Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Brebus :

more correctly given by Duchesne as Broehus: one of the numerous forms of Braose. This great family, which originated at Braose (now Brieuze), near Falaise, has had its name spelt in so many different ways—Bryus, Briouse, Brewhouse, Brewis, &c, that it is scarcely wonderful it should often have been confounded with that of Bruis or Bruce. Lower, for one, believed the names to be identical. "The men of Brius" are mentioned by Wace, and it is a disputed point among his commentators whether he alludes to Brix, or to Brieuze. William de Braose was one of the most powerful barons in the Conqueror's following, and received proportionally splendid grants; chiefly in Sussex, where he held as his barony the whole Rape of Bramber, and built Bramber Castle. It is not known when he died, but his only son Philip had succeeded in the reign of William Rufus. Philip's son married a great heiress, Berta, second daughter of Milo, Earl of Hereford, who brought him the three Welsh baronies of Brecknock, Ower Went, and Gower; and in 1157 he gave to Henry II. one thousand marks of silver for his share of the Honour of Barnstaple in Devonshire, which he inherited from his maternal grandfather, Juhel de Toteines. The other part belonged to Oliver de Tracy, from whom he soon after obtained the reversion by purchase. Thus, in the next generation, William de Braose "succeeding to all that great estate of his father and mother," ranked with the mightiest nobles of the kingdom, and was foremost among the fierce Marcher lords in the revolting cruelty of his jurisdiction.^[34] "Of this William," says Dugdale, "it is reported that, harboring some evil purposes towards the Welch, under colour of friendship, he did, about this time invite Sitsylt ap Dysnwald and Geffrey his Son, with a great number of the most Worshipful men of Gwent-land, to a feast at the Castle of Bergavenny, which Castle he had received of them by composition, and that, they doubting no harm, being come thither, he brought in a Company of Armed men upon them, and murthered them all; and having so done, went forthwith to Sitsylt's House (not far from thence), slew Cadwaladar, his Son, before his Mother's face, and destroyed the House." In 1204, he bought of King John, for 5000 marks, the "Honour of Limerick," or the entire province of Munster in Ireland, with the sole exception of the city and the church lands. According to one account, the purchase money was never paid, and it was for this debt that the King proceeded against him, when, five years later, a sudden and violent breach took place between them. Others impute the fault of the quarrel to his wife. When the kingdom was interdicted by the Pope, the King, "fearing more mischief, sent Souldiers to all the great men of England, especially to those of whom he stood in any doubt, requiring Hostages from them, to the end he might the better reduce them to his Obedience, in case they should be absolved from their due Allegiance by his Holiness." But when the messengers came to the castle of De Braose "they found a Rub," for this undaunted lady, Maud de St. Valery by name, boldly told them that no son of hers should ever be trusted in the hands of a King who had basely murdered his own nephew. Her husband rebuked her for speaking so rashly, and—though he, too, refused to grant a hostage—offered to give full satisfaction if he had "in aught offended the King." But Maud's passionate words bore bitter fruit. The King's bailiff for Wales was sent with an armed force to seize De Braose, and take possession of his lands and castles; and finding resistance hopeless, he fled with his family to his Irish kingdom of Limerick. Even then he was not long in safety; for the King raised an army to go to Ireland; and Maud, with her eldest son, again crossed the sea, and sought an asylum in Scotland. Unfortunately, they entrusted themselves to the hospitality of the Lord of Galloway. He delivered up his guests into their enemy's hand, and they were forthwith consigned to a dreadful doom—the slow torture of the oubliette. "This year, viz. An. 1210," writes Matthew of Westminster, "the Noble Lady Maud, Wife of William de Braose, with William, their Son and Heir, were miserably famished at Windsore, by the command of King John; and William, her Husband, escaping from Scorham (Shoreham), put himself into the habit of a Beggar, and privately getting beyond Sea, died soon after at Paris; where he had burial in the Abby of S. Victor, on the Eve of S. Lawrence." Matthew Paris puts his death two years later. All his possessions were forfeited to the Crown; but the greater part were given back to the family; for his two younger sons successively held them "by fine and agreement." One of these, Giles, Bishop of Hereford, was a priest: the other, Reginald, left an only son, William de Braose, who was treacherously seized by Llewellyn Prince of Wales at an Easter feast, and put to death in 1230. Some say he was hanged on the same gallows as the wife of Llewellyn, "with whom he was suspected of undue familiarity." His four daughters were great heiresses.

The miserable elder brother, who was starved to death in Windsor Castle, had left behind him a son John, surnamed Tadody, who had been secretly nursed by a faithful Welshwoman in Gowerland, and was apparently reinstated in his grandfather's Baronies of Bramber, Knepp, and Gower, on the death of his cousin William. He was himself killed two years afterwards by a fall from his horse. The direct line ended with his grandson, another William de Braose, one of the companions in arms of Edward I.—a gallant and well-tried soldier, who had summons to parliament as Baron Braose of Gower in 1299. "He was," says Thomas of Walsingham, "a person who had a large patrimony, but a great unthrift;" and in 14 Ed. II. found it in his heart to put up for sale his noble territory of Gower—the great feudal principality where his family had borne rule for more than a century and a half. Two neighbouring land-holders, the Earl of Hereford, and the Mortimers (uncle and nephew) were eager to purchase; and the former contracted with him for it, and obtained the Royal license, while his son-in-law, John de Mowbray, who had "accounted himself secure enough thereon" as the husband of his heir apparent Aliva, vehemently protested against the whole transaction.^[35] But a third person (then all powerful with the King) Hugh Le Despencer the Chamberlain, stepped in and took forcible possession on his own account, having "fixed his eye upon it in regard to his estates in these parts," and found it "lay convenient to them also." The discontent caused by these arbitrary proceedings brought on a revolt; for the noblemen who had dealt for Gowerland "addressed themselves unto Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, with no small complaints of the injury: which, in short," adds Dugdale, "occasioned that unhappy Insurrection, that at length terminated in the loss of the Lives and Estates of many brave Men; and in particular of that Noble Earl of Lancaster."

Mowbray himself laid down his life in the cause, for, after having followed the confederates in all their varied fortunes, he was at length taken prisoner with the Earl, while attempting to force the passage of the river at Borough-bridge, and executed for high treason at York on the same day in 1322.

Lord Braose died in the same year, leaving no son to succeed him, and his barony fell into abeyance between his two daughters, Aliva de Mowbray and Joan de Bohun. Ten years afterwards, his nephew Sir Thomas had summons to Parliament, having served long and honourably in the wars of Edward III., first in the retinue of John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, and then with Richard, Earl of Arundel. His wife was Beatrix de Mortimer, widow of Edward Plantagenet, eldest son of Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk; and by her he had two sons, who were successively Barons Braose. The last lost both his children in their minority, and his cousin Elizabeth, the wife of Sir William Heron, came to be his heir. Another cousin, Sir John de Braose, died s. p.