Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/32

  C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, i. 91–3; Nicolas's Hist. Peerage, ed. Courthope, pp. 24–5, 483–4; Lords' Reports on the Dignity of a Peer; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 505–6; Jervise and Gammack's Memorials of Angus and the Mearns [1885]; Hodgson's Northumberland, vol. i. pt. ii. pp. 1–48.]  UMFRAVILLE, GILBERT (1390–1421), popularly styled the ‘Earl of Kyme,’ was the son of Sir Thomas de Umfraville (1362–1391) [see under ]. He was born about the end of July 1390, and was only twenty-eight weeks old when his father's death on 12 Feb. 1391 put him in possession of Harbottle and Redesdale, and such of the Umfraville estates as were included in the entail of 1378. He was a royal ward (, p. 365), and Ralph Neville (afterwards first Earl of Westmorland) [q. v.] received from Richard II the governorship of Harbottle Castle during his minority. The chief care for the youth devolved, however, upon his uncle, Robert Umfraville, whose martial exploits against the Scots did much to restore the waning fortunes of the house of Umfraville. After the Lancastrian revolution, to which Robert Umfraville early adhered, Henry Percy, called Hotspur, became guardian of young Gilbert's lands. The Umfravilles and the Percys were closely related, the Earl of Northumberland's second wife being the widow of the Earl Gilbert of Angus who died in 1381, who was Robert's uncle of the half-blood. Prudhoe Castle, an old Umfraville property, was already in Northumberland's hands. In 1400 Robert Umfraville was actually in command at Harbottle (Ord. Privy Council, i. 125), where on 29 Sept. he signally routed a Scottish force. In 1403 the wardship of the young heir was transferred, after the Percys' fall, to George Dunbar, earl of March (Fœdera, viii. 323); while in 1405 Warkworth was transferred from the rebel house to Robert Umfraville, who in 1408 became knight of the Garter (, Memorials of the Garter, p. clvii). Trained from infancy in the rude school of border warfare, Gilbert entered early on his career of arms. About 1409 he distinguished himself in a tournament at Arras (, p. 365), and on 10 Jan. 1410 he had livery of his lands and was soon afterwards knighted. He now took an active share in his uncle's plundering forays against the Scots (, p. 367), though apparently not participating in Robert's destruction of Scottish shipping in the Forth early in 1411. In the autumn of 1411 Gilbert accompanied his uncle on the expedition sent under Thomas Fitzalan, earl of Arundel (1381–1415) [q. v.], to help Philip of Burgundy against the Armagnacs. Hardyng, the rhyming chronicler, who after 1403 transferred his services from the Percys to Robert Umfraville, is careful in chronicling the exploits of his lord and lord's nephew, giving them perhaps a larger share of the glory of the expedition than is allowed by more sober historians. Both took part in the capture of Saint-Cloud on 8 Nov., and, according to Hardyng, gave voice to the English protest against the massacre and torture of the prisoners (p. 368; cf., however, Henry IV, iv. 62–3). Hardyng also says that after the battle of Saint-Cloud Gilbert ‘proclaimed was Earl of Kyme’ (p. 367). This certainly does not mean that he was formally created an English earl. Neither he nor his uncle after him received a summons, even as a baron, to the House of Lords. The title may have been simply a mere popular recognition of his descent from earls, though he was not famous enough as a soldier to extort any special popular acclamation. It is not quite impossible, as Sir James Ramsay suggests (Lancaster and York, i. 131), that he received a grant of this title from his French allies. Nevertheless all similar titles given in France were, like the Greys' county of Tancarville, derived from French places and represented existing French dignities. Hardyng's authority, moreover, is of little weight, and the French writers, who mainly use the title, are so ignorant as to confuse him with the Earl of Kent. His designation in English official documents is ‘G. de Umfraville miles’ (Testamenta Vetusta, p. 20), or at most ‘dominus de Kyme’ (, Siège de Rouen, p. 86; cf. Gesta Henrici V, p. 280). When asked his name by the Rouennais in 1412, he answered that he was a knight and named Umfraville (, p. 253).

In 1412 Umfraville served at Calais under the Earl of Warwick, and wrought great devastation in the Boulonnais, burning Samer and taking Wissant by assault (, pp. 69–70).

Umfraville took a prominent part in Henry V's French wars, attended the campaign of 1415 at the head of twenty men-at-arms and ninety horse archers, and was, says Hardyng, joined at Harfleur by his uncle, with whom came his esquire, John Hardyng the chronicler (, pp. 573–5). On 14 Aug. Gilbert was sent to reconnoitre Harfleur. On 22 Sept., when the formal surrender was made, he bore King Henry's 