Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester
Encyclopedia
Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester (1155 – 3 November 1219) was one of the leaders of the baronial rebellion against King John of England
, and a major figure in both Scotland
and England
in the decades around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Saer de Quincy's immediate background was in the Scottish kingdom: his father, Robert de Quincy, was a knight in the service of king William the Lion
, and his mother Orabilis was the heiress of the lordship of Leuchars
in Fife
(see below). His rise to prominence in England came through his marriage to Margaret, the younger sister of Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester
: but it is probably no coincidence that her other brother was the de Quincys' powerful Fife neighbour, Roger de Beaumont
, Bishop of St Andrews. In 1204, Earl Robert died, leaving Margaret as co-heiress of the vast earldom along with her elder sister. The estate was split in half, and after the final division was ratified in 1207, de Quincy was made Earl of Winchester
.
Following his marriage, de Quincy became a prominent military and diplomatic figure in England. There is no evidence of any close alliance with King John
, however, and his rise to importance was probably due to his newly-acquired magnate status and the family connections that underpinned it.
One man with whom he does seem to have developed a close personal relationship is his cousin, Robert Fitzwalter
. They are first found together in 1203, as co-commanders of the garrison at the major fortress of Vaudreuil
in Normandy
; they were responsible for surrendering the castle without a fight to Philip II of France
, fatally weakening the English position in northern France, but although popular opinion seems to have blamed them for the capitulation, a royal writ is extant stating that the castle was surrendered at King John's command, and both Saer and Fitzwalter had to endure personal humiliation and heavy ransoms at the hands of the French.
In Scotland, he was perhaps more successful. In 1211-12, the Earl of Winchester commanded an imposing retinue of a hundred knights and a hundred serjeants in William the Lion's campaign against the Mac William
rebels, a force which some historians have suggested may have been the mercenary force from Brabant
lent to the campaign by John.
In 1215, when the baronial rebellion broke out, Robert Fitzwalter became the military commander, and the Earl of Winchester joined him, acting as one of the chief negotiators with John; both cousins were among the 25 guarantors of the Magna Carta
. De Quincy fought against John in the troubles that followed the signing of the Charter, and, again with Fitzwalter, travelled to France to invite Prince Louis of France
to take the English throne. He and Fitzwalter were subsequently among the most committed and prominent supporters of Louis' candidature for the kingship, against both John and the infant Henry III
.
When military defeat cleared the way for Henry III to take the throne, de Quincy went on crusade, perhaps in fulfillment of an earlier vow, and in 1219 he left to join the Fifth Crusade
, then besieging Damietta
. While in the east, he fell sick and died. He was buried in Acre
, the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
, rather than in Egypt, and his heart was brought back and interred at Garendon Abbey near Loughborough
, a house endowed by his wife's family.
in the Arrondissement of Béthune
; the personal name "Saer" was used by them over several generations. Both names are variously spelled in primary sources and older modern works, the first name being sometimes rendered Saher or Seer, and the surname as Quency or Quenci.
The first recorded Saer de Quincy (known to historians as "Saer I") was lord of the manor of Long Buckby
in Northamptonshire
in the earlier twelfth century, and second husband of Matilda of St Liz, stepdaughter of King David I of Scotland
by Maud of Northumbria
. This marriage produced two sons, Saer II and Robert de Quincy. It was Robert, the younger son, who was the father of the Saer de Quincy who eventually became Earl of Winchester. By her first husband Robert Fitz Richard
, Matilda was also the paternal grandmother of Earl Saer's close ally, Robert Fitzwalter.
Robert de Quincy seems to have inherited no English lands from his father, and pursued a knightly career in Scotland, where he is recorded from around 1160 as a close companion of his cousin, King William the Lion. By 1170 he had married Orabilis, heiress of the Scottish lordship of Leuchars
and, through her, he became lord of an extensive complex of estates north of the border which included lands in Fife
, Strathearn
and Lothian
.
Saer de Quincy, the son of Robert de Quincy and Orabilis of Leuchars, was raised largely in Scotland. His absence from English records for the first decades of his life has led some modern historians and genealogists to confuse him with his uncle, Saer II, who took part in the rebellion of Henry the Young King
in 1173, when the future Earl of Winchester can have been no more than a toddler. Saer II's line ended without direct heirs, and his nephew and namesake would eventually inherit his estate, uniting his primary Scottish holdings with the family's Northamptonshire patrimony, and possibly some lands in France.
By his wife Margaret de Beaumont, Saer de Quincy had three sons and three daughters:
His arms were: Or [sic, illustration shows argent?], a fess azure, in chief a label of seven points gules.
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
, and a major figure in both Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the decades around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Saer de Quincy's immediate background was in the Scottish kingdom: his father, Robert de Quincy, was a knight in the service of king William the Lion
William I of Scotland
William the Lion , sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214...
, and his mother Orabilis was the heiress of the lordship of Leuchars
Leuchars
Leuchars is a small town near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland.The town is nearly to the north of the village of Guardbridge, which lies on the north bank of the River Eden where it widens to the Edenmouth estuary before joining the North Sea at St Andrews Bay. Leuchars is north-east of...
in Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
(see below). His rise to prominence in England came through his marriage to Margaret, the younger sister of Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester
Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester
Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester was an English nobleman, the last of the Beaumont earls of Leicester. He is sometimes known as Robert FitzPernel....
: but it is probably no coincidence that her other brother was the de Quincys' powerful Fife neighbour, Roger de Beaumont
Roger de Beaumont (bishop)
Roger de Beaumont was Bishop of St Andrews .-Life:He was the son of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester. Roger's position as a younger son of the Earl of Leicester meant that Roger had to seek a fortune elsewhere, and did so withiin the church...
, Bishop of St Andrews. In 1204, Earl Robert died, leaving Margaret as co-heiress of the vast earldom along with her elder sister. The estate was split in half, and after the final division was ratified in 1207, de Quincy was made Earl of Winchester
Earl of Winchester
Earl of Winchester was a title that was created three times in the Peerage of England during the Middle Ages. The first was Saer de Quincy, who received the earldom in 1207/8 after his wife inherited half of the lands of the Beaumont earls of Leicester. This creation became extinct in 1265 upon the...
.
Following his marriage, de Quincy became a prominent military and diplomatic figure in England. There is no evidence of any close alliance with King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
, however, and his rise to importance was probably due to his newly-acquired magnate status and the family connections that underpinned it.
One man with whom he does seem to have developed a close personal relationship is his cousin, Robert Fitzwalter
Robert Fitzwalter
Lord Robert FitzwalterAlso spelled FitzWalter, fitzWalter, etc. was the leader of the baronial opposition against King John of England, and one of the twenty-five sureties of the Magna Carta...
. They are first found together in 1203, as co-commanders of the garrison at the major fortress of Vaudreuil
Vaudreuil
-Places:Canada* Vaudreuil-Dorion, a city located west of Montreal, Quebec* Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Quebec, a small Quebec municipality located near Montreal* Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality, Quebec...
in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
; they were responsible for surrendering the castle without a fight to Philip II of France
Philip II of France
Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
, fatally weakening the English position in northern France, but although popular opinion seems to have blamed them for the capitulation, a royal writ is extant stating that the castle was surrendered at King John's command, and both Saer and Fitzwalter had to endure personal humiliation and heavy ransoms at the hands of the French.
In Scotland, he was perhaps more successful. In 1211-12, the Earl of Winchester commanded an imposing retinue of a hundred knights and a hundred serjeants in William the Lion's campaign against the Mac William
Meic Uilleim
The Meic Uilleim were the Gaelic descendants of William fitz Duncan, grandson of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, king of Scots. They were excluded from the succession by the descendants of Máel Coluim's son David I during the 12th century and raised a number of rebellions to vindicate their claims to...
rebels, a force which some historians have suggested may have been the mercenary force from Brabant
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...
lent to the campaign by John.
In 1215, when the baronial rebellion broke out, Robert Fitzwalter became the military commander, and the Earl of Winchester joined him, acting as one of the chief negotiators with John; both cousins were among the 25 guarantors of the Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
. De Quincy fought against John in the troubles that followed the signing of the Charter, and, again with Fitzwalter, travelled to France to invite Prince Louis of France
Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII the Lion reigned as King of France from 1223 to 1226. He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis VIII was born in Paris, France, the son of Philip II Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the county from his mother, from 1190–1226...
to take the English throne. He and Fitzwalter were subsequently among the most committed and prominent supporters of Louis' candidature for the kingship, against both John and the infant Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
.
When military defeat cleared the way for Henry III to take the throne, de Quincy went on crusade, perhaps in fulfillment of an earlier vow, and in 1219 he left to join the Fifth Crusade
Fifth Crusade
The Fifth Crusade was an attempt to reacquire Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land by first conquering the powerful Ayyubid state in Egypt....
, then besieging Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...
. While in the east, he fell sick and died. He was buried in Acre
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
, the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
, rather than in Egypt, and his heart was brought back and interred at Garendon Abbey near Loughborough
Loughborough
Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...
, a house endowed by his wife's family.
Family
The family of de Quincy had arrived in England after the Norman Conquest, and took their name from CuinchyCuinchy
Cuinchy is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village some east of Béthune and southwest of Lille, at the junction of the D166 and the D166E3 roads, by the banks of the Canal-d’Aire....
in the Arrondissement of Béthune
Arrondissement of Béthune
The arrondissement of Béthune is an arrondissement of France, located in the Pas-de-Calais department, in the Nord-Pas de Calais region. It has 14 cantons and 99 communes.-Cantons:The cantons of the arrondissement of Béthune are:# Auchel# Barlin...
; the personal name "Saer" was used by them over several generations. Both names are variously spelled in primary sources and older modern works, the first name being sometimes rendered Saher or Seer, and the surname as Quency or Quenci.
The first recorded Saer de Quincy (known to historians as "Saer I") was lord of the manor of Long Buckby
Long Buckby
Long Buckby is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England, midway between Northampton and Rugby. In the 2001 census the parish of Long Buckby had a population of exactly 4,000....
in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
in the earlier twelfth century, and second husband of Matilda of St Liz, stepdaughter of King David I of Scotland
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
by Maud of Northumbria
Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon
Maud of Northumbria , Countess of the Honour of Huntingdon and Northampton, was the daughter of Waltheof II, Earl of Northumbria and Judith of Lens, the last of the major Anglo-Saxon earls to remain powerful after the Norman conquest of England in 1066.- Biography :Maud was married to Simon of...
. This marriage produced two sons, Saer II and Robert de Quincy. It was Robert, the younger son, who was the father of the Saer de Quincy who eventually became Earl of Winchester. By her first husband Robert Fitz Richard
Robert Fitz Richard
Robert Fitz Richard , titled Robert Fitz Richard, Lord of Little Dunmow, Baron of Baynard, was a Norman landowner in England. His estates near Little Dunmow are said to have been given to him after confiscation from Ralph Baynard, who had them earlier.He was steward under Henry I of England and ...
, Matilda was also the paternal grandmother of Earl Saer's close ally, Robert Fitzwalter.
Robert de Quincy seems to have inherited no English lands from his father, and pursued a knightly career in Scotland, where he is recorded from around 1160 as a close companion of his cousin, King William the Lion. By 1170 he had married Orabilis, heiress of the Scottish lordship of Leuchars
Leuchars
Leuchars is a small town near the north-east coast of Fife in Scotland.The town is nearly to the north of the village of Guardbridge, which lies on the north bank of the River Eden where it widens to the Edenmouth estuary before joining the North Sea at St Andrews Bay. Leuchars is north-east of...
and, through her, he became lord of an extensive complex of estates north of the border which included lands in Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
, Strathearn
Strathearn
Strathearn or Strath Earn is the strath of the River Earn, in Scotland. It extends from Loch Earn in Perth and Kinross to the River Tay....
and Lothian
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
.
Saer de Quincy, the son of Robert de Quincy and Orabilis of Leuchars, was raised largely in Scotland. His absence from English records for the first decades of his life has led some modern historians and genealogists to confuse him with his uncle, Saer II, who took part in the rebellion of Henry the Young King
Henry the Young King
Henry, known as the Young King was the second of five sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine but the first to survive infancy. He was officially King of England; Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Maine.-Early life:Little is known of the young prince Henry before the events...
in 1173, when the future Earl of Winchester can have been no more than a toddler. Saer II's line ended without direct heirs, and his nephew and namesake would eventually inherit his estate, uniting his primary Scottish holdings with the family's Northamptonshire patrimony, and possibly some lands in France.
By his wife Margaret de Beaumont, Saer de Quincy had three sons and three daughters:
- Lorette who married Sir William de Valognes
- Arabella who married Sir Richard Harcourt
- Robert (d. 1217), before 1206 he married Hawise of Chester, Countess of Lincoln, sister and co-heiress of Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester.
- RogerRoger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of WinchesterRoger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester was a medieval nobleman who was prominent on both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border, as Earl of Winchester and Constable of Scotland....
, who succeeded his father as earl of Winchester (though he did not take formal possession of the earldom until after his mother's death); - Robert de Quincy (second son of that name; d. 1257) who married HelenElen ferch LlywelynElen ferch Llywelyn was the daughter of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd in north Wales by Lady Joan, daughter of King John of England....
, daughter of the Welsh prince Llywelyn the GreatLlywelyn the GreatLlywelyn the Great , full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales...
; - Hawise, who married Hugh de Vere, 4th Earl of OxfordHugh de Vere, 4th Earl of OxfordHugh de Vere, 4th Earl of Oxford was an English nobleman and the only known child and heir of Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford.-Early Life:...
.
His arms were: Or [sic, illustration shows argent?], a fess azure, in chief a label of seven points gules.