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with Fitz Hamon’s heiress, and his son William. Gilbert de 
Clare, Earl of Hertford wed this William’s second daughter and 
eventual heiress, and was created Earl of Gloucester. Gilbert de 
Clare, the third Earl of this line, was slain at Bannockburn, and 
the estates passed by his eldest daughter into the influential family 
of the Le Despencers, with whom they remained until 1411. 
Hugh Le Despencer’s heiress carried the estates into the wealthy 
family of Beauchamp, first marrying Richard Beauchamp, Lord 
Abergavenny and Earl of Worcester, and then his cousin-german 
the fifth Earl of Warwick of that line. She was an immense 
benefactress to the Abbey and died 1439. The son was a 
prodigious favourite of King Henry VI., who crowned him at the 
_ age of 19—King of the Isle of Wight, and declared him Duke of 
Warwick, and premier Earl of England. 
His sister and heiress married Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, 
afterwards Earl of Warwick, the King-Maker, slain at Barnet, 
1471. Edward IV. reluctantly allowed the inheritance to be 
divided between his two daughters, in 1473. Isabel, the eldest, 
got Tewkesbury among her share, and married the unfortunate 
‘Duke of Clarence, who chose to die by immersion in a butt of 
malmsey, while their only child, Edward Plantagenet, was after- 
wards removed in the Tower of London for attempting to escape, 
Henry VII. knowing well that he was the sole surviving heir 
male of the house of York. 
Nearly all these historical characters are buried in this Abbey, 
besides several Abbots, and it is claimed the remains of the young 
Edward Prince of Wales, slain May 4, 1471, were collected and 
laid to rest in the Chancel. 
The groining of this noble Church is exceedingly handsome, 
with numerous carved bosses. It is the gift of the Le Despencers, 
in the 15th century, together with the Clerestory of Chancel and 
all its chantries. 
The exterior of the Abbey has two notable features, a central 
Norman tower, with three tiers of elegant interlaced arcades, and 
