General Notes

Viscount of Mauley

b? Mulgrave, Yorkshire, England
d? Mulgrave Castle, Yorkshire, England

Note: A Poitevin. Built Mulgrave Castle Nr Whitby Peter de Mauley, d. 1241 Peter de Mauley, d. 1241, favourite of King John, was a Poitevin noble, who left his inheritance to his brother Aymer, and entered the service of King John. According to the account preserved in Hemingburgh (i. 232), he was employed by John to murder Arthur of Brittany, but no contemporary writer mentions him by name in this connection. He received a grant of land in December 1202 (HARDY, Rot. Normanniæ, p. 66), and is mentioned in the king's service in 1205 (Rot. Lit. Pat. 25 b), and his name is of frequent occurrence in the Close and Patent Rolls during the remainder of John's reign. Hemingburgh states that he was rewarded for his share in Arthur's murder with the hand of Isabel, heiress of the barony of Mulgres, and daughter of Robert de Turnham. Turnham's lands were granted to Mauley on 25 April 1214 (ib. p. 113). Matthew Paris mentions him as one of John's evil counsellors in 1211 (ii. 533). In 1214 he served with John in Poitou (Rot. Lit. Pat. p. 112), and in the following year was entrusted with the charge of Corfe Castle (ib. p. 128), where he had custody of much treasure and various important prisoners. On 26 June 1216 he was made sheriff of the counties of Somerset and Dorset (ib. p. 189). Mauley retained charge of both the castle and the counties during the first years of Henry III. On 7 May 1220 he was summoned to come from Corfe to the coronation, and bring with him the king's brother Richard and the regalia (Rot. Lit. Claus. i. 417 b). In February 1221 he joined with Falkes de Breauté [q.v.] in supporting William, earl of Albemarle, at Biham. He was arrested during the summer, and forced to resign his castles. This was on a charge of treason, in having promised to hand over Eleanor, sister of Arthur of Brittany, to the king of France (COVENTRY, ii. 260; Ann. Mon. iii. 75). He, however, made his peace with the king in the autumn, and next year received the charge of Sherborne Castle. Dugdale says he died in 1222, but the ‘Chronicon de Melsa’ states that he survived his wife, who died apparently after 1235 (i. 105, ii. 59), and Matthew Paris, in referring to his death in 1241, speaks of him as ‘natione Pictaviensis diuque in clientela regis Johannis educatus et ditatus’ (iv. 89; but see also Excerpta e Rot. Finium, pp. 364, 379, 409, and Calendarium Genealogicum,i. 278). It was probably he, and not his son, who supported Randulph Blundevill, earl of Chester, in 1224 (MATT. PARIS, iii. 83), was one of the sponsors for Henry's son Edward in 1239, and in 1241, going on the crusade with William de Fortibus, earl of Albemarle, died in the Holy Land during the same year. He built Mulgrave Castle, near Whitby, and was a benefactor of Meaux Abbey, where he endowed a chapel in memory of his wife. He left a son Peter, who succeeded him, and was followed by six others of the same name. Peter III (d. 1309) was summoned to parliament in 1295, and served in the wars of Edward I in Wales, Scotland, and Gascony. His brother Edmund, who was killed at Bannockburn, was steward to Edward II and a friend of Piers Gaveston (Chron. Edw. I and II, i. 215, 272-273, ii. 42, 183). Peter VIII succeeded his grandfather, Peter VI, in 1383, and died without issue, when the barony fell into abeyance. The present Lord de Mauley is of a modern creation, though he descends from the old barons in the female line. Sources:Matt. Paris; Walter of Coventry's Memoriale; Annales Monastici; Chronicon de Melsa (all in Rolls Ser.); Dugdale's Baronage, i. 733; other authorities as quoted. PUBLISHED 1894