Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke
Isabel de Clare | |
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suo jure Countess of Pembroke and Striguil | |
Born | c. 1172 Leinster |
Died | 11 March 1220 Chepstow, Wales |
Noble family | De Clare |
Spouse(s) | |
Issue |
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Father | Aoife of Leinster |
Isabel de Clare,
Family inheritance
Isabel was one of two known legitimate children of
Isabel's paternal grandparents were Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and his wife Isabel de Beaumont. Deprived of his father Gilbert's estate of Pembrokeshire by the king in 1153 when he succeeded as a child, Richard Strongbow continued to assert he was an earl, but took his title as Striguil (the Welsh name for the lordship of Chepstow, the centre of his estates in the southern March of Wales).[3] The earldom of Pembroke was not forgotten, however, and in 1199 it was recreated and awarded to Isabel's husband, William Marshal, undoubtedly on the basis of Isabel's hereditary claim to it. In this way, Isabel could be said to be the successor in the earldom of Pembroke to her grandfather Gilbert, the first earl, especially as her husband before 1199 was meticulous in referring to her as 'Countess Isabel'.[4]
Isabel was described as having been "the good, the fair, the wise, the courteous lady of high degree".
Marriage
The new
Marriage to Isabel elevated William Marshal from the status of military captain and knight into one of the richest men in the kingdom. He would serve as
Marshal and Isabel did not sail to Ireland till 1200, after taking possession of Pembroke. He left her behind him on his return to England.[9] She may have ruled Leinster in his absence till as late as 1203, with as her seneschal a Wiltshire knight, Geoffrey fitz Robert, who was married to Isabel's aunt, Basilia de Clare, a sister of Strongbow.[10] Isabel is credited with playing a major part at this time in the foundation of the borough known as New Ross.[11] Isabel was again left to rule Leinster in 1207-8 during her husband's house arrest at the court of King John when, though pregnant, she successfully led the campaign which defeated the rebel barons of the province.[12]
The marriage was happy, despite the difference in age between them. William Marshal and Isabel produced a total of five sons and five daughters.[1]
Widowhood
Isabel lived as a widow for only ten months after the death of William Marshal, though it was by no means an uneventful period, which has left a good deal of evidence as to how a great heiress such as she was, managed her affairs when she came into full control of her inheritance. She wrote within days to the papal legate and the justiciar of England asking for the prompt delivery of her lands, and on 18 June 1219, the justiciar issued writs ordering local officers to hand over, to her, control of her inheritance in four English counties and in Ireland. Pembroke is not mentioned, which hints that her eldest son may have directly inherited the earldom as it may have been treated as a royal grant to his father, not as part of his mother's inheritance. The marcher lordship of Striguil also came to her. In July she was in France, where she successfully negotiated with King Philip Augustus the possession of her Norman inheritance. While there, she and her son opened negotiations with the king for the marriage of the younger William Marshal with his first cousin, a ploy which caused panic at the English court and a counter-offer of marriage to King Henry III's youngest sister Eleanor.[13] There is evidence that she made good use of her eldest son as her agent in managing the great estates that were hers to dispose of in the months she had them, both of them stonewalling her late husband's executors to avoid paying the debts he left. In February 1220 she was mortally ill at Chepstow, and on 2 March her son is found at Cirencester en route to Wales to attend her deathbed. Tintern Abbey sources give her death as 11 March 1220.[14] She was buried in the north choir aisle of the family abbey of Tintern, next to her mother Aoife.[15]
Issue
- Eleanor Plantagenet, daughter of King John.
- Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (1191 – 1 April 1234 Kilkenny Castle, Ireland), married Gervase le Dinant. He died childless.
- Alice le Brun de Lusignan; she married thirdly, Walter de Dunstanville. Five queen consorts of Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parrwere her descendants.
- William I of Scotland; and secondly, Maud de Lanvaley. He is known to have had an illegitimate daughter while a young cleric, who he married to Maelgwyn Fychan, a prince of the royal house of Deheubarth.
- John de Lacy, 1st Earl of Lincoln, as her second husband. The marriage was childless.
- Anselm Marshal, 6th Earl of Pembroke (1198 – 22 December 1245). He married Maud de Bohun. He died childless.
