Richard fitz Gilbert

Male Abt 1024 - Abt 1090  (~ 66 years)


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  • Name Richard fitz Gilbert  [1, 2
    Born Abt 1024  Bienfaite, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Gender Male 
    Died Abt 1090  [3
    Buried 1091  St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 3
    Notes 
    • He was the son of Gilbert, Comte de Brionne and Gunnora d'Aunou. He married Rohese Giffard, daughter of Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville and Agnes Ermentrude Fleitel, circa 1054. He died circa 1090. He was buried at St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England.

      He was also known as Richard de Clare. He gained the title of Lord of Bienfaite [Normandy]. Richard fitz Gilbert also went by the nick-name of Richard de Bienfaite. He gained the title of Lord of Orbec [Normandy]. Circa 1066 he accompanied William the Conqueror to England. He received 176 Lordships, 95 in Suffolk. He was created 1st Lord of Clare [feudal baron]. In 1075 He helped to suppress the revolt. He held the office of Joint Chief Justiciar. He has an extensive biographical entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.

      Dictionary of National Biography

      Clare, Richard de d. 1090?, founder of the house of Clare, was a son [see Clare, family of] of Count Gilbert. Though here, for convenience, inserted among the Clares, he was known at the time as Richard de Bienfaite, Richard the son of Count Gilbert, Richard FitzGilbert, or Richard of Tonbridge, the last three of these styles being those under which he appears in Domesday. He is, however, once entered (in the Suffolk invasiones) as Richard de Clare (Domesday, ii. 448 a). It was probably in 1070 that, with his brother, he witnessed a charter of William at Salisbury (Glouc. Cart. i. 387). On William's departure for Normandy he was appointed, with William of Warrenne, chief justiciar (or regent), and in that capacity took a leading part in the suppression of the revolt of 1075 (Ord. Vit. ii. 262). He is further found in attendance on the king at Berkeley, Christmas 1080 (Glouc. Cart. i. 374), and again, with his brother, at Winchester in 1081 (Mon. Angl. iii. 141). The date of his death is somewhat uncertain. Ordericus (iii. 371) alludes to him as lately (nuper) dead in 1091, yet apparently implies that at this very time he was captured at the siege of Courcy. From Domesday we learn that he received in England some hundred and seventy lordships, of which ninety-five were in Suffolk, attached to his castle of Clare. In Kent he held another stronghold, the castle of Tunbridge, with its appendant Lowy (Lega), of which the continuator of William of Jumièges asserts (viii. 37) that he received it in exchange for his claim on his father's comté of Brionne, while the Tintern Genealogia (Monasticon Anglican. v. 269) states that he obtained it by exchange from the see of Canterbury, which is confirmed by the fact that, in later days, it was claimed by Becket as having been wrongly alienated, and homage for its tenure exacted from the earls (Materials, iii. 47, 251). By Stapleton (ii. 136) and Ormerod (Strig. 79) it has been held that he received the lordship of Chepstow as an escheat in 1075, but for this there is no foundation. The abbey of Bec received from him a cell, afterwards an alien priory, at Tooting (Mon. Angl. vi. 1052-3). He married Rohaise, the daughter of Walter Giffard the elder (Ord. Vit. iii. 340), through whom his descendants became coheirs to the Giffard estates. She held lands at St. Neot's (Domesday), and there founded a religious house, where her husband is said to have been buried (Mon. Angl. v. 269). She was still living as his widow in 1113 (ib. iii. 473), and is commonly, but wrongly, said to have married her son-in-law, Eudes the sewer (Eudo Dapifer). By her Richard FitzGilbert left several children (Ord. Vit. iii. 340). Of these Roger, mentioned first by Ordericus, was probably the eldest, though he is commonly, as by Stapleton (ii. 136), styled the second. He had sided with Robert in the revolt of 1077-8 (Ord. Vit. ii. 381), and is said by the continuator of William of Jumièges (viii. 37) to have received from Robert the castle of Hommez in exchange for his claims on Brionne, but it was, according to Ordericus (iii. 343), his cousin Robert FitzBaldwin who made and pressed the claim to Brionne. Roger, who witnessed as Roger de Clare (apparently the earliest occurrence of the name) a charter to St. Evreul (Ord. Vit. v. 180) about 1080, was his father's heir in Normandy, but left no issue. The other sons were Gilbert (d. 1115?) [qv.], the heir in England, Walter [see Clare, Walter de], Robert, said to be ancestor of the Barons FitzWalter (but on this descent see Mr. Eyton's criticisms in Add. MS. 31938, f. 98), and Richard a monk of Bec (Ord. Vit. iii. 340), who was made abbot of Ely on the accession of Henry I (ib. iv. 93), deprived in 1102, and restored in 1107 (Eadmer, v. 143, 185). There was also a daughter Rohaise, married about 1088 to Eudes the sewer (Mon. Angl. iv. 609).

      Sources:

      Ordericus Vitalis, ed. Société de l'Histoire de France
      William of Jumièges and his Continuator
      Domesday
      Monasticon Anglicanum (new ed.)
      Eadmeri Historia (Rolls Ser.)
      Cartulary of St. Peter's, Gloucester (ib.)
      Materials for the History of Becket (ib.)
      Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.)
      Stapleton's Rolls of the Norman Exchequer
      Ormerod's Strigulensia.

      Contributor: J. H. R. [John Horace Round]

      Published: 1887

      Richard fitz Gilbert (c. 1030 - 1091), was a Norman lord who participated in the Norman conquest of England in 1066. He was also known as "de Bienfaite", "de Clare", and "de Tonbridge".

      Biography

      According to the medieval chronicler Gerald of Wales, the first of this great family, Richard de Clare, was the eldest son of Gilbert, surnamed Crispin, Count of Brionne, in Normandy. This Richard fitz-Gilbert came into England with William the Conqueror, and received from him great advancement in honour and possessions.

      The Dictionary of National Biography and other sources are vague and sometimes contradictory about when the name de Clare came into common usuage, but what we do know is that Richard fitz Gilbert (of Tonbridge), the earliest identifiable progenitor of the family, is once referred to as Richard of Clare in the Suffolk return of the Domesday Book.

      Rewards

      He was rewarded with 176 lordships and large grants of land in England, including the right to build the castles of Clare and of Tonbridge. Richard fitz Gilbert received the lordship of Clare, in Suffolk, where parts of the wall of Clare Castle still stand. He was thus Lord of Clare. Some contemporaneous and later sources called him Earl of Clare, though many modern sources view the title as a "styled title".

      He served as Joint Chief Justiciar in William's absence, and played a major part in suppressing the revolt of 1075.

      Rebel Baron

      On William's death, Richard and other great Norman barons, including Odo of Bayeux, Robert, Count of Mortain , William fitz Osbern and Geoffrey of Coutances, led a rebellion against the rule of William Rufus in order to place Robert Curthose on the throne. However, most Normans in England remained loyal. William Rufus and his army successfully attacked the rebel strongholds at Tonbridge, Pevensey and Rochester.

      Death and succession

      He was buried in St. Neot's Priory in 1091. His widow was still living in 1113. His lands were inherited by his son, Gilbert fitz Richard.

      Family

      He was the son of Gilbert "Crispin", Count of Brionne, grandson of Richard I of Normandy. In spite of this, sources as far back as the Annals of the Four Masters claim that Richard's great-grandson, Richard "Strongbow", was the direct descendant of Robert "the Devil", father of William the Conqueror.

      Richard married Rohese Giffard, daughter of Sir Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville and Agnes Flaitel, and had the following children:

      Walter de Clare, Lord of Nether Gwent, d. 1138
      Richard fitz Richard de Clare, Abbot of Ely, d. 1107
      Roger fitz Richard de Clare, received Norman lands and d. 1131, apparently without issue
      Gilbert fitz Richard, d. 1115, succeeded his father as Earl of Clare
      Robert fitz Richard, Lord of Little Dunmow, Baron of Baynard, d. 1136
      Rohese de Clare, d. 1121, m. (ca. 1088), Eudo de Rie.
      Adelize de Clare, d. 1138. m. Walter Tirel

      Surrey

      Richard's Surrey lands had a value of £241: 30% of the value of his English lands. Within Surrey, Richard fitz Gilbert owned manors in the following places: Albury, Beddington, Bletchingley, Buckland, Chelsham, Chessington, Chipstead, Chivington, Effingham, Apps in Elmbridge, Farleigh, Immerworth (Kingston upon Thames), Long Ditton, Mickleham, Molesey, Ockley, Old Malden, Shalford, Streatham, Tandridge, Tolworth, Tooting, Walton-on-Thames, Warlingham, Tillingdon, and Woldingham.
    Person ID I174  Bosdet Genealogy
    Last Modified 16 May 2013 

    Father Gilbert, Count of Brionne,   b. Abt 1000, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1040, Eschafour Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 40 years) 
    Relationship Natural 
    Mother Gunnora d'Aunou,   b. Abt 984, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Relationship Natural 
    Married 1012  [4
    Family ID F501  Group Sheet

    Family Rohese Giffard,   b. 1034, Longueville, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married Abt 1054  [5
    Children 
     1. Robert fitz Richard,   d. 1134
     2. Roger fitz Richard
     3. Gilbert Fitz Richard,   b. Bef 1066, Clare, Suffolk, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1114  (Age 48 years)
    Family ID F61  Group Sheet

  • Sources 
    1. [S177] Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, Charles Mosley, (Name: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd; Location: Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A; Date: 2003;).

    2. [S174] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fitz_Gilbert.

    3. [S179] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed, G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, (Name: Alan Sutton Publishing; Location: Gloucester, U.K.; Date: 2000;).

    4. [S174] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert,_Count_of_Brionne.

    5. [S160] Richard Glanville-Brown, (Location: 2, Milton, Ontario, Canada;).