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'Falkes de Breauté' (d. 1226), was one of the foreign mercenaries of King John of England, from whom he received in marriage the heiress of the earldom of Devon. Breauté is a small town near Le Havre in France.
On the outbreak of the Barons' War (1213) the king gave him the sheriffdoms of six midland shires and the custody of many castles. He fulfilled his military duties with as much skill as cruelty. The royalists owed to his daring the decisive victory of Lincoln (1217). But after the death of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, Falkes joined the feudal opposition in conspiring against Hubert de Burgh.
When he married he acquired his wife Margaret's London house which came to be known as "Fawkes Hall", subsequently corrupted over the years to "Foxhall", then "Vauxhall". In return for his services, King John granted Falkes the manor of Luton. He was also granted the right to bear his own coat of arms and chose the mythical griffin as his heraldic emblem. The griffin thus became associated with both Vauxhall and Luton in the early 13th century. ^[1]
Deprived in 1223 of most of his honours, he was drawn into a rebellion by the imprudence of his brother, who captured a royal justice and threw him into prison (1224). This led to the siege of Bedford Castle. Falkes was allowed to go into exile after his submission, and endeavoured to obtain a pardon through the mediation of Pope Honorius III. But this was refused, and Falkes died at St. Cyriac in 1226.

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