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All About History Books
The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, a canon regular of the Augustinian Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire, formerly known as The Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh, describes the period from 1066 to 1346. Before 1274 the Chronicle is based on other works. Thereafter, the Chronicle is original, and a remarkable source for the events of the time. This book provides a translation of the Chronicle from that date. The Latin source for our translation is the 1849 work edited by Hans Claude Hamilton. Hamilton, in his preface, says: "In the present work we behold perhaps one of the finest samples of our early chronicles, both as regards the value of the events recorded, and the correctness with which they are detailed; Nor will the pleasing style of composition be lightly passed over by those capable of seeing reflected from it the tokens of a vigorous and cultivated mind, and a favourable specimen of the learning and taste of the age in which it was framed." Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
1297 Marriage of Princess Elizabeth and John of Holland
1301 Edward II Created Prince of Wales
Around 1270 Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford was born.
On 2nd May 1290 Gilbert "Red Earl" Clare 7th Earl Gloucester 6th Earl Hertford (age 46) and [his future wife] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 18) were married at Clerkenwell [Map]. She by marriage Countess Gloucester, Countess Hertford. The difference in their ages was 28 years. She the daughter of [his future father-in-law] King Edward I of England (age 50) and Eleanor of Castile Queen Consort England (age 49). He the son of Richard de Clare 6th Earl Gloucester 5th Earl Hertford and Maud Lacy Countess Gloucester and Hertford. They were half fifth cousins. He a great x 4 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England.
Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. In the same year died1 Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester (age 52), who had taken [his future wife] Joanna (age 23), the daughter of King Edward, as his wife, and left behind a very young boy, also named Gilbert, as his tender heir, born of the same Joanna. After his death, Joanna, against the will of her father the king, within that same year, married a simple knight named Ralph de Monthermer (age 25), a native of the bishopric of Durham, who had served as a knight under her former husband, the earl. Later, through his own bravery and skill, he rose to great prominence and was called Earl of Gloucester.
Eodem anno obiit Gilbertus comes Gloucestriæ, qui Johannam, filiam regis Edwardi, duxerat in uxorem, et puerum parvulum, Gilbertum nomine, reliquit hæredem tenerum, ex eadem Johanna procreatum. Post mortem cujus ipsa Johanna, contra voluntatem patris sui regis, infra eundem annum, simplicem sibi militem, nomine Radulphum de Montermere, de episcopatu Dunolmensi oriundum, qui viro suo comiti militaverat, sibi matrimonio copulavit; qui in posterum, per strenuitatem ipsius et industriam, in magnum crevit virum, comesque Gloucestriæ appellatus est.
Note 1. Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester died on 7th December 1295 at Monmouth Castle [Map]. He buried at Tewkesbury Abbey [Map]. He was succeeded by his four year old son [his future step-son] Gilbert de Clare 8th Earl Gloucester 7th Earl Hertford (age 4).
In January 1297 Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 27) and Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 24) were married in secret greatly offending her father King Edward I of England (age 57) who had been planning to marry her to Amadeus V "Great" Savoy (age 47) in March. Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford was imprisoned at Bristol Castle, Gloucestershire [Map]; he was released in August 1297. She the daughter of King Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile Queen Consort England.
On 8th January 1297 John Gerulfing I Count Holland (age 13) and [his sister-in-law] Princess Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Countess Essex, Hereford and Holland (age 14) were married at Ipswich, Suffolk [Map]. She by marriage Countess Holland. The wedding was attended by her sister [his sister-in-law] Margaret Plantagenet Duchess Brabant (age 21), her father [his father-in-law] King Edward I (age 57), her brother [his brother-in-law] Edward (age 12) and her future second husband Humphrey Bohun 4th Earl Hereford 3rd Earl Essex (age 21). She the daughter of King Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile Queen Consort England. He the son of Floris Gerulfing V Count Holland and Beatrix Dampierre. They were half third cousin twice removed. He a great x 4 grandson of King Stephen I England.
In August 1297 Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 27) was created 1st Earl Gloucester, 1st Earl Hertford. There is some uncertainty as to whether these creations existed, or were created for life only, since they do appear to have been inherited, or whether there is confusion around his having been married to [his wife] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 25), the widow of the seventh Earl of the first creation Gilbert "Red Earl" Clare 7th Earl Gloucester 6th Earl Hertford.
