67251978Richard de Clare's entry in The Complete Peerage
George Edward Cokayne and Vicary Gibbs, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All Its Members from the Earliest Times, 2nd edition, volume VI: Gordon to Hurstpierpoint (St. Catherine Press, London, 1926), pages 501-503


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RICHARD (DE CLARE), EARL OF HERTFORD,(d) but, like his father and uncle more generally known as EARL OF CLARE, s. and h.,(e) had a grant of a moiety of the Giffard estates.(f) He was present at the coronation of Richard I at Westminster, 3 Sep. 1189.(g) In 1191 he was one of the eleven appointed by the Chancellor to determine (with eleven chosen on the part of Prince John) the questions
(d)Of which he had the third penny. (See Pipe Roll, Essex and Herts, 2 Ric. I, and passim). It was probably he whose claim was heard after a great summons of the Hundred of Risbridge at Witham. The Earl of Clare came with a number of knights and barons and in the presence of Earl Aubrey and others claimed 5s. yearly out of that Hundred, his ancestors having been enfeoffed at the time of the Conquest of the land of Alfric, son of Withar, formerly lord of that Hundred. The Abbot replied that Edward the Confessor had granted the whole Hundred to St. Edmund’s without any mention of the 5s., and asked for what service it was paid. The Earl replied that it was for carrying the banner of St. Edmund in the army. The Abbot said it was a small fee for such a service to such a man, that Earl Bigot said he was seised of that service and he had carried it when the Earl of Leicester was taken and the Flemings destroyed; also Thomas of Mendham had said it was his right. If the Earl would settle the matter with them, he was quite willing to pay the 5s. The Earl of Clare said he would talk to his kinsman Earl Roger. (Memorials of St. Edmund’s, vol. i, pp. 261-2).
(e)Earl Roger appears to have had 2 other sons John and Richard [sic], who (as also their uncle Richard de Clare) were witnesses to charters of Richard, s. of Roger de Clare, to Stoke Priory as Earl of Hertford (B.M., Cotton MS., "Appendix xxi," folios 20, 24, 26, 26 d, 31 d). He had also a da. “Mabilia de Heliun que est 60 annorum est de donatione domini Regis cujus heres est Robertus de Heliun: et ipsa fuit filia Rogeri filii Ricardi.” (J. H. Round, Rotulus de Dominabus, p. 59, 1185). William de Helion held the Helion fief in 1142, and Mabel was his wife. She may have been da. of a 1st marriage of Earl Roger.
(f)Charter of Richard I to Richard de Clare, Earl of Hereford [sic], and to William le Marescal and Isabel his wife, da. of Earl Richard, of all the land that was Earl Giffard’s in England and in Normandy, so that the “esnecia & capud” in England should remain to Richard de Clare, and that in Normandy to William and Isabel, each party holding a moiety of all, as Earl Walter Giffard best held the same (Cartæ Antiquæ, S. 24). For this moiety he paid 1,000 marks (Pipe Roll, 3 Ric. I). It came to him by descent from Rohese, da. of Walter Giffard, the elder (see under CLARE). The younger Walter, Earl of Buckingham, d. 1164 (see under BUCKINGHAM). See also Abbrev. Plac., p. 92, Mich. 15 John: Richard, Earl of Clare—Walter Giffard and Ermengarde, his wife, their charter confirmed by Henry I.
(g)Gesta Ricardi, vol. ii, p. 80.