- Robert I of Scotland and Queen consorts Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parrwere descendants.
- Sibyl Marshal (1201 – before 1238), married William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, by whom she had issue. Queen consort Catherine Parr was a descendant.
- Joan Marshall (1202–1234), married Warin de Munchensi, Lord of Joan Marshal.
- Eva Marshal (1203–1246), married William de Braose (died 1230). Queen consorts Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr were her descendants.
Legacy
A cenotaph was discovered inside St. Mary's Church, New Ross, Ireland, whose slab bears the partial inscription "ISABEL: LAEGEN" (interpreted as 'Isabel of Leinster') and an engraved likeness said to be hers.[16] This identification was subsequently rejected, even before modern research identified her true burial place at Tintern [17]
It was suggested in 1892 by Paul Meyer that Isabel might have encouraged the composition of the Song of Dermot, which narrates the exploits of her father and maternal grandfather. The Deeds of the Normans in Ireland as it is now known is dated by its latest editor to the 1190s, so Meyer's suggestion is possible.[18] However the text makes no mention of either Isabel or her husband, and is more likely to have been sponsored within the community of barons of Leinster at a time before Isabel and William Marshal effectively exercised their lordship in Ireland in 1200.[19]
Although her daughters had many children, Isabel's five sons, curiously, died childless, apart from
Within a few generations their descendants included much of the
Ancestry
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References
- ^ a b c d Costain 1962, p. 267.
- ^ M.T. Flanagan, 'Negotiating across Legal and Cultural Borders; Aífe, daughter of Diarmait Mac Murchada, king of Leinster, and Marriage, Motherhood and Widowhood in Twelfth-century Ireland and England', Peritia 30 (2019) 71–95. at pp. 72, 85–6, 91
- ^ Flanagan, 'Negotiating across Legal and Cultural Borders,' pp. 85–6.
- ^ D. Crouch, William Marshal, 3rd edn (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016), 83–4, 101–2
- ^ a b c Painter 1933, p. 76.
- ^ Turtle Bunbury (2000). History, Heroes and Villains, William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, 1147–1219 – Crusader, Templar, Kingmaker. An article. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
- ^ Crouch, William Marshal, 79.
- ^ Painter 1933, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Crouch, William Marshal, 102-5
- ^ Crouch, William Marshal, 252
- ^ 'C. Ó Drisceoil, 'New Ross, a town of William Marshal' in, William Marshal and Ireland ed. J. Bradley and others (Dublin: Four Courts, 2017), 278–80.
- ^ Crouch William Marshal, 125-31.
- ^ D. Crouch, 'Testament and Inheritance: the lessons of the brief widowhood of Isabel, countess of Pembroke' in, Law and Society in Later Medieval and England and Ireland, ed. Travis R. Baker (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), pp. 25–50, at pp, 31–5.
- ^ Crouch, 'Testament and Inheritance' pp. 35–6
- ^ Flanagan, 'Negotiating across Legal and Cultural Borders,' p. 22 and notes 73, 74.
- ^ JSTOR: The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol.78, No (July 1948), p.65. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
- ^ J. Hunt, Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture, 2 vols (Dublin, 1974), no. 264
- ISBN 1851826432.
- ^ Crouch, William Marshal, 102-5, 122–4
- ^ The Acts and Letters of the Marshal Family: Marshals of England and Earls of Pembroke, 1145–1248, ed. D. Crouch, Camden Society, 47 (Cambridge, 2015), p. 27.
- ^ Costain 1951, pp. 114–115.
Sources
- OCLC 965113.
- Costain, Thomas (1951). The Magnificent Century: The Pageant of England. Doubleday and Company, Inc.
- Crouch, David (2016). William Marshal (3rd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781138939325.
- Painter, Sidney (1933). William Marshal, Knight-errant, Baron, and Regent of England. Johns Hopkins historical publications. Johns Hopkins Press. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- Gillian Kenny. "The Wife's Tale: Isabel Marshal and Ireland", William Marshal and Ireland, ed. J. Bradley and others (Dublin: Four Courts, 2017), pp. 315–24.
- Linda E. Mitchell, "The Most Perfect Knight's Countess, Isabella de Clare, her daughters and women's exercise of power", Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400, ed. H. Tanner (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), pp. 45–65.