(Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. 1), when are Pipe Roll reveals him in debt to the Jews, an under the same that he appears when surprised and killed by the Welsh near Abergavenny on his way to Cardigan (Iter Cambrense, pp. 47-8, 118), either in 1135 (Brut, p. 105), or more probably 1136 (Ann. Camb. p. 40), on 15 April (Cont. Flor. Wig.) His death was the signal for a general rising, and his castles were besieged by the rebels. His widow was rescued by Giles of Gloucester, but his brother Baldwin, whom Stephen despatched to suppress the rising and avenge his death, failed discreditably (Gesta, pp. 10-13). Richard, who was buried at Gloucester, was founder of Tunbridge Priory, and about 1124 removed the religious house which his father had founded at Clare to the adjacent hill of Stoke (Mon. Angl. vi. 1052). He married a sister of Randulf, earl of Chester, whose name is said by Brooke to have been Alice (but cf. Coll. Top. et Gen. i. 389; Journ. Arch. Assoc. xxvi. 151). By her he left, with other issue, Gilbert, earl of Hertford (d. 1152), and Roger, fifth earl [q. v.]
[Florence of Worcester and his Continuator (Roy. Hist. Soc.); Gesta Ste hani (ib.); Annales Cambrenses (Rolls Ser.); Rrut y Tywysogion (ib.); Gerald`s Iter Camhrense (ib.) ; Monasticon Anglicanum ; Cullectanea Top. et Gen.; Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. l; Brooke’s Catalogue of the Nobility ; Journal of the Archæological Association; Stubbs’s Constitutional History ; Marsh’s Chepstow Castle.]
CLARE, RICHARD de, or RICHARD STRONGBOW, second Earl of Pembroke and Strigul (d. 1176), was son of Gilbert Strongbow, or De Clare, whom Stephen created earl of Pembroke in 1138, and grandson of Gilbert de Clare, d. 1115? [q. v.] (Ord. Vit. xiii. 37). His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester and Mellent (Will. of Jumièges, viii. 37; Dugdale, i. 84). He appears to have succeeded to his fathers estates in 1148 (Marsh, p. 55; Dugdale, i. 208); but the name of ‘Richard, count of Pembroke,’ first appears among the signatures to the treaty of Westminster (7 Nov. 1153), which recognised Prince Henry as Stephen’s successor (Brompton, 1039n. 60). It appears that he was allowed to retain his title even after the accession of Henry II, when so many of Stephen’s earldoms were abolished; but according to Giraldus Canibrensis he had either forfeited or lost his estates by 1167-8 (Expugn. Hib. i. cxii). We learn from Ralph de Diceto (i. 330) that he was one of the nobles who accompanied Princess Matilda on her marriage journey to Minden in Germany early in 1168.
According to the Irish historians it was in 1166 that Dermot [see MacMurchada Diarmid], driven from Leinster by the combined forces of Roderic O'Connor, king of Connaught, and Tighernan O’Ruarc, of Breifni, appealed to Henry for aid in the recovery of his Kingdom (Annals of Four Masters, i. 1161). This date, to Giraldus, seems two years too early. Henry gave letters empowering any of his subjects to assist the dethroned monarch, who secured the services of Earl Richard, pilqgiising in return for his assistance to give him his eldest daughter in marriage, together with the succession to Leinster (Gir. Camb. v. 227-8; Anglo-Norman Poet, II. 328, &c.) The earl engaged to cross over with an army in the ensuing spring; but stipulated that he must have express permission from Henry before starting (Gir. v. 228; Anglo-Norman Poet, II. 356-7). Earlier aid was promised by Robert FitzStephen and Maurice FitzGera1d, who appear to have crossed over to Wexford about 1 May 1169 Gir. 230; A. F. M. i. 1173). If this date correct, the meeting of Dermot and the earl must have taken place about July 1168, to which year Hoveden assigns the invasion of Ireland (i. 269; Gir. 229, with which cf. A.-N. P. pp. 16-19). In the conquest of Wexford and the expeditions against Ossory and Dublin Earl Richard took no part; but according to Giraldus he was represented in this campaign by his nephew, Hervey de Mountmaurice.
It was apparently towards the close of this year that Dermot, despairing of the arrival of the Earl of Strigul, offered his daughter to Robert FitzStephen and Maurice FitzGerald, and on their refusal sent a pressing invitation to the earl: ‘The swallows have come and gone, yet you are tarrying sti1l.’ On receiving this letter, Earl Richard, ‘after much deliberation,’ crossed over to Henry and received the requisite permission to carve out a heritage for himself in foreign lands; but, according to Giraldus, the king granted his request ironically rather than seriously (246-8). A much later writer, Trivet (c. 1300), has preserved a tradition that the earl had been an exile in Ireland previous to this (Trivet, 66-7). Before crossing to Ireland himself, Earl Richard sent forward a small force under one of his own men, Raymond le Gros, the nephew of FitzStephen and FitzGerald. Landing near Watertford about the beginning of May 1170, he was immediately joined by Herve de Mountmaurice (Gir. 248, &c.; A.-N.P. pp. 67, &c.) According to the ‘Anglo-Norman Poet,’ Earl Richard crossed ‘very soon after' (ll. 1500-3); both accounts agree that he apeared before Waterford with from twelve to teen hundred men on St. Bartholomew’s eve
