General Notes

Sir Ralph de Monthermer, styled Earl of Gloucester and Hertford during the life of his wife (Joan), created Lord Monthermer 1308, died 5 April 1325.  [Magna Charta Sureties]

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Ralph de Monthermer, "a plain Esquire," having m. the Lady Joane Plantagenet (commonly called Joane of Acre), dau. of King Edward I and widow of Gilbert, Earl of Clare, Gloucester, and Hertford, in her right, and was summoned to parliament as "Comiti Gloucester' et Hertf." from 6 February, 1299 to 3 November, 1306. In the 26th Edward I [1298], his lordship was in the expedition then made into Scotland, and behaved so valiantly that the king rendered to him and his wife, the said Joane, the castle and honour of Tonebruge with other lands in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, as also the Isle of Portland and divers other estates belonging to the said Joane, which had been seized by the crown in consequence of her marriage without license with the said Ralph, and the king became eventually much attached to his son-in-law, to whom he had been reconciled through the intercession of Anthony Bek, the celebrated bishop of Durham. In the 31st, 32nd, and 34th of his father-in-law [1203, 1304, and 1306], the earl was again in Scotland and in the contest with Bruce. King Edward conferred upon him the whole of Anandale with the title of Earl of Atholl, the Scottish nobleman who held that dignity having espoused the fortunes of Bruce, but it was not long after that that Joane of Acre departed this life (viz., 1st Edward II), and he never, subsequently, obtained the title of Earl of Gloucester and Hertford although he lived for several years; in a grant of considerable landed property made to him and his sons in two years afterwards, he is styled Ralph de Monthermer only. Nor is he otherwise denominated in the 5th Edward II [1312], at which time, for recompense of his service in Scotland, the king gave him 300 marks, part of the 600 marks which he was to have paid for the wardship of John ap Adam, a great man of that age. Nor in two years afterwards, when again in the wars of Scotland, he was made prisoner at Bannockburn, but he then found favour from his former familiarity with the King of Scotland, at the court of England, and obtained his freedom without paying ransom. He was, however, summoned to parliament as a Baron from 4 March, 1309, to 30 October, 1321. His lordship m. 2ndly, Isabel, widow of John de Hastings, and sister and co-heir of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, by whom he had no issue. By his first wife, the Princess Joane, he had two sons, viz., Thomas, his heir; Edward, who was summoned to parliament as a Baron, 23 April, 1337, 11th Edward III, but never afterwards, and nothing further is known of him or his descendants. Ralph, Lord Monthermer, d. 19th Edward II [1326], and was s. by his son, Thomas, Lord Monthermer. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, pp. 378-9, Monthermer, Baron Monthermer, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford]