his estate, uniting his primary Scottish holdings with the family's Northamptonshire patrimony, and possibly some lands in France.

Saer de Quincy's immediate background was in the Scottish kingdom: his father, Robert de Quincy, was a knight in the service of king William the Lion, and his mother Orabilis de Mar was the heiress of the lordship of Leuchars in Fife. His rise to prominence in England came through his marriage to Margaret, the younger sister of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester. But it is probably no coincidence that her other brother was the de Quincy's powerful Fife neighbour, Roger de Beaumont, Bishop of St Andrews. Earl Robert died in 1204, and left Margaret as co-heiress to the vast earldom along with her elder sister. The estate was split in half, and after the final division was ratified in 1207, de Quincy was made Earl of Winchester.

By his wife Margaret de Beaumont, Earl Saire had three sons and three daughters:

1. Lora who married Sir William de Valognes, Chamberlain of Scotland.

2. Arabella who married Sir Richard Harcourt.

3. Robert (d. 1217), before 1206 he married Hawise of Chester, Countess of Lincoln, sister and co-heiress of Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester.

4. Roger, who succeeded his father as earl of Winchester (though he did not take formal possession of the earldom until after his mother's death).

5. Robert de Quincy (second son of that name; d. 1257) who married Helen, daughter of the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great.

6. Hawise, who married Hugh de Vere, Earl of Oxford.

Following his marriage, Winchester became a prominent military and diplomatic figure in England. There is no evidence of any close alliance with King John, however, and his rise to importance was probably due to his newly acquired magnate status and the family connections.

In 1215, when the baronial rebellion broke out, his cousin,Robert Fitzwalter, became the military commander, and he joined him, acting as one of the chief authors of Magna Carta and negotiators with John; both cousins were among the 25 guarantors of the Magna Carta. De Quincy fought against John in the troubles that followed the sealing of the Charter, and, again with Fitzwalter, travelled to France to invite Prince Louis of France to take the English throne. He and Fitzwalter were subsequently among the most committed and prominent supporters of Louis's candidature for the kingship, against both John and the infant Henry III.

When military defeat cleared the way for Henry III to take the throne, de Quincy went on crusade, perhaps in fulfillment of an earlier vow. In 1219 he left to join the Fifth Crusade, then besieging Damietta. While in the east, he fell sick and died. He was buried in Acre, the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, rather than in Egypt, and his heart was brought back and interred at Garendon Abbey near Loughborough, a house endowed by his wife's family.

Buried:
Grave location of his heart and biography:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49692833

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saer_de_Quincy,_1st_Earl_of_Winchester

In 1219 he left to join the Fifth Crusade, then besieging Damietta. While in the east, he fell sick and died. He was buried in Acre, the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, rather than in Egypt, and his heart was brought back and interred at Garendon Abbey near Loughborough, a house endowed by his wife's family.

Saer married Margaret de Beaumont. Margaret (daughter of Robert (Blanchemains) de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Petronilla de Grandmesnil, Countess of Leicester) was born ca 1156, Hampshire, England; died 12 Jan 1235, England; was buried , Brackley St Peter Churchyard, Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawise_of_Chester,_1st_Countess_of_Lincoln

Sometime before 1206, she (Hawise of Chester) married Robert de Quincy, son of Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester and Margaret de Beaumont of Leicester. The marriage produced one daughter:

Margaret de Quincy, 2nd Countess of Lincoln in her own right (c.1206-March 1266), married firstly in 1221 John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln by whom she had two children, Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract, and Maud de Lacy; she married secondly on 6 January 1242 Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke.

Hawise's husband Robert died in 1217 in London. He had been accidentally poisoned through medicine prepared by a Cistercian monk. Robert and his father had both been excommunicated in December 1215 as a result of the latter having been one of the 25 sureties of the Magna Carta six months before.

Buried:
Grave location and biography:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=111309627

Robert married Hawise of Chester, 1st Countess of Lincoln. Hawise was born ca 1180, Chester, Cheshire, England; died Between 6 Jun 1241 and 3 May 1243, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_de_Quincy,_Countess_of_Lincoln

She was a wealthy English noblewoman and heiress having inherited in her own right the Earldom of Lincoln and honours of Bolingbroke from her mother Hawise of Chester. Following the death of her second husband, Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke, she received her dower right as his widow of a third of the extensive earldom of Pembroke. Margaret has been described as "one of the two towering female figures of the mid-13th century".

