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Sir Geoffrey Luttrell III (1276 – 23 May 1345)

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

Irnham __NOTOC__ Irnham is a village and civil parish in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately south-east from Grantham. To the north is Ingoldsby and to the south-west, Corby Glen. The village is on a high limes ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

was a mediaeval knight remembered principally today as having commissioned the

Luttrell Psalter The Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Add MS 42130) is an illuminated psalter commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (1276–1345), lord of the manor of Irnham in Lincolnshire, written and illustrated on parchment ''circa'' 1320–1340 in Engla ...

, a rare and profusely illustrated manuscript now in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

in London.

Origins

Geoffrey Luttrell was born in 1276 and was the son of Robert Luttrell (died 1296). He succeeded his father in 1297. He was a descendant of Sir

Geoffrey de Luterel Sir Geoffrey de Luterel I (c. 1158–1218), was a courtier and confidant of King John, whom he served as a minister. Origins He was born around 1158 in Gamston, Nottinghamshire, England, the son of Alfred de Luterel (1105-1170). Relations w ...

. He was referred to as the 2nd Lord of Irnham. His family's arms were: ''Azure, a bend between six martlets argent''. Another branch of the Luttrell family, which bore the same arms but differenced by tincture (''Or, a bend between six martlets sable''), in 1376 he acquired

Dunster Castle Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a English country house, country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo- ...

in Somerset, where they were seated until the extinction of the male line in 1737 (although the family continued at Dunster until 1976 via a female line which adopted the surname and arms of Luttrell).

Career

Within the last five years before his death in 1345 he commissioned the

, the illustrations to which include a representation of him, his wife and his daughter-in-law, with profuse display of his armorials. Although he has been praised for his patronage of the arts, it seems that Luttrell, like many medieval landowners, was capable of ruthlessness and violence. A private war which he conducted together with his neighbours Roger de Birthorpe, Edmund Colville and Guy Goband against the monks of

Sempringham Priory Sempringham Priory was a priory in Lincolnshire, England, located in the medieval hamlet of Sempringham, to the northwest of Pointon. Today, all that remains of the priory is a marking on the ground where the walls stood and a square, which are i ...

was considered serious enough to warrant a Royal Commission of Inquiry in 1312. However, it has been argued that Birthorpe was the principal offender and that Luttrell was to blame only for supporting his friend; this may be borne out by the fact that while Birthorpe was

outlawed An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

for a time, Luttrell seems to have escaped any censure.

Marriage and children

Sir Geoffrey married Agnes the daughter of Sir Richard of Sutton. She died in June 1339 or 1340. Their Issue: 1. Robert, d. 1320 2. Andrew, his heir. 3. Sir Geoffrey, who married Constance, daughter of Geoffrey Scrope. 4. Robert, a Knight of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. 5. Isabel, a Gilbertine nun. 6. Elizabeth, who married Walter, son of Sir Walter Gloucester.

Notes

External links

Inquisition Post Mortem
#406, dated 1296, reflecting the inheritance going to his son Geoffrey.
A History of Dunster and of the Families of Mohun & Luttrell
Volume 2, Public Domain. {{DEFAULTSORT:Luttrell, Geoffrey 1276 births 1345 deaths 13th-century English people 14th-century English people Medieval English knights People from South Kesteven District Geoffrey