FEUDAL BARONAGE 



Theobald III., his son and heir. 1 This wife lived but a few years, for in 

 1225 he married, through the instrumentality of his royal patron, Roesia, 

 daughter and ultimately sole heiress of Nicholas de Verdon. 2 In the autumn 

 of 1 2 29 he crossed with the king to Brittany, 3 continuing abroad at least seven 

 months engaged in the Gascon campaign, in which almost all the Lancashire 

 barons, and indeed the strength of the nation, took part.* From this expedi- 

 tion he apparently did not return, for he was dead on 1 9 July, 5 and his lands 

 in this county and in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Ireland, as well as those of his 

 first wife's inheritance in the hundred of Norton, co. Somerset, together with 

 the heir and his marriage, were committed to the charge of Richard, earl of 

 Cornwall. 8 His widow Roesia survived him, and upon the death of her 

 father, Nicholas de Verdon, about a year after her husband's death, inherited 

 a great estate, giving 700 marks for her relief and that she might not be 

 constrained to marry. 7 By Theobald Butler she had with other issue a son, 

 John de Verdon, who gave 1,300 marks in 1247, after his mother's death, for 

 livery of his inheritance. 8 From him descended the Lords Verdon, who in 

 1857 were represented by the Lords Stourton and Petre, the Baroness le 

 Despencer, and the duke of Buckingham and Chandos. 9 The direct heir of 

 Theobald II. was Theobald III., who was under age at his father's death, 

 still under age in 1236, when he held half a knight's fee in Weeton and 

 RawclifFe, of ancient feoffment, 10 and in 1243, wnen the 'heir of Theobald 

 Walter ' was returned as holding one-third part of a knight's fee in Weeton 

 and Treales. 11 In 1 247 he held four knights' fees in Gowran, co. Kilkenny, 

 of the earl of Gloucester. 12 He is said to have married Margery, eldest 

 daughter of Richard de Burgh, feudal lord of Connaught and Lord Deputy of 

 Ireland. Theobald did not long enjoy his inheritance, for he died before 

 5 November, 1248, and was buried in the conventual church of the Friars 

 Preachers at Arklow. 18 The year following, his Irish estates, together with 

 those of Richard de Burgh, were committed to the custody of Peter de 

 Birmingham. 14 He also held in addition to his estate in this county the vill 

 of Shepley, co. York, and the manor of Belaugh, co. Norfolk. Theobald IV., 

 his son and heir, was aged about six years at his father's death. 16 In 1250 the 

 issues of the land and the marriage of the heir were given to Peter of Savoy, 16 

 but the following year John fitz Geoffrey, justiciary of Ireland, gave 

 3,000 marks for the custody of the same. 17 



Theobald IV. attained his majority about 1265. The same year he was 

 one of the Irish nobles who aided Prince Edward against the Mortimers in 



1 Geoffrey, reporting to the king in 1226 that Theobald was ill-affected and counselling his removal from 

 the castle of Roscray, mentions that Theobald had married his daughter and had issue by her. Royal Letters 

 Hen. III. (Rolls Ser.), i. 293. 



8 Close R. (Rec. Com.), ii. 60, 6ob. s Close R. 1227-31, 256. 



4 Ibid. 413 ; Pat. R. 1225-32, 360. 6 ibid. 421-3. 



Close R. 1227-31, 370; Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i. 200; Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), i6ib. 



7 Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i. 217-8 : cf. Dugdale, Baronage, i. 472. 



8 Excerpta e Rot. Fin. ii. 1 1. Cokayne, Camp. Peerage, viii. 24-5. 



10 Testa Je Nevill (^c. Com.), 411 ; Lanes. Inq. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 145. 



11 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 397*. 



" Cat. Pat. R. 1272-81, 353. He is said to have been lord justice of Ireland in 1247 with John de Cogan 

 (Haydn, Bk. of Dignities, ed. 1851, 438), but this appears very unlikely, and is probably an error founded on 

 the fact that Edmund Butler acted in 1312 as deputy of John Wogan. See p. 357 below. 



" Cokayne, Comp. Peerage, ii. 95. 1* Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), ii. 44. 



' Cal. Inq. p. m. i. 37 ; Inq. p. m., Yorks. Rec. Soc. xii. