Miles of Gloucester

Milo or Miles of Gloucester , sometimes Miles Fitz Walter († December 24th 1143), 1st Count d' Hereford, Lord of Brecknock and Abergavenny, Sheriff of the Gloucestershire, and constable of England, was a Norman tycoon , one of the main actors of the English civil war known as the English Anarchie which opposed the king Etienne of England to Mathilde Emperesse, for the crown of England.

He was the son of Walter de Gloucester († v. 1126), hereditary Shérif of Gloucestershire, and Berthe.

Biography

Under the reign of Henri Ier

Miles succeeded his/her father in the neighborhoods of 1126. He inherited the hereditary load of sheriff of Gloucestershire and lord of the manor of Gloucester. These functions had been acquired by his/her Roger grandfather of Pîtres under the reign of William the Conqueror. By marriage, it entered in possession of the Welsh walk of Brecknock. His wife was the girl and only heiress of Bernard of Nine-Market, the conqueror of the old Kingdom of Brycheiniog (become Brecknockshire). With died this last, in 1125, he also inherited the possessions of his father-in-law in the Herefordshire. About 1141, Mathilde Emperesse gave him the seigniory of Abergavenny in reward.

Having an important capacity in the west of the Kingdom of England, Miles was chosen by Henri I {{er}} Beauclerc to be one of its “ new men ”, on which it hoped to manage the kingdom in the place of the representatives of more established families. It was salaried constable of England by the king about 1130. He is the first known holder of this royal load.

The considerable power that its functions gave him was reinforced by its action of local Justicier. It was honest to the king Henri I {{er}} Beauclerc, and like all the barons of the kingdom, the Jura to preserve the rights to the crown of Mathilde, the girl heiress of Henri Ist.

During the English Anarchy

Nevertheless, with died of the king in 1135, he recognized at once Etienne of Blois, the cousin of Mathilde, like King d' Angleterre. At Easter 1136, it was its Connétable. Miles remained close to the king in the first years of its reign, in particular playing a big role in the repression of the Welsh rising of 1136.

In 1139, Mathilde unloaded in England, and it joined its party almost at once. This sudden reversal of allegiance must probably as much with a legitimate adhesion with the cause of Emperesse, that with its instinct of self-preservation. Indeed, its very powerful neighbor Robert de Gloucester, 1st Count de Gloucester, and half-brother of Mathilde, had already joined his party.

Whatever its motivation, Miles showed one of the most effective commanders of Mathilde. In 1139, it placed the towns of Gloucester and Hereford under its control, helped Wallingford, and put at bag Worcester. King Etienne immediately deprived it of his dignity of constable. In 1141, it could not that to flee of the Déroute of Winchester by giving up its weapons and its armor. It arrived then at Gloucester “ tired, only, and with half nu ”.

Earlier this year, after the capture of the king Etienne with the battles of Lincoln, Mathilde was virtual Queen of England. It created it Count d' Hereford on July 25th, 1141, thus confirming it in its function of military commander of the Welsh steps of the south. One of its missions was to raise funds for the campaigns of Emperesse. Not seeing why the clergy would escape the tax, it tried to tax the Church. It met a severe opposition of the ecclesiastical body, and was even struck of prohibited by Robert de Béthune, bishop of Hereford.

It is probably with its tax, common practices in the two camps during the civil war, which one owes the hostile and lugubrious tone of the ecclesiastical commentators of the conflict. It was written that it was a time when “ the men said openly that Christ and her saints slept ”.

Although apparently inconstant, Miles was not one of the representatives of the feudal anarchy . It had probably chooses the camp of Emperesse by political calculation, but once decided, there remained honest. It was however associated with Ranulph de Gernon and Geoffrey de Mandeville as being those which did not act for the public property.

It found death while driving out in the forest of Dean, killed by a lost arrow. An accident pointing out curiously the circumstances of died of the king Guillaume II the Russet-red. He was buried with the priory of Llanthony, Brecknockshire.

Marriage and descent

In 1121, he married Sybille of Nine-Market, girl and heiress of Bernard of Nine-Market († 1125), Lord de Brecknock, and of Nesta. They had eight known children :

Roger († 1155), succeeded his father like Count d' Hereford, Lord d' Abergavenny and Brecknock, and constable of England. After an argument with Henri II, it returned its title in 1154. Later the king gave again to him, and it dies out with its death;
Walter († 1159 or afterwards), succeeded his brother like Lord d' Abergavenny and Brecknock. Constable of Henri II, sheriff of the Gloucestershire. He died during a pilgrimage in Palestine ;
Henri († between 1159 and 1163), it succeeded his Walter brother. Constable of England. He died assassinated by a Welshman ;
Mahel († v. 1164), it succeeded his/her brother Henri ;
William († v. 1165), it succeeded her brother Mahel ;
Margaret († 1187), married Humphrey de Bohun, seneshal of Henri Ier then of Etienne. Their Humphrey son will inherit apparently the function of constable of England ;
Berthe, married William de Braose ;
Lucy († after 1193), married Herbert FitzHerbert, chamberlain of Henri Ist

See too

English Civil war (1135-1154)

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