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Vol 1: The Bluets - Lackham Countryside Centre

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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Bluets</strong> 45<br />

foreigners at the heart of power; he<br />

scorned the idea that the king should govern through native<br />

subjects… he needed ministers .. who would punish the<br />

latter‘s pride and perfidy 172<br />

and so civil war broke out yet again. It appears that Ralph Bluet<br />

supported his lord the Earl of Pembroke and rebelled. Much of the<br />

action took place in Ireland and elsewhere in England but there were<br />

local events, for example when Hubert de Burgh was liberated from<br />

incarceration in Devizes by Marshal supporters in October 1233<br />

specifically by Basset and Siward 174<br />

173<br />

Ralph Bluet‘s lands were taken by the King in 1233 175 . This would have<br />

included his Irish lands in Leinster.<br />

A Close Roll entry from September of that year may result from this;<br />

in it Henry III is giving the income from Ralph‘s land “at Daglingworth<br />

(which are in fee to himself) to the Countess of Pembroke for as long<br />

as it shall please the king” 176 . Another landowner is mentioned in the<br />

entry, one Ricardi Sulard, almost certainly Richard Siward<br />

Ralph IV was certainly with Richard Marshal at the battle of Wycombe<br />

177<br />

; he appears in a list of “divers people who were against the king with<br />

172<br />

Carpenter, D (2003) ibid<br />

173<br />

Smith, B (1999) Irish Politics 1220-1245 in Prestwick, M Britnell, R &<br />

Frame, R (eds) (1999) Thirteenth century England : Proceedings of the Durham<br />

Conference 1999 It is tempting to think that Ralph, based close by at <strong>Lackham</strong>,<br />

was involved but it was actually Gilbert Basset and Richard Seward [Carpenter, D<br />

(2003) <strong>The</strong> Struggle for Mastery:<strong>The</strong> Penguin History of Britain 1066-1284<br />

p315]<br />

174<br />

Way, J (1839) Chronicles of the Devizes p90<br />

175<br />

Crouch, D (2005) Bluet entry, Dictionary of National Biography online at<br />

www.oxforddnb.com/article/54499<br />

“Ralph [IV] was suspected of supporting the rebellion of his lord, Richard Marshal,<br />

earl of Pembroke (d. 1234), against Henry III and had his English lands confiscated<br />

in 1233 as a result, although they were soon restored.<br />

176<br />

Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III 1231- 1237 pp256-257 1st September 1233<br />

177<br />

It is noted that Wycombe was the manor of Gilbert Basett of Wycombe, who

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