Earl Humphrey De Bohun HEREFORD, VII ¹

   Other names for Humphrey were ENGLAND Constable, ESSEX 2nd Earl and HEREFORD 3rd Earl.

   Ancestral File Number: 8XJQ-RT. User ID: 2363716.

   General Notes:

3rd Earl of HEREFORD 1275-98, 2nd Earl of ESSEX, Constable of ENGLAND.

BOOK
A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III, The Three Edwards, Thomas B Costain, 1958, Doubleday & Co
p26: "...Incensed by the defeat of anEnglish army at Kidwelly, Edward decided on a major invasion and gathered a large force at Chester. Two other armies were to strike at the same time, one moving out from Shrewsbury under the command of Henry de Lacy and a second poised againstSouth Wales under the Earl of Hereford..."
p50: "...There were glum and hostile faces when Parliament opened. The two glummest and most hostile were those of the fifth Earl of Norfolk, who was hereditary marshal of England, and the Earl of Hereford, who held the post of constable. When Edward announced that he planned to lead an army into Flanders to fight things out with the French king and would send another army to recover Gascony, the meeting flared into opposition.
"It was the marshal, Roger Bigod, who was most outspoken...
"...The result was that Roger Bigod neither went to Gascony nor hanged. In concert with the constable and a number of other prominent barons he got together a party of fifteen hundred men who stood under arms until the issue was settled. This was close to open rebellion. Edward, however, did not fly into the rage which was so common to his grandfather, John of infamous memory, or John's father, Henry II. Instead he excused the two hereditary officers from from performing the duties of their respective posts and appointed temporary substitutes..."
p51: "...As soon as Edward had crossed the Channel they drew up a list of grievances and under the leadership of Bigod and Bohun presented it to Prince Edward (then thirteen years of age), who had been appointed regent in his father's absence. It was demanded of the prince that he agree on behalf of his father to rescind every financial exaction to which they objected...and to confirm the terms of the Great Charter and the Forest Charter. The prince, faced with a baronage in arms, agreed to the stipulations and signed in his father's name.
"The document was then sent to Edward at Ghent,where his army was stationed. Instead of flying into a fury as his high-tempered forebears would have done, he gave the matter due consideration. It was clear to him, of course, that to assent to these demands would be to establish a new conception of taxation; that never again would a king of England be able legally to impose a tax without the consent of Parliament. Without undue delay he signed the document and returned it to England.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, 1981, Vol II, Bigod, p12:
"...Roger, 5th earl (died 1306), quarrelled with Edward I and, with the Earl of Hereford, forced him to confirm the charters of liberties (1297). He died childless, and although a cadet branch of the family long survived,it played no part in politics."

