Isabel Bigod

Isabel Bigod, Lady of Shere (c. 1212–1250) was an English noblewoman, the only daughter of Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk.^[1] She was the wife of Gilbert de Lacy, of Ewyas Lacy, and John FitzGeoffrey, Lord of Shere.

Family

Isabel was born in Thetford, Norfolk in about 1212, the only daughter of Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, a Magna Carta surety, and Maud Marshal (1192 – 27 March 1248). Her paternal grandparents were Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk and Ida de Tosny, a former mistress of King Henry II of England. Her maternal grandparents were William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke. She had four brothers including Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk and Hugh Bigod. She also had two younger half-siblings John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and Isabelle de Warenne, by her mother's second marriage to William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey. Isabel's father had died in 1225.

Marriages and issue

In 1225, the year of her father's death, Isabel married her first husband, Gilbert de Lacy, of Ewyas Lacy (c. 1202 – 25 December 1230). He was the son of Walter de Lacy, Lord of Trim Castle and Ludlow Castle, and Margaret de Braose. Gilbert and Isabel's chief residence was Ewyas Lacy in Herefordshire; however, they spent the last two years of their marriage on his father's estates in Ireland, where their youngest child, Maud was born, and Gilbert would shortly afterwards die. Together they had three children:^[2]

• Walter de Lacy (died early 1241)
• Margery de Lacy (1228, Ewyas Lacy, Herefordshire- 1256), married before 14 May 1244 John de Verdun, Lord of Westmeath by whom she had issue.
• Maud de Lacy (1230, Dublin, Ireland^[3]- 11 April 1304 Trim Castle, Ireland), married firstly Pierre de Geneve, by whom she had issue; in 1252, she married secondly Geoffrey de Geneville, 1st Baron Geneville, Seigneur de Vaucouleurs, by whom she had two sons, Geoffrey de Geneville, and Sir Piers de Geneville, father of Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville.

Gilbert died on 25 December 1230 at Trim Castle, in County Meath, Ireland leaving Isabel a widow at the age of eighteen with three small children. Sometime before 12 April 1234, Isabel married her second husband, John FitzGeoffrey, Lord of Shere, Justiciar of Ireland. The marriage produced six children:^[4][5]

• Richard FitzJohn of Shere (died 1297, married Emma
• John FitzJohn of Shere (died 1275), married Margery Basset
• Maud FitzJohn (died 16/18 April 1301), married firstly Gerald de Furnivalle, Lord of Hallamshire; she married secondly William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick, by whom she had issue.
• Aveline FitzJohn (died c. 20 May 1274), married Walter de Burgh, 1st Earl of Ulster, by whom she had issue including Richard Og de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster.
• Joan FitzJohn (died 4 April 1303), married Theobald le Botiller (1242- 1285 of Thurles, Nenagh, by whom she had issue. Joan and Theobald were the ancestors of the Butler Earls of Ormond.
• Isabel FitzJohn, married Robert de Vispont, Lord of Westmoreland by whom she had two daughters.

In early 1241, Isabel's eldest son by her first husband died. Upon the death of her former father-in-law, Walter de Lacy shortly afterwards on 24 February, the vast de Lacy estates and lordships were passed down to Margery and Maud, her daughters by Gilbert. Their marriages were personally arranged by King Henry III to ensure that the estates they inherited were retained in the hands of trusted servants of the Crown.^[6]

Isabel Bigod died in 1250. She was about thirty-eight years old. Her second husband John died eight years later.

References

• The Complete Peerage
• Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Earls of Norfolk 1142- 1306 (Bigod)
• Cawley, Medieval Lands, Lords of Meath
• Cawley, Medieval Lands, Earls of Essex 1199-1227 (Mandeville)