26
Sir Knight
6th Earl of Gloucester and Hertford
Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford was son of
Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford and
Isabel Marshall, daughter of
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare, the 17-year-old daughter of
Strongbow.
A year after he became of age, he was in an expedition against the
Welsh. Through his mother he inherited a fifth part of the Marshall estates, including
Kilkenny and other lordships in
Ireland. In 1232 Richard was secretly married to Margaret de Burgh, daughter of
Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent and
Margaret of Scotland. Both bride and groom were aged about ten. Megotta died in November 1237. Before she had even died, the earl of Lincoln offered 5,000 marks to King Henry to secure Richard for his own daughter. This offer was accepted, and Richard was married secondly, on or before 25 January 1238, to
Maud de Lacy, daughter of the Surety
John de Lacy and
Margaret Quincy.
He joined in the Barons' letter to the
Pope in 1246 against the exactions of the
Curia in England. He was among those in opposition to the King's half-brothers, who in 1247 visited
England, where they were very unpopular, but afterwards he was reconciled to them.
On April 1248, he had letters of protection for going over seas on a
pilgrimage. At Christmas 1248, he kept his Court with great splendor on the Welsh border. In the next year he went on a pilgrimage to
St. Edmund at
Pontigny, returning in June. In 1252 he observed
Easter at
Tewkesbury, and then went across the seas to restore the honor of his brother William, who had been badly worsted in a
tournament and had lost all his arms and horses. The Earl is said to have succeeded in recovering all, and to have returned home with great credit, and in September he was present at the
Round Table tournament at Walden.
In August 1252/3 the King crossed over to
Gascony with his army, and to his great indignation the Earl refused to accompany him and went to Ireland instead. In August 1255 he and John Maunsel were sent to
Edinburgh by the King to find out the truth regarding reports which had reached the King that his son-in-law,
Alexander, King of
Scotland, was being coerced by Robert de Roos and
John Baliol. If possible, they were to bring the young King and Queen to him. The Earl and his companion, pretending to be the two of Roos's knights, obtained entry to
Edinburgh Castle, and gradually introduced their attendants, so that they had a force sufficient for their defense. They gained access to the Scottish Queen, who made her complaints to them that she and her husband had been kept apart. They threatened Roos with dire punishments, so that he promised to go to the King.
Meanwhile the Scottish magnates, indignant at their castle of Edinburgh's being in English hands, proposed to besiege it, but they desisted when they found they would be besieging their King and Queen. The King of Scotland apparently traveled South with the Earl, for on 24 September they were with
King Henry III at Newminster,
Northumberland. In July 1258 he fell ill, being poisoned with his brother William, as it was supposed, by his steward, Walter de Scotenay. He recovered but his brother died.
Richard died at John de Griol's manor of Asbenfield in Waltham, near
Canterbury,
15 July 1262, it being rumored that he had been poisoned at the table of
Piers of Savoy. On the following Monday he was carried to
Canterbury where a mass for the dead was sung, after which his body was taken to the canon's church at Tonbridge and interred in the choir. Thence it was taken to
Tewkesbury Abbey and buried 28 July 1262, with great solemnity in the presence of two bishops and eight abbots in the presbytery at his father's right hand. Richard's own arms were: Or, three chevronels gules.