De Bohun

1. Margaret "the Younger" De Bohun: Born 3 April 1311, of Caldecote, Northamptonshire, England; Died 16 December 1391, Exeter, Devonshire, England; Married 11 August 1325; Hugh De Courtenay, Earl of Devon: Born 12 July 1303, of Okehampton, Devonshire, England; Died 2 May 1377, Exeter, Devonshire, England.

2. Humphrey VIII De Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, 3rd Earl of Essex, Constable of England: Born about 1276, of Pleshy Castle, Essex, England; Died 16 March 1321/1322, Friars Preachers, York, Yorkshire, England; Married 14 November 1302, Westminster Abbey, Middlesex, England; Elizabeth, Princess of England: Born 7 August 1282, Rhuddlan Castle, Rhuddlan, Flintshire, Wales; Died 5 May 1316, Quendon, Essex, England. (See Kings of England #2) In 1301 Humphrey appears among the Barons who addressed the letter of protest to the Pope from the parliament of Lincoln. in 1302 he married Elizabeth, widow of John earl of Holland and daughter of the King. On that occasion he surrendered to the crown all of his lands and title, receiving them back in tail. In a great tournament held at Fulham in 1305 he took a leading part, and again in 1307 he was present at another passage of arms at Wallingford, held against the King's favorite, Piers Gaveston. In 1308 he was sent north, in the company of the Earl of Gloucester, to oppose Robert the Bruce of Scotland. The next year he joined with other Barons in a letter of Remonstrance addressed to the Pope. In 1310 Humphrey was one of the twenty-one ordainers appointed on 20 March to reform the government and King's household. The ordinances which they presented were finally accepted in October 1311; but three months later, January 1312, the King recalled his banished favorite Gaveston. Immediately Hereford and the other confederate Barons took up arms and besieged Gaveston in Scarborough. On 19 May Gaveston surrendered, and was shortly afterwards beheaded by the Barons at Blacklow Hill. Edward was powerless to punish the rebellious lords; negotiations for a peace were opened, and in October 1313 the Earls and their followers were pardoned. In 1314 the war with Scotland was renewed, and the battle of Bannockburn was fought on 24 June. Here Humphrey de Bohun was taken prisoner. He was exchanged for the wife of Robert the Bruce, who had long been a captive in England.

The jealousy of the Barons was now moved by the growing power of the two Despensers, father and son. At a parliament held at York, September 1314, Edward was called upon to confirm the ordinances of 1311, and the elder Despenser was removed from the council. In 1315 Humphrey was engaged upon the Welsh border, and was successful in quelling a rising. The factions which now sprang up among the Barons threatened to bring about a state of civil war, when the movements of Robert the Bruce, who had advanced south and captured Berwick, 2 April 1318, compelled the different parties to submit to a reconciliation. A general pardon was granted to Lancaster and his followers, and a new council was appointed August 1318. Of this council Humphrey was a member, and he also took part in the military operations against Scotland. A truce was concluded in 1319.

The feeling against the Despensers now broke out in open revolt. Bohun, one of the principal lords on the Welsh border, prepared to attack Hugh Le Despenser the younger, who held Glamorgan, in the autumn of 1320. Early in the next year the King issued writs forbidding unlawful assemblies; and a parliament was summoned to meet at Westminster on 14 July 1321. Humphrey appeared at the head of a large armed force, and took the lead in denouncing the favorites, who were sentenced to forfeiture and exile. But in October the king appeared in the field, and with unwonted vigor attacked his enemies in detail. They were driven north, and at the battle of Borough Bridge, in Yorkshire, 16 March 1322, they were totally defeated. Hereford was among the slain, and he was buried in the church of the Friars Preachers of York.

