| Notes |
- Bartholomew de Badlesmere, age 26 in 1301, hanged 14 Apr 1322. [MagnaCharta Sureties]
Joined rebellion of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster-thus his execution.
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Sir Bartholomew Badlesmere rose from provincial obscurity to nationalprominence and then abruptly fell; a graphic illustration of theuncertainty of Edward II's England. He was born about 1275 into a gentryfamily from Badlesmere in Kent. His father rose to be Justice of Chesterin the service of Prince Edward and died in 1301, by when Bartholomew hadalso made his mark. He served in Gascony in 1294, in Flanders in 1297,when he became one of Edward I's household knights, and in Scotland in1303-4. Almost alone among Edward's household knights, he was elected toparliament, sitting at the Carlisle Parliament of 1307: perhaps evidenceof unusual political ambitions. Badlesmere was appointed constable ofBristol in 1307, was granted Chilham castle -- henceforth his principalseat -- in 1309, and from then on he attended parliament as a baron. Onefactor here may be his wife's lands as widowed Countess of Angus andheiress in her own right; another may be the patronage of the Earl ofGloucester, whose principal retainer he was, and whom he assisted askeeper of the realm in 1311.
Certainly on Gloucester's death at Bannockburn in 1314 Badlesmere becamemore prominent in royal service. He was closely associated with the Earlof Pembroke. Thus in 1315 he accompanied Pembroke on his defence of thenorth; in 1316 Pembroke helped him bring the recalcitrant citizens ofBristol to heel; and in 1317 both went on embassy to Avignon. Late in1317 it was with Badlesmere that Pembroke strove to restrain theirresponsibility of Roger Damory and with whose assistance in councilPembroke hoped to guide the king more sensibly. The royal grantsaccompanying Badlesmere's rise culminated in his appointment in 1318 assteward of the royal household, an office of first-rate politicalimportance offering intimate contact with the king. In 1316 the kingretained him for life for £400 in peace and 5,000 marks (£3,333) in war,when he was to serve with 100 men-at-arms, and in 1317 added 1,000 marksfor his counsel: high valuations indeed for his service. Another sign ofhis rise are the marriage of his daughter to the heir of the marcher lordRoger Mortimer of Wigmore, for which he paid £2,000.
It was therefore entirely logical that in 1321 Edward II should sendBadlesmere to persuade the northerners not to join the marcher lordsagainst the Despensers, but Badlesmere deserted and demonstrated hishatred of the Despensers by concocting the false charge of treasonagainst them. His reasons for rebelling are not clear. Certainly the riseof the Despensers to favour with the king deprived Badlesmere of much ofhis influence and his marriage ties with the Mortimers may have made himsympathetic towards the marchers. However that may be, the desertion ofthe steward of his household, bound to him by intimate personal ties,made Edward II into his most vengeful enemy. That Badlesmere's Kentishlands were isolated from those of the other rebels offered Edward themeans of revenge. It was probably a deliberate ploy to provoke a crisisthat provoked him to send Queen Isabella to Badlesmere's Leeds castleand, when Lady Badlesmere predictably refused admission, Edward reactedto the affront by besieging the castle. Badlesmere's only hope wassupport from the marchers and northerners, but this Lancaster denied him.The reasons for Lancaster's hostility are not known. Opposed by the kingand earl, Badlesmere was doomed and was duly executed on 14 April 1322.[Who's Who in Late Medieval England, Michael Hicks, Shepheard-Walwyn,London, 1991]
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Bartholomew de Badlesmere, who in the lifetime of his father (22nd EdwardI) [1294], received command to attend the king at Portsmouth, upon the1st day of September, with horse and arms, to embark with him forGascony, and, in the year that he succeeded to his paternal property, wasin the wars of Scotland. He was afterwards in the retinue of Robert deClifford in the Welsh wars, and in the 1st year of Edward I [1272], wasappointed governor of the castle of Bristol. In two years afterwards, hewas summoned to parliament as Badlesmere, and had a grant from the king,through the especial influence of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucesterand Hertford, and Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, of the castle and manorof Chilham, in Kent, for his own and his wife's life, which castle hadbeen possessed by Alexander de Baliol in right of his wife Isabel, andought to have escheated to the crown upon the decease of the saidAlexander by reason of the felony that John de Strabolgi, Earl of Atholl(Isabel's son and heir), who was hanged in the 5th of Edward II [1312],Lord Badlesmere was constituted governor of the castle of Leeds andobtained, at the same time, grants of divers extensive manors. In thenext year but one, his lordship was deputed with Otto de Grandison andothers, ambassador to the court of Rome, and the next year, upon thedeath of Robert de Clifford, he obtained a grant of the custody of thecastle of Skipton in Yorkshire, whereof the said Robert died possessed,to hold during the minority of Roger de Clifford, his son and heir.
His lordship was further indebted to the crown for numerous charters forfairs and marts throughout his extensive manors; and he held the highoffice of steward of the household for a great number of years; butnotwithstanding his thus basking in the sunshine of royal favour, hisallegiance was not trustworthy, for joining the banner of Thomas, Earl ofLancaster, and other discontented nobles of that period, he went intoKent without the king's permission; where, being well received, he puthimself at the head of some soldiers from his castle at Leeds and thenproceeded to Canterbury with 19 knights, having linen jackets under theirsurcoats, all his esquires being in plate armour, and thus repaired tothe shrine of St. Thomas, to the great amazement of the good citizens.While Lord Badlesmere remained at Canterbury, John de Crumwell and hiswife sought his lordship's aid, and, pledging himself to afford it, hehastened to Oxford where the barons of his party had been then assembled.In the meantime the king being apprised of the baron's proceedings,despatched the queen to Leeds and, upon admission being denied to her,the castle was regularly invested by Adomere de Valence, Earl ofPembroke, and John de Britannia, Earl of Richmond, to who it eventuallysurrendered, when Lord Badlesmere's wife, young son, and daughters, allfalling into the hands of the besiegers, were sent prisoners to the Towerof London. The baron and his accomplices afterwards were pursued byEdmund, Earl of Kent, and John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, and beingdefeated and taken prisoners at the battle of Borough-Bridge, hislordship was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Canterbury, and his head setupon a pole at Burgate. At the time of the baron's execution, upwards ofninety lords, knights, and others concerned in the same insurrectionsuffered a similar fate in various parts of the kingdom. Margaret, hislordship's widow (one of the daus. and co-heiresses of Thomas, 3rd son ofThomas, 2nd son of Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester), continuedprisoner in the Tower until, through the influence of William Lord Roos,of Hamlake, and others, she obtained her freedom, whereupon takingherself to the nunnery of Minoresses, without Aldgate, in the suburbs ofLondon, she had 2s. a day for her maintenance to be paid by the sheriffof Essex; she subsequently, however, obtained a large proportion of thedeceased lord's manors for her dowry. By this lady, Lord Badlesmere leftissue. His lordship had been summoned to parliament from 26 October,1309, to 5 August, 1320. His unhappy fate occurred in 1322. [Sir BernardBurke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke'sPeerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 19, Badlesmere, Barons Badlesmere]
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1275 - 1322 (47 years)
[3] 
