History
de Redvers 1107 - 1293
Richard de Redvers (died 8 September 1107) was a Norman nobleman of Reviers in Normandy, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066. He was held by some to have been the Earl of Devon. He assumed the name of Richard de Ripariis, later anglicized to Redvers or, less commonly, Rivers.
Richard de Redvers was one of the principal supporters of Henry I in his initial struggle against his brother Robert Curthose for control of the English throne. Henry bestowed on him the towns of Tiverton, Honiton (1100) and the honour of Plympton, together with a yearly pension of one-third of the revenue of that county. The Lordship of the Isle of Wight was also bestowed on him in 1102, which remained in his lineal descendance through a series of De Redvers and De Vernons until the reign of King Edward I.
Family
It is thought that Richard de Redvers was connected to the Lords of Vernon, and kinsman of a Richard and Baldwin de Redvers of the previous generation, descendants of a niece of Gunnora, Duchess of Normandy. In the cartulary of Carisbrooke he is called the nephew of William Fitzosbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, who was also of Gunnora's kindred, and the grant of the Isle of Wight to Richard after the death of Roger de Breteuil certainly gives some support to the assertion.
His wife was Lady Adeliza, a daughter of William Peverel of Nottingham and his wife Adelina of Lancaster. Richard de Redvers had children:
1. Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon, who died in 1155.
2. William de Vernon who married Lucy de Tancarville, daughter of William de Tancarville and his wife Matilda d'Arques.
3. Hubert de Vernon.
4. Robert of St Mary Church.
5. Hadewise de Redvers who married William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln.
Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon (? – 4 June 1155), was the son of Richard de Redvers and his wife Adeline Peverel.
He was one of the first to rebel against King Stephen, and was the only first rank magnate never to accept the new king.[1] He seized Exeter, and was a pirate out of Carisbrooke, but he was driven out of England to Anjou, where he joined the Empress Matilda. She made him Earl of Devon after she established herself in England, probably in early 1141.
He founded several monasteries, notably those of Quarr Abbey (1131), in the Isle of Wight, a priory at Breamore, Hampshire, and the Priory of St James, at Exeter. Some monastic chronicles call his father also Earl of Devon, but no contemporary record uses the title, including the monastic charters.
Family and Children
He was married to Adeliz Baluun (d. circa 1146) and had children:
1. Richard de Redvers, 2nd Earl of Devon, who married Denise de Dunstanville.
2. Henry de Redvers.
3. William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon, who married Mabel de Beaumont.
4. Matilda de Redvers who married to Anschetil de Greye.
5. Maud de Redvers who married Ralph de Avenel.
6. Alice de Redvers who married Roger II de Nonant.
7. Hawise de Redvers who married Robert Castellan.
8. Eva de Redvers who married Robert d' Oyly.
Between 1151 and 1155 he married Lucy, who was the widow of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Hertford.
It should be noted that the name de Redvers can also be found as de Reviers or Revières.
Richard de Redvers, 2nd Earl of Devon (died 1162) was Earl of Devon from 1155 until his death. He married Denise, one of the daughters and coheiresses of Reginald, Earl of Cornwall.
Baldwin de Redvers, 3th Earl of Devon (c.1160- 1188) was Earl of Devon from 1162 until his death. His birth is not attested, but he had a younger brother, and he was invested with the Earldom between the Pipe Rolls of 1185 and 1186, so he should not have been much over twenty-one.
He married the heiress of Raoul, Prince of Déols, Lord of Châteauroux and Charenton. After his death she married André de Chauvigny.
Richard de Redvers, 4th Earl of Devon (died 1193) was Earl of Devon from 1188 until his death. William de Reviers, 5th Earl of Devon (? – 10 September 1217), was the son of Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon and Adelise Baluun. William de Redvers is also William de Vernon, because he was brought up at Vernon Castle, in Normandy, the seat of his grandfather.
He took part in Richard the Lion-Hearted's second coronation in 1194, when the Canopy was supported by four Earls; he consistently supported King John. Nevertheless, at the end of John's life, the King permitted Falkes de Breauté, one of his mercenary captains, to seize the Earl's widowed daughter-in-law, force a marriage, and grab her dowry.
These events are also featured in the novel Leopards and Lilies by Alfred Duggan.
Family and Children
He was married to Mabile de Beaumont, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and granddaughter (on her mother's side) of Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, and had children:
• Baldwin de Redvers (b. after 28 April 1200; d. 1 September 1216).
• Mary de Redvers who married:
1. Pierre des Preaux
2. Robert de Courtenay of Okehampton
• Joan de Redvers who married William Brewere.She had been engaged to Hubert de Burgh, later Earl of Kent, but it was broken off.
Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon and Lord of the Isle (of Wight) (1217 – 15 February 1245), was the son of Baldwin de Redvers and Margaret FitzGerold; grandson of William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon.
Family and Children
In 1225 he married Amicia de Clare (1220-1287), daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford and had the following children:
1. Baldwin de Redvers, 7th Earl of Devon.
2. Isabella de Redvers, 8th Countess of Devon (or Isabella de Fortibus) (died 1293), married William de Forz, 4th Earl of Albemarle. After the death of her brother, she became Countess of Devon in her own right, and Lady of the Isle of Wight.
Baldwin de Redvers, 7th Earl of Devon and Lord of the Isle (of Wight) (1 January 1236 – 1262), was the son of Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon and Amicia de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford. He succeeded at the age of ten.
He died in the expedition of Henry III of England to France in 1262; the record of his death by the royal clerks was made on 13 September. He was succeeded by his sister Isabel, who was already the widow of William de Forz, 4th Earl of Albemarle.
Marriage
Shortly after his coming of age, he married, in 1257, Avita, daughter of Thomas I of Savoy, who was aunt of the Queen, Eleanor of Provence, on one side, and niece of Pope Innocent IV on the other. He had one child: John de Redvers, who died an infant.
Isabella de Fortibus or Isabella de Forz (July 1237 – 10 November 1293) was the eldest daughter of Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon. At the age of 11 or 12 she became the second wife of William de Fortibus (or Forz) who owned land in Yorkshire and Cumberland and was the count of Aumale. When he died in 1260 part of his estates (her "dower lands") were granted to her. Two years later, in 1262 her brother Baldwin de Redvers, 7th Earl of Devon, died and left her his lands in Devon, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Harewood in Yorkshire. She was in her mid-twenties and was one of the richest heiresses in England. She subsequently called herself countess of Aumale and of Devon, and lady of the Isle (of Wight).
Despite the younger Simon de Montfort (second son of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester) acquiring the rights to her remarriage in 1264, she did not marry him and hid for some time in Breamore Priory in Hampshire and later in Wales. In 1268 her marriage was granted to Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, son of Henry III, but she did not marry him either. However her daughter Aveline did marry Edmund in 1269, but died four years later, aged 15. Isabella outlived all six of her children.
From 1262 she lived mainly on the Isle of Wight (which she owned), at Carisbrooke Castle. Many of her accounts have survived and have been subjected to much study. Her net income in the 1260s is known to have risen from £1,500 to £2,500. She was much involved in litigation and pursued dozens of civil and criminal cases through the royal courts, apparently owning her own copy of the statutes of the realm.
It is known that Edward I long wanted to acquire Isabella's estates. In 1278 her northern lands and the comté of Aumale and its associated lands were all quitclaimed to the crown by John of Eston who was found (against expectations) by a jury to be her late daughter Aveline's heir. In 1293 the king reopened negotiations to acquire Isabella's southern lands. While travelling from Canterbury, Isabella was taken ill and stopped near Lambeth. Edward's leading councillor rushed to her and wrote a charter to confirm the sale of the Isle of Wight to the king. It was read to the dying Isabella, who ordered her lady of the bedchamber to seal it. She died in the early morning of 10 November 1293 and was buried at Breamore Priory, Hampshire.
Sources:
1. Medieval Lands Retrieved on 22 November 2008
2. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baldwin de Rivers
Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis; Line 50-27
Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom by G. E. Cokayne; Pages: IV:311-2,IV:312
Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999, Page: 832
Robert Bearman, ‘Revières , Baldwin de, earl of Devon (c.1095–1155)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Isabella de Fortibus
Barbara English, ‘Forz , Isabella de, suo jure countess of Devon, and countess of Aumale (1237–1293)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004
Link:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1163 
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