Margaret was born in about 1206, the daughter and only child of Robert de Quincy and Hawise of Chester, herself the co-heiress of her uncle Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester. Hawise became Countess of Chester in her own right in April 1231 when her brother resigned the title in her favor.

Her paternal grandfather, Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester was one of the 25 sureties of the Magna Carta; as a result he was excommunicated by the Church in December 1215. Two years later her father died after having been accidentally poisoned through medicine prepared by a Cistercian monk.

On 23 November 1232, Margaret and her husband John de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract were formally invested by King Henry III as Countess and Earl of Lincoln. Her mother, Hawise of Chester, was formally invested as 1st Countess of Lincoln on 27 October 1232 the day after her uncle's death. Hawise of Chester received permission from King Henry III to grant the Earldom of Lincoln jointly to Margaret and her husband John, and less than a month later a second formal investiture took place, but this time for Margaret and her husband John de Lacy. Margaret became 2nd Countess of Lincoln in her own right and John de Lacy became 2nd Earl of Lincoln by right of his wife.

In 1238, Margaret and her husband paid King Henry the large sum of 5,000 pounds to obtain his agreement to the marriage of their daughter Maud to Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 2nd Earl of Gloucester.

On 22 July 1240 her first husband John de Lacy died. Although he was nominally succeeded by their only son Edmund de Lacy (c.1227-1258) for titles and lands that included Baron of Pontefract, Baron of Halton, and Constable of Chester, Margaret at first controlled the estates in lieu of her son who was still in a minor and being brought up at the court of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. Edmund was allowed to succeed to his titles and estates at the age of 18. Edmund was also Margaret's heir to the Earldom of Lincoln and also her other extensive estates that included the third of the Earldom of Pembroke that she had inherited from her second husband in 1248. Edmund was never able to become Earl of Lincoln, however, as he predeceased his mother by eight years.

Sometime before 21 June 1221, Margaret married as his second wife, her first husband John de Lacy of Pontefract. The purpose of the alliance was to bring the rich Lincoln and Bolingbroke inheritance of her mother to the de Lacy family. John and Margaret together had two children:

1. Maud de Lacy (25 January 1223-1287/10 March 1289), married in 1238 Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 2nd Earl of Gloucester, by whom she had seven children.

2. Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract (died 2 June 1258), married in 1247 Alasia of Saluzzo, daughter of Manfredo III of Saluzzo, by whom he had three children, including Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln.

She married secondly on 6 January 1242, Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke, Lord of Striguil, Lord of Leinster, Earl Marshal of England, one of the ten children of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke. This marriage did not produce any children; therefore when he died at Goodrich Castle on 24 November 1245, Margaret inherited a third of the Earldom of Pembroke as well as the properties and lordship of Kildare. This brought her into direct conflict with her own daughter, Maud, whose husband was by virtue of his mother Isabel Marshal one of the co-heirs of the Pembroke earldom.

Margaret was a careful overseer of her property and tenants, and gracious in her dealings with her son's children, neighbours and tenants. Margaret died in March 1266 at Hampstead. Her death was recorded in the Annals of Worcester and in the Annals of Winchester. She was buried in the Church of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell.


Buried:
Grave location and biography:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=69781177

Margaret married John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln. John (son of Roger de Lacy, 6th Baron of Pontefract, 7th Lord of Bowland, Lord of Blackburnshire, 7th Baron of Halton and Maude de Clere) was born ca 1192, Lincoln Lincolnshire, England; died 22 Jul 1240, Cheshire, England; was buried , Stanlow Abbey, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_de_Lacy,_Countess_of_Hertford_and_Gloucester

She was an English noblewoman, being the eldest child of John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln, and the wife of Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford, 6th Earl of Gloucester. Maud de Lacy was born on 25 January 1223 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.

Maud de Lacy had a personality that was described as "highly competitive and somewhat embittered". She became known as one of the most litigious women in the 13th century as she was involved in numerous litigations and lawsuits with her tenants, neighbours, and relatives, including her own son. Author Linda Elizabeth Mitchell, in her Portraits of Medieval Women: Family, Marriage, and Politics in England 1225-1350', states that Maud's life has received "considerable attention by historians".

Maud was styled Countess of Hertford and Countess of Gloucester upon her marriage to Richard de Clare. Although her mother, Margaret de Quincy, was Countess of Lincoln in her own right, this title never passed to Maud as her mother's heir was Henry de Lacy, the son of Maud's deceased younger brother Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract.

