![William de Braose, coat of arms, Falkirk Roll](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/William_de_Braose%2C_coat_of_arms%2C_Falkirk_Roll.svg)
John de Braose (born 1197 or 1198 – 18 July 1232), known as ''Tadody'' to the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
, was the Lord of
Bramber and
Gower
Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...
.
Re-establishment of the de Braose dynasty
John re-established the senior branch of the de Braose dynasty.
His father was William de Braose, eldest son of
William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber
William de Braose, (or William de Briouze), 4th Lord of Bramber (1144/1153 – 9 August 1211), court favourite of King John of England, at the peak of his power, was also Lord of Gower, Abergavenny, Brecknock, Builth, Radnor, Kington, L ...
and
Maud de St. Valery, and his mother was Maud de Clare, (born ca. 1184) daughter of
Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford
Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford (–1217), feudal baron of Clare in Suffolk, and lord of Tonbridge in Kent and of Cardigan in Wales, was a powerful Anglo-Norman nobleman with vast landholdings in England and Wales.
Career
Richard was the ...
of
Tonbridge Castle
Tonbridge Castle is a 13th century castle situated in Tonbridge, Kent, England.
Early history
Following the Norman Conquest, Richard Fitz Gilbert was granted land in Kent to guard the crossing of the River Medway. He erected a simple Motte-and ...
in Kent. John was their eldest son and one of four brothers, the others being Giles, Phillip and Walter de Braose.
Royal threat
His grandfather had had his lands seized and his grandmother Maud de St. Valery had been captured by forces of
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
John of England
John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Emp ...
in 1210. She was imprisoned, along with John's father William, in
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck peninsula in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror, the castle dates to the 11th century and commands a gap in the P ...
and walled alive inside the dungeon. Both mother and son starved to death on the King's orders. This was probably due to John's grandfather's conflict with the monarch, open rebellion and subsequent alliance with
Llewelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually " Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wales" (in 1240). By a combination of war and d ...
. John's nickname ''Tadody'' means "fatherless" in the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
.
Hiding and imprisonment
At his family's fall from Royal favour John de Braose was initially hidden on
Gower
Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...
and spent some time in the care of his uncle
Giles de Braose,
Bishop of Hereford, but finally in 1214 John and his younger brother Philip were taken into custody. They were imprisoned until after
King John had died (in 1216), the throne passing to
Henry III. John was released from custody in 1218.
Welsh intermarriage
![Swansea castle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Swansea_Castle.jpg)
In 1219 he married
Margaret ferch Llywelyn (born about 1202 in the
Kingdom of Gwynedd
The Kingdom of Gwynedd (Medieval Latin: ; Middle Welsh: ) was a Welsh kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
Based in northwest Wales, th ...
), daughter of the leader of Wales,
Llywelyn Fawr
Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually " Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wales" (in 1240). By a combination of war and ...
. He received the
Lordship of Gower
Gower was an ancient marcher lordship of Deheubarth in South Wales.
Creation of Lordship
Prior to the Norman invasion, the district was the commote of Gŵyr, a part of Cantref Eginawc, within the realm of Deheubarth. Over the preceding century, ...
as her dowry with Llywelyn's blessing.
In 1226 another surviving uncle
Reginald de Braose
Reginald de Braose (19 September 1182 – June 1228) was one of the sons of William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber and Matilda, also known as Maud de St. Valery and Lady de la Haie. Her other children included William and Giles.
The de Braoses ...
sold him the honour of Bramber, and he inherited more lands and titles when this uncle died a few years later in 1228. Sometime in the 1220s, he established the deer park,
Parc le Breos
''Parc le Breos'' was a great medieval deer park in the south of the Gower Peninsula, about west of Swansea, Wales, and about north of the Bristol Channel. The park was an enclosed, oval area of in circumference, covering about and meas ...
in the
Gower Peninsula
Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...
.
He and Margaret, his Welsh wife, had three sons, his heir, William de Braose the eldest son, John and Richard (born about 1225 in
Stinton,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
) the youngest, (buried in
Woodbridge Priory,
Suffolk) having died before June 1292.
Death and legacy
In 1232 John was killed in a fall from his horse on his land in Bramber, Sussex at 34 years of age. His widow soon remarried to
Walter III de Clifford.
William de Braose (born about 1224; died 1291 in
Findon, Sussex), his eldest son, succeeded him in the title of Lord of Bramber. John the younger son became Lord of the manor of
Corsham
Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south-eastern edge of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 national route, southwest of Swindon, southeast of Bristol, northeast of Bath and southwest of ...
in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
and also later Lord of
Glasbury on Wye.
William de Braose (c.1224–1291) also had a son named
William de Braose who died "shortly before 1st May 1326".
[Richardson & Everingham, ''Magna Carta Ancestry'', p137.]
Another
William de Braose, who became
Bishop of Llandaff
The Bishop of Llandaff is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff.
Area of authority
The diocese covers most of the County of Glamorgan. The bishop's seat is in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (the site of ...
, cannot be placed with certainty in this branch of the family.
The
de Braose name was modified to de Brewes in the Middle Ages, 1200 to 1400.
See also
*
House of Braose
The House of Braose (''alias'' Breuse, Brewes, Brehuse,Richardson ''Magna Carta Ancestry'' pp. 136–137 Briouze, Brewose etc., Latinised to de Braiosa) was a prominent family of Anglo-Norman nobles originating in Briouze, near Argentan, Orn ...
Notes
References
* ''Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families'', by Douglas Richardson & Kimball G. Everingham, Published 2005, Genealogical Publishing Com
* ''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700'', by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 29A-28, 246–30.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braose, John de
Anglo-Normans
Anglo-Normans in Wales
1198 births
1232 deaths
Deaths by horse-riding accident in England
People from Glamorgan
Norman warriors
People from Bramber
12th-century Welsh nobility
13th-century Welsh nobility
Feudal barons of Bramber