Gilbert de SEGRAVE

                   Name Suffix: (Constable Of The Tower)
Stephen de Segrave; of age by 1200; Keeper of: Sauvey Castle June 1220, Essex and Herts Nov 1220, the Honour of Boulogne Dec 1220, Lincs March 1221/2, Hedingham Castle, Essex March 1221/2, Lincoln Castle and Lincs Dec 1223, Hertford Castle Jan 1223/4, Northampton Castle 1229; appointed a guardian of England in Henry III's absence in France 1230; Sheriff of Beds, Bucks, Leics, Northants and Worcs 1230; Commissioner to negotiate with Llewelyn Prince of North Wales 1232; Keeper of: Kenilworth Castle May 1232, Northampton Castle July 1232 and Beds, Bucks, Leics, Northants and Warwicksfor life; Justiciar of England 1232; a principal advisor to Henry III 1233; married 1st Rohese, sister of Hugh Despenser; married 2nd Ida, sister of Henry deHastings, and died 1241.  [Burke's Peerage]

---------------------------------------------

Stephen de Segrave, who, in the 5th King John [1204], was constable of the Tower of London, and, remaining faithful to that monarch in his conflicts with the barons, obtained a grant (17th John) [1216] of the lands of Stephen de Gant, lying in the cos. Lincoln and Leicester, with the manor of Kintone, co. Warwick. In the 4th Henry III [1220], he was made governor of Saubey Castle, Leicestershire, and the next year constituted sheriff of the cos. Essex and Hertford, and afterwards of Leicestershire. In the 8th of the same reign, he was governor of the castle at Hertford, and in two years after, one of the justices itinerant in the cos. Nottingham and Derby. About this period we find this successful person, whom Matthew Paris says, in his young days "from a clerk was made a knight," acquiring large landed property by purchase. In the 13th Henry III [1229], he bought the manor of Cotes, in the co. Derby, from the daus. and heirs of Stephen de Beauchamp, and he afterwards purchase from Ranulph, Earl of Chester and Lincoln, all the lands which that nobleman possessed at Mount Sorrell, co. Leicester, without the castle, as also two carucates and a half lying at Segrave which himself and his ancestors had previously held at the rent of 14s. per annum. In the 16th Henry III, he obtained a grant of the custody ofthe castle and county of Northampton, as also of the cos. Bedford, Buckingham,Warwick, and Leicester, for the term of his life, taking the whole profit of all those shires for his support in that service, excepting the ancient farms which had usually been paid into the exchequer.

Having been of the king's council for several years, as also chief justice of the Common Pleas, he succeeded,in the 16th Henry III, Hubert de Burgh in the great office of justiciary of England, being at the same time constituted governor of Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, &c., and constable of the Tower of London. After this we find him, however, opposed by the bishops and barons and his manor house at Segrave burnt to theground by the populace, as well as another mansion in the co. Huntingdon. The king, too, in this perilous crisis, deserted him and cited him, along with Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, and others who had been in power, to appearforthwith at court in order to answer any charge regarding the wasting of the public treasure, which might be preferred against them. Some of those persons, conscious of guilt, fled to sanctuary, and Stephen de Segrave sought an asylum in the abbey of Leicester, where he openly declared that he was and had been a priest, and that he resolved to shave his crown again to be a canon of that house. Nevertheless, upon second thoughts, he braved the storm and appeared at court under the archbishop's protection, where the king called him a wicked traitor, and told him that it was under his advice that he had displaced Hubert de Burgh from the office of justiciary and cast that eminent person into prison, nay, that had he gone the full length of his council, Hubert would have been hanged, and divers of the nobility banished. In twelve