3. Humphrey VII De Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, 2nd Earl of Essex, Constable of England: Born about 1249, of Hereford, and Essex, England; Died 31 December 1298, Pleshey, Essex, England; Buried Walden, Essex, England; Married 1275; Maud De Fiennes: Born about 1254; Buried Walden, Essex, England. Humphrey served in 1286 in the army of occupation in Wales. In 1289 he was found levying private war against the Earl of Gloucester, and was peremptorily ordered to keep the peace. In 1292 he was fined and imprisoned. In 1296-7 he was sent as an escort to John, the young Earl of Holland, who had lately married the English Princess, Elizabeth, and was now returning to his own country to claim his inheritance. The Princess, who was only in fourteenth year, was married two years later to Humphrey VIII, the Earl's son. From this time to the date of his death Hereford played a conspicuous part in opposing Edward I's measures for arbitrary taxation, and in at length obtaining the confirmation of the charters, being, however, chiefly moved by the alarm given to the Barons by Edward's reforms. At the assembly of the magnates at Salisbury early in 1297, he refused to serve in Gascony on the plea that he was not bound to foreign service except in the company of the King. At a levy of the military forces of the kingdom, the Earl refused to do his duty as Constable of England. He compelled the king to himself enter into military service in his Scottish campaign. After the battle of Falkirk, 22 July 1298, Humphrey was given leave to return to England. Soon after he died at Pleshy. Humphrey was a major figure in Edward I's Scottish and Welsh wars. His arms were: Azure a bend Argent, Cotised Or, between six lions rampart of the second.

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4. Humphrey VI De Bohun: Born about 1220; Died 27 October 1265; Married in Wales or England; Eleanor De Braiose: Born about 1230, Breconshire, Wales; Died before 1246, of Llanthony Inn, Gloucestershire, England. Humphrey VI fought at the battle of Evesham, 4 August 1265, he fought on the side of Simon de Montfort, and was taken prisoner. Humphrey died before his father and as such he never inherited any of the family titles.

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4. Humphrey V De Bohun, 2nd Earl of Hereford, 1st Earl of Essex, Constable of England: Born before 1208, of Hungerford, Essex, England; Died 24 September, 1274; Buried Lanthony, Gloucestershire, England; Married in Wales or England; Maud De Lusignan: Born about 1208, England; Died 1241. Humphrey succeeded his father as the second Earl of Hereford in 1220. After the death of William de Mandeville, his mother's brother, he received his uncle's title of Earl of Essex in 1227. The same year he joined Richard Earl of Cornwall at Stamford, to support him in his quarrel with the king. He served the office of marshal of the household at the coronation of Queen Eleanor in 1236, and at the christening of Prince Edward in 1239 he was one of the sponsors. He was sheriff of Kent in 1239 and the two following years. He took part in Henry's French expedition of 1242, but is said to have retired with other nobles in disgust at the king's partiality to the aliens. In 1244 he aided in the repression of a Welsh rising on the Marches; but in the same year he was defeated by them in a second outbreak, one of the chief causes of insurrection being, it was declared, his retention of part of the inheritance of his sister-in-law Isabel, wife of David, son of Llewellyn, prince of Wales. IN 1246 he joined in the letter of remonstrance from the English peers to Pope Innocent IV. He was present in the parliament of 1248, and two years later he took the cross and went to the Holy Land. Humphrey appears as one of those who spoke in defense of Simon De Montfort in 1252, and next year he was present at the renewal of the charters and the solemn excommunication of their transgressors. In 1257 he had the custody of part of the marches of Wales, and was employed in the Welsh war which then broke out.

When the Barons formed the confederation for redress of Grievances in 1258, the Earl of Hereford was of their number, and had a share in the settlement of the government under the Provisions of Oxford, bring one of the original commissioners, and subsequently one of the council of fifteen. In 1260 he appears as a justice itinerant for the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford. In the divisions which soon split up the Barons' confederation Humphrey separated himself from Simon De Montfort's party, and is found in 1263 supporting the King, while his son Humphrey VI is ranged on the opposite side. In the battle of Lewes, 14 May 1264, he was taken prisoner. After the victory at the battle Evesham Humphrey stood high in the King's favor, and was employed as one of the arbitrators to bring to reason the remnant of De Montfort's party by the dictum of Kenilworth.

