Eva (Marshal) de Brewes (1194 - bef. 1246)

Born 1194 in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 1246 before age 52 in Llanthony Priory, Monmouthshire, Wales

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Biography

Eva Marshal (1203 - 1246) was a Cambro-Norman noblewoman and the wife of the powerful Marcher lord William de Braose. She was the daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and the granddaughter of Strongbow and Aoife of Leinster.

She held de Braose lands and castles in her own right following the public hanging of her husband by Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales.

Along with four sisters, she eventually inherited one tenth of the Barony of Long Crendon from her father, who had held half of it.^[1]

Early Life

Eva was born in 1203, in Pembroke Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the fifth daughter[1] and tenth child of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke. Her paternal grandparents were John Marshal and Sibyl of Salisbury, and her maternal grandparents were Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, known to history as Strongbow and Aoife of Leinster, for whom she was probably named.

Eva was the youngest of ten children, having had five older brothers and four older sisters. Eva and her sisters were described as being handsome, high-spirited girls.[2] From 1207 to 1212, Eva and her family lived in Ireland.

Marriage

Sometime before 1221, she married Marcher lord William de Braose, who in June 1228 succeeded to the lordship of Abergavenny,^[2] and by whom she had four daughters. William was the son of Reginald de Braose and his first wife Grecia de Briwere. He was hated by the Welsh who called him Gwilym Ddu (Black William).

Eva was married by time of the death of her father, William Marshal in 1219. ^[3]

Issue

Isabella de Braose (b.1222), married Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn. She died childless.

Maud de Braose (1224 - 1301), in 1247, she married Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Wigmore, by whom she had issue, including Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer and Isabella Mortimer, Countess of Arundel.

Eve de Braose (1227 - 28 July 1255), married William de Cantelou, by whom she had issue.

Eleanor de Braose (c.1228 - 1251). On an unknown date after August 1241, she married Humphrey de Bohun. They had two sons, Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford and Gilbert de Bohun, and one daughter, Alianore de Bohun. All three children married and had issue. Eleanor was buried in Llanthony Secunda Priory.

Widowhood

Eva's husband was publicly hanged by Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales on 2 May 1230 after being discovered in the Prince's bedchamber together with his wife Joan, Lady of Wales. Several months later, Eva's eldest daughter Isabella married the Prince's son, Dafydd ap Llywelyn, as their marriage contract had been signed prior to William de Braose's death. Prince Llywelyn wrote to Eva shortly after the execution, offering his apologies, explaining that he had been forced to order the hanging due to the insistence by the Welsh lords. He concluded his letter by adding that he hoped the execution would not affect their business dealings.[3]

Following her husband's execution, Eva held de Braose lands and castles in her own right. She is listed as holder of Totnes in 1230, which she held until her death. It is recorded on the Close Rolls (1234-1237) that Eva was granted 12 marks by King Henry III of England to strengthen Hay Castle. She had gained custody of Hay as part of her dower.

In early 1234, Eve was caught up in her brother Richard's rebellion against King Henry and possibly acted as one of the arbitrators between the King and her mutinous brothers following Richard's murder in Ireland.[4] This is evidenced by the safe conduct she received in May 1234, thus enabling her to speak with the King. By the end of that month, she had a writ from King Henry granting her seisen of castles and lands he had confiscated from her following her brother's revolt. Eva also received a formal statement from the King declaring that she was back in "his good graces again".[5]

She died in 1246 at the age of forty-three.

The burial of Eva, wife of William de Brewes, 8th Lord of Abergavenny, is unrecorded, and place is unknown, but may have been in the Abergavenny Parish Church, which is where her daughter Eva (de Braose) Cantelupe was buried.

Royal descendants

Most notably through her daughter Maud, who married Roger Mortimer, she was the ancestress of the English kings: Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III, and all monarchs from Henry VIII onwards.

William de Briouze m. Eve, daughter an in her issue coheir of William (Marshal), Earl of Strigul and Pembroke. Her husband died 2 May 1230, being hanged by Llewelyn (ap Iorwerth, his step-mother's father) above named. His widow d. bef. 1246. ^[4]

Sources

• Royal Ancestry 2013 Vol. I p. 557

1. ↑ Sanders, English Baronies, p. 63.
2. ↑ Wife of William B. Braiose — married May 2, 1230 in Pembrokeshire, Wales
3. ↑ William Marshal, Earl of Pembrokepage 278, 293
4. ↑ Complete Peerage I:22

• Medieval Lands, database online, author Charles Cawley, (Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2006-2013), 10. Eva

• William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, Catherine A. Armstrong, (Kennesaw, Georgia, Seneschal Press, 2006), Publication, pages 278, 293, 419.

• Wikipedia: Eva_Marshal

• Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999, Page: 18-3, 146-2

• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, by Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1999, Page: 68-28

• Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, by G. E Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2000, Page: I:22

See Also:

• Costain, Thomas B. (1959). The Magnificent Century. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company Inc. p.103

• Gen-Medieval-L Archives, retrieved on 7 November 2009

• Royal and Noble Genealogical Data, Brian Tompsett, Copyright 1994-2001, Version March 25, 2001* http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/GEDCOM.html, Department of Computer Science, University of Hull, Hull, UK, HU6 7RX, B.C.Tompsett @ dcs.hull.ac.uk

• Linda Elizabeth Mitchell (2003). Portraits of Medieval Women: Family, Marriage and Politics in England 1225-1350. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. p.47