Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer

Ralph de Monthermer 1st Baron Monthermer 5th Lord of Glamorgan
100px Arms of Baron Monthermer
Baron of Monthermer
Baron Monthermer	1309-1325
Successor	Thomas, 2nd Lord Monthermer
Spouse	Joan of Acre Plantagenet Isabel le Despencer
Issue Mary de Monthermer Thomas, 2nd Lord Monthermer Edward de Monthermer
Detail Titles and styles 5th Lord of Glamorgan Earl of Hertford (In Name Only) Earl of Gloucester (In Name Only)
Family	House Monthermer
Born	1270
Died	5 April 1325
Occupation	Peerage of England

Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer, 5th Lord of Glamorgan (1270 - 5 April 1325) was an English nobleman. He temporarily held the Lordship of Glamorgan until it was transferred to its rightful heir in 1307 to Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, 4th Earl of Gloucester. The Earldom of Hertford and Gloucester were in name only through his marriage to HRH Princess Joan of Acre, the widow of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 3rd Earl of Gloucester who was killed in 1295. The only legitimate de Clare title he held temporarily was the Lordship of Glamorgan which he held for 10 years.

Life

Before 1296, Ralph de Monthermer was a squire in the service of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and his wife Joan of Acre, the daughter of King Edward I. After the Earl's death in 1295, the widowed Countess fell in love with Monthermer. She secretly married him in 1297 after she talked her father into knighting him. When she was forced to reveal the marriage in April and the King was enraged so the King had Lord Monthermer imprisoned at Bristol. According to Thomas Walsingham, while pleading for her husband Joan told her father "No one sees anything wrong if a great earl marries a poor and lowly woman. Why should there be anything wrong if a countess marries a young and promising man?" With the intervention of Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, the King relented, and released Monthermer from prison in August 1297. Monthermer then paid homage to Edward at Eltham Palace and was formally recognized as jure uxoris Earl of Gloucester and Hertford by right of marriage. This means he was Earl in name only whilst there was a legitimate heir.

In September 1297, Monthermer was summoned to attend a military council at Rochester, and would go on to take an active part in the Wars of Scottish Independence. He fought at the Battle of Falkirk in July 1298, and in the December of that year was granted the sum of £1,538 6s. 8d., to pay for 100 barbed horses for use in the war. In 1300, Monthermer fought with his father-in-law at the Siege of Caerlaverock. The Caerlaverock Roll, a poetic description of all the lords and knights present at the Siege, refers to him thus (as translated from the original French):

He by whom they were well supported,
Who brought to success the love,
After great doubts and fears,
Until it pleased God he should be relieved,
For the Countess of Gloucester,
For whom he long endured great sufferings.
Of fine gold with three red chevrons,
He had there only a banner;
Yet he made no bad appearance,
When he was attired in his own arms,
Which were yellow with a green eagle.
His name was Ralph de Monthermer.

Scottish Wars

File:Ralph2.jpg

Lord Monthermer's seal, as appended to the Barons' Letter of 1301, which was written to the Pope by the nobles of England, rejecting his claim to the feudal overlordship of Scotland

In February 1301, Monthermer was summoned to a parliament at Lincoln, specially convened for the purpose of composing the Barons' Letter of 1301, which rejected Pope Boniface VIII's claim to the feudal overlordship of Scotland. On 24 June, he was summoned to Carlisle to serve with the Prince of Wales in the war against Scotland, and he was again summoned in 1303, 1304 and 1306. In the October of the last year, King Edward conferred upon him the lands of Annandale in Scotland, as well as the earldom of Atholl; he later resigned the earldom to David Strathbogie, the son of the old Earl of Atholl, in exchange for the sum of 10,000 marks. In the winter he served as one of the King's three wardens in Scotland, and was besieged in Ayr Castle.

In 1306 Monthermer warned Robert the Bruce, then at the English court, of the danger posed by King Edward. During a convivial evening Edward had let slip that he intended to arrest Bruce the next morning. Monthermer warned Bruce by sending him the sum of twelve pence and a pair of spurs. Bruce took the hint and he and his squire quickly departed the English court for Scotland. After the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, at which Monthermer fought and was captured, Robert, now the victorious King of Scots, discharged the debt by releasing Ralph without ransom, but not before first entertaining him at table. Marmaduke, Lord Thweng, also captured, joined them and was also then released without ransom.

Loss of Titles

His wife Joan died in 1307 at the manor of Clare in Suffolk, aged thirty-five. Her cause of death is not known for certain, but she likely died in childbirth. After her death, Monthermer was forced to relinquish the Earldoms held by marriage to Gilbert de Clare, the son of the old Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, though in 1309 King Edward II made him a baron under the title Lord Monthermer. In 1307 Monthermer had been appointed keeper of Cardiff Castle and other castles in Wales, and from 1311 to 1312 he again served as warden in Scotland, for which he was paid 300 marks. In 1315 he was made warden of the royal forests south of the Trent, an office he continued to hold until 1320. In December 1315 he went on a pilgrimage to the Way of St James, during which time he appointed a deputy to carry out his duties in England.

Second Wife

His second wife was Isabel, the widow of Lord Hastings and daughter of the Earl of Winchester, whom he married around 1313, also in secret; for this further transgression he was not pardoned until 1319. Ralph, Lord Monthermer died in or before 1325, aged around 55, while his widow died in 1336.

Issue

By his first wife, Lord Monthermer probably had two sons and a daughter:

• Mary de Monthermer (October 1297- c. 1371), married Duncan, Earl of Fife
• Thomas, 2nd Lord Monthermer (1301–1340)
• Edward de Monthermer (1304–1340), fought in the Scottish campaign in 1335, but spent much of his life in service to his half-sister Elizabeth, who provided for him during his last illness and buried him next to their mother