General Notes

John Maltravers, b. c1290, d. 1364, Lord Maltravers (or Maultravers), knighted 22 May 1306, son of Sir John Maltravers & wife Eleanor, daughter of Sir Ralph de Gorges of Litton and Wraxall.  [Ancestral Roots]

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BARONY OF MAUTRAVERS (I)

JOHN MAUTRAVERS, 1st son and heir by 1st wife, born circa 1290, was made a knight 22 May 1306, at the knighting of Edward, Prince of Wales. He fought at Bannockburn, 24 June 1314, and was taken prisoner. In October he was returned as a knight of the shire for Dorset, and was going to Gascony on the King's service in Mar. 1319/20. He espoused the cause of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and received several pardons in 1321; but on 6 December his goods were ordered to be seized, and on 5 January 1321/2 he and his brother Edward Mautravers were under order of arrest. He took part in the attack upon and burning of Bridgnorth, and on 16 March fought for the Earl of Lancaster at Boroughbridge. He escaped capture, and appears to have returned home. His lands were seized, but he escaped overseas. He returned with Queen Isabel and Roger de Mortimer in September 1326, and soon rose to high favour, receiving in March and April 1327, for his services to Queen Isabel and the King abroad and at home, Winterborne Hutton and other manors. Early in April he and Thomas de Berkeley received charge of the deposed King, who was then in the custody of Henry, Earl of Lancaster, at Kenilworth, and took him by night to Corfe Castle and thence, via Bristol, to Berkeley Castle, where, it is said, the King was murdered; and at the end of the month he and Maurice and Thomas de Berkeley were sent to Bristol to collect arms for the Scottish expedition, service in which met with much opposition locally. In July he and Thomas de Berkeley were appointed chief keepers of the peace in the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Gloucester, Hereford, Wilts, Hants, Oxon and Berks. In 1328 he was keeper of the castles of Corfe and Corregcennen (Carmarthen), and Steward of the King's household. In 1329 he was Keeper of the Forest south of Trent, and justice in eyre of the forest of Berks, &c. He was summoned to Parliament on 25 January 1329/30 and 23 October 1330, by writs directed Johanni de Mautravers Juniori, whereby he is held to have become LORD MAUTRAVERS. He was summoned again on 15 November 1350. In February 1329/30 he was appointed joint commissioner to inquire of felonies, &c., in London. Early in 1330 Edmund, Earl of Kent, being persuaded that his brother Edward II was still alive, entrusted letters addressed to him to Mautravers, who delivered them to Roger de Mortimer, which led to the arrest, confession, condemnation, and execution of the Earl a few weeks later. The part he had played in bringing about the judicial murder of the King's uncle served Mautravers ill when Mortimer fell from power in October. Mautravers was condemned in the Parliament which met 26 November 1330, and was sentenced to hanging and beheading; a reward of 1,000 marks was offered for taking him alive, and a price of £500 placed on his head, and his lands and offices were forfeited. He escaped by way of Cornwall to Germany, where he lived in obscurity for several years. In 1334 he offered to make a confession, and William de Montagu was sent to interview him. In 1339 he received a grant of £100 per annum, presumably in consideration of his scheming with Jacob van Arteveldt to bring Flanders to the King's side in the coming war with France; and in February 1341/2 his wife Agnes had licence to stay with him in Flanders, apparently on the King's service. In October 1343 he was commissioned to obtain justice from Flemish burgomasters and others for certain merchants of England wrongfully imprisoned in Flanders, contrary to the proclamation. In May and June 1344 he and his son John appear to have been in Ireland on the King's service. For some time past the way had been prepared for his reconciliation with the King, and when Edward III arrived at the Swine in Flanders in July 1345 to meet Jacob van Arteveldt, Mautravers humbly submitted himself, and asked for a trial, as he had been condemned unheard. The King accordingly granted him a safe conduct in August, so that he might appear at the coming Parliament, doing this in consideration of the good place Mautravers had held for the King in Flanders and elsewhere, thereby losing all his goods in the cause and being unable to stay safely in that country. In October he was sent on an embassy to Ghent. In June 1348 he was sent on another mission to that city, and, as John Mautravers, the father, was appointed Keeper of the Channel Islands. In September 135o he and his wife had licence to cross the seas on a pilgrimage to Rome. On 20 June 1351 his outlawry was annulled, and he was fully restored 8 February 1351/2.

He married, 1stly, about 1313, Milicent, daughter of Maurice (DE BERKELEY), LORD BERKELEY. She was living 1322. He married 2ndly, before 26 February 1330/1, Agnes, widow of Sir John DE NERFORD (died s.p., 1329), and relict of Sir John D'ARGENTINE (died 1318; see ARGENTINE), and daughter of William DE BEREFORD, of Burton, co. Leicester, Chief justice of the Common Pleas, by Margaret, daughter of Hugh DE PLESCY, which Agnes in 1354 was coheir of her brother Edmund. He died 16 February 1363/4, and was buried at Lytchett Mautravers. His widow, who had no issue by him, was assigned her dower in April 1364. She died 18 July 13 75, and was buried in the Greyfriars, London.  [Complete Peerage VIII:581-5, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]