heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

224 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
of the great baron of that name, whose castle of Mereworth was not far
distant ;
while Elizabeth, another daughter, contracted a secret marriage
with one Theodore de Verdun, which second mesalliance so enraged the
King that he put him into Bristol Castle, from whence he in like manner
was liberated by the intercession of the now favourite Monthermer.
And as regards Margaret, the third daughter, Piers de Gaveston, a
handsome Gascon youth, had been selected by the King as a companion
and friend for his son Edward, and was with him at Tonbridge. A highspirited,
thoughtless boy, he encouraged rather than controlled the prince in
his wildness; and having instigated him to break into the park of Bishop
Langton, of Coventry, and kill some deer, was banished the country, while
Edward returned to his sister at Tonbridge. However, in 1307 the King
died, and Edward, now Edward II., lost no time in recalling his former
friend. Can we not imagine at whose tender pleading ? for, as soon as
he returned, he was married to the Lady Margaret, and created by the
King at the same time warder of the vast estates of his young brotherin-law,
Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, with the earldom of Cornwall.
There is something very sad and touching in the after-history of these
young people. The next year the young Earl of Gloucester married Maud,
daughter of Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster a very promising and suitable
alliance. But in six years, viz., June 24th, 1314, the disastrous battle
of Bannockburn took place, where, fighting in behalf of his uncle and
King amidst the elite of the knights of England, he fell
pierced by a score
of lances. Sandford (in his Genealogical History] says that " the Scots would
" gladly have ransomed him, but he had that day neglected to put his
" surcoat of arms over his armour. King Robert Bruce caused the bodies
" of Earl Gilbert and Sir Robert Clifford to be sent to King Edward,
" being then at Berwick, to be buried at his pleasure, demanding no reward
" for the same."
This Sir Robert, Baron de Clifford, had married Maud, daughter and
co-heiress of Thomas, brother of the late Earl of Gloucester, so that the
young men were cousins, and this honourable treatment of the bodies of
his foemen is a generous trait on the part of the chivalrous Bruce.
Nothing is further told us in history of his young widow. Their only
son, John, died in infancy and her brief and brilliant married life is
;
shrouded in loneliness and sorrow. Alas ! how such sad entries of
many
blighted love and disappointed anticipations are contained in the pages
of history, indicating troubled lives which command our attention and
sympathy, even though they have long since sunk to rest.
With the death of Earl Gilbert the male line of the Earls of Clare,
Hertford, and Gloucester ended, and the Tonbridge estate and the earldom
of Gloucester passed to Eleanor the eldest, who had married Hugh le