Her eldest son was Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 7th Earl of Gloucester, a powerful noble during the reigns of kings Henry III of England and Edward I.

Maud and her mother, Margaret, were never close; in point of fact, relations between the two women were described as strained. Throughout Maud's marriage, the only interactions between Maud and her mother were quarrels regarding finances, pertaining to the substantial Marshal family property Margaret owned and controlled due to the latter's second marriage on 6 January 1242 to Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke almost two years after the death of Maud's father, John de Lacy in 1240. Despite their poor rapport with one another, Maud was, nevertheless, strongly influenced by her mother.

The fact that her mother preferred her grandson, Henry over Maud did not help their relationship; Henry, who was also her mother's ward, was made her heir, and he later succeeded to the earldom of Lincoln.


On 25 January 1238 which was her fifteenth birthday, Maud married Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford, and 6th Earl of Gloucester, son of Gilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, 5th Earl of Gloucester, and Isabel Marshal. Maud was his second wife. Throughout her marriage, Maud's position as the wife of a politically significant nobleman of the 13th century was diminished by her mother's control of a third of the Marshal inheritance and her rank as Countess of Lincoln and dowager countess of Pembroke.

In about 1249/50, Maud ostensibly agreed to the transfer of the manor of Naseby in Northamptonshire, which had formed the greatest part of her marriage portion to her husband's young niece Isabella and her husband, William de Forz, 4th Earl of Albemarle as part of Isabella's own marriage portion. Years later, after the deaths of both women's husbands, Maud sued Isabella for the property, claiming that it had been transferred against her will. Isabella, however, was able to produce the chirograph that showed Maud's participation in the writing of the document; this according to the Common Law signified Maud's agreement to the transaction, and Maud herself was "amerced [fined] for litigating a false claim".

Together Richard and Maud had seven children:

1. Isabel de Clare (1240-before 1271), married as his second wife, William VII of Montferrat, by whom she had one daughter, Margherita. She was allegedly killed by her husband.

2. Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 7th Earl of Gloucester (2 September 1243-7 December 1295), married firstly Alice de Lusignan of Angouleme by whom he had two daughters; he married secondly Joan of Acre, by whom he had children.

3. Thomas de Clare, Lord of Thomond (1245-29 August 1287), married Juliana FitzGerald, daughter of Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Lord of Offaly and Maud de Prendergast, by whom he had issue including Richard de Clare, 1st Lord Clare and Margaret de Clare, Baroness Badlesmere.

4. Bovo de Clare, Chancellor of Llandaff (21 July 1248-1294)

5. Margaret de Clare (1250-1312/1313), married Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. Their marriage was childless.

6. Rohese de Clare (17 October 1252-after 1316), married Roger de Mowbray, 1st Baron Mowbray, by whom she had children.

7. Eglantine de Clare (1257-1257)

On 15 July 1262, her husband died near Canterbury. Maud designed and commissioned a magnificent tomb for him at Tewkesbury Abbey where he was buried. She also donated the manor of Sydinghowe to the "Priory of Leigh" (i.e. Canonsleigh Abbey, Devon, for the soul of Richard, formerly her husband, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford by charter dated to 1280.

She was involved in numerous lawsuits and litigations with her tenants, neighbours, and relatives, including her eldest son Gilbert, who sued her for admeasurement of her dowry. In her 27 years of widowhood, Maud brought 33 suits into the central courts; and she herself was sued a total of 44 times. As a result, she was known as one of the most litigious women in the 13th century.

She endowed many religious houses, including the Benedictine Stoke-by-Clare Priory, Suffolk (re-established in 1124 by Richard de Clare, 1st Earl of Hertford having been moved from Clare Castle) and Canonsleigh Abbey, Devon, which she re-founded as a nunnery. She also vigorously promoted the clerical career of her son, Bovo, and did much to encourage his ambitions and acquisitiveness. She was largely responsible for many of the benefices that were bestowed on him, which made him the richest churchman of the period. Although not an heiress, Maud herself was most likely the wealthiest widow in 13th century England.

Maude married Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford, 6th Earl of Gloucester, 2nd Lord of Glamorgan, 8th Lord of Clare. Richard was born 04 Aug 1222, Clare Castle, Clare, Suffolk, England; died 14 Jul 1262, Waltham, Kent, England; was buried , Tewkesbury Abbey, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet]