heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

222 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
He died in 1229, and was succeeded by his son, Richard de Clare,
who married Maude, daughter of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. The
Earl of Gloucester seems to have been employed on some important
missions by the King, and was one of the barons assembled in Westminster
Hall when Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, with other prelates,
pronounced a solemn curse against all who should henceforth violate
Magna Charta. His memory is rather notorious for a"mauvais pleasantrie"
upon an unfortunate Jew, who having fallen into a cesspool, declined to be
pulled out because it was the Jewish sabbath ;
upon which the Earl forbade
him to be pulled out the following day because it was the Christian sabbath,
and so the conscientious Israelite perished.
The Earl himself died the next year, 1262, having been poisoned at
the -table of Peter de Savoy, the Queen's uncle, with Baldwin, Earl of
Devon, and others.
His son, Gilbert de Clare, seventh Earl of Hertford and third Earl of
Gloucester, married Alice, daughter of Guy, Earl of Angoulesme, and niece
of the King of France. He seems at first to have taken part with the
barons against Henry III., who besieged and captured his ,castle at the
battle of Lewes. However, the King was defeated, and surrendered himself
prisoner to
the Earl of Gloucester.
Becoming, however, dissatisfied with Simon de Montfort's conduct, he
connived at the escape of Prince Edward (who had generously given himself
up in exchange for his father) by supplying him with a swift horse to
mount after he had tired out his own and his attendants' in previous races,
and returned to his allegiance. He commanded the second brigade of the
royal army at the battle of Evesham, which restored the kingly power to
its former lustre. His future allegiance was, however, fickle, until his
demands were satisfied by the confirmation to him of his paternal estates.
On the death of Henry he boldly stepped forward, and placing his
hand on the heart of the deceased monarch, lying in state at Westminster,
swore fealty to the absent Prince Edward in the Holy Land, joined in the
proclamation of Edward I., and was one of those who received him on
landing from the Holy Land, entertaining him with great magnificence at
Tonbridge Castle. Thirteen years after, he divorced his wife Alice, the
French princess, and married, at Westminster, in 1289, Joane of Acre,
daughter of the King (Arcfxeologia Cantiana, vol. xvi.).
After the defeat and death of the Earl of Leicester, Gilbert de Clare
had become decidedly the first peer in the kingdom. Matthew of Westminster
tells
us that he was only inferior in power and dignity to the King
himself; and Edward was anxious to form a substantial bond of union
between himself and his restless subject.