♂Philip Basset

Philip Basset (died 29 October 1271) was an English knight of Wycombe in Buckinghamshire who was Chief Justiciar^W of England under Henry III from 1261 to 1263. He was the twenty-third great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Aline Basset (died 1281).

Lands and marriages

Philip held lands at Wycombe and at Compton Bassett and Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire. With his first wife, Hawise, the daughter of Sir Matthew de Lovaine of Little Easton in Essex, he had a daughter, Aline, who became his heir. His second wife was Ela^W, a daughter of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, and the widow of Thomas, Earl of Warwick^W. Ela outlived Philip by a quarter of a century and died, childless, at Headington in Oxfordshire on 6 February 1297.

His daughter’s marriage

In or before 1260 Aline married Hugh le Despenser^W of Loughborough in Leicestershire, and their son Hugh was born on 1 March 1260/1. Philip’s son-in-law stood with Simon de Montfort^W: he was summoned to Montfort’s parliament of December 1264 as Justiciar of England, joined the earl’s last campaign, and was killed with him at the Battle of Evesham^W on 4 August 1265. Hugh’s lands were forfeited to the crown, and their ransom was granted to Philip, the dead rebel’s father-in-law. Philip left it to Aline, and she in turn left it to her son. When Philip died on 29 October 1271, the inquisitions taken that November named Aline his daughter and heir.

Notes

Sources

Philip’s lands, his office, his first marriage, his death, the ransom of the Despenser lands and Aline’s inheritance are from G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., vol. IV (1916), DESPENSER, pp. 261–262, by G. W. Watson, citing the Annals of Oseney, the close rolls and the inquisitions taken after Philip’s death; his years as Chief Justiciar are from the first edition, vol. III (1890), p. 365, and his second marriage from vol. VIII (1898), p. 54. Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), DESPENSER 5, p. 275, and BIGOD, p. 87, names him a knight and Aline as his daughter and heiress by Hawise. Both are printed genealogies of the medieval nobility. Aline’s husband Hugh le Despenser, his parliament writ, his death at Evesham and the forfeiture are in the same DESPENSER account (2nd ed., vol. IV, p. 261), and Hugh’s birth date is from Magna Carta Ancestry, p. 275.

His years in office

The first edition of the Complete Peerage gives Philip’s term as Chief Justiciar as 1261–1263 in one volume (vol. III, p. 365) and as 1263 in another (vol. VIII, p. 54).

Aline’s mother

The second edition of the Complete Peerage and Magna Carta Ancestry make Aline’s mother Hawise, daughter of Sir Matthew de Lovaine, Philip’s first wife. Magna Carta Ancestry (p. 87) also cites an article in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society (1966) that makes Hawise the daughter and heiress of Ralph de Hastings. The first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. VI, 1895, p. 40) instead names Aline’s mother as “Helewise or Ela”, daughter of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury; its own vol. VIII (p. 54) makes Ela Philip’s second wife, who died without children.

Another daughter

The first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. III, p. 365) names a second daughter, Margery, wife of John FitzJohn.