• General Notes

  Stephen de Segrave (or Stephen Sedgrave or Stephen Segrave) (c.1171-9 November 1241) was a medieval Chief Justiciar of England.
  
  Life
  
  In 1232, he succeeded Hubert de Burgh as chief justiciar of England.[1] He officiated at the trial of de Burgh, in November 1232, which has been called the "first state trial" in England[2].
  
  As an active coadjutor of Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, Segrave incurred some share of the opprobrium which was lavished on the Poitevin royal favourites of Henry III of England. In 1234, he was deprived of his office as Justiciar.[1] Soon, however, he was again occupying an influential position at Henry's court, and he retained this until his death.
  
  He became a knight and was made constable of the Tower of London in 1203. He obtained lands and held various positions under Henry III. He was given the manor where Caludon Castle was built, at Wyken near Coventry in 1232[3] or earlier,[4] by Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester. Ranulph also granted him Bretby in 1209.[5]
  
  In 1236, he became castellan of Beeston Castle and Chester Castle, jointly with Hugh de Spencer and Henry de Aldithley.[6]
  
  Family
  
  He was the son of a certain Gilbert de Segrave of Segrave in Leicestershire. He married Rohese le Despenser, daughter of Thomas le Despenser; and then Ida Hastings, daughter of William de Hastings and Margery Bigod of Norfolk.[7][8]
  
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  Stephen de Segrave; of age by 1200; Keeper of: Sauvey Castle June 1220, Essex and Herts Nov 1220, the Honour of Boulogne Dec 1220, Lincs March 1221/2, Hedingham Castle, Essex March 1221/2, Lincoln Castle and Lincs Dec 1223, Hertford Castle Jan 1223/4, Northampton Castle 1229; appointed a guardian of England in Henry III's absence in France 1230; Sheriff of Beds, Bucks, Leics, Northants and Worcs 1230; Commissioner to negotiate with Llewelyn Prince of North Wales 1232; Keeper of: Kenilworth Castle May 1232, Northampton Castle July 1232 and Beds, Bucks, Leics, Northants and Warwicks for life; Justiciar of England 1232; a principal advisor to Henry III 1233; married 1st Rohese, sister of Hugh Despenser; married 2nd Ida, sister of Henry de Hastings, and died 1241. [Burke's Peerage]
  
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  Stephen de Segrave, who, in the 5th King John [1204], was constable of t he Tower of London, and, remaining faithful to that monarch in his conflic ts with the barons, obtained a grant (17th John) [1216] of the lands of St ephen de Gant, lying in the cos. Lincoln and Leicester, with the man or of Kintone, co. Warwick. In the 4th Henry III [1220], he was made gover nor of Saubey Castle, Leicestershire, and the next year constituted sheri ff of the cos. Essex and Hertford, and afterwards of Leicestershire. In t he 8th of the same reign, he was governor of the castle at Hertford, a nd in two years after, one of the justices itinerant in the cos. Nottingh am and Derby. About this period we find this successful person, whom Matth ew Paris says, in his young days "from a clerk was made a knight," acquiri ng large landed property by purchase. In the 13th Henry III [1229], he bou ght the manor of Cotes, in the co. Derby, from the daus. and heirs of Step hen de Beauchamp, and he afterwards purchase from Ranulph, Earl of Chest er and Lincoln, all the lands which that nobleman possessed at Mount Sorre ll, co. Leicester, without the castle, as also two carucates and a half ly ing at Segrave which himself and his ancestors had previously held at t he rent of 14s. per annum. In the 16th Henry III, he obtained a grant of t he custody of the castle and county of Northampton, as also of the cos. Be dford, Buckingham, Warwick, and Leicester, for the term of his life, taki ng the whole profit of all those shires for his support in that service, e xcepting the ancient farms which had usually been paid into the exchequer.
  
  Having been of the king's council for several years, as also chief justi ce of the Common Pleas, he succeeded, in the 16th Henry III, Hubert de Bur gh in the great office of justiciary of England, being at the same time co nstituted governor of Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, &c., and constab le of the Tower of London. After this we find him, however, opposed by t he bishops and barons and his manor house at Segrave burnt to the grou nd by the populace, as well as another mansion in the co. Huntingdon. T he king, too, in this perilous crisis, deserted him and cited him, along w ith Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, and others who had been in pow er, to appear forthwith at court in order to answer any charge regarding t he wasting of the public treasure, which might be preferred against the m. Some of those persons, conscious of guilt, fled to sanctuary, and Steph en de Segrave sought an asylum in the abbey of Leicester, where he open ly declared that he was and had been a priest, and that he resolved to sha ve his crown again to be a canon of that house. Nevertheless, upon seco nd thoughts, he braved the storm and appeared at court under the archbisho p's protection, where the king called him a wicked traitor, and told him t hat it was under his advice that he had displaced Hubert de Burgh from t he office of justiciary and cast that eminent person into prison, nay, th at had he gone the full length of his council, Hubert would have been hang ed, and divers of the nobility banished. In twelve months subsequently, ho wever, Stephen de Segrave made his peace by paying 1000 marks to the kin g, and he afterwards grew again into such favour that, in the 21st Henry I II [1237], he was the means of reconciling the king with some of his mo st hostile barons. Subsequently he was made justice of Chester and the kin g's chief councillor, and "being now," says Dugdale, "advanced in years, d eported himself by experience of former times with much more temper and mo deration than heretofore."
  
  This eminent person m. twice - 1st, Rohese, dau. of Thomas le Despencer, a nd 2ndly, Ida, sister of Henry de Hastings, with whom he had in frank-marr iage, the manor of Bruneswaver, co. Warwick. Of Stephen de Segrave, so dis tinguished in the reign of Henry III, Matthew Paris, thus speaks -- "Th is Stephen, though come of no high parentage, was in his youth, of a cle rk made a knight; and in his latter days, through his prudence and valou r, so exalted that he had the reputation of one of the chief men of the re alm, managing the greatest affairs as he pleased. In doing whereof, he mo re minded his own profit than the common good, yet for some good deeds a nd making a discreet testament, he d. with much honour." He departed th is life in 1241, and was s. by his son, Gilbert de Segrave. [Sir Bernard B urke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerag e, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 484, Segrave, Barons Segrave of Barton Segrave]
  
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  Notes
  
  1. ^ a b Powicke Handbook of British Chronology p. 70
  2. ^ Nicholas Vincent, Peter Des Roches (1996), p. 317.
  3. ^ Caludon castle accessed on September 7, 2007
  4. ^ British History Online: Caludon accessed on September 7, 2007
  5. ^ PDF South Derbyshire site - Grant of Bretby, p.1 accessed on September 7, 2007
  6. ^ The Saint-Amand Connection Lines accessed on September 7, 2007
  7. ^ Geneajourney: le Despenser accessed on September 7, 2007
  8. ^ Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: English Earls Created 1066-1122 accessed on September 7, 2007
  
  References
  
  * British History Online: Caludon accessed on September 7, 2007
  * Caludon castle accessed on September 7, 2007
  * Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: English Earls Created 1066-1122 accessed on September 7, 2007
  * Geneajourney: le Despenser accessed on September 7, 2007
  * Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961
  * The Saint-Amand Connection Lines accessed on September 7, 2007
  * PDF South Derbyshire site - Grant of Bretby accessed on September 7, 2007
  
  Sources:
  
  1. Author: Peter Barns-Graham, Chairman
  Title: Stirnet.com
  Publication: Name: http://www.stirnet.com;
  Page: Segrave1
  2. Title: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
  Page: 1029, 2025
  3. Title: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
  Page: 2025
  Text: of age by 1200
  4. Title: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
  Page: 1029
  Text: 1241
  5. Title: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
  Page: 2025
  6. Title: Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charles Mosley Editor-in-Chief, 1999
  Page: 2025
  Text: no date, 2nd wife

Details of Stephen's family with Rohesia de Spencer