Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 12, Part 2: Vescy

VESCY

See also "proposed" section

Volume 12, part 2, page 274:
His widow [i.e. the widow of Eustace FitzJohn (d. 1157)] m. Robert FITZCOUNT, apparently an illegit. s. of an Earl of Chester. He became Constable of Chester jure uxoris and d. in or before 1166.
Note d:
By his 2nd wife he had a s. Richard FitzEustace, who d. (probably) v.p., leaving a s. John, who succeeded Richard's stepfather as Constable of Chester (Hatton's Book of Seals, no. 515, note).

The death of Richard FitzEustace in his father's lifetime is suggested by a charter of Richard's elder half-brother, William de Vescy, dated while Eustace was living, but making provision for the souls of the grantor's mother and his brothers Richard and Geoffrey [W. Farrer, Early Yorkshire Charters, vol. 2, no 1110].

[The charter evidence was provided by Rosie Bevan in July 2003. This problem was also discussed by Phil Moody.
Item last updated: 18 July 2003.]

Volume 12, part 2, page 283:
He [John de Vescy (d. 1295)] m., shortly before 27 Aug. 1290, Clemence, kinswoman of the Queen.

J. C. Parsons [The Court and Household of Eleanor of Castile in 1290 (Toronto, 1977), pp. 46-48] identified Clemence as a daughter of Henry, Count of Avaugour in Brittany, by his wife Mary de Beaumont, a kinswoman of the queen. The marriage took place at Westminster on 16 July 1290 [ibid., p. 48, citing P.R.O. C 47/4/4, f. 43b]; they seem to have been betrothed by February 1289/90, and perhaps in the previous year.

The basis of the identification is that Clemence is one of a group of four "damsels" of the chamber who appear frequently throughout Queen Eleanor's wardrobe account book for 1289-90 and in one entry are described as kinswomen of the queen. Clemence appears before her marriage as "de Vagor" and after it as "de Vescy", and is elsewhere identified as the niece (neptis) of Lady de Vescy (who was Isabel, daughter of Louis de Brienne, Vicomte de Beaumont in right of his wife [Complete Peerage, vol. 12, part 2, p. 280]). He also notes that she is known to have lived in later years in Brittany [Complete Peerage, vol. 12, part 2, p. 284]. This establishes that she was a daughter of Isabel's sister Mary de Beaumont, by her husband Henry, Count of Avaugour in Brittany; Louis, the father of Isabel and Mary, was a first cousin of Queen Eleanor.

[Item last updated 13 July 2004.]