Thomas d'Ippegrave was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

official who had "a career fairly characteristic of the more capable clerks" in the household of the Lord Edward, future

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...

.J. Robin Studd, ''A Catalogue of the Acts of the Lord Edward, 1254–1272'', PhD thesis (University of Leeds, 1971), 392 and note. He was a member of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

in 1264,H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles, ''The Irish Parliament in the Middle Ages'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952), 26. served as

Constable of the Tower The Constable of the Tower is the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. In the Middle Ages a constable was the person in charge of a castle when the owner—the king or a nobleman—was not in residence. The Constable of the Tower had a ...

and

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

in 1268 and then served as

Seneschal of Gascony The Seneschal of Gascony was an officer carrying out and managing the domestic affairs of the lord of the Duchy of Gascony. During the course of the twelfth century, the seneschalship, also became an office of military command. After 1360, the off ...

from 1268 until 1269."Principal Office Holders in the Duchy"
an
"Seneschals of Gascony, of Aquitaine after 1360 (1273–1453)"
''The Gascon Rolls Project (1317–1468)''. Although he had professional training as a lawyer,J. Robin Studd, "The Marriage of Henry of Almain and Constance of Béarn", ''Thirteenth Century England'' 3 (1991): 173–74 and note. Thomas began his governmental career as a minor

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

in the Lord Edward's household. He can be seen acting in connection with the

Duchy of Gascony The Duchy of Gascony or Duchy of Vasconia ( eu, Baskoniako dukerria; oc, ducat de Gasconha; french: duché de Gascogne, duché de Vasconie) was a duchy located in present-day southwestern France and northeastern Spain, an area encompassing the m ...

, which belonged to Edward, as early as 1255. He rose to the position of

keeper of the wardrobe The King's Wardrobe, together with the Chamber, made up the personal part of medieval English government known as the King's household. Originally the room where the king's clothes, armour, and treasure were stored, the term was expanded to descr ...

for Edward by 1259, perhaps originally working as the deputy of the previous keeper, Ralph de Donjon. As keeper of the wardrobe, he received and disbursed money on Edward's behalf. In 1259 he was in Gascony in his capacity as a former lawyer to assist the king's lieutenant for Gascony,

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...

. He had by that time become a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

and was appointed by King Henry III along with another knight and a clerk to defend the Crown against the lawsuit brought by Renaud II de Pons and his wife, Marguerite de Turenne. This was the first case from Gascony that was appealed to the ''parlement'' of Paris. Thomas had returned to the Lord Edward's service by January 1260, and he visited France in Edward's entourage in November 1260. Thomas was sent on a "special mission" to Ireland in 1264, during which he sat with the other members of the king's ''Secretum Consilium'' (privy council). The purpose of his mission was to take part in the inquest into allegations that the

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

was interfering with pleas to the Crown. His stay in Ireland was short. By early 1265 he had returned to England. There he supervised the collection of a

tallage Tallage or talliage (from the French ''tailler, i.e. '' a part cut out of the whole) may have signified at first any tax, but became in England and France a land use or land tenure tax. Later in England it was further limited to assessments by the ...

(tax) on the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Thomas was appointed seneschal before 21 November 1268, when as seneschal he witnessed the signing of the marriage contract between

Henry of Almain Henry of Almain (Anglo-Norman: ''Henri d'Almayne''; 2 November 1235 – 13 March 1271), also called Henry of Cornwall, was the eldest son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, afterwards King of the Romans, by his first wife Isabel Marshal. His surname is ...

, the king's nephew, and

Constance of Béarn Constance (died 1310) was ''suo jure'' Viscountess of Marsan as well as titular Countess of Bigorre, daughter of Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn and his first wife Martha of Marsan. Constance inherited all of her titles from her mother and contend ...

, a leading Gascon heiress. He then issued a writ confirming the contract, formally releasing Constance from the ''

patria potestas The ''pater familias'', also written as ''paterfamilias'' (plural ''patres familias''), was the head of a Roman family. The ''pater familias'' was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic authority over his ext ...

'' of her father, Viscount

Gaston VII of Béarn Gaston is a masculine given name of French origin and a surname. The name "Gaston" may refer to: People First name *Gaston I, Count of Foix (1287–1315) *Gaston II, Count of Foix (1308–1343) *Gaston III, Count of Foix (1331–1391) *Gaston I ...

, and recognising her

seisin Seisin (or seizin) denotes the legal possession of a feudal fiefdom or fee, that is to say an estate in land. It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with co ...

of the viscounties of Brulhois and Gabardan, which were to be her

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...

at the time of her marriage. Part of the significance of this writ is that it shows that at the time the suzerainty of the Duke of Gascony over the Viscount of Béarn was not disputed and covered the whole of the viscountcy. Thomas appears to have been one of only two of fourteen seneschals of Gascony that Edward himself appointed during the lifetime of his father, who appointed all the others. He was replaced as seneschal sometime between March and November 1269.J. Robin Studd, "The Lord Edward and King Henry III", ''Historical Research'' 50, 121 (1977): 9. Thomas was granted the position of serjeant of Eastgate in the city of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

as well as the tolls in 1275. Thomas's widow Joan was granted the custody and tolls of the gate in 1278, which she then surrendered to the crown, in return for a pension.Barrow, J S, J D Herson, A H Lawes, P J Riden, and M V J Seaborne
''Major buildings: City walls and gates.''
A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 Part 2, the City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions. Eds. A T Thacker, and C P Lewis. London: Victoria County History, 2005. pp. 213-225. British History Online. Accessed 3 January 2019.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ippegrave, Thomas d' 1270s deaths Year of death uncertain Year of birth unknown Seneschals of Gascony Constables of the Tower of London Members of the Privy Council of Ireland 13th-century English lawyers Medieval English knights Tax collectors 13th-century mayors of London 13th-century English politicians