Agnes of Essex

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Agnes of Essex, Countess of Oxford (1151– 1212 or later) was the daughter of a royal constable

Aubrey de Vere III
, 1st Earl of Oxford, as his third wife.

In spring 1163, Agnes's father Henry was accused of treason and fought (and lost, although he survived and retired to a monastery) a judicial duel. After her father's disgrace and the resulting forfeiture of his lands and offices, the earl of Oxford sought to have his marriage to Agnes annulled. On 9 May 1166, she appealed her case from the court of the bishop of London to the pope (the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, being in exile at the time).[3] While the case was pending in Rome, the earl reportedly kept Agnes confined in one of his three castles, for which the bishop of London Gilbert Foliot reprimanded Aubrey.[3] Pope Alexander III ruled in her favor, thus establishing the canon law requirement of consent by females in betrothal and the sacrament of marriage.

The couple later jointly founded a Benedictine priory for nuns near their castle at

Colne Priory, Essex.[4]

Name Error

Many mistakenly have called Earl Aubrey's third wife Lucia, rather than Agnes. This mistake is based on a misreading of a single document associated with a religious house at

prioress at Castle Hedingham Priory. On her death in the early thirteenth century, an illustrated mortuary or 'bede' roll was carried to many religious houses requesting prayers for her soul. In the preface of that document Lucia is called the foundress of the priory. As the role of "founder" is generally ascribed to lay patrons and the countess presumably cooperated with her husband in the founding of the house, 18th-century scholars erroneously assumed that the prioress was Earl Aubrey's widow. Royal records disprove that assumption. [5]

Children

Agnes had four sons and a daughter, including two future earls of Oxford:

Aubrey IV
, 2nd earl.

References

  1. ^ R. DeAragon, "The Child-Bride, the Pope, and the Earl: The Marital Fortunes of Agnes of Essex," Henry I and the Anglo-Norman World (Woodbridge: 2004), p. 201.
  2. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/62379. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ a b The Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot, ed. Morey & C. N. L. Brooke (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1967) #162, pp. 214-218.
  4. ^ G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England...., v. 10, p 207.
  5. ^ RaGena DeAragon. "The Child-Bride, the Earl, and the Pope: The Marital Fortunes of Agnes of Essex", Henry I and the Anglo-Norman World (2007), Boydell & Brewer.
  6. ^ G. E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage, vol. 10, 208
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