Richard de Clare Justiciar of England

   Another name for Richard was Richard Fitz Gilbert.

  General Notes:

~Weis' Ancestral Roots . . ., 8th Edition, 184:2, 246B:24, 246D:24, Richard Fitz Gilbert of Clare and Tonbride married Rohese Giffard, the daughter of Walter Giffard. They had a son named Gilbert Fitz Richard.
¹⁶⁰

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Richard Fitz Gilbert, styled from his possession "de Bienfaite," "de Clare" and "de Tonbride," was son of Gilbert, comté de Brionne in Normandy, which Gilbert was son and heir of Godfrey, comté de Brionne, illegitimate son of Richard, Duc de Normandie. Richard was born before 1035, was Lord of Bienfaite and Orbec in Normandy, accompanied his kinsman, William the Conqueror, into England, and was rewarded by him with no less than 176 Lordships, of which 95 were in Suffolk, attached to the Honor of Clare, which honor, with the Castle of Clare, as also the Castle of Tonbridge in Kent, he obtained, becoming thus Lord of Clare and of Tonbridge. During the King's absence he was joint Chief justiciar, and, as such, suppressed the revolt of 1075.

Richard married Rohese, daughter of Walter Giffard, the elder, and aunt and heir of Walter Giffard, 2nd Earl of Buckingham, through which match his descendants became coheirs to the lands of that family. Richard was living in 1081, but appears to have died about 1090 being buried at St. Neots, Huntingdon. His widow was living in 1113.

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, (Clare), Vol. III, p. 242

• Background Information. ⁹⁰²
Richard de Clare, founder of the house of Clare, was a son of Count Gilbert. Though here, for convenience, inserted among the Clares, he was known at the time as Richard de Bienfante, Richard the son of Count Gilbert, Richard Fitz Gilbert, 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. Chart. 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 [Gouc. Cart. i. 274], 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 Lowry (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].

Richard 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 Fitz Gilbert 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 [pii. 136], style the 'second.' He had sided with Robert in the revolt of 1077-8 [Ord. Vit. ii. 381], and is said by the coninuator of William of Jumiéges [viii. 37] to have received from Robert the castle of Hommez in exchange for his claims on Brionne. It was, according to Ordericus [iii. 343], his cousin Robert Fitz Baldwin 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, the heir in England, Walter, and Robert, said to be ancestor of the Barons Fitz Walter [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)].

[Ordericus Vitalis, ed. Société de l'Histoire de France; William of Jumiéges 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.]

~ John Horace Round, The Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. IV, p. 389

• Background Information. ²⁰¹
Ivo, fourth son of Hugh de Grantmesnil, was taken prisoner by Robert de Belème. Among the prisoners was Richard de Clare, son of Gilbert comté de Brionne, who did not long survive the sufferings he endured in captivity.

~ The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Vol. II, p. 506, 508

Richard married Rohese de Giffard, daughter of Sir Gauthier de Gyffarde 1st Earl Buckingham and Agnes de Flaitel ¹⁴¹.^,902 (Rohese de Giffard was born in Longueville-sur-Scie, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France and died after 1113.)