Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare 1st Earl Clare [4500] ²⁴

  General Notes:

Bienfaite; Orbec; Clare; Tonbridge.
http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cssbct/cgi-bin/gedlkup.php/n=royal?royal06102

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fitz_Gilbert

Known as "de Bienfaite", "de Clare", and "de Tonbridge",


http://www.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy/ps06/ps06_349.htm
Richard was Lord of Bienfaite and Orbec in Normandy and Lord of Clare of Tonbridge; Chief Justice of England; kinsman and companion of William the Conqueror. He founded the House of Clare during the Conquest, and played a major role in suppressing the revolt of 1075. His wife Rohese Giffard brought him the great estates of her family. Their son Walter founded Tintern Abbey.

RICHARD FITZGILBERT, a lawyer and Chief Justice of Eng, bornbef 1035, was the founder of the House of Clare in England. He
was the eldest son of Gislebert [insert Crispin,] Count of Eu, and Brionne, a descendant of the Emperor Charlemagne, see Ch 29 (p 182).
He accomp Duke Wm into Eng, and later held one hunderd seventy-six lordships or manors. One of these lordships was that of Clare, in
co./ Suffolk which, becoming his chief seat, caused him to be styled Richard de Clare, and his d escendants known as Earls of Clare. He
fell in a skirmish with the Welsh in 1090. He md Rohese, dau of Walter Giffard de Bolebec, and had... a son



He was also Seigneur de Orbec et Bienfaite, Normandy; Lord of Clare & Tonbridge j.u. When his father was assassinated in 1040, Richard
and his brother and Baldwin, were forced to flee Normandy, finding safety at the court of Baldwin V, count of Flanders. When cousin William
the Conqueror married Count Baldwin's daughter, he restored Gilbert's sons to Normandy, although he did not invest them with either
Brionne or Eu or a comital title. William granted the lordships of Bienfaite and Orbec to Richard fitz Gilbert, and Le Sap and Meules to
Baldwin. Richard and Baldwin fitz Gilbert took part in the Norman conquest of England, and both assumed important positions in the
Conqueror's reign. Richard was regent of England jointly with William de Warenne during the Conqueror's absence in 1075, and he served in
various other important capacities for the King. King William rewarded his cousin well, granting him one of the largest fiefs in the territorial
settlement. The lordship centered on Clare (obviously the origin of the Clare family name), Suffolk, which had been an important stronghold in
Anglo-Saxon times. The bulk of Richard fitz Gilbert's estates lay in Suffolk, Essex, Surrey, and Kent, but comprised holdings in various other
counties in the southern and eastern parts of the kingdom as well. In addition, King William arranged for Richard's marriage to Rohese, sister
of Walter Giffard, later earl of Buckingham, and her dowry, consisting of lands in Huntingdon and Hertford, became absorbed in the family
inheritance. After Richard's death, his extensive properties in Normandy and England were divided between his two eldest sons.

Richard married Rohese Giffard [4507] [MRIN: 1301], daughter of Sir Walter Giffard Lord of Longueville [4508] and Agnes Flaitel [49003], in 1054. (Rohese Giffard [4507] was born about 1034 and died in 1133.)