Gilbert de , Earl Gloucester & Hertford CLARE

                   Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and 2nd Earl of Gloucester, thenin minority at the decease of his father in 1229. The wardship of thisyoung nobleman was granted to the famous Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent,Justiciary of England, whose dau., Margaret, to the great displeasure ofthe king (Henry III), he afterwards (1243) clandestinely married but fromwhom he was probably divorced, for we find the king marrying him the nextyear to Maude, dau. of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in considerationwhereof the said John paid to the crown 5,000 marks and remitted a debtof 2,000 more. His lordship, who appears to have been a verydistinguished personage in the reign of Henry III, was one of the chiefnobles present in Westminster Hall (40th Henry III) [1256], whenBoniface, archbishop of Canterbury, with divers other prelates,pronounced that solemn curse, with candles lighted, against all those whoshould thenceforth violate Magna Carta. In two years afterwards, anattempt was made by Walter de Scotenay, his chief counsellor, to poisonthe earl and his brother William, which proved effective as to thelatter, while his lordship narrowly escaped with the loss of his hair andnails. In the next year the earl was commissioned, with others of thenobility by the appointment of the king and the whole baronage ofEngland, to the parliament of France to convey King Henry III'sresignation of Normandy and to adjust all differences between the twocrowns; and upon the return of the mission, his lordship reportedproceedings to the king, in parliament. About this period he had licenseto fortify the isle of Portland and to embattle it as a fortress. It isreported of this nobleman that, being at Tewkesbury in the 45th Henry III[1261], a Jew, who had fallen into a jakes upon the Saturday, refusing tobe pulled out in reverence of the Jewish sabbath, his lordship prohibitedany help to be afforded him on the next day, the Christian sabbath, andthus suffered the unfortunate Israelite to perish. He d. himself in theJuly of the next year (1262), having been poisoned at the table of Peterde Savoy, the queen's uncle, along with Baldwin, Earl of Devon, and otherpersons of note. His lordship left issue, Gilbert, his successor, Thomas,Rose, and Margaret. The earl was s. by his elder son, Gilbert de Clare.[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage,London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls ofGloucester]

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Richard de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, 8TH EARL OF CLARE, 6TH EARL OFHERTFORD (b. Aug. 4, 1222--d. July 15, 1262, Eschemerfield, nearCanterbury, Kent, Eng.), the most powerful English noble of his time. Heheld estates in more than 20 English counties, including the lordship ofTewkesbury, wealthy manors in Gloucester, and the great marcher lordshipof Glamorgan. He himself acquired the Kilkenny estates in Ireland and thelordship of Usk and Caerleon in south Wales, making him the greatest lordin south Wales; in Glamorgan especially he was almost an independentprince.

Son of Gilbert de Clare (the 6th Earl), Richard succeeded to the earldomsin October 1230. He refused to help King Henry III on the Frenchexpedition of 1253 but was with him afterward at Paris. Thereafter hewent on a diplomatic errand to Scotland and was sent to Germany to workamong the princes for the election of his stepfather, Richard, Earl ofCornwall, as king of the Romans. About 1258 Gloucester became a leader ofthe barons in their resistance to the king, and he was prominent duringthe proceedings that followed the Mad Parliament at Oxford in 1258. In1259, however, he quarreled with Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester;the dispute, begun in England, was renewed in France, and he was again inthe confidence of the king. This attitude, too, was only temporary, andin 1261 Gloucester and Montfort were again working in concord.[Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1996, GLOUCESTER, RICHARD DE CLARE, 7THEARL OF]