Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/401

 ter granted by the younger William Marshall, and dated Strigul 22 March 1206, makes mention of ‘ Walter, filius Ricardi, filii Gilberti Strongbowe, avi mei’ (, v. 267). But even this evidence can hardly be considered to confirm the current story as to how the earl met his son fleeing before the enemy and, enraged at such cowardice, clave him asunder with his sword. A tomb is still shown in Christ Church, Dublin, which passes for that of Richard Strongbow. This monument, which is described as displaying ‘the cross-legged effigy of a knight,’ is said to have been restored by Sir Henry Sidney in 1570. On the left lies a half-figure ‘of uncertain sex,’ which is popularly supposed to represent the earl’s son. On it are inscribed the lines: Nate in te mihi pugnanti terga dedisti: Non mihi sed genti, regno quoque terga dedisti.

But there is no evidence as to the original state of this monument or the extent of Sir Henry’s ‘restorations.’ The whole legend was well known to Stanihurst in 1584 ; but it may date much further back than the sixteenth century (, 62).

According to Giraldus’s rhetorical phrase, Richard de lare was ‘vir plus nomims hactenus habens quam ominis, plus genii quam ingenii, plus successionis quam possessionis.’ More trustworthy, perhaps, is Giraldus’s personal descritption o the earl: ‘A man of a somewhat orid complexion and freckled; with grey eyes, feminine features, a thin voice and short neck, but otherwise of a 'good stature.’ He was rather suited, continues the same historian, for the council chamber than the field, and better fitted to obey than to command. He repaired to be urged on to enterprise by his followers; but when once in the press of the fight his resolution was as the standard or the rallying-point of his side. No disaster could shake discourage, and he showed no undue exhilaration when things went well. In the pages of Giraldus the earl appears as a mere foil to the brilliant characters of the Fitzgeralds, and is never credited with any very remarkable military achievement. On the other hand, in the pages of the ‘Anglo-Norman Poet’ he fills a much more prominent position; he leads great expeditions, and is specially distinguighread at the siege of Dublin. But even in the verse of this writer his special epithets are, ‘li entils quens,’ ‘le bon contur.’ It is more rarely that we find him styled ‘li quens vailland.’

 CLARE, RICHARD, eighth , sixth , and seventh (1222–1262), the son of Gilbert, seventh earl of Clare [qv.], by Isabella, the daughter of William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, was born 4 Aug. 1222. On his father's death, when he became Earl of Gloucester (October 1230), he was entrusted first to the guardianship of Hubert de Burgh (Tewkesbury Annals, i. 66, 77, 83); on Hubert's fall to Peter des Roches (c. October 1232); and in 1235 to Gilbert, earl Marshall. About 1236 Hubert de Burgh was accused of having been a party to Richard's secret marriage with his daughter Margaret. He denied all knowledge of the transaction, and the question seems to have been speedily solved by the death of Margaret in 1237 (Tewkesbury Annals, p. 102; Worcest. Ann., p. 428;, vi. 63, 64; Land of Morgan, p. 126). On 2 Feb. 1238 Gloucester married Maud de Lacy, daughter of John de Lacy, earl of Lincoln (Tewkes. Ann. 106; Pat. Rolls, 17 b). In August 1240, though not yet of age, he recovered possession of his estates in Glamorgan, of which county he was sheriff two years later. About this time Gloucester appears to have been on very friendly terms with his step-father, Richard, earl of Cornwall (Matt. Paris, iv. 229). In 1244 the king despatched him on a disastrous expedition against the Welsh, and knighted him next year at London (ib. 358, 418). Two years later (March 1246) he joined in the letter of the barons to Innocent III. In 1247 he had