Piers Gaveston (1284 - 1312)

Husband of Margaret (Clare) d'Audley — married 1 Nov 1307 (to 19 Jun 1312) in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England

Descendants

Died 19 Jun 1312 at about age 28 in Blacklow Hill, Warwickshire, England

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Biography

Origins and Earlier Life

Piers Gaveston was a younger son of Arnaud de Gabaston, a knight of Gascony, and Claramonde de Marsan.^[1] According to Cokayne's Complete Peerage, he was born in about 1384^[2] but there is no direct source for his birth date. His birth country is not known: his father was active in Gascony, England, Scotland and Wales.

In 1297 Gaveston was in Edward I's army in Flanders. He then became a yeoman in Edward's household.^[1] He was knighted in May 1306: Cokayne's Complete Peerage gives the date as 22 May,^[2] which was when the future Edward II was knighted: the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that Gaveston and others were knighted four days later, on 26 May.^[1]

First Exile

Gaveston should have taken part in military operations in Scotland, but left Edward I's army to participate in tournaments abroad. He received a pardon for this in January 1307, but was ordered to go into temporary exile by 30 April: he was given an annuity of 100 marks for his period of banishment.^[1]

Return to England

Almost immediately after Edward I's death on 7 July 1307, Edward II recalled Gaveston to England. The two men were clearly close, and it is generally assumed they had a homosexual relationship.^[1] Gaveston became Edward II's secretary and a member of the royal Council.^[2] A charter dated 6 August 1307 created him Earl of Cornwall,^[1] and he served as Sheriff of Cornwall from that date to June 1308 and again from 5 August 1309.^[3] He was also given the lordship of the Isle of Wight and made Constable of Berkhamsted Castle, Hertfordshire and Provost of Bayonne, France.^[2]

Marriage and Children

On 1 November 1307 Galveston married Margaret de Clare, a niece of Edward II, at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.^[1] (Cokayne gives the year as 1309.^[2]) Edward II came to the wedding, and arranged for £7 10s 6d in pennies to be thrown over the couple's heads as they went into the church.^[4] They had one daughter:

• Joan de Gavaston, born 12 January 1312, contracted as an infant to marry John Multon, son of Thomas Multon, lord of Egremont but died 13 January 1325 before any marriage occurred^[4]

Gaveston also had a probably illegitimate daughter, Amie.^[5] (See also the Research Note on his wife's profile for a suggestion that his daughter Joan was born in 1309 and that Amie was a legitimate daughter and the child born in 1312.)

1307-8

On 2 December 1307 Gaveston took part in a tournament at Wallingford, then in Berkshire. He and his companions defeated a company of earls and this may have led to some enmity on their part.^[1]

On 26 December 1307 Gaveston was briefly made Guardian of England for the period while Edward II was abroad for his marriage to Isabella of France.^[1][2] At Edward's coronation ceremony on 25 February 1308 Gaveston bore the crown of Edward the Confessor,^[1][2] and is said to have dressed extravagantly to the disgust of Queen Isabella's brothers-in-law.^[1]

Second Exile

Opposition to Gaveston developed quickly. In April 1308 a group of barons demanded his exile, with the support of Queen Isabella's father Philippe IV of France. On 18 May Edward gave way and Gaveston was ordered to leave England by 24 June.^[1][6] Edward compensated him, providing a safe haven, by making him his lieutenant (chief governor) in Ireland, a position of considerable power, in June 1308: Gaveston held this position until September 1309.^[1][2]

Recall to England

Edward II recalled Gaveston to England in the spring of 1309.^[1] That year he was granted the Barony of Beckley, based in Oxfordshire, but without the manor of Beckley itself.^[7] That year he was also appointed Keeper of the Castles of Knaresborough, Yorkshire and Wallingford, Berkshire^[2] but baronial discontent continued, leading to Edward having to agree in 1310 to the appointment of "lords ordainer" to see to the good operation of his household and the kingdom. In October 1310 Edward defied the Ordainers and made Gaveston keeper of Nottingham Castle and chief justice north of the Trent (ie for northern England). Gaveston took part in military operations in Scotland, and was appointed Edward's lieutenant there in July 1311.^[1] He was also entrusted with the strategically important castle of Carlisle, Cumberland.^[2]

Third Exile and Death

Very soon Edward II was forced by the Ordainers to exile Gaveston again, and he was given until 1 November 1311 to depart from Dover, Kent. This time, the banishment was not just from England but from all English possessions, on pain of excommunication. Gaveston did not abide by the sentence. He was back in England, in Yorkshire, in January 1312. On 18 January Edward II announced Gaveston's return and declared his banishment illegal. This did not stop Gaveston being excommunicated publicly in March for disregarding the sentence of exile. A baronial army was raised and he was besieged in Scarborough Castle, Yorkshire, of which he had been made constable the previous year. On 19 May he agreed to surrender on condition that, if an agreement had not been reached between the barons and Edward II by 1 August, he could return to Scarborough Castle. Senior barons guaranteed his safety.^[1][2][8]

On 9 June Gaveston was placed in the house of the rector of Deddington, Oxfordshire. Early the next day Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick seized him. He was taken to Warwick Castle and summarily condemned to death. On 19 June he was beheaded at Blacklow Hill, Warwickshire. His body was taken to a Dominican friary at Oxford. On 2 January 1315 it was reburied in a newly-founded church of Dominican friars at Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.^[1][2]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by J S Hamilton for 'Gaveston, Piers, earl of Cornwall', print and online 2004, revised online 2008
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11} G E Cokayne. Complete Peerage, revised edition, Vol. III, St Catherine Press, 1913, pp. 433-435, Internet Archive
3. ↑ Lists of Sheriffs for England and Wales, PRO Lists and Indexes IX, HMSO 1898 (Kraus Reprint Corporation 1863), p. 21, Internet Archive
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by J S Hamilton for 'Clare, Margaret de, Countess of Gloucester (c.1291/2?-1342)', print and online 2004, revised online 2008
5. ↑ J S Hamilton. Another Daughter for Piers Gaveston? Amie de Gaveston, Damsel of the Queen’s Chamber, in 'Medieval Prosopography' 19 (1998), pp. 177–86, JSTOR (account - free -0 required for viewing)
6. ↑ Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials. London: T.C. Hansard (1809), pp. 21-24, vol. 1, Hathi Trust
7. ↑ I J Sanders. English Baronies, A Study of their Origin and Descent, Oxford University Press, p. 10
8. ↑ Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition, Salt Lake City: by the author (2011), vol. 4, pp. 69-72 STAFFORD 5. Margaret de Clare

See Also:

• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Vol. 21, pp. 76-78, Wikisource
• Baker, Geoffrey. Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1889), p. 4, Internet Archive
• Doyle, James E. Official Baronage of England, Vol. I, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. (1886), p. 438, Google Books
• Hunt, John. G. Piers de Gavaston, in' The American Genealogist', vol. 35 (1959), pp. 100-106, available here by subscription
• Hunt, John G. Piers de Gavaston: Second Paper, in 'The American Genealogist', vol. 37 (1961), pp. 47-47, available here by subscription
• Maxwell, Sir Herbert (translator). The Chronicles of Lanercost 1272-1346. Glasgow: J. Maclehose (1913), pp. 184-199, Internet Archive
• Standish, John. Transactions of the Thoroton Society, Vol. 8 (Cooke & Vowles, 1904), p. 3, Google Books: "Henry Spigurnel..., in 1312, was one of the two judges who condemned Piers Gaveston"
• Wikipedia: Wikipedia Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall