Notes
Note N1311
Index
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NSW BDM - Death: 17651/1956 - CANNINGS, HENRIETTA MAY - FRANCIS SIDNEY - EMILY MAUD - SYDNEY
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Notes
Note N1312
Index
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NSW BDM - Death: 21791/1955 - FEGAN, ELSIE VERONICA - FRANCIS SIDNEY - EMILY - RYDE
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Speech impediment
Gladesville Asylum
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Notes
Note N1315
Index
William de \Braose\ Lord
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Braose,_Lord_of_Abergavenny
William de \Braose\, Lord of Abergavenny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
William de \Braose\, Lord of Abergavenny (c. 1197 May 2, 1230) was the son of Reginald de \Braose\ by his first wife, Gracia de \Briwere\. The Welsh, who detested him, called him Gwilym Ddu (Black William). He succeeded his father in his various lordships in 1227, including Abergavenny and Builth.
He was married to Eva Marshall, daughter of the famous William Marshall. They had four daughters and coheiresses:
1. Isabella, wife of Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn
2. Maud, wife of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Wigmore
3. Eleanor, wife of Humphrey de \Bohun\
4. Eve, wife of William de Cantelou
He was captured and imprisoned (as an act of retaliation) by Llywelyn the Great, ruler of most of Wales, in 1229, but was given relative freedom because he was related to the prince by marriage in several ways; his daughter, Isabella, was married to Llywelyn's only legitimate son. However, William then began an affair with Llywelyn's wife, the Princess Joan. The Chronicle of Ystrad Fflur entry for 1230 reads:
"In this year William de Breos the Younger, lord of Brycheiniog, was hanged by the Lord Llywelyn in Gwynedd, after he had been caught in Llywelyn's chamber with the king of England's daughter, Llywelyn's wife."
Llywelyn had William hanged on May 2, 1230. Joan herself was later pardoned.
He was the sixth Baron of Braose, England.
http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/windsorhistory/braose01.html
William de \Braose\ and St Leonard's Hermitage
To the west of Windsor the land rises to the hill which takes its name from the medieval hermitage of St. Leonard. It is understandable that this hill, with its spring of water on the edge of Windsor Forest, might draw a man wishing to retreat from the world. A hermit lived a solitary life though he was not enclosed in his cell as an anchorite would be. His primary work was prayer but he might also undertake some other task such as guiding travellers through waste land. Though a religious he was not necessarily a priest, though he was one in the case of St. Leonard's.
We do not know when the chapel was established but St. Leonard, a 6th century frankish nobleman who became a Christian and a hermit, was a popular dedication in the 11th and 12th centuries. We do know that at the beginning of the 13th century William de \Braose\ held the right to appoint the priest, for it was in this connection that we have the first known reference in official records to St. Leonard's. In February 1215 the presentation of a priest to the chapel was made by King John (Footnote 1) because all William's possessions, including this advowson (right to appoint) had been seized by the King. To explain the circumstances it is necessary to look at the background.
William de \Braose\ is one of the personalities of the Middle Ages who catches the imagination. He was the most famous member of the de \Braose\ family, a great lord who played an important part in the local as well as the national scene. The possessions he inherited and acquired by marriage in England and Wales were immense. His great-grandfather, another William, was Lord of Braose (or Briouze) in Normandy, whose castle lay not far from Falaise where William the Conqueror was born. He must have been one of the Conqueror's favoured commanders judging by the grants of the land he received after the Conquest; according to the Domesday Survey he had 61 manors in Berkshire besides many more elsewhere.
William, the 4th Baron, succeeded his father in about 1187. On John's accession to the throne in 1199 William, who was a leader among those urging that he should be crowned, became John's close companion in Britain and Normandy; John made him various territorial grants and it was the non-payment of dues on these lands which was the ostensible reason for William's later downfall. However it seems likely that the trouble between them arose from the King's loss of confidence in the discretion of William and especially of his wife, Maud (sometimes called Matilda). It appears that William was one of the few people to know what happened to John's nephew, Arthur of Brittany, who was John's only serious rival for the throne, being the son of John's elder brother.
