Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon [1] (died 4 June 1155), feudal baron of Plympton in Devon, [2] was the son of Richard de Redvers and his wife Adeline Peverel.
He was one of the first to rebel against King Stephen, and was the only first rank magnate never to accept the new king. [3] He seized Exeter, and was a pirate out of Carisbrooke, but he was driven out of England to Anjou, where he joined the Empress Matilda. She made him Earl of Devon after she established herself in England, probably in early 1141. [4]
He founded several monasteries, notably those of Quarr Abbey (1131), in the Isle of Wight, a priory at Breamore, Hampshire, and the Priory of St James, at Exeter. Some monastic chronicles call his father also Earl of Devon, but no contemporary record uses the title, including the monastic charters.
He married Adelize de Baalun (d. c. 1146). [5] They had children:
Between 1151 and his death in 1155, Baldwin married Lucy de Clare. Lucy was assumed to have been the widow of Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Hertford and a daughter of Ranulf earl of Chester. [5] However, Gilbert de Clare died unmarried and without issue in 1152. One source states that Lucy was the daughter of Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare and Adelisa of Chester. They were the parents of Gilbert de Clare, who died in 1152. Therefore, Lucy was a sister of Gilbert de Clare. A charter mentioning her late brother Gilbert de Clare, and her late husband Baldwin was given shortly after Baldwin's death. [7]
The name de Redvers can also be found as de Reviers or Revières.
Earl of Devon is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of England. It was possessed first by the Redvers family, and later by the Courtenay family. It is not to be confused with the title of Earl of Devonshire, which is held by the Duke of Devonshire, although the letters patent for the creation of the latter peerages used the same Latin words, Comes Devon(iae). It was a re-invention, if not an actual continuation, of the pre-Conquest office of Ealdorman of Devon.
Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare 3rd feudal baron of Clare in Suffolk, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. A marcher lord in Wales, he was also the founder of Tonbridge Priory in Kent.
Richard de Vernon seigneur de Redvers, 1st feudal baron of Plympton in Devon, was a Norman nobleman who may have been one of the companions of William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England from 1066. His origins are obscure, but after acting as one of the principal supporters of Henry I in his struggle against his brother Robert Curthose for control of the English throne, de Redvers was rewarded with estates that made him one of the richest magnates in the country. He was once thought to have been created the first Earl of Devon, but this theory is now discounted in favour of his son Baldwin.
William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon, of Tiverton Castle and Plympton Castle, both in Devon, was feudal baron of Plympton in Devon.
Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon, feudal baron of Plympton in Devon and Lord of the Isle of Wight, was the son of Baldwin de Redvers and Margaret FitzGerold and grandson of William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon.
Richard de Redvers, 4th Earl of Devon was Earl of Devon from 1188 until his death and was feudal baron of Plympton in Devon.
Baldwin de Redvers, 3rd Earl of Devon was Earl of Devon from 1162 until his death and was feudal baron of Plympton in Devon. His birth is not attested; but he had a younger brother, and he was invested with the Earldom between the Pipe Rolls of 1185 and 1186, so he should not have been much over twenty-one.
Richard de Redvers, 2nd Earl of Devon was Earl of Devon from 1155 until his death and was feudal baron of Plympton in Devon. He married Denise, one of the daughters and coheiresses of Reginald, Earl of Cornwall. He was High Sheriff of Devon from 1154 to 1157. He was the son of Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon and brother of William de Reviers, 5th Earl of Devon.
William de Mohun of Dunster, Earl of Somerset, 2nd feudal baron of Dunster, was a favourite of Empress Matilda and a loyal supporter of her in the war against King Stephen, during which he earned the epithet of the "Scourge of the West".
The House of Courtenay is a medieval noble house, with branches in France, England and the Holy Land. One branch of the Courtenays became a royal house of the Capetian dynasty, cousins of the Bourbons and the Valois, and achieved the title of Latin Emperor of Constantinople.
Baldwin de Redvers, 7th Earl of Devon, feudal baron of Plympton in Devon and Lord of the Isle of Wight, was the son of Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon and Amice de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford. He succeeded his father at the age of ten.
Isabel de Forz was the eldest daughter of Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon (1217–1245). On the death of her brother Baldwin de Redvers, 7th Earl of Devon, in 1262, without children, she inherited suo jure the earldom and also the feudal barony of Plympton in Devon, and the lordship of the Isle of Wight. After the early death of her husband and her brother, before she was thirty years old, she inherited their estates and became one of the richest women in England, living mainly in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, which she held from the king as tenant-in-chief.
Hugh de Courtenay, 1st/9th Earl of Devon of Tiverton Castle, Okehampton Castle, Plympton Castle and Colcombe Castle, all in Devon, feudal baron of Okehampton and feudal baron of Plympton, was an English nobleman. In 1335, forty-one years after the death of his second cousin once-removed Isabel de Redvers, suo jure 8th Countess of Devon he was officially declared Earl of Devon, although whether as a new creation or in succession to her is unknown, thus alternative ordinal numbers exist for this Courtenay earldom.
Carisbrooke Priory was an alien priory, a dependency of Lyre Abbey in Normandy. The priory was situated on rising ground on the outskirts of Carisbrooke close to Newport on the Isle of Wight. This priory was dissolved in around 1415.
The feudal barony of Okehampton was a very large feudal barony, the largest mediaeval fiefdom in the county of Devon, England, whose caput was Okehampton Castle and manor. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed during the mediaeval era.
The feudal barony of Plympton was a large feudal barony in the county of Devon, England, whose caput was Plympton Castle and manor, Plympton. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed during the medieval era. It included the so-called Honour of Christchurch in Hampshire, which was not however technically a barony. The de Redvers family, first holders of the barony, were also Lords of the Isle of Wight, which lordship was not inherited by the Courtenays, as was the barony of Plympton, as it had been sold to the king by the last in the line Isabel de Redvers, 8th Countess of Devon (1237–1293).
Geoffrey de Mandeville was the Sheriff of Devon, England between 1100 and 1116 and also baron of Marshwood in Dorset. Marshwood is near the border of Devon and Dorset, 5.5 miles north-east of Lyme Regis.
Hubert de Vaux, also known as Hubert de Vallibus, was a prominent 12th-century English noble.