Baldwin (Redvers) de Reviers (abt. 1090 - 1155)

Born about 1090 in Isle of Wight, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 4 Jun 1155 at about age 65 in Exeter, Devon, England

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Biography

According to Keats-Rohan, by his wife Adelisa he left issue:^[1]

• Richard, Earl of Devon d. 1162.
• Henry de Redvers.
• William de Vernon, later Earl of Devon, d.1217.
• Hawise, wife of Robert son of Robert, Earl of Gloucester.
• Alice, wife of Roger II de Nonant.

His widow's name was Lucy and she was a daughter of Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare.

Baldwin was the eldest son of Richard de Revières and Adeliz, daughter of William Peverel of Nottingham. The family originated from Reviers (Calvados) but their estates, by the end of the eleventh century, centred on Néhou (Manche) and Vernon (Eure).

Baldwin acted for Henry I as a minor local administrator in the 1120s and early 1130s, but emerged clearly at the beginning of Stephen's reign when, in the spring of 1136, he seized the royal castle at Exeter. Due to his behavior, he was stripped of his land and took refuge at the court of Geoffrey, count of Anjou. For the next three years, Baldwin was actively involved in the count's attacks on Normandy. In 1138 he was captured by the Norman baron Ingram de Say outside the castle of Isle Marie (Manche). Baldwin must soon have regained his freedom, as in July 1139 he led the Empress Matilda's invasion of England, landing at Wareham and seizing the nearby castle of Corfe. In the military campaigning of the next three years he remained a firm supporter of Matilda's cause. He fought in her army at the battle of Lincoln early in 1141 and was then among those who escorted her to London, where she hoped to be crowned. On her arrival there in midsummer she created him earl of Devon.

Baldwin left at least five children from his first marriage, to Adeliz (parentage unknown). Adeliz died around 1146, and between 1151 and 1155 Baldwin married as his second wife, Lucy, the widow of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Hertford. He died on 4 June 1155 and was buried at Quarr Abbey, which he had founded in 1132.

BALDWIN de Reviers ([1090/1100]-1155). The Fundationis et Fundatorum Historia of Ford Abbey names ”Baldwinum” as first son of “Ricardo de Redveriis”.

“Adeliz de Redveriis” donated property to “abbatie sancte Marie Monteburgi”, for the souls of “patris mei Willelmi Pevrel et matris mee Adeline”, with the consent of “filiorum meorum Baldewini et Willelmi de Vernone et Roberti de sancte Marie ecclesia et fratris mei Willelmi Pevrel de Notingeham et nepotum meorum Ricardi de Redveriis Henrici atque Willelmi” by undated charter.

"Baldwin earl of Exeter" confirmed the donations to the abbey of Sainte-Marie, Montebourg by "his father Richard de Reveriis" by charter dated to [1142/55]. Earl of Devon 1141

Sources

1. ↑ Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, p.658.

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Medieval Lands - VERNON
• Forester, Thomas. The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, with the two continuation (H.G. Bohn, London, 1854) "John of Worcester"

• Page 251: "[A.D. 1135.] Stephen, king of England, marched into Devonshire with a large force of horse and foot, and besieged, for a long time the castle of Exeter, which Baldwin, surnamed de Redvers, had fortified in defiance of the royal authority. But at length, the garrison being short of provisions, terms were made, and Baldwin with his wife and children, were expelled from England, his lands being forfeited."