Eustace de Vescy

• General Notes
  • # Note:
    
        EUSTACE DE VESCY, 1st son and heir, was born 1169-71. He attended Richard's 2nd Coronation at Winchester, 17 April 1194, and was with him at Chinon, in France, 12 December following. In 1199 he was one of the guarantors of the treaty between John and Reinald, Count of Boulogne, sealed at La Roche d'Andely, 18 August, and in the same year, probably later, he was sent to William the Lion of Scotland to promise him satisfaction of his rights in England and to secure his fidelity to John. On 22 November 1200 he was one of the witnesses of William's homage at Lincoln. In April 1209 he was deputed, with others, to meet William the Lion on his visit to King John, and in the following year he was with the King in Ireland. In 1212, being one of the first of the barons to incur John's suspicions of his fidelity, he fled to Scotland and was outlawed, his property being seized. After John's submission to the Pope he had to invite Eustace back, 27 May 1213, although on the same day orders were sent to Philip de Ulecot to destroy his castle at Alnwick. On 18 July following he and others received John's pledge to abide by the Pope's decision concerning his excommunication. Eustace's lands were restored on the next day and the warrant for slighting Alnwick Castle was revoked. In November 1214 he was warned by the Pope not to trouble the King by reason of John's previous disputes with the barons; and in the following spring he was pleading the barons' cause at the papal court. He was among the leaders of the barons who wrung the charter from John, 15 June 1215, and was one of those appointed to see its provisions carried out. On 16 December 1215 he and other magnates were excommunicated by the Pope.
    
    # Note:
    
        He married, in 1193, at Roxburgh, Margaret, illegitimate daughter of WILLIAM THE LION, KING OF SCOTLAND, by (----), daughter of Adam DE HYTHUS. While marching from the north to do homage to Louis of France at Dover, he was killed at Barnard Castle, August 1216 (h). His widow was living, 13 November 1218, and probably in 1226. [Complete Peerage XII/2:275-6, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
    
    # Note:
    
        (h) Louis of France landed at Thanet, 21 May 1216, at the invitation of the baronial party. In marching to meet him, Alexander II of Scotland and his brother-in-law, Eustace de Vescy, "virum nobilem et potentum", laid siege to Barnard Castle, which was held by Hugh de Balliol for the King. During an assault on the castle Eustace was shot through the head by an arrow and killed.
    
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        Eustace de Vesci, who attaining majority in the 2nd Richard I [1191], gave 2,300 marks for the livery of his lands, with liberty to marry whom he pleased. In the 14th King John [1213], when the first commotion arose amongst the barons, the king, hastening to London, summoned all the suspected lords thither and forced each to give hostages for his peaceable demeanor. But this Eustace, one of the most suspected, refused to attend the summons and fled into Scotland, whereupon all his possessions in England were seized upon by the crown and a special command issued to demolish his castle at Alnwick. But a reconciliation between the kind and his turbulent nobles soon afterwards taking place through the influence of the legate Pandulph, Eustace had restitution of his estates. But this was a deceitful calm -- the winds were only stilled to rage with greater violence -- the baronial conflict ere long burst forth more furiously and was only allayed by those concessions on the part of the crown, which have immortalized the plains of Runnymede. The cause of this celebrated quarrel, in which, by the way the people had little or no immediate interest, was doubtless of long standing and was based on  the encroachment of the Sovereign on the privileges of the nobility, but the spark that ignited the flame was personal injury; an affront inflicted by King John on this Eustace de Vesci. "Hearing," writes Sir William Dugdale, "that Eustace de Vesci had a very beautiful wife, but far distant from the court, and studying how to accomplish his licentious desires toward her, sitting at table with her husband and seeing a ring on his finger, he laid hold on it and told him that he had another such stone, which he resolved to set in gold in that very form. And having thus got the ring, presently sent it to her in her husband's name, by that token conjuring her, if ever she expected to see him alive, to come speedily to him.  She, therefore, upon sight of the ring, gave credit to the messenger and came with all expedition. But it so happened that her husband casually riding out met her on the road, and marvelling much to see her there, asked what the matter was, and when he understood how they were both deluded, resolved to find a common woman and put her in apparel to personate his lady." The king afterwards boasting to the injured husband of the favours he had received, Eustace had the pleasure of undeceiving him, "whereat the king grew so enraged that he threatened to kill him; Eustace, therefore, apprehending danger, hastened into the north, divers of the nobles whose wives they king had vitiated accompanying him. And being grown strong by the confluence of their friends and others, seized his castles, the Londoners adhering to them." When John was subsequently brought to submission, Eustace de Vesci was one of the twenty-five Barons appointed to enforce the observance  of Magna Carta, but he was slain soon after, about 1216, by an arrow from the ramparts of Barnard Castle (belonging to Hugh de Baliol), which he had commenced besieging, or was about to attack. He had m. Margaret, natural dau. of William, King of Scotland, and was s. by his son, William de Vesci. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 555, Vesci, Barons Vesci]
    
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        Eustace de Vesci, one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Carta, elder brother of Warine de Vesci (father of Margerie who m. Gilbert de Aton), succeeded his father, William de Vesci; m. Margaret, dau. of  William and sister of Alexander, kings of Scotland; and, dying about 1216, was s. by his son, William de Vesci. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 15, Aton, Barons de Aton]
    
    Title: Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, by G. E Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 2000
    Page: XII/2:275-276

Click here for details of Eustace's family with Margaret of Scotland

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