In October 1297 [his daughter] Mary Monthermer was born to Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 27) and [his wife] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 25). She a granddaughter of King Edward I of England.
On 7th February 1301 [his brother-in-law] King Edward II of England (age 16) was created Prince of Wales by his father [his father-in-law] King Edward I of England (age 61); the first English heir to receive the title. He was created 1st Earl Chester the same day.
Before 9th March 1301 seven Earls and 96 Barons signed a letter to the Pope refuting the Pope's claim that Scotland was subject to the Pope's feudal overlordship. The letter was never sent. Those who signed include: John Warenne 6th Earl of Surrey (age 70), Thomas Plantagenet 2nd Earl of Leicester, 2nd Earl Lancaster, Earl of Salisbury and Lincoln (age 23), Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 31), Humphrey Bohun 4th Earl Hereford 3rd Earl Essex (age 25), Roger Bigod 5th Earl Norfolk (age 56), Richard Fitzalan 1st or 8th Earl of Arundel (age 34), Guy Beauchamp 10th Earl Warwick (age 29), Aymer de Valence 2nd Earl Pembroke (age 26), William Leybourne 1st Baron Leybourne (age 59), Henry Plantagenet 3rd Earl of Leicester 3rd Earl Lancaster (age 20), William Latimer 1st Baron Latimer of Corby (age 58), Edmund Hastings, John Hastings 2nd Baron Hastings 14th Baron Abergavenny (age 14), Edmund Mortimer 2nd Baron Mortimer of Wigmore (age 50), Fulk Fitzwarin 2nd Baron Fitzwarin (age 16), Henry Percy 9th and 1st Baron Percy (age 27), Robert Fitzwalter 1st Baron Fitzwalter (age 54), John Beauchamp 1st Baron Beauchamp Somerset (age 26), William de Braose 2nd Baron de Braose 10th Baron Bramber (age 41), John Botetort 1st Baron Botetort (age 36), Reginald Grey 1st Baron Grey of Wilton (age 61), John Moels 1st Baron Moels (age 32), Thomas Berkeley 6th and 1st Baron Berkeley (age 55), Robert de Vere 5th Earl of Oxford, John Strange 1st Baron Strange Knockin (age 48), Thomas Multon 1st Baron Multon (age 25), Robert Clifford 1st Baron Clifford (age 26), Walter Beauchamp (age 58), Alan Zouche 1st Baron Zouche Ashby (age 33), John Segrave 2nd Baron Segrave (age 45), William Ferrers 1st Baron Ferrers of Groby (age 29), Simon Montagu 1st Baron Montagu (age 51), Piers Mauley, Ralph Neville 1st Baron Neville of Raby (age 38), John Mohun 1st Baron Dunster (age 32), Roger Scales 1st Baron Scales, Thomas Furnival 1st Baron Furnivall (age 41), Hugh Bardolf 1st Baron Bardolf (age 41), Gilbert Talbot 1st Baron Talbot (age 24), William Deincourt 1st Baron Deincourt, Edmund Stafford 1st Baron Stafford (age 28), Walter Fauconberg 1st Baron Fauconberg (age 81).
On 4th October 1301 [his son] Thomas Monthermer 2nd Baron Monthermer was born to Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 31) and [his wife] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 29) at Ham Stoke, Wiltshire. He a grandson of King Edward I of England.
On 14th November 1302 Humphrey Bohun 4th Earl Hereford 3rd Earl Essex (age 26) and [his sister-in-law] Princess Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Countess Essex, Hereford and Holland (age 20) were married. She by marriage Countess Essex, Countess Hereford. Westminster Abbey [Map]. She the daughter of [his father-in-law] King Edward I of England (age 63) and Eleanor of Castile Queen Consort England. He the son of Humphrey Bohun 3rd Earl Hereford 2nd Earl Essex and Maud Fiennes Countess Essex and Hereford. They were third cousins.
In 1304 [his son] Edward Monthermer was born to Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 34) and [his wife] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 31). He a grandson of King Edward I of England.