This boy had been captured by John in 1202 and put in the charge of Hubert de \Burgh\ at Falaise. It was said that Hubert was ordered to blind Arthur but could not bring himself to do so; Shakespeare uses this story in 'King John'. On 24th February 1203 John gave William the land of Gower (in South Wales) for himself and his heirs, it was said "on account of William threatening to depart from him and to return to England." It is possible that William had remonstrated with the King regarding Arthur and was bribed with Gower. William had publicly refused to take charge of the prince.
de \Braose\ Shield
The de \Braose\ Shield
It is believed that John killed Arthur with his own hands, and a detailed account of the story occurs in the Annals of Margam. The de \Braose\ family were patrons of this Cistercian Abbey in Glamorgan and the Annals seem to give information supplied by William. Certainly he was at Rouen with John at the time of S Arthur's death. The Margam account says: "After King John had captured Arthur and kept him alive in prison for some time, at length, in the castle of Rouen, after dinner on the Thursday before Easter" [i.e. 3rd April 1203] "when he was drunk and possessed by the devil, he slew him with his own hand, and tying a heavy stone to the body cast it into the Seine. It was discovered by a fisherman in his net . . . (and) taken for secret burial . . ." (Footnote 2)
William, however, continued to be a close companion of the King until his failure to pay his dues to the Crown caused a rift. In 1207, six years after obtaining the honour of Limerick, he had only paid 700 marks in all, instead of 500 marks a year, and he was in arrears for his other possessions. (Footnote 3) Then in 1208 the Interdict was laid upon England during the great struggle between John and the Pope over the election to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and William's son Giles, Bishop of Hereford, was one of the five bishops who went to France with the Primate. John must have suspected the loyalty of the rest of the family, and sent to William for a son as hostage against the possibility of the Pope absolving them from allegiance to him as their sovereign. The King's messengers were met by William but before he could reply his wife, Maud, with a reckless lack of tact, replied that she would entrust no son of hers to a monarch who could cause the death of his own nephew.
In an attempt to placate the King, rich gifts were sent; it was said that Maud sent Queen Isabella a herd of cows and a bull all white as milk but with red ears. The King was not to be appeased. William had already surrendered three Welsh castles in pledge for the large sums of money he owed the Crown; now he decided on defiance and tried to regain his castles. He failed and instead stormed and sacked half Leominster before John could send an army to drive the attackers away. William escaped to Ireland and left his family with relatives there whilst he returned to Wales where he harried the countryside. John crossed to Ireland and besieged Maud at Meath but she managed to escape to Scotland with her son and his wife, but they were captured in Galloway. John returned Maud and her son to England and they were eventually imprisoned in Windsor Castle where, it was commonly believed, they were starved to death in 1210. Such was the vengeful ferocity of John's wrath.
William was outlawed but escaped to France disguised as a beggar. He died in September 1211 at Corbeil; his body was taken to Paris and there interred by Stephen Langton, the exiled Archbishop.
Eventually the de \Braose\ lands were recovered by the family but, whilst they were still held by the King, John presented Geoffrey de Meysi as priest to the chapel of St. Leonard in the Windsor Forest, vacant by the death of Robert V Mauncell.
Later in the 13th century the advowson of St. Leonard's was held by the Lord of Clewer and in the 14th century the most illustrious member of the Brocas family. Sir Bernard (Footnote 4) showed an interest in the hermitage. In 1354 he sought privileges for pilgrims to the hermitage by writing to the Pope pleading that:
"Whereas William the hermit, chaplain of St. Leonard Loffold (Losfield), in Windsor Forest, lives a solitary life, and serves God alone, and whereas a multitude of people flock to the chapel, the Pope is prayed to grant an indulgence to those who visit the chapel a. and give alms to the fabric." (Footnote 5).
The request was acceded to, and an indulgence d one year and forty days was granted in 1355 to those who visited the hermitage on the feasts of Pentecost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Leonard, and gave alms The grant of an indulgence was much valued for it was believed that a remission of that much punishment in Purgatory would be obtained as would have been worked off by penance for the given time.
The last mention of the hermitage in official records seems to be in conveyances of the manor in 1512, (Footnote 6) but there is little doubt that its endowments would have been confiscated at the Suppression of the Chantries in 1547 if it had not already ceased to exist.
