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Giles of Erdington Latin: Egidius de Erdintona (died 1268)[1] was an English justiciar of the reign of Henry III.[2] He was also a landowner, prominent in the politics of his native Midlands,[3] and a cleric, Dean of Wolverhampton and Canon of St Paul's Cathedral.[4]

Origins and early life

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Giles of Erdington was the son of Thomas of Erdington and his wife Roesia, Rohais, or simply Rose, the widow of the Suffolk landowner Adam de Cokefield.[3][5]

Giles had at least two half-siblings by his parents' previous relationships. Rose had been left with a three month old daughter, Nesta, when Adam de Cokefield died,[6] around 1198. Nesta became the ward and later wife of Thomas de Burgh,[7] a younger brother of William de Burgh and Hubert de Burgh both close associates John: William a ruthless military adventurer in Ireland, Hubert the king's chamberlain, chief justiciary and regent for Henry III after the death of William Marshal.[8] A Staffordshire pipe roll shows that Willelmus filius Vicecomitis, William son of the Sheriff, was amerced 20 shillings in 1199, the first year of John's reign, for failing to produce the man who had pledged bail for him.[9] As Thomas of Erdington was acting as sheriff of Staffordshire at that time, it is likely that William was his illegitimate son from from a previous relationship:[10] it is impossible to rule out the existence of other, more law-abiding illegitimate children.

In addition to this half-brother and well-connected half-sister, Giles had an elder brother, Peter, who would have been Thomas's heir if he had not died on Crusade, probably around the time of his father's death.[11] There was also a sister, Mary, who married William Fitz Alan, 2nd Lord of Oswestry and Clun but seems to have been widowed when still very young.[7]

Edward Foss described Thomas of Erdington as being of "an opulent family seated at Erdington, near Aston, in Warwickshire."[12] However, it seems that it was the career of Thomas himself that brought his family to considerable power and influence in the region. His family had a moated and fortified manor house with a privated chapel at Erdington on the River Tame:[13] the chapel caused a dispute with the rector of Aston.[14] However, Erdington was a small settlement, recorded in the Domesday Book as consisting of just fourteen households,[15] assessed as three hides and of an annual value in 1086 of only £1 10s. By the early 13th century it was divided among three coparcenors: Thomas himself, Roger of Erdington and William Maunsell.[16] This division persisted through the lives of Thomas and Giles: Erdington was still divided into three in 1323.[17] However, Thomas also held the manor of Wigginton, Staffordshire,[18] a village just south of Tamworth, valued at £4 in 1086.[19] This and his assiduous support of King John qualified him to be sub-sheriff for Staffordshire from about 1189—1204.[20] At some point he acquired the manor of Aston,[21] immediately south of Erdington, which pass to his wife Rose on his death[18] and ultimately to his heir Giles. Aston was much larger than either Erdington or Wigginton, a middling settlement of eight hides, with 44 households and a value of £4 in 1086.[22] He is also known to have become a tenant of Hervey Bagot and his wife Millicent at Oakley, Staffordshire, and at Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire.[23]

During the later years of John's reign, during at least a year of the First Barons' War, Thomas of Erdington was the king's sheriff for both Staffordshire and Shropshire, an office he made lucrative, at least in the short term. By obtaining the wardship of the young William Fitz Alan he secured an advantageous marriage for his daughter Mary. In 1214 the king sent an order from La Rochelle to John Marshal, who had custody of the Fitz Alan estates, that he should hand them over to Thomas when instructed further by Peter des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester and chief justiciar, then acting as John's viceroy.[24] During the hostilities Thomas had to compete with an opposition nominee for sheriff of Staffordshire: Hervey Bagot, the son and heir of the man from whom he had taken on at least two tenancies.[20] Thomas himself described the the situation in an extant letter to the king, which was published by Robert William Eyton as partial transcription[25] and translation.[26] According to Thomas, all but two of the Staffordshire landowners were for the king from the outset, but the Shropshire landowners were equally solidly for the baronial opposition. This account conflicts with the way Thomas profited from confiscations of the estates of rebels in both counties. In August 1216 John gave Thomas, to be held so long as pleased the king, both the lands of William de Hautrive at Kemberton in Shropshire and Harborne, a Staffordshire estate of (which included Smethwick), held by Warin Fitz Gerald.[27] The king was dead within a couple of months and the regency of his son, Henry III, ordered Kemberton to be restored to William de Hautrive in July 1217.[28] Thomas himself must have died early in 1218, as letters close were sent out on 22 March with instructions to to maintain and protect his wife and daughter and to secure his estates.[29]

Citations

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  1. ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1266—72, p. 314.
  2. ^ Foss, Edward (1865). Tabulae Curiales. John Murray. p. xv.
  3. ^ a b Stephens, W. B., ed. (1964). Manors. Vol. 7, City of Birmingham. British History Online. pp. 58–72, text anchors 189—92. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1266—72, p. 455.
  5. ^ Foss, Edward (1870). A Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England. John Murray. p. 234.
  6. ^ Brakelond, Joscelin de (1840). Rokewode, John Gage (ed.). Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda. Camden Society. p. 72.
  7. ^ a b Brakelond, Joscelin de (1840). Rokewode, John Gage (ed.). Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda. Camden Society. p. 141.
  8. ^ Foss, Edward (1848). The Judges of England. Vol. 2. Longman. p. 275—6.
  9. ^ Eyton, Robert William (1881). William Salt Archaeological Society (ed.). "The Staffordshire Pipe Rolls of the reigns of Richard I and King John". Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 2. London: 84.
  10. ^ Eyton, Robert William (1881). William Salt Archaeological Society (ed.). "The Staffordshire Pipe Rolls of the reigns of Richard I and King John". Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 2. London: Harrison: 90.
  11. ^ Wrottesley, George (1883). "Plea Rolls of the Reign of Henry III". Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 4: 88.
  12. ^ Foss, Edward (1848). The Judges of England. Vol. 2. Longman. p. 319.
  13. ^ Stephens, W. B., ed. (1964). Manors. Vol. 7, City of Birmingham. British History Online. pp. 58–72, text anchor 216. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  14. ^ Stephens, W. B., ed. (1964). Religious History: Churches built before 1800. Vol. 7, City of Birmingham. British History Online. pp. 361–79, text anchor 318. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  15. ^ Erdington in the Domesday Book
  16. ^ Wrottesley, George (1883). "Plea Rolls of the Reign of Henry III". Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 4: 105.
  17. ^ Calendar of Close Rolls, 1318—23, p. 631.
  18. ^ a b Hardy, Thomas Duffus, ed. (1833). Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum. Vol. 1. p. 357a.
  19. ^ Wigginton in the Domesday Book
  20. ^ a b Wedgwood, Josiah Clement. William Salt Archaeological Society (ed.). "Sheriffs of Staffordshire". Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 1912: 275.
  21. ^ Stephens, W. B., ed. (1964). Manors. Vol. 7, City of Birmingham. British History Online. pp. 58–72, text anchors 88—9. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  22. ^ Aston in the Domesday Book
  23. ^ Eyton, Robert William (1881). William Salt Archaeological Society (ed.). "The Staffordshire Chartulary". Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 2. London: 272. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  24. ^ Hardy, Thomas Duffus, ed. (1835). Rotuli Litterarum Patientium In Turri Londinensi Asservati. Vol. 1. p. 118b.
  25. ^ Eyton, Robert William (1860). Antiquities of Shropshire. Vol. 10. pp. 326–7.
  26. ^ Eyton, Robert William (1881). William Salt Archaeological Society (ed.). "The Staffordshire Pipe Rolls of the reigns of Richard I and King John". Collections for a History of Staffordshire. 2. London: Harrison: 170.
  27. ^ Hardy, Thomas Duffus, ed. (1833). Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum. Vol. 1. p. 281b.
  28. ^ Eyton, Robert William (1856). Antiquities of Shropshire. Vol. 3. p. 5. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  29. ^ Hardy, Thomas Duffus, ed. (1833). Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum. Vol. 1. p. 356b.

References

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