William de Braose, coat of arms, Falkirk Roll

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 ...

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

Hiding and imprisonment

At his family's fall from Royal favour John de Braose was initially hidden on

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

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 ...

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.

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