After 14th July 1306 [his future brother-in-law] Hugh "Younger" Despencer 1st Baron Despencer (age 20) and [his step-daughter] Eleanor Clare Baroness Zouche Mortimer (age 13) were married. She the daughter of Gilbert "Red Earl" Clare 7th Earl Gloucester 6th Earl Hertford and [his wife] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 34). He the son of [his future father-in-law] Hugh "Elder" Despencer 1st Earl Winchester (age 45) and Isabella Beauchamp. They were third cousin once removed. He a great x 5 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England. She a granddaughter of King Edward I of England.
Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. As for the Earl of Atholl [John Stathbogie (age 40)], who had fled from that castle and, after some time, had been captured, although the queen of England and many magnates begged the king on his behalf that his life be spared, because he was a close kinsman1 to the lord king of England, the king ordered that he be brought to London and hanged higher than the others. And because he was found to be a deceiver, although a relative, the king commanded that after being hanged he should be beheaded and burned, and this was done [on 7th November 1306]. Christopher de Seton, who had married the new king's sister Mary [a mistake for Christina Bruce (age 33)], and was an Englishman, having been captured in the castle of Loch Doon, and afterwards his wife and many others as well, the king ordered to be brought to Dumfries, where the knight [John Comyn] had been killed, and there to be drawn, hanged, and beheaded. The same sentence was passed on two of his brothers and on all the others who had agreed to and taken part in the death of Lord John Comyn; and this was done by the special command of the king. The wife of Christopher, the king placed in the monastery of Sixhills [Map] in Lindsey, and the daughter of the new king he placed in the monastery of Watton [Map]. The lord king gave to Lord Edmund de Mauley (age 25) the manor of Seaton in Whitby Strand, which had belonged to Christopher, and other lands he had held in Northumberland the king gave to Lord William le Latimer (age 30). The lands of the new king the lord king divided among his magnates in this way: he gave the Valley of Annandale to the Earl of Hereford, who had married the daughter of the king of England; Ayr and Ayrshire he gave to Lord Robert de Clifford (saving, however, the right of the church of Durham); Tothenham, Tothenhamschire, and the manor of Wrothell in the southern parts he gave to other magnates. The earldom of Carrick, which the new king had held by maternal inheritance, the king of England gave to Lord Henry de Percy; and the earldom of Atholl he gave to the Earl of Gloucester, who had married the king's daughter after the death of Gilbert de Clare, the former earl of Gloucester. Thus he bore the title of earl by right of his wife, not by inheritance, for he had been a mere and unremarkable knight when he married her, by the name of Ralph Monthermer (age 36).
Comitem vero de Asechel, qui ab isto castro fugerat et post aliquod intervallum captus fuerat, cum regina Angliæ et multi magnates rogarent pro eo ad regem ne sanguis ejus effunderetur, pro eo quod fuit proximus parens domino regi Angliæ, jussit rex Londoniis adduci et cæteris excelsior suspendi. Et quia seductor inventus qui consanguineus extiterat, præcepit rex post suspensionem decollari eum et comburi, quod factum est. Christoforum autem de Sethon, qui sororem novi regis duxerat nomine Mariam, et esset Anglicus, cum in castro de Lochdor captus esset, et post uxorque sua et multi alii, jussit rex adduci apud Dunfrees ubi militem occiderat, ibique trahi, suspendi et decollari. Simile judicium habuerunt duo fratres sui, et omnes alii qui morti domini Johannis Comyn consenserunt et interfuerunt; et hoc ex speciali præcepto regis. Uxorem vero Christofori posuit rex in monasterio de Thyxsel in Lindesay, et filiam novi regis posuit in monasterio de Watton. Deditque dominus rex domino Eadmundo de Malo-lacu manerium de Seton in Wytebystrand, quod erat Christofori, et alias suas terras quas habuit in Northumberland dedit rex domino Willelmo le Latymer. Terras vero novi regis dispersit dominus rex inter magnates suos hoc modo; dedit enim Vallem Anandiæ comiti de Herford, qui filiam regis Angliæ duxerat in uxorem; Hert vero et Herternes dedit domino Roberto de Clifforde, salvo tamen jure ecclesiæ Dunolmensis; Thotenham et Thotenhamschyre et manerium de Wrothell in partibus australibus dedit aliis magnatibus suis; comitatum vero de Karrik, quem ex hæreditate materna habuerat ipse novus rex, dedit rex Angliæ domino Henrico de Percy; comitatum autem de Asechel dedit rex comiti Gloucestriæ, qui filiam regis post mortem Gilberti de Clare quondam comitis Gloucestriæ, duxerat; sicque nomen comitis habebat ab uxore, non ab hæreditate, fuerat enim miles simplex et segnis quando eam duxerat, nomine Radulphus Monhermer.
Note 1. John Strathbogie, 9th Earl Atholl, and King Edward I, were half first cousins twice removed. Strathbogie was a great great grandson of King John through his illegitimate son Richard.
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On 23rd April 1307 [his wife] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 35) died at Clare, Suffolk [Map].
Scalaronica. [10th May 1307]. Hearing of this, Aymer de Valence marched against him, when the said Robert de Brus encountered the said Aymer de Valence at Loudoun, and defeated him, and pursued him to the castle of Ayr;1 and on the third day [after] the said Robert de Brus defeated Rafe de Monthermer (age 37), who was called Earl of Gloucester because [his former wife] Joan (deceased) the King's daughter and Countess of Gloucester had taken him for husband out of love [for him].
Note 1. Battle of Loudoun Hill, May 1307.
On 4th March 1309 Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 39) was created 1st Baron Monthermer by writ of summons.
Before 1310 John Hastings 13th Baron Abergavenny 1st Baron Hastings (age 47) and [his future wife] Isabel Despencer Baroness Hastings and Bergavenny were married. She by marriage Baroness Hastings, Baroness Abergavenny Feudal Creation. She the daughter of [his future father-in-law] Hugh "Elder" Despencer 1st Earl Winchester (age 48) and Isabella Beauchamp. They were third cousin once removed. He a great x 5 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England.
All About History Books
The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.
Around 1313 Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 43) and Isabel Despencer Baroness Hastings and Bergavenny were married. She the daughter of Hugh "Elder" Despencer 1st Earl Winchester (age 51) and Isabella Beauchamp.
In 1324 Eleanor of Woodstock Plantagenet (age 5) was placed into the care of her cousin [his former step-daughter] Eleanor Clare Baroness Zouche Mortimer (age 31). She was subsequently placed into the care of Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 54) (he had formerly been married to her aunt [his former wife] Joan of Acre and [his wife] Isabel Despencer Baroness Hastings and Bergavenny with her younger sister Joan of the Tower (age 2) at Pleshey Castle [Map].
On 5th April 1325 Ralph Monthermer 1st Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (age 55) died. Earl Gloucester, Earl Hertford extinct. His son [his son] Thomas (age 23) succeeded 2nd Baron Monthermer.
In 1334 [his former wife] Isabel Despencer Baroness Hastings and Bergavenny died.
John of Fordun's Chronicle. 114. King Robert accused before the King of England by John Comyn
As the said John's accusations were repeated, at length, one night, while the wine glittered in the bowl, and that king was hastening to sit down with his secretaries, he talked over Robert's death in earnest, - and shortly determined that he would deprive him of life on the morrow. But when the Earl of Gloucester, who was Robert's true and tried friend in his utmost need, heard of this, he hastily, that same night, sent the aforesaid Robert, by his keeper of the wardrobe, twelve pence and a pair of spurs. So the keeper of the wardrobe, who guessed his lord's wishes, presented these things to Robert, from his lord, and added these words: "My lord sends these to you, in return for what he, on his side, got from you yesterday." Robert understood, from the tokens offered him, that he was threatened by the danger of death; so he discreetly gave the pence to the keeper of the wardrobe, and forthwith sent him back to the Earl with greeting in answer, and with thanks.
Then, when twilight came on, that night, after having ostentatiously ordered his servants to meet him at Carlisle [Map], with his trappings, on the evening of the following day, he straightway hastened towards Scotland, without delay, and never stopped travelling, day or night, until he was safe from the aforesaid king's spite. Tor he was under the guidance of One of whom it is written: - "There is no wisdom, no foresight, no understanding against the Lord, who knoweth how to snatch the good from trial, and mercifully to deliver from danger those that trust in Him.".