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Note: Elizabeth de Clare was featured in the November 2022 Magna Carta Project Newsletter.
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Elizabeth was the daughter of Gilbert (Clare) de Clare and Joan of Acre. According to Douglas Richardson, she was probably born about November 1295 in Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales,[1][2][3] but this is uncertain. The 1314 Inquisition Post Mortem for her brother Gilbert gives her age then as 20,[4] and if that is right, she may have been born in about 1294. Her parents had lands and interests in both England and Wales and there appears to be no firm evidence she was born in Wales.
Elizabeth married, on 30 September 1308 at Waltham Abbey, Essex, John de Burgh, son of Richard de Burgh, Knt., 3rd Earl of Ulster, Lord of Connaught and Elizabeth Guines. John died in 18 June 1313[4] at Galway, Ireland.[1][2][3] They had one child:
On 4 February 1316, near Bristol, Elizabeth married Sir Theobald de Verdun, 2nd Lord Verdun,[4] son of Thebaud de Verdun, 1st Lord Verdun and Margery de Bohun [1][2][3] without King Edward II's license.[5] He died at Alton, Staffordshire, England on 27 July 1316.[1][4] They had one child:
She married again, about 3 May 1317, her third husband being Sir Roger Damory, Lord Damory,[4] son of Robert Damory and an unknown mother.[1][2][3] They had two children:
In 1317, Elizabeth and her third husband, Sir Roger Damory, were granted manors in Vauxhall in Lambeth, Surrey, Holton in Oxfordshire and Sandal in Yorkshire after Sir Roger's successful performance at the Battle of Bannockburn.[1][2][3]
Sir Roger took part in the Despenser War of 1321/22 against King Edward II and died from wounds or sickness at Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire on 13 (or 14) March 1321/22.[1][2][3]
On 24 June 1314, after the death of her brother Earl Gilbert de Clare, Elizabeth inherited the Lordship of Clare, Suffolk. This led to her sometimes being subsequently called Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare.[1][2][3] She also inherited from Gilbert extensive lands in many other counties.[8]
Elizabeth and her second husband Roger Damory made Usk Castle one of their primary residences after 2 July 1320 when Elizabeth inherited the castle and associated land from Matilda de Clare, widow of her brother Gilbert, until Sir Roger's death in 1321/22.[9]
During Christmas of 1321/2 Elizabeth was arrested and held at York, where she was forced to sign a bond that said she was not allowed to marry or give away any of her lands without permission of King Edward II.[1][2][3] Then, after the death of Roger Damory, Elizabeth was taken prisoner by Hugh Despenser the Younger, her brother-in-law, at Barking Abbey and, under duress and threatened with death, was forced, despite her vociferous protests, to exchange Usk, Tregruk [Llangibby], Caerleon, and 19 other manors in Wales for the castles and manors of Swansea, Oystermouth, and others in the possession of Hugh.[1][2][3][10] In 1322, Edward II placed Usk Castle into the custody of first, John Walwyn and then, Gilbert Glynkerney.[10]
Elizabeth's own lands were confiscated as a result of Roger Damory's part in rebellion. On 2 November 1322 Edward II ordered them all to be restored to her.[11]
Elizabeth's repossession of her lands appears to have been short-lived. On 7 January 1322/3 Edward II declared that, as she had left him without permission, he was seizing all of her lands.[12] How far this was enforced, or how long for, is not certain: a Close Rolls entry for 8 February 1324 gave instructions for an Oxfordshire manor to be returned to her, in terms which imply that other lands had already been restored.[11]
Very soon after his accession to the throne in 1327, Edward III restored Usk Castle and all of the other still confiscated lands to Elizabeth,[10] along with the manor of Vauxhall, Surrey which her third husband had held.[1][2][3] Roger Damory's Irish estates were also restored to her.[4]
On 21 October 1330, Elizabeth entered into an arrangement under which she retained a life interest in much of her property, including the castles of Usk and Caerleon, but on her death it would pass to Isabel, her daughter from her second marriage, and Isabel's husband Henry de Ferrers.[13]
Also in 1330, Elizabeth granted one fourth of the manor of Kirby Knowle, Yorkshire, to Sir Robert le Constable and his wife Avice. In 1338 her daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law John Bardolf granted another quarter to them, and they then held the whole of the manor.[14]
In 1348 she was given a license to found a house of Friars Minor at Walsingham, Norfolk.[15]
University Hall, a College of Cambridge University, was underfunded, with income to support only two Fellows.[16] Robert Marschall, a relation of Cambridge University Chancellor Richard de Badew, made Elizabeth aware of this. She obtained the rights to University Hall from de Badew on 6 April 1338. The transfer was approved by the University on 5 April 1340 with a safeguard that the University would have to approve any changes made to the College's statutes.[17]
Elizabeth was worried that, because of plague, not enough clerks would be available for the teaching staff. She also wanted poor students to be able to enroll in the College, and this required the permission of the University. This was given in February 1346, but there was still a risk of litigation, so she persuaded Richard de Badew to set a date by which any objections had to be lodged. On 15 June 1346, by when this date had passed, Edward III gave permission for the College's finances to be bolstered by the grant of some rectories. The College was renamed Clare Hall, recognising the extent of her involvement.[17]
The College continued to face financial problems, and Fellows of the College resorted to damaging expedients. In 1359 Elizabeth countered these with a set of statutes - the product of some years of deliberation.[17]
One result of Elizabeth's interest in the running of the College was that it was the first of the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge to comprise a formal community of Master, Fellows, graduates and undergraduates all residing together.[17]
In 1856 Clare Hall changed its name to Clare College.[16]
Elizabeth on 25 September 1355 completed and signed her will, which was very extensive and named many persons within. The will included the following bequests to family members:[18]
Elizabeth died 4 November 1360 at age 65.[1][2][3] In her will, which was proved 3 December 1360, Elizabeth requested burial at the Convent of the Minoresses without Aldgate, London (known as the Minories),[18] and the 1372 will of John de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke requested a tomb as similar as possible to the tomb in which Elizabeth lay at the Minories.[21] Her remains may have been initially buried at the Minories and transferred later to lie alongside her third husband, Sir Roger Damory, in the middle aisle at St. Mary's, Ware, Hertfordshire: Ancient Funeral Monuments by John Weever (1576-1632) records a memorial inscription there (which no longer exists[22]) reading:
Elizabeth and Roger Damory married shortly before 3 May 1317[24][25] so Elizabeth nor Margaret could not have been born before 1318.
The revised edition of Cokayne's Complete Peerage says Elizabeth Damory was born shortly before 23 May 1318, but gives no sourcing.[26] and Douglas Richardson says the same in both Magna Carta Ancestry[27] and Royal Ancestry.[28] This is based on a record of 23 May 1318 referring to Elizabeth being delivered of a child.[29]
Douglas Richardson has since changed his view, and now believes Elizabeth Damory was born by 1320 but that it was her sister Margaret Damory who was born by 23 May 1318. His arguments are set out in a 2018 post in soc.genealogy. medieval. Briefly:[30]
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C > Clare | D > Damory > Elizabeth (Clare) Damory
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