Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/317

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Bohun
309
Bohun

on the side of Simon de Montfort, and was taken prisoner. But this account applies only to the younger Humphrey, for immediately after that victory Hereford stood high in the king's favour, and was employed as one of the arbitrators to bring to reason the remnant of de Montfort's party by the dictum of Kenilworth. Humphrey de Bohun died 24 Sept. 1274, and was buried at Lanthony, Gloucestershire. He married twice: first, Maud, daughter of the Comte d'Eu, by whom he had his son Humphrey VI, who died before him, and four daughters; and secondly, Maud de Avenebury, by whom he had a son John, lord of Haresfield.

[Chronicles of Gerv. of Canterbury, Matt. Paris, WUl. Rishanger; Dogdale's Baronage, i. 180; Foss's Judges, ii. 245 ; Stubbs's Const. Hist.]

E. M. T.


BOHUN, HUMPHREY VII de, third Earl of Hereford, and second Earl of Essex (d. 1298), constable of England, was born about the middle of the thirteenth century, the grandson of Humphrey V [q. v.], second earl, and son of Humphrey V I, wno predeceased his father, 27 Aug. 1265, immediately after the battle of Evesham, at which he was made prisoner, fighting on de Montfort's side. Humphrey VII servea in 1286 in the army of occupation in Wales. In 1289 he was found levying private war against the Earl of Gloucester, and was peremptorily ordered to keep the peace. In 1292 he was fined and imprisoned. In 1296-7 he was sent as escort to John, the young earl of Holland, who had lately married the English princess, Elizabeth, and was now returning to nis own country to claim his inheritance. The princess, who was only in her fourteenth year, was married two years afterwards to Humphrey de Bohun, the earl's son. From this time to the date of his death Hereford played a conspicuous part, in conjunction with Roger Bigod, fifth earl of Norfolk, in opposing Edward I's measures for arbitrary taxation, and in at length obtaining the confirmation of the charters, being, however, chiefly moved by the alarm given to the barons by Edward's reforms. At the assembly of the magnates at Salisbury early in 1297, he, with Bigod, refused to serve in Gascony on the plea that they were not bound to foreign service except in company with the king [see Bigod, Roger, fifth earl of Norfolk]. At a levy of the military forces of the kingdom, the two earls refused to do their duty as constable and marshal, and were both deprived. The list of grievances which their party then presented was only partially inquired into when Edward sailed for Flanders; but the confirmation of the charters was agreed to by Prince Edward acting as regent, and was allowed by the king himself in Flanders. On Edward's return to England in 1298, he was required by the two earls, as the price of their attendance in the invasion of Scotland, to promise a re-confirmation of the charters. After the battle of Falkirk, 22 July, Hereford had leave to return to England; and soon after he died at Fleshy, in Essex, and was buried at Walden. He married Maud, daughter of Ingelram de Fienes, and was succeeded by his son, Humphrey VIII.

[Chronicles of Will. Rishanger, Th. Walsingham, Walt, de Hemingburgh; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 182 ; Stubbs's Constitutional History.]

E. M. T.


BOHUN, HUMPHREY VIII de, fourth Earl of Hereford, and third Earl of Essex (1276–1322), constable of England, was son of Humphrey VII, third earl of Hereford. He was born in 1276. In 1291 he appears among the barons who addressed the letter of protest to the pope from the parliament of Lincoln. In 1302 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I, and widow of John, earl of Holland, and on the occasion made surrender to the crown of all his lands and title, receiving them back in tail. In a great tournament held at Fulham in 1305 ne took a leading part, and again in 1307 he was present at another passage of arms at Wallingford, held against the king's favourite. Piers Gaveston. In 1308 he was sent north, in company with the Earl of Gloucester, to oppose Robert Bruce. The next year he joined with other barons in a letter of remonstrance addressed to the pope. In 1310 Humphrey de Bohun was one of the twenty-one ordainers appointed on 20 March to reform the government and the king's household. The ordinances which they presented were finally accepted in October 1311; but three months later, January 1312, the king recalled his banished favourite, Gaveston. Immediately Thomas, earl of Lancaster, and the confederate barons, including Hereford, took up arms and besieged Gaveston in Scarborough. On 19 May Gaveston surrendered, and was shortly afterwards beheaded by Lancaster's party at Blacklow Hill. Edward was powerless to punish the rebellious lords; negotiations for a peace were opened, and in October 1313 the earls and their followers were pardoned. In 1314 the war with Scotland was renewed, and the battle of Bannockburn was fought on 24 June. Here Gloucester was slain and Hereford taken prisoner. He was exchanged for the wife of Robert Bruce, who had long been a captive in England.

The jealousy of the barons was now moved by the growing power of the two Despen-