♀Aveline de Clare

Aveline de Clare (died between 1220 and 1225) was an English noblewoman, a daughter of Roger de Clare, Earl of Clare^W, and twice a widow, the second time of Geoffrey Fitz Peter, Earl of Essex and Justiciar of England. She was the twenty-fourth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son John FitzGeoffrey (died 1258). As a widow she gave the canons of Holy Trinity Priory^W in London a yearly rent for her husband’s soul, and her charter explains the choice: part of Geoffrey’s body was buried in their church.

Two marriages

Aveline’s first husband was William de Munchanesy, of Swanscombe in Kent and of Winfarthing and Gooderstone in Norfolk, who died shortly before 7 May 1204. On that day King John gave the custody of William’s lands and heirs, and the right to arrange Aveline’s next marriage, to William d’Aubigny, Earl of Arundel^W. The earl was her stepbrother: after Roger de Clare’s death her mother had married his father.

Before 29 May 1205 Aveline became the second wife of Geoffrey Fitz Peter, Earl of Essex, the king’s chief minister. On that day the king granted Geoffrey the honor and castle of Berkhamsted^W, to pass to the heirs he would have by Aveline. Their only son, John FitzGeoffrey, is said to have been born about 1205. Geoffrey died on 14 October 1213 and was buried at Shouldham Priory in Norfolk, which he had founded.

Widowhood

Aveline’s son by her first marriage, Warin de Munchanesy, came into his father’s lands in December 1213, after the death of his elder brother William, and the Earl of Arundel stood surety for his fine of 2,000 marks. Aveline held the manor of Towcester in Northamptonshire in free marriage^W, land settled on her when she married, probably by her brother Richard, Earl of Clare. It was from Towcester that she gave Holy Trinity its half mark of rent a year, styling herself “Avelina Comitissa Essex’”. She still held the manor on 22 November 1220, and she had died by 4 June 1225, when Warin held it.

Notes

Sources

Aveline’s two marriages, the Arundel grant of 1204, the Berkhamsted grant of 1205, her charter to Holy Trinity, her tenure of Towcester, the dates bounding her death, and her sons William and Warin are from the Complete Peerage, 2nd edition, vol. V (1926), pp. 124–125, under Essex, whose notes cite the charter rolls, the close rolls, the fine roll of 15 John and the Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office. The same notes call the Earl of Arundel avunculus of Warin, which the editors explain as the stepbrother of his mother. Her mother’s second marriage, to William d’Aubigny, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1193, is from vol. I (1910), p. 236, under Arundel. Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), VERDUN 3, p. 849, makes John FitzGeoffrey the son of Geoffrey Fitz Peter by his second wife, Aveline, daughter of Roger de Clare, Earl of Clare, and gives John’s birth as about 1205; the Complete Peerage, vol. V, under FitzJohn, calls John Geoffrey’s only son by Aveline.

Her charter

The words, as printed in the Complete Peerage: “ego Avelina Comitissa Essex’ dedi … Deo et ecclesie sancte Trinitatis London’ et canonicis ibidem Deo servientibus dimidiam marcam quieti redditus de proprio redditu meo manerii mei de Touecestr’ pro salute anime domini mei G. filii Petri Comitis Essex’ et pro salute anime mee … in qua videlicet ecclesia quedam pars corporis predicti domini mei humatur”: I, Avelina, Countess of Essex, have given to the church of Holy Trinity, London, and its canons, half a mark of quit rent from my manor of Towcester, for the soul of my lord G. son of Peter, Earl of Essex, and for my own soul, in which church a certain part of the body of my said lord is buried.

Her mother

The Complete Peerage names Aveline’s mother as Maud, daughter and heiress of James de Saint Hilaire, of Dalling and Carbrooke in Norfolk, who married first Roger de Clare (died 1173) and then William d’Aubigny, Earl of Arundel.

Towcester

The editors of the Complete Peerage reason that the manor must have been settled on Aveline by her brother Richard, since their father had held land there and given its mill to the Knights Hospitaller; no deed of the gift is cited.