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'Gilbert de Clare', son of Gilbert Fitz Richard Earl of Clare and Alice de Claremont. Sometimes referred to as "Strongbow" but his son is better remembered by this name.

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History

Sources

History

Gilbert de Clare became a baron, obtaining the estates of his paternal uncles, Roger and Walter, which included the baronies and castles of Bienfaite and Orbec in Normandy, the lordship of Nether Gwent and the castle of Striguil (later Chepstow). King Stephen created him Earl of Pembroke, and gave him the rape and castle of Pevensey.
At Stephen's defeat at Lincoln on February 2 1141, he was among those who rallied to Empress Matilda when she recovered London in June, but was at Canterbury when Stephen was recrowned late in 1141. He then joined Geoffrey's plot against Stephen, but when that conspiracy collapsed, he was again adhered to Stephen, being with him at the siege of Oxford late in 1142. In 1147 he rebelled when Stephen refused to give him the castles surrendered by his nephew Gilbert, 2nd Earl of Hertford, whereupon the King marched to his nearest castle and nearly captured him. However, the Earl appears to have made his peace with Stephen before his death the following year.
He married Isabel de Beaumont (c. 1102-c. 1172), around 1130, daughter of Sir Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, Count of Meulan, and Isabel de Vermandois. Isabel had previously been the mistress of King Henry I of England.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
'''By Isabel de Beaumont'''
''Agnes de Clare''	1112, Tonbridge, Kent	Unknown
''Baldwin de Clare''	1114, Tonbridge, Kent	Unknown
''Basilia de Clare''	1116, Tonbridge, Kent	Unknown
'Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare'	1130	1176	[n] "Strongbow", 2nd Earl of Pembroke.

Sources

★ ''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700'' by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines: 66-25, 184-4.