A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217-1314

by Michael Altschul

Originally published in 1965. In A Baronial Family in Medieval The Clares, 1217–1314, Michael Altschul studies the Clare family during the thirteenth century. The Clares spearheaded the struggle to enforce Magna Carta in the Barons' War. Historians prior to Altschul tended to neglect the Clares' history given the scattered nature of the archives documenting their time as a politically influential and powerful family. This book unfolds chronologically, outlining the Clares' rise to preeminence and describing how they administered their estates and income.

Genres: History

343 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1965

Reviews

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Clares were descendants of Godfrey FitzRichard, eldest illegitimate son of Richard I "the Fearless," Duke of Normandy. Godfrey’s grandson, Richard FitzGilbert, took part in the Conquest and became the first Norman lord of Clare in Ireland, serving also as co-regent of England during the king’s absences. William rewarded his cousins well, granting them enormous fiefs in half a dozen counties. They became earls of Gloucester and Hereford and heirs to the earldoms of Ulster and March. They were active for generations in the Welsh and Scots wars and produced some of the most highly regarded (and feared) politicians and diplomats in England. Altschul, while providing a great deal of contextual genealogy, is really more interested in the family as a corporate business entity and in its management of its vast holdings during changing economic and political conditions. A very highly regarded book and a model of research methods in medieval England, as well as a work of clearly written prose accessible to anyone with a general knowledge of the period. Why aren’t there more case studies like this?

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this is rather misleading. I picked it up off the shelf of random discards that my brother has salvaged from his institution's library immediately after Stripping of the Altars with the hope that it was a sort of "slice of life" account of how the baronial rank of the nobility lived. (The spine of my edition just says "A Baronial Family in Medieval England".) Of course, it's actually about the most wealthy earls of the era, and it's basically about how political power was held and transmitted by families, with almost no attention to how they lived day-to-day. As such it's not a bad example of its type; draggy in a scholastic way in places, assumes the reader is a lot more familiar with English political history of the era (Simon de Montfort most of all) than I actually am, but filled with interesting details about how the Clares participated in the Great Game.

The author has a morbid fascination with Bogo de Clare, apparently the most useless, grasping churchman of medieval England with a record number of benefices he sponged up and to which he provided no services whatsoever.