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between them.(a) In 1193 he was enjoined (with others) by the Chancellor to accompany him on his return to the King, then a prisoner in Germany.(b) He had acquittance in 1194/5 as being with the King in the army in Normandy.(c) On the accession of King John in 1199 he was one of those of whom Archbishop Hubert and the partisans of the King entertained most doubt, and he received a summons to Northampton, where an oath was taken that King John would restore to every man his right, if they would keep peace with him, and they swore accordingly.(d) He was present at the coronation of King John at Westminster, 27 May 1199, and at the homage of William, King of Scotland, at Lincoln.(e) He sided with the Barons against King John, and his castle of Tonbridge was taken.(f) He played a leading part in the negotiations for Magna Carta, and was one of the 25 Barons guardians thereof.(g) On 9 Nov. 1215 he was one of the commissioners on the part of the Barons to treat of peace with the King.(h) On 4 Mar. 1215/6 his lands in cos. Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex were granted to Robert de Betun, and soon after his lands in other counties;(i) and he and his son were among the Barons excommunicated by Pope Innocent III in 1216.(j) He m. Amice, 2nd da. and coh, and eventually sole h. of William (FITZROBERT), EARL OF GLOUCESTER, by Hawise, da. of Robert (DE BEAUMONT), EARL OF LEICESTER.(k) They appear to have been separated (perhaps pending a dispensation) prior to 1200.(l)
(a)"Ad honorem utriusque partis et pacem regni" (De rebus gestis Ric. I, vol. iii, p. 409).
(b)In Apr. 1193 the Chancellor (the Bishop of Ely) brought to St. Albans, where the Queen Mother and others met him, letters from Richard I announcing the treaty made between him and the Emperor, and charging his subjects to raise the ransom (Walter of Coventry, vol. ii, p. 33).
(c)Pipe Roll (Norfolk and Suffolk), 6 Ric. I.
(d)Annales de Burton, p. 199.
(e)Roger de Hoveden, vol. iv, pp. 90 and 142.
(f)Matthew Paris, Hist. Angl. temp. Reg. Job., vol. ii, p. 170.
(g)Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 306.
(h)Cal. Patent Rolls, p. 158.
(i)Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees, vol. i, p. 26. “... but it is unlikely that these grants had much effect in the then condition of the country.”
(j)Rymer, Fœdera, vol. i, p. 9.
(k)See under GLOUCESTER, Earldom. Isabel, the 3rd da. and coh., had the Earldom of Gloucester, and m. King John. She d. s.p., in 1217, having also m. Geoffrey (de Mandeville), Earl of Essex, and Hubert de Burgh, the Justiciar. The eldest da., Mabel, m. the Count of Evreux, and was mother of Aumarie, who had the Earldom, but d. s.p.; so that in 1217 Amice, the 2nd da,, became apparently suo jure Countess of Gloucester, and her eldest son was so recognised.
(l)In Trinity 2 John (1200) there was an assize as to whether Amice (who was wife of Richard, Earl of Clare) and others disseised a man of Sudbury of his freehold there. "Comitissa dicit quod ipsa, cum per lineam consanguinitatis per preceptum summi pontificis separata fuit a comite de Clar' viro suo, cui villa de Sudberi data fuit cum ipsa in maritagium, ipsa venit apud Sudberi et curiam suam convocavit, et fecit eundem Ricardum summonari" (Curia Regis Roll, p. 186, Suffolk). On the

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He d. between 30 Oct.(a) and 28 Nov. 1217.(b) She is stated to have d. 1 Jan. 1224/5, before which date she appears to have been recognised as Countess of Gloucester.(c)
same roll (p. 249) she is described as "Amicia que fuit comitissa de Clare." Sudbury was a Gloucester fee, and there she founded a hospital in her widowhood (Register of Stoke Priory, B.M., Cott. MS., Appendix xxi, fol. 30). Other of her charters in Stoke Priory Register are as Amice, Countess of Clare, da. of William, Earl of Gloucester; Amice, the Countess, da. of William, Earl of Gloucester; and as Amice, da. of William, Earl of Gloucester (fols. 28-31). In her charters no mention seems to be made of the Earl, her husband, but only of Gilbert, the Earl, or Gilbert, her s. and h., and of her father and mother, &c.
(a)Writs issued for his scutage (Cal. Close Roll, p. 372).
(b)When writs were issued “Scias quod Ricardus quondam Comes de Clare mortuus est,” and all his lands were to be taken into the King’s hand “salvo racionabili testamento ejusdem comitis” (Idem, p. 344).
(c)In the Pipe Roll of 5 Hen. III (1220/1), rot. 4, appears under Norfolk and Suffolk “Isti habunt quietancias per brevia ... Comes de Clara de 131 f etc.” of the fee of the Honour of Gloucester as heir of the Countess his mother—that is, Countess of Gloucester and not of “Clare” or Hertford (see note “1” on preceding page).