heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

CLARE. 223
The Earl, as a token of his loyalty, resigned into the King's hands
the whole of his estates in England, Wales, and Ireland, which were resettled
on Joane and her children. But the King, considering that by
his marriage he became third in succession to the Crown, required him to
take an oath of fidelity towards himself and his son Edward, a deed being
drawn up to this effect, and six bishops affixing their seals thereto.
After their marriage the bride and bridegroom left his court, much
to
the disgust of the King and Queen, who kept back part of the bride's
wardrobe in consequence, and lived at St. John's Priory in Clerkenwell,
where, in 1265, Edward ^had spent his honeymoon, and of which Fitz-
Stephen, who wrote 1190, says "In the north of London are choice
" fountains of waters, sweet, wholesome, and clear, streaming forth among
" glittering pebbles, one of which is called Eons Clericorum, or Clerk's-
"well, because in the evening the youths and students of the city are
" wont to stroll out thither to take the air and taste the waters of the
" fountain." A priory of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem stood there,
also a priory of nuns. Cromwell, in his history of Clerkenwell, says that
possibly England hardly offered a scene more rich in picturesque situation.
On every side but that of the city was spread wooded hills, whilst the
river Holeburne (Holborn), whose banks were then clothed with vines,
wound amongst romantic steeps and secluded dells towards the west. At
the dissolution the nunnery became the property of the Cavendish family ;
and the priory was sold to John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, for ^1,000
(Thornbury, Old and New London, vol. ii.).
After a short married life the Earl died 1295, at the castle of Monmouth,
aged fifty-five, and was buried at Tewksbury.
In one short year after the death of the Red Earl, his young widow,
the Princess Joane, contracted a clandestine alliance with Ralph de Monthermer,
a young and handsome esquire who had been in the service of the
late Earl ;
and requesting for him knighthood at her father's hands, the
old King broke out into a furious invective at her hasty mesalliance,
committed the bridegroom to Bristol Castle, and seized his daughter's
estates. At her urgent entreaties, however, supported by the kind offices
of Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham, he relented, released the young squire,
took him into his
service, and, as he shewed much valour in an expedition
with him in Flanders, created him (1307) Baron Monthermer. Moreover,
he restored Tonbridge Castle to his daughter, and sent the young Prince
Edward, her brother, to be there under her care. What characteristic
traits of this warm-hearted, high-spirited man !
But there must have been something very conducive to love-making
in the stately halls and shady glades thereof, as Eleanor de Clare, the
eldest daughter, speedily married Sir Hugh le Despencer, the eldest son