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Birth:          ABT 1249 of Herefordshire and Essex, England
Death:          31 Dec 1298 Pleshey, Essex, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_de_Bohun,_2nd_Earl_of_Hereford
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_de_Bohun,_3rd_Earl_of_Hereford
Humphrey (VI) de Bohun (c. 1249[nb 1] – 31 December 1298), 3rd Earl of Hereford and 
2nd Earl of Essex, was an English nobleman known primarily for his opposition to King 
Edward I over the Confirmatio Cartarum.[1] He was also an active participant in the 
Welsh Wars and maintained for several years a private feud with the earl of 
Gloucester.[2] His father, Humphrey (V) de Bohun, fought on the side of the rebellious 
barons in the Barons' War. When Humphrey (V) predeceased his father, Humphrey (VI) 
became heir to his grandfather, Humphrey (IV). At Humphrey (IV)'s death in 1275, 
Humphrey (VI) inherited the earldoms of Hereford and Essex. He also inherited major 
possessions in the Welsh Marches from his mother, Eleanor de Braose.

Bohun's spent most of his early career reconquering Marcher lands captured by 
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd during the Welsh war in England. This was finally accomplished 
through Edward I's war in Wales in 1277. Hereford also fought in Wales in 1282–83 
and 1294–95. At the same time he also had private feuds with other Marcher lords, and 
his conflict with Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, eventually ended with the 
personal intervention of King Edward himself. Hereford's final years were marked by 
the opposition he and Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, mounted against the military and 
fiscal policy of Edward I. The conflict escalated to a point where civil war threatened, 
but was resolved when the war effort turned towards Scotland. The king signed the 
Confirmatio Cartarum – a confirmation of Magna Carta – and Bohun and Bigod agreed 
to serve on the Falkirk Campaign. Bohun died in 1298, and was succeeded by his son, 
Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford.
Family background and inheritance[edit]

Humphrey (VI) de Bohun was part of a line of Anglo-Norman aristocrats going back to 
the Norman Conquest, most of whom carried the same name.[3] His grandfather was 
Humphrey (IV) de Bohun, who had been part of the baronial opposition of Simon de 
Montfort, but later gone over to the royal side. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of 
Lewes in May 1264, but was restored to favour after the royalist victory at the Battle 
of Evesham the next year.[4] Humphrey (IV)'s son, Humphrey (V) de Bohun, remained 
loyal to the baronial side throughout the Barons' War, and was captured at Evesham 
on 4 August 1265. In October that year Humphrey (V) died in captivity at Beeston 
Castle in Cheshire from injuries he had sustained in the battle.[5]

Humphrey (V) had been excluded from succession as a result of his rebellion, but 
when Humphrey (IV) died in 1275, Humphrey (VI) inherited the earldoms of Hereford 
and Essex.[6] Humphrey (VI) had already served as deputy Constable of England 
under Humphrey (IV).[7] Humphrey (IV) had reserved the honour of Pleshey for his 
younger son Henry, but the remainder of his lands went to Humphrey (VI).[4] The 
inheritance Humphrey (VI) received – in addition to land in Essex and Wiltshire from 
Humphrey (IV) – also consisted of significant holdings in the Welsh Marches from his 
mother.[8] His mother Eleanor was a daughter and coheir of William de Braose and his 
wife Eva Marshal, who in turn was the daughter and coheir of William Marshal, regent 
to Henry III.[6]

Since Humphrey (VI) was only sixteen years old at the time of his father's death, the 
Braose lands were taken into the king's custody until 1270.[1] Part of this inheritance, 
the Marcher lordship of Brecon, was in the meanwhile given to the custody of Gilbert 
de Clare, Earl of Hertford. Humphrey technically regained his lordship from Clare in 
1270, but by this time these lands had effectively been taken over by the Welsh 
prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, who had taken advantage of the previous decade's 
political chaos in England to extend his territory into the Marches.[9]

He granted his brother Gilbert de Bohun all of their mother's lands in Ireland and some 
land in England and Wales.

Welsh Wars[edit]

See also: Conquest of Wales by Edward I

Over the next years, much of Hereford's focus was on reconquering his lost lands in 
the Marches, primarily through private warfare against Llywelyn.[10] Henry III died in 
1272, while his son – now Edward I – was crusading; Edward did not return until 1274.
[11] Llywelyn refused to pay homage to the new king, partly because of the military 
actions of Bohun and other Marcher lords, which Llywelyn saw as violations of the 
Treaty of Montgomery.[12] On 12 November 1276, Hereford was present at a royal 
assembly where judgment was passed on Llewelyn,[7] and in 1277, Edward I declared 
war on the Welsh prince.[13] Rebellion in his own Brecon lands delayed Hereford's 
participation in the early days of the Welsh war. He managed, however, to both 
suppress the rebellion, and conquer lands further west.[14] He then joined up with the 
royal army and served for a while in Anglesey, before returning to Brecon, where he 
received the surrender of certain Welsh lords.[15] After the campaign was over, on 2 
January 1278, he received protection from King Edward to go on pilgrimage to 
Santiago de Compostela in Spain.[7]

In 1282, war with Wales broke out again; this time it would not be simply a punitive 
campaign, but a full-scale war of conquest.[16] Initially, the king wanted to fight the 
war with paid forces, but the nobility insisted on the use of the feudal summons. To 
men like Hereford, this was preferable, because as part of a feudal army the 
participants would have both a stake in the war and a justifiable claim on conquered 
land. In the end, although the earls won, none of them were paid for the war effort.
[17] Hereford jealously guarded his authority as hereditary Constable of England, and 
protested vigorously when the Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester was appointed 
commander of the forces in South Wales.[18] In the post war settlement, however, 
neither Hereford nor Gloucester received any significant rewards of land, the way 
several other magnates did.[19] Hereford fought again in Wales, in the suppression of 
the rebellion of 1294–95, when he again had to pacify the territory of Brecon before 
joining the king in the north.[20]
Private war in the Marches[edit]

Parallel with the Welsh Wars, Hereford was also struggling to assert his claims to 
lands in the Marches against other Marcher lords. In 1284 Edward I granted the 
hundred of Iscennen in Carmarthenshire to John Giffard. Hereford believed the land 
belonged to him by right of conquest, and started a campaign to win the lands back, 
but the king took Giffard's side.[21] Problems also arose with the earl of Gloucester. 
As Gloucester's former ward, Hereford had to buy back his own right of marriage, but 
Gloucester claimed he had not received the full sum.[6] There was also remaining 
resentment on Hereford's part for his subordination to Gloucester in the 1282–83 
campaign. The conflict came to a head when Gloucester's started construction of a 
castle at Morlais, which Hereford claimed was his land.[22] In 1286, the Crown 
ordered Gloucester to cease, but to no avail.[23]

It had long been established Marcher custom to solve conflicts through private 
warfare.[1] Hereford's problem, however, was his relative weakness in the Marches, 
and now he was facing open conflict with two different enemies. He therefore decided 
to take the issue to the king instead, in a break with tradition.[6] King Edward again 
ordered Gloucester to stop, but the earl ignored the order and initiated raids on 
Hereford's lands.[24] Hostilities continued and Hereford responded, until both earls 
were arrested and brought before the king.[25] The real offense was not the private 
warfare in itself, but the fact that the earls had not respected the king's injunction to 
cease.[2] In the parliament of January 1292, Gloucester was fined 10,000 marks and 
Hereford 1,000. Gloucester's liberty of Glamorgan was declared forfeit, and 
confiscated by the crown, as was Hereford's of Brecon.[26]

In the end the fines were never paid, and the lands were soon restored.[22] Edward 
had nevertheless demonstrated an important point. After the conquest of Wales, the 
strategic position of the Marcher lordships was less vital to the English crown, and the 
liberty awarded to the Marcher lords could be curtailed.[2] For Edward this was 
therefore a good opportunity to assert the royal prerogative, and to demonstrate that it 
extended also into the Marches of Wales.[27]

Opposition to Edward I[edit]

In 1294 the French king declared the English duchy of Aquitaine forfeit, and war 
broke out between the two countries.[28] Edward I embarked on a wide-scale and 
costly project of building alliances with other princes on the Continent, and preparing 
an invasion.[29] When the king, at the parliament of March 1297 in Salisbury, 
demanded military service from his earls, Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, refused in his 
capacity of marshal of England. The argument was that the king's subjects were not 
obliged to serve abroad if not in the company of the king, but Edward insisted on 
taking his army to Flanders while sending his earls to Gascony.[30]

At the time of the Salisbury parliament, Hereford was accompanying two of the king's 
daughters to Brabant, and could not be present.[31] On his return, however, as 
Constable of England, he joined Bigod in July in refusing to perform feudal service.[6] 
The two earls were joined in their opposition by the earls of Arundel and Warwick.[32] 
The main reasons for the magnates' defiance was the heavy burden of taxation 
caused by Edward's continuous warfare in Wales, France and Scotland. In this they 
were also joined by Robert Winchelsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was in the 
midst of an ongoing dispute with the king over clerical taxation.[33] At one point 
Bohun and Bigod turned up in person at the Exchequer to protest a tax they claimed 
did not have the consent of the community of the realm.[34] For Hereford there was 
also a personal element in the opposition to the king, after the humiliation and the 
affront to his liberties he had suffered over the dispute in the Marches.[35][36] At a 
meeting just outside London, Bohun gave an impassioned speech objecting to the 
king's abuse of power and demanding the restoration of ancient liberties. The 
grievances were summarised in a document known as the Remonstrances.[37]

Neither party showed any inclination to back down, and the nation seemed on the 
brink of another civil war.[38] Just as the conflict was coming to a head, however, 
external events intervened to settle it. In September 1297, the English suffered a 
heavy defeat to the Scots at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.[39] The Scottish victory 
exposed the north of England to Scottish raids led by William Wallace. The war with 
Scotland received wider support from the English magnates, now that their own 
homeland was threatened, than did the war in France to protect the king's continental 
possessions.[40] Edward abandoned his campaign in France and negotiated a truce 
with the French king. He agreed to confirm Magna Carta in the so-called Confirmatio 
Cartarum (Confirmation of the Charters).[41] The earls consequently consented to 
serve with the king in Scotland, and Hereford was in the army that won a decisive 
victory over the Scots in the Battle of Falkirk in 1298.[7] Hereford, not satisfied that 
the king had upheld the charter, withdrew after the battle, forcing Edward to abandon 
the campaign.[2]

Death and family[edit]

In 1275 Bohun married Maud de Fiennes, daughter of Enguerrand de Fiennes, 
chevalier, seigneur of Fiennes, by his 2nd wife, Isabel (kinswoman of Queen Eleanor 
of Provence). She predeceased him, and was buried at Walden Priory in Essex. 
Hereford himself died at Pleshey Castle on 31 December 1298, and was buried at 
Walden alongside his wife.[6] They had one son Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of 
Hereford, born around 1276.[42] The son was given possession of his father's lands 
and titles on 16 February 1299.[43] The young Humphrey also inherited his father's 
title of Constable of England.[44]

A common theme in Humphrey de Bohun's actions was his fierce protection of what he 
regarded as his feudal privileges.[1] His career was marked by turbulence and political 
strife, particularly in the Marches of Wales, but eventually he left a legacy of 
consolidated possessions there. In 1297, at the height of the conflict between Edward 
I and rebellious barons, the king had actively tried to undermine Hereford's authority in 
the Marches, but failed due to the good relations the earl enjoyed with the local men.
[45]

Parents
DE BOHUN Humphrey (ABT 1227 - 27 Oct 1265)
DE BRAOSE Eleanor (ABT 1228 - 1251)

Siblings
DE BOHUN Humphrey (ABT 1249 - 31 Dec 1298)
BOHUN Eleanor (Alianore) (ABT 1249 - 20 Feb 1314)
DE BOHUN Margery (Elizabeth) (ABT 1250 - )

Marriage To DE FIENNES Maud (ABT 1231 - 6 Nov 1298)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE FIENNES Enguerrand II (Ingelram) (ABT 1210 - ABT 1265)
DE CONDE Isabelle ()

Children by DE FIENNES Maud ABT 1231 - 6 Nov 1298
DE BOHUN Humphrey (1275 - 16 Mar 1322)

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