A History of the English Speaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I The Birth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co p295:
"Edward was the more prepared to come to terms with the Church because opposition had already broken out in another quarter. He proposed to the barons at Salisbury that a number of them should serve in Gascony while he conducted a campaign in Flanders. This was ill received. Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Constable of England, together with the Marshal, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, declared that their hereditary offices could only be exercised in the King's company. Such excuses deceived nobody. Both the Earls had personal grudges against the King, and- much more important- they voiced the resentment felt by a large number of the barons who for the past twenty years had steadily seen the authority of the Crown increased to their own detriment. The time was ripe for a revival of the baronial opposition whicha generation before had defied Edward's father.
"For the moment the King ignored the challenge. He pressed forward with his preparations for war, appointed deputies in place of Hereford and Norfolk, and in August sailed for Flanders. The opposition saw in his absence their long-awaited opportunity. They demanded the confirmation of those two instruments, Magna Carta and its extension, the Charter of the Forest, which were the final version of the terms extorted from John, together with six additional articles. By these no tallage or aid was to be imposed in future except with the consent of the community of the realm; corn, wool, and the like must not be impounded against the will of their owners; the clergy and laityof of the realm must recover their ancient liberties; the two Earls and their supporters were not to be penalised for their refusal to serve in Gascony; the prelates were to read the Charter aloud in their cathedrals, and to excommunicate allwho neglected it. In the autumn the two Earls, backed by armed forces, appeared in London and demanded the acceptance of these proposals. The Regency, unable to resist, submitted. The articles were confirmed, and in November at Ghent the King ratified them reserving however certain financial rights of the Crown."
p297: "Edward to a greater extent than any of his predecessors had shown himself prepared to govern in the national interest and with some regard for constitutional form. It was thus ironical, and to the King exasperating, that he found the principles he had emphasised applied against himself. The baronial party had not resorted to war; they had acted through the constitutional machinery the King himself hadtaken so much pains to create. Thereby they had shifted their ground: they spoke no longer as the representatives of the feudal aristocracy, but again committed solemnly and publicly to the principles of Magna Carta, and the concession was madeall the more valuable because remedies of actual recent abuses of the royal prerogative powers had been added to the original charters. Here was a real constitutional advance."
p298: "In their fatal preoccupation with their possession inFrance the English kings had neglected the work of extending their rule within the Island of Great Britain...Edward I was the first of the English kings to put the whole weight of the Crown's resources behind the effort of national expansion inthe West and North...He took the first great step towards the unification of the Island. He sought to conquer where the Romans, the Saxons, and the Normans all in their turn had failed. The mountain fastnesses of Wales nursed a hardy and unsubdued race which, under the grandson of the great Llewellyn, had in the previous reign once again made a deep dint upon the politics of England. Edward, as his father's lieutenant, had experience of the Welsh. He had encountered them in war, with questionable success. At the same time he had seen, with disap- proving eye, the truculence of the barons of the Welsh Marches, the Mortimers, the Bohuns, and in the South the Clares, with the Gloucester estates, who exploited their militaryprivileges against the interests alike of the Welsh and English people. All assertions of Welsh independence were a vexation to Edward; but scarcely less obnoxious was a system of guarding the frontiers of England by a confederacy of robber barons who had more than once presumed to challenge the authority of the Crown. He resolved, in the name of justice and progress, to subdue the unconquered refuge of petty princes and wild mountaineers in which barbaric freedom had dwelt since remote antiquity, and at the same time to curb the priviliges of the Marcher lords."

The Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, AMS Press, 1905,
p115: "...The poverty of Montfort's host in historic families attested the complete disintegration of the party since 1263. Its strength lay in the young enthusiasts, who were still dominated by the strong personality and generous ideals of Leicester, such as the Earl of Gloucester, or Humphrey Bohun of Brecon, whose father, the Earl of Hereford, was fighting on the king's side..."
p156: "...In the south [of Wales], Humphrey Bohun, grandson of the old Earl of Hereford and earl himself in 1275 by his grandfather's death, was engaged in private war with Llewelyn. In direct defiance of the terms of 1267, Humphrey strove to maintain himself in the march of Brecon, which had been definitely ceded to Llewelyn. It was to the credit of the regents that they refused to countenance this glaring violation of the treaty..."
p172: "...Things had not gone well in England during Edward's absence [1289]. A fierce quarrel between the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford broke out with regard to the boundaries of Glamorgan and Brecon, and the private war between the two marchers proved more formidable to the peace of the realm than the revolt of the Welsh prince..."
p174: "...Edward was bent on showing that he was master, and his new son- in-law and the Earl of Hereford became the victims of his policy. He forced the reluctant Gloucester to admit that the pretensions of the lord of Glamorgan to be the overlord of the bishop of Llandaff and the guardian of the temporalities of the see during a vacancy were usurpations. Seeing that his marcher prerogatives were thus rapidly becoming undermined, Gloucester put the most cherished marcher right to the test by renewing the private war with the Earl of Hereford which had disturbed the realm during Edward's absence. The king issued peremptory orders for the immediate cessation of hostilities. These mandates Hereford obeyed, but Gloucester did not. Resolved that law not force was henceforth to settle disputes in the march, Edward summoned a novel court at Ystradvellte, in Brecon, wherein a jury from the neighbouring shires and liberties was to decide the case between the two earls in the presence of the chief marchers. Gloucester refused to appear, and the marchers declined to take part in the trial, pleading that it was against their liberties. The case was adjourned to give the recalcitrants every chance, and after a preliminary report by the judges, Edward resolved to hear the suit in person. In October, 1291, he presided at Abergavenny over the court before which the earls were arraigned. They wer condemned to imprisonment and forfeiture. Content with humbling their pride and annihilating their privileges, Edward suffered them to redeem themselves from captivity by the payment of heavy fines, and before long gave them back their lands. The king's victory was so complete that neither of the earls could forgive it. In 1295, Gloucester died without opportunity of revenge; but Hereford lived on, brooding over his wrongs, and in later years signally avenged the trial at Abergavenny. Meanwhile the conqueror of the principality had shown unmistakably that the liberties of the march were an anachronism, since the marchers had no longer the work of defending English interests against the Welsh nation..."
p188: "...At the moment of the departure of John of Brittany [1294] a sudden insurection in Wales frustrated Edward's plans. All Wales was ripe for revolt. In the principality the Cymry resented the English rule, and the sulky marchers stood aloof in sullen discontent, while their native tenants, seeing in the recent humiliation of Gloucester and Hereford the degradation of all their lords, lost respect for such powerless masters. Both in the principality and in the marches, Edward's demand for compulsory service in Gascony was universally regarded as a new aggression..."
p189: "...As by a common signal all Wales rose at Michaelmas, 1294...Brecon rose against Herefordand Glamorgan against Gilbert of Gloucester. Morgan, the leader of the Glamorganshire rebels, loudly declared that he did not rebel against the king but against the Earl of Gloucester..."
p202: "...[Edward] summoned a baronial parliamentto assemble on February 24 [1297] at Salisbury, and went down in person to explain his plan of cam- paign...He requested some of the earls, including Norfolk and Hereford, to fight for him in Gascony. The deaths of Edmund of Lancaster, Gilbertof Gloucester, and William of Pembroke had robbed the baronage of its natural leaders...The removal of other possible spokesmen made Norfolk and Hereford the champions of the party of opposition. For years the friends of aristocratic authorityhad been smarting under the growing influence of the crown. The time was ripe for a revival of the baronial opposition which a generation earlier had won the Provisions of Oxford. Moreover both the earls had personal slights to avenge. Herefordbitterly resented the punishment meted out to him for waging private war against Earl Gilbert in the march. Norfolk was angry because, during the last Welsh campaign, Edward had suspended him from the exercise of marshalship. The form of Edward's request at Salisbury gave them a technical advantage which they were not slow to seize. Ignoring the broader issues which lay between them and the king, they took their stand on their traditional rights as constable and marshal to attend the king in person. `Freely,' declared the earl marshal, `will I go with thee, O king, and march before thee in the first line of thy army, as my hereditary duty requires.' Edward answered: `Thou shalt go without me along with the rest to Gascony'. The marshal replied: `I am not bound to go save with thee, nor will I go'. Edward flew into a passion: `By God, sir earl, thou shalt either go or hang'. Norfolk replied with equal spirit: `By that same oath, sir king, I will neither go nor hang'. The parliament broke up in disorder. Before long a force of 1500 men-at-arms gathered together under the leadership of the constable and marshal."
p204: "...Hereford and Norfolk abandoned active in favour of passive host- ility. Theyrefused to serve as constable and marshal, and Edward appointed barons of less dignity and greater loyalty to act in their place. While all England was busy with the equipment of troops and the provision of supplies, they sullenly held aloof..."
p213: "...The leaders of the opposition were present in Edward's host. On the eve of the invasion, the impatient king was kept back by the declaration of Hereford and Norfolk that they would not cross the frontier, until definite assurances were given that the king would carry out the confirmation of the charters which he had informally ratified on foreign soil. Etiquette or pride prevented Edward himself satisfying their demand, but the Bishop of Durham and three loyal earlspledged themselves that the king would fulfill all his promises on his return. The the two earls suffered the expedition to proceed; and on July 6 [1298] the army left Roxburgh, proceeding by moderate marches to Kirkliston on the Almond, whereit encamped on the 15th..."

The Later Middle Ages 1272-1485, George Holmes, 1962, Norton Library of England
p25: "...Lay society was crowned by a group of about a dozen or fifteen earls. Some were of royal blood...others members of ancient families descending from the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, like the de Vere earls of Oxford and the Bohuns of Hereford..."
p83: "...The famous quarrel betweeen the Earls of Hereford and Gloucester was settled in a parliament in 1292..." p89: "...At the beginning of [Edward I's] reign in 1272, the east and south of what is now Wales were held by English Marcher lords like the Clare earls of Gloucester, who held the lordship of Glamorgan; and the Bohun earls of Hereford, who held Brecon..."
p108: "...The assembly of an army to invade France at the beginning of 1297 provoked resistance, partly because the King was trying to extend the duty of military service to all men with more than L20 annual income from land, partly because of objections by two leading magnates, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who led an opposition which refused to go to Gascony if the King himself was going to Flanders. In the summer Edwardtried to raise another tax from the laity without proper consent from a full assembly of knights and burgesses. The earls forbade its collection. When Edward did at last sail in August, it was with the country half in revolt behind him... "The King's opponents had a traditional weapon to hand in the two Charters- Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest- originally extracted from King John and Henry III in 1215 and 1217 and acknowledged thereafter as expressing the fundamentallimitations on royal power. In the political crisis these documents came to the fore again and for several years became the centre of political debate. In the King's absence the Regent was driven in October 1297 to grant the `Confirmation of the Charters' (Confirmatio Cartarum), which added an important statement of principle to the original documents: no taxation should be levied by the king without the consent of the whole `community of the realm'..."
p109: "...The magnates insisted anxiously on the Carters, the basis of their liberties...
"Their fears were justified for, as Edward recovered his hold on affairs in his last years, he became more grasping. In 1302 the Earl of Norfolk surrendered his lands to theKing ot receive them back only for life, and the Earl of Hereford's heir was married to one of Edward's daughters with the stipulation that his lands too should revert to the King if he had no children..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Micropaedia, Vol II, p121, Bohun: "Name of an English family with lands on the Welsh marches, prominent in the 13th and 14th centuries. Arriving from Normandy in the 11th century, the family prospered during the 12th when a member held the office ofconstable..."

The New Columbia Encyclopedia, 1975, p323, Bohun Humphrey VII De, 3rd Earl of Hereford, 2nd Earl of Essex: "Died 1298, English nobleman. He was constable of England and with Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, led the baronial opposition to Edward I that forced the king to sign the important confirmation of the charters (1297)."

ANCESTRAL FILE
8XJQ-RT Born Abt 1249 Died 31 Dec 1298, 8HRW-NT Earl of HEREFORD Born Abt 1250, IGI Birth 7222293-99-822001 Sep 1248 Pleshey Essex England, PHE Humphrey BOHUN of Brecon, 91QQ-V5 Humphrey VII De BOHUN [EARL OF HEREFORD] Born Abt 1249 Of Hereford & Essex England Mar 1275 Maud De FIENNES (AFN:HK72-T0) Died 31 Dec 1298 Pleshey.

FAMILY SEARCH ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.19 91QQ-V5.

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX
IGI Birth 7222293-99-822001 Humphrey DE BOHUN Mother Maud D'EU Father Humphrey DE BOHUN 1228 Pleshey Essex England.

IGI Birth 7222293-99-822001 Humphrey DE BOHUN Father Humphrey DE BOHUN Mother E DE BRAOSE or DE BRAISE Sep 1248 Pleshey Essex England.

IGI Marriage 7221330-38-820474 Humphrey DE BOHUN Spouse Maud DE FIENES 1275 Essex England.

   Marriage Information:

Humphrey married Maud De FIENNES, daughter of Enguerrand De FIENNES and Isabel CONDE, in 1275 in , Essex, England. (Maud De FIENNES was born about 1250-1256 in , Sussex, England and was buried in Walden, Essex, England.)