Much later there was a country house called The Hermitage on St. Leonard's Hill. The naming of a later house after a former building is slight evidence for the site of that building, but here it does not seem unreasonable, as the plot of land was known as Eremytescroft (Hermit's Field). We know that the house was there in 1717 when William Stukeley, the antiquarian, referred to Mr. Robert Butler as living at The Hermitage. Letters from Frances, Countess of Hertford, in 1737 were addressed from The Hermitage and describe the house as "old and falling into disrepair".
The house, rebuilt in 1750, was bought in 1773 by the Duke of Gloucester who named it Sophia Farm after his daughter born in that year. He added it to his adjoining estate, the house of which was known as Gloucester Lodge. In 1782 Gloucester Lodge was bought by the 3rd Earl of Harcourt, in whose family it remained until 1872 when it was bought by Mr. (later Sir) Frances Tress Barry and thence became known as St. Leonard's Hill. Barry virtually rebuilt the house, which was sold in 1924 following Lady Barry's death, and the new owner began demolition at once. All that remains today is a sad and dangerous ruin.
Sophia Farm became known as St. Leonard's and from 1854-1920 was owned by the Brinckman family. It was bought in 1932 by Horace Dodge the American motor magnate who almost completely rebuilt it. Joseph Kennedy had use of the house whilst he was American Ambassador in London (1937-40), and it was occupied by him for about a year. The house remained empty for a number of years until 1966 when the estate was acquired by Billy Smart and in 1969 was transformed into the Windsor Safari Park. [By 1996 it had become Legoland. Editor]
We have come a long way from the hermit in the quiet chapel of St. Leonard on the Hill.
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William de Braose (died 1230)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arms attributed to this William de Braose by Matthew Paris
William de Braose (c. 1197 - 2 May 1230) was the son of Reginald de Braose by his first wife, Grecia Briwere. He was an ill-fated member of a powerful and long lived dynasty of Marcher Lords.
William de Braose was born in Brecon, probably between 1197 and 1204. The Welsh, who detested him and his family name, called him Gwilym Ddu, Black William. He succeeded his father in his various lordships in 1227, including Abergavenny and Builth.
William married Eva Marshal, daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. They had four daughters:
Isabella de Braose (born c. 1222), wife of Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn
Maud de Braose (born c. 1224 - 1301), wife of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Wigmore another very powerful Marcher dynasty.
Eleanor de Braose (c. 1226 - 1251), wife of Humphrey de Bohun and mother of Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford.
Eve de Braose (c. 1227- July 1255), wife of William de Cantelou.
He was captured by the Welsh forces of Prince Llywelyn the Great, in fighting in the commote of Ceri near Montgomery, in 1228. William was ransomed for the sum of £2,000 and then furthermore made an alliance with Llywelyn, arranging to marry his daughter Isabella de Braose to Llywelyn's only legitimate son Dafydd ap Llywelyn.
However on a later visit to Llywelyn during Easter 1230 William de Braose was found in Llywelyn's private bedchamber with Llywelyn's wife, Joan, Lady of Wales.
The Chronicle of Ystrad Fflur's entry for 1230 reads:
"In this year William de Breos the Younger, lord of Brycheiniog, was hanged by the Lord Llywelyn in Gwynedd, after he had been caught in Llywelyn's chamber with the king of England's daughter, Llywelyn's wife."
Llywelyn had William publicly hanged on 2 May 1230, possibly at Crogen, near Bala,[1] though others believe the hanging took place near Llywelyn's palace at Abergwyngregyn.[2]
With William's death by hanging and his having four daughters, who divided the de Braose inheritance between them and no male heir, the titles now passed to the junior branch of the de Braose dynasty, the only male heir was now John de Braose who had already inherited the titles of Gower and Bramber from his far-sighted uncle Reginald de Braose.
William's wife Eva continued to hold de Braose lands and castles in her own right, after the death of her husband. She was listed as the holder of Totnes in 1230, and was granted 12 marks to strengthen Hay Castle by King Henry III on the Close Rolls (1234-1237).