- Isabel Marshal
Isabel Marshal (
9 October 1200 -17 January 1240 ) was a medieval English countess. She was the wife of both Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford and 1st Earl of Gloucester andRichard, 1st Earl of Cornwall (son of KingJohn of England ). With the former, she was a great grandparent of King Robert the Bruce ofScotland .Family
Born
9 October 1200 atPembroke Castle , Isabel was the seventh child, and second daughter, ofWilliam Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare. She had 10 siblings, who included the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Earl's of Pembroke; each of her brothers dying without a legitimate male heir and passing it on to the next brother in line. Her last brother to hold the title of Earl of Pembroke died without legitimate issue, and the title was passed down through the family of Isabel's younger sister Joan. Her sisters married, respectively, the Earls of Norfolk, Surrey, and Derby; the 10th Baron Abergavenny and the Lord ofSwanscombe .First marriage
On her 17th birthday (
9 October 1217 ) Isabel was married to Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford and 1st Earl of Gloucester, who was 20 years her senior, atTewkesbury Abbey . The marriage was an extremely happy one, despite the age difference, and the couple had six children:* Agnes de Clare (b. 1218)
* Amice de Clare (1220–1287), who married the 6th Earl of Devon
*Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford (1222–1262)
* Isabel de Clare (2 November 1226 –10 July 1264 ), who married the 5th Lord of Annandale; through this daughter, Isabel would be the great grandmother of Robert the Bruce
* William de Clare (1228–1258)
* Gilbert de Clare (b. 1229), a priestIsabel's husband Gilbert joined in an expedition to
Brittany in 1229, but died25 October 1230 on his way back to Penrose, in that duchy. His body was conveyed home by way ofPlymouth andCranborne , toTewkesbury , where he was buried at the abbey.econd marriage
Isabel was a young widow, only 30 years old. She had proven childbearing ability and the ability to bear healthy sons; as evidenced by her six young children, three of whom were sons. These were most likely the reasons for both the proposal of marriage from
Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall , and Isabel's acceptance of it, despite the fact that her husband had just died five months previous. The two were married on30 March 1231 atFawley Church, much to the displeasure of Richard's brother King Henry, who had been arranging a more advantageous match for Richard. Isabel and Richard got along well enough, though Richard had a reputation as a womanizer and is known to have had mistresses during the marriage. They were the parents of four children, three of whom died in the cradle.* John of Cornwall (
31 January 1232 -22 September 1233 ), born and died atMarlow, Buckinghamshire , buried atReading Abbey
* Isabella of Cornwall (9 September 1233 -10 October 1234 ), born and died at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, buried at Reading Abbey
*Henry of Almain (2 November 1235 -13 March 1271 ), murdered by his cousins Guy and Simon de Montfort, buried atHailes Abbey .
* Nicholas of Cornwall (b. & d.17 January 1240 Berkhamsted Castle ), died shortly after birth, buried atBeaulieu Abbey with his motherDeath and burial
Isabel died of
liver failure , contracted while in childbirth, on17 January 1240 , atBerkhamsted Castle . She was 39 years old.When Isabel was dying she asked to be buried next to her first husband at
Tewkesbury Abbey , but Richard had her interred atBeaulieu Abbey , with her infant son, instead. As a pious gesture, however, he sent her heart, in a silver-gilt casket [http://www.thepeerage.com/e660.htm] , to Tewkesbury.Media
* Isabel and her husband Richard appear as characters in Virginia Henley's historical novels, "The Marriage Prize" and "The Dragon and the Jewel".
References
*cite book|author=Cokayne, G.E.|title=The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant|publisher=Alan Sutton|year=2000 volume II, page 359 & volume III, page 244
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/e660.htm The Dictionary of National Biography]
* Denholm-Young, Noel. "Richard of Cornwall", 1947
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