Adventures in Genealogy

Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford
My 21st Great Grandfather

Born: 
1276
Died: 16 March 1322, Boroughbridge, Yorkshire

Father: 
Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford
Mother: Maud de Fiennes

Wife:
 Elizabeth of Rhuddlan
Children: Hugh de Bohun, died aged 2; Eleanor de Bohun, Countess of Ormonde; Humphrey & Mary, twins, died at birth; John de Bohun, 5th Earl of Hereford; Humphrey de Bohun, 6th Earl of Hereford; Margaret de Bohun, 2nd Countess of Devon; William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton; Edward de Bohun, twin of William; Eneas de Bohun; Isabel de Bohun, both mother and baby died in childbirth.

Elizabeth of Rhuddlan
My 21st Great Grandmother

Born: 7 August 1282
Died: 5 May 1316

Father: 
Edward I, King of England
Mother: Eleanor of Castile
Siblings: Edward II, King of England

First Husband:
 John I, Count of Holland
Children: none

Second Husband:
 Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, 3rd Earl of Essex
Children: Hugh de Bohun, died aged 2; Eleanor de Bohun, Countess of Ormonde; Humphrey & Mary, twins, died at birth; John de Bohun, 5th Earl of Hereford; Humphrey de Bohun, 6th Earl of Hereford; Margaret de Bohun, 2nd Countess of Devon; William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton; Edward de Bohun, twin of William; Eneas de Bohun; Isabel de Bohun, both mother and baby died in childbirth.

Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere
My 21st Great Grandfather

Born: 1275
Died: 14 April 1322, Canterbury

Father: Gunselm de Badlesmere
Mother: Joan FitzBernard

Wife:
 Margaret de Clare
Children: Margery de Badlesmere; Maud de Badlesmere; Elizabeth de Badlesmere; Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badlesmere; Margaret de Badlesmere

On 1 November 1317, King Edward II appointed Bartholomew as custodian of Leeds Castle in Kent.

At this time, England was divided between the king’s supporters, an opposition led by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and a middle party which Bartholomew belonged to. Bartholomew helped to make peace between the king and the earl in 1318, but later the king’s conduct drew Bartholomew to the side of Lancaster.

In October 1321, Bartholomew’s wife, Margaret de Clare, refused to admit Queen Isabella to her husband’s castle at Leeds. The king made an assault on the castle; eventually capturing it.

After the castle was captured, Kind Edward II seized and imprisoned Margaret and their five children, and then civil war broke out. Bartholomew (who was not at the castle when it fell) fled warrants for his arrest, and eventually joined the Lancaster forces.

On 16 March 1322, the Earl of Lancaster and his allies were defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge, and Bartholomew was arrested. He was tried and sentenced to high treason, the punishment for which was a gruesome death: to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Following his punishment, Bartholomew’s head was displayed on Burgh Gate at Canterbury.

Margaret de Clare, Baroness Badlesmere
My 21st Great Grandmother

Born: 
1 April 1287
Died: 22 October 1333 -or- 3 January 1334 (disputed), convent house of the Minorite Sisters, Aldgate, London

Father: Thomas de Clare, Lord of Thomond

Mother: Juliana FitzGerald of Offaly

Husband: Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere

Children: Margery de Badlesmere; Maud de Badlesmere; Elizabeth de Badlesmere; Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badlesmere; Margaret de Badlesmere

Margaret de Clare was the first recorded woman imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Margaret’s husband Bartholomew had joined the Contrariants, a group led by the Earl of Lancaster in opposition to the rule of King Edward II. In October 1321, Bartholomew left the castle to attend a meeting of the Contrariants, and allegedly told his wife to allow no one to enter the castle in his absence.

Queen Isabella arrived at the castle during this time, and Margaret, who was already on hostile terms with the Queen, refused her entry. The Queen tried to enter the castle anyway, and Margaret ordered the castle guard to attack her entourage. King Edward II lay siege to the castle in retaliation. The castle surrendered after five days of siege, and Margaret was taken prisoner, along with her five children.

This event quickly precipitated a civil war – in fact, historians have speculated that Isabella’s initial attempt to stay at the castle was a deliberate provocation to create an excuse for the king to wage war on the Contrarians.

Bartholomew fought with the Earl of Lancaster against the king, and was eventually arrested and sentenced to death in Canterbury. Margaret and her children spent a year in the tower.

Sir Robert Bourchier, 1st Baron Bourchier
My 19th Great Grandfather

Born: 
unknown (assumed late 1200s)
Died: 1349

Father: 
John de Bourchier
Mother: Helen of Colchester

Wife:
 Margaret Prayers
Children: Sir William Bourchier

Sir Robert Bourchier served on a diplomatic mission to France in 1327, and was returned as a member of parliament for the county of Essex. In 1334, he was chief justice of the king’s bench in Ireland. He joined the invasion of Scotland in 1335, and may have been present at the battle of Cadsant in 1337. He traveled with the Earl of Northampton on Edward III’s expedition to Flanders in 1338, and upon his return, Edward III made him Lord Chancellor of England. In 1342, he commanded a contingent in Brittany, and is recorded as being at the battle of Crecy in 1346. He died in 1349, likely from the Black Death.