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5. Henry De Bohun, Earl of Cornwall, 1st Earl of Hereford, Constable of England: Born before 1177, of Warwick, Warwickshire, England; Died 1 June 1220, On pilgrimage to the Holy Land; Married about 1197, of Essex, England; Maud Fitz Geoffrey, Countess of Essex: Born before 1177, of Warwick, Warwick, England; Died 27 August 1236 England. Earl Henry was one of the leading figures of the Fifth Crusade from 1218 until 1221. Henry was the first De Bohun to hold the office of Constable. This hereditary title was passed to him through his grandmother, the daughter of Miles of Gloucester. On the accession of King John, Henry was created Earl of Hereford by charter, 28 April 1199. IN 1200 he was sent with other nobles to summon his uncle, King William the Lion of Scotland, to appear at Lincoln to do homage. In 1215 he joined the confederate Barons who obtained the concession of the Magna Carta, and was one of the twenty five appointed to insure its observance. On John's death he still adhered to the party of Louis of France, and was taken Prisoner in the battle of Lincoln 20 May 1217. He died on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land 1 June 1220.

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6. Humphrey IV De Bohun, Earl of Hereford, Lord High Constable of England: Born about 1143, Gloucester, England; Died 1182; Married before April 1175, England?; Margaret, Princess of Scotland, Duchess of Brittany: Born 1154, Northumberland, Northumberland, England; Died 1201. (See Kings of Scotland) Humphrey inherited his titles from his maternal grandfather.

7. Sir Humphrey III De Bohun: Born about 1100, of Gloucester, England; Died 6 April 1187, England; Buried Lanthony, Gloucestershire, England; Married England; Margaret De Gloucester: Born about 1126, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England; Died England. Humphrey was Steward and Sewer for King Henry I and because of his service to Empress Maud during the war with King Stephen, he became Steward and Sewer in both England and Normandy. At the beginning of Stephen's Reign he was one of the witnesses of that King's laws; but in 1139, when the Empress Matilda landed, he joined her standard, and by the advice of Miles of Gloucester, he fortified his stronghold of Trowbridge against the King. Yet in the Next year she appears as sewer to Stephen, an office which he also held in the Empress's household. He was taken prisoner at Winchester in 1141, fighting on Matilda's side.

After the accession of Henry II Humphrey scarcely appears at all in the history of the early years of the reign. He was, however, one of the barons summoned to the council held at Clarendon in January 1164, in which were framed the celebrated constitutions, and nine years later, 1173, he stood firm by the king in the rebellion of Prince Henry. In the 20th year of King Henry II's reign, he accompanied Richard de Lacy, Justiciar of England, into Scotland and laid waste to the country with his army. This was done in order to punish William the Lion, King of Scotland who supported the prince. The landing of Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester, compelled them to hastily conclude a truce and to march against the Earl's force. When they marched against the Earl's forces they defeated them totally at Fornham St. Genevieve in Suffolk, on 16 or 17 October 1173. In 1175 Humphrey was one of the witnesses to the accord, at the convention of Falaise, made by King William the Lion of Scotland and Henry II, as to the subjection of Scotland to the crown of England.

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8. Humphrey "the Great" II De Bohun: Born about 1100, Gloucester, England; Married 1087-1100, England; Maud D'Everux: Born about 1100, Gloucester, England. He earned his "Great" surname due to the lands and wealth he acquired through marriage. His marriage to Maud was by royal command of King Stephen.

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9. Humphrey I De Bohun, Lord of Taterford: Born about 1075, Gloucester, England. Humphrey was generally known in his day as "Humphrey with the Beard." He does not seem to have proffered much from his relationship with William the Conquerer, as the General Survey indicates that he possessed but the one lordship in Norfolk.