APPENDIX 1
In 1066, when William the Conqueror invaded England, he had his two half-brothers among his knights, Richard of Bienfaite and Orbec, and Baldwin, Lord of LeSap and Meulles. These two noblemen were legitimate sons of Gilbert of Brionne by William’s mother Herleva (he himself was illegitimate). The brothers were well rewarded for their efforts at Hastings. Baldwin was made hereditary Sheriff of Exeter and given large land holdings in Devon. Meanwhile, Richard received Tonbridge and also Clare. Situated on the borders of Essex and Suffolk, today Clare is not much more than a village, but in those days it was a wealthy Lordship. Richard built castles at both these locations, but with Clare he also received large land holdings in the east of England. Accordingly, ‘de Clare’ now became the family patronym for his branch of the family.
Richard of Tonbridge and Clare was an important baron with ambitions. He married Rohese, the daughter of Walter Giffard, the father of the 1st Earl of Buckingham. Following Walter’s death, a large part of the Giffard estate passed to the de Clare family. This, however, was just the beginning.
Richard and Rohese had five sons, Roger, Walter, Richard, Robert and Gilbert, as well as two daughters. Roger and Gilbert were present at the hunting accident which killed King William II ‘Rufus’. This occurred while he was out riding in the New Forest in 1100. While it was called a ‘hunting accident’, there is little doubt that, in reality, it was an assassination, for William Rufus was deeply unpopular with his barons and with the people of England. The fatal arrow was fired by Walter Tirel, the husband of Rohese de Clare. She was a sister of Roger and Gilbert de Clare and, at the very least, they were complicit in the cover-up. As it worked out, their involvement in the assassination did the de Clare family no harm at all in the eyes of the King’s successor, his brother Henry I – quite the reverse. In due course, Roger inherited his father’s lands in Normandy, while Walter received lands on the fringes of Wales, around Chepstow and Nether Gwent; he went on to found Tintern Abbey in the valley of the River Wye. Meanwhile, their brother Richard became a monk, while the fourth brother, Robert, received the forfeited lands of the Baynards in the eastern counties.
Gilbert de Clare was particularly favoured by King Henry I. He was wounded during a siege of his castle at Tonbridge by William Rufus, but, following the latter’s death, was granted Cardiganshire by Henry I. As this county of West Wales was anything but conquered, this was really more of an invitation to carve himself an earldom than a gift of existing territory. Accordingly, Gilbert took his arms into Wales. It would be the beginning of the de Clares’ long involvement in Welsh affairs.
At around the same time as Fitzhammon was extending his overlordship into Glamorgan, other Marcher Lords were pushing forward into the rest of South Wales. As early as 1088, a lesser-ranked Norman nobleman, Bernard of Neufmarché, pushed his way into Breconshire to create a small Marcher lordship there, but the death of Rhys ap Tewdwr left a vacuum that others were keen to exploit. Around 1093, Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, led an army from Shropshire down through Cardigan to Pembroke. Here he built the original Pembroke Castle, and although the Welsh were later able to expel the Normans from most of South West Wales, this castle proved impregnable. The Normans, therefore, retained a foothold and were later able to retake the whole area of South West Wales that had at one time been the Principality ruled by Rhys ap Tewdwr.*
Meanwhile, the Clares pressed on with their own claims to a piece of Wales. Gilbert de Clare, son of Richard of Tonbridge, had three sons. The eldest, another Richard, was slain by the Welsh in 1135 or 1136 on his way to Pembroke. The second, another Gilbert, inherited Chepstow Castle and Nether Gwent from his uncle Walter (founder of Tintern Abbey). In 1138, he was created Earl of Pembroke by King Stephen, the title having lapsed.
His son Richard ‘Strongbow’ de Clare, the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, led a Norman invasion of Ireland. He was invited over by Dermot McMurrogh, King of Leinster, who was in deep trouble. Strongbow both defeated McMurrogh’s opponents and married his daughter Aoive, thereby becoming the de facto ruler of Ireland. From these beginnings grew the Clare holdings in Ireland, which included the present-day County Clare.
As Strongbow’s son Gilbert died while still a minor, he had no male heir. Thus, upon his own passing, his lands and titles passed to his daughter Isabella and hence to her husband, William Marshal, who became the 3rd Earl of Pembroke of this dispensation.
William Marshal was probably the greatest knight of his age, certainly in England. Although they didn’t always deserve it, as Marshal of England, he served four kings loyally: Henry II, Richard I, John and Henry III. He also went on crusades and was a close friend of the Knights Templar, joining their order shortly before he died in 1219. However, it is said that a curse was put on him by the Bishop of Ferns, County Wexford, that William Marshal’s sons should have no children and consequently his estates would be broken up. As it turned out, although he had four sons, who each, in turn, inherited the Pembroke title, none of them produced legitimate offspring. On the death of the last (in 1235), the lands and wealth of the Marshals was shared between the husbands of his five daughters. The Pembroke title itself passed to William de Valence, the husband of William’s daughter Joan. With the death of their son Aymer de Valence (in 1324) the Pembroke title went vacant. There would be three further creations of the Pembroke Earldom, all of which became extinct, before (in 1452) the title was eventually given to a Welshman, Jasper Tudor. Today it resides with the Herbert family, the current Earl being the 18th of his line.*
A similar fate, perhaps the result of another curse, befell the main branch of the de Clare family. Richard de Clare, the 3rd Earl of Hertford, who was the son of Roger de Clare, brother to Gilbert and Rohese and son of Richard of Tonbridge, married Amice FitzWilliam. Through her, he gained possession of the Earldom of Gloucester and Lordship of Glamorgan, the old titles of Sir Robert Fitzhammon. Three further generations of Clares inherited the titles of Earl of Gloucester and Lord of Glamorgan, including the famous ‘Red Earl’, Sir Gilbert de Clare. He was a formidable baron who built a number of castles to extend his power base, including Caerphilly. He married Joan, the daughter of Edward I, so that their son, another Gilbert de Clare, was the first cousin of Edward II. Yet there seems to have been a curse on the progeny of the Red Earl. His son, the last male de Clare, was killed in the Battle of Bannockburn while he was still without an heir himself. Following his demise, the immense family fortune, which became the subject of much argument and litigation, was shared among his three sisters. However, the husband of the eldest, Sir Hugh le Despencer the Younger, was hanged, while the husband of the second, Sir Piers Gaveston, was beheaded by Welsh knights. The two ladies married again, but the de Clare family was finished as a political force.
There were a couple of attempts to revive the Clare/Clarence title in the form of a Dukedom. Lionel of Antwerp, the third son of Edward III, was given the title of Duke of Clarence, but as he only had a daughter, his title died with him. A second attempt was made when George Plantagenet, the brother of Edward IV, was made Duke of Clarence. He was later murdered – drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine according to some accounts – so, again, the title died. The most recent Duke of Clarence was Prince Albert Edward, son of Edward VII when the latter was Prince of Wales. However, he died from pneumonia in 1892, and the title again became extinct.
Clarence House is currently the home of Prince Charles, and there is some speculation that his younger son, Prince Harry will, in time, be given the Dukedom of Clarence. It may, however, be decided that this is a dangerously poisoned chalice that he would be better off not receiving. after all, it has proved an unlucky title to hold since Bannockburn in 1314; why take the risk?
____________________
* See Chart 18: The family of the Dukes of Normandy and the early Lords of Clare, page 243 & Chart 19: Early Earls of Pembroke, page 244
* See Chart 20: The Marshal Earls of Pembroke and the House of Clare, page 245