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Gilbert Fitz Richard (c. 1066–c. 1117), 2nd feudal baron of Clare in Suffolk, and styled "de Tonbridge", was a powerful Anglo-Norman baron who was granted the Lordship of Cardigan, in Wales c. 1107–1111.

Life

Gilbert, born before 1066, was the second son and an heir of Richard Fitz Gilbert of Clare and Rohese Giffard. He succeeded to his father's possessions in England in 1088 when his father retired to a monastery; his brother, Roger Fitz Richard, inherited his father's lands in Normandy. That same year he, along with his brother Roger, fortified his castle at Tonbridge against the forces of William Rufus. But his castle was stormed, Gilbert was wounded and taken prisoner. However he and his brother were in attendance on king William Rufus at his death in August 1100. He was with Henry I at his Christmas court at Westminster in 1101.

It has been hinted, by modern historians, that Gilbert, as a part of a baronial conspiracy, played some part in the suspicious death of William II. Frank Barlow points out that no proof has been found he had any part in the king's death or that a conspiracy even existed.

In 1110, King Henry I took Cardigan from Owain ap Cadwgan, son of Cadwgan ap Bleddyn as punishment for a number of crimes including that of the abduction of Nest, wife of Gerald de Windsor. In turn Henry gave the Lordship of Cardigan, including Cardigan Castle to Gilbert Fitz Richard. He founded the Clunic priory at Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk. Gilbert died in or before 1117.

Family

About 1088, Gilbert married Adeliza/Alice de Clermont, daughter of Hugh, Count of Clermont, and Margaret de Ramerupt. Gilbert and Adeliza had at least eight children:

• Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare, d. 1136.
• Gilbert Fitz Gilbert de Clare, d. 1148, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
• Baldwin Fitz Gilbert de Clare, d. 1154, m. Adeline de Rollos.
• Adelize/Alice de Clare, d. 1163, m. (ca. 1105), Aubrey II de Vere, son of Aubrey I de Vere and Beatrice. She had 9 children and in her widowhood was a corrodian at St. Osyth's, Chich, Essex.
• Hervey de Clare, Lord of Montmorency.
• Walter de Clare, d. 1149.
• Margaret de Clare, d. 1185, m. (ca. 1108), Sir William de Montfitchet, Lord of Stansted Mountfitchet.
• Rohese de Clare, d. 1149, m. (ca. 1130), Baderon of Monmouth

References

1. Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, p.35
2. George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1913), p. 242
3. Frank Barlow, William Rufus (Berkeley & Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1983), p. 73
4. George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1913), p. 243 & n. (a)
5. ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Clare, Gilbert de (d.1115?)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
6. ^ Frank Barlow, William Rufus (Berkeley & Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1983), p. 425
7. John Davies, A History of Wales (London: Penguin Group, 1993), pp. 112–13
8. ^ George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1913), p. 243
9. ^ Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 4 (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 653
10. Frank Barlow, William Rufus (Berkeley & Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1983), p. 140
11. ^ John Horace Round, Studies in Peerage and Family History (Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1901), p. 214
12. K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066–1166, Vol. II (UK & Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2002), pp. 668–69
13. K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Family Trees and the Root of Politics; A Prosopography of Britain and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century (Woodbridge UK: The Boydell Press, 1997), p. 180
14. James H. Ramsay, The Angevin Empire, or the Three Reigns of Henry II, Richard I, and John (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1903), p. 151
15. George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage; or, A History of the House of Lords and All its Members from the Earliest Times, Vol. X, Eds. H. A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, & Howard de Walden (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1945), p. 348 n. (c)
16. J.R. Planché, The Conqueror and His Companions (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874), p. 52
17. George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol 12, Part 2, Eds. Geoffrey H. White & R.S. Lea (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1959), p. 168

• Anglo-Normans
• De Clare family
• People from Clare, Suffolk
• Burials at Tonbridge Priory, Kent
• 1060s births
• 1110s deaths