General Notes

Nicholas de Segrave, of Barton Segrave, co. Northampton, being in the king's service in Gascony, was summoned to parliament as a baron 24 June, 1295. His lordship was soon after in the wars of Scotland and shared in the victory of Falkirk. In the 33rd Edward I [1306], Lord Segrave, whom Matthew Paris calls "one of the most worthy knights in this realm," being accused of treason by Sir John de Cromwell, Knt., challenged, in defence of his innocence, his accuser to single combat according to the custom of the period, but the king not giving his consent to the duel, his lordship crossed the realm. Having done so, however, unlicensed, he was taken into custody upon his return and immediately brought to trial. The affair puzzled the judges, who were at a loss to come to a decision; however, after three days' consultation, they declared that his lordship deserved death and that all his goods should be confiscated, yet added that, in regard he departed not from England in an affront to the king, but to avenge his own quarrel, the king would do well to pardon him. Edward was much displeased at the boldness of the judges who seemed to set bounds to his prerogative, and gave them a severe reprimand, but he, nevertheless, pardoned Segrave and restored him to his possessions, several of the nobility having interceded for him and entered into security for his future good conduct.

In the 1st Edward II [1307-8], his lordship was constituted governor of the castle at Northampton and marshal of England, and in four years after he obtained a license to make a castle of his manor house at Barton Segrave. Upon the grant of the marshalship to Lord Segrave, much animosity arose between him and William le Mareschall, which was allayed, however, by the king's interference. His lordship d. in 1322, leaving an only dau. and heiress, Maud Segrave, who m. Edmund de Bohun, and in the representatives of this marriage (if any exist) the Barony of Segrave of Barton Segrave, is now vested. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 485, Segrave, Barons Segrave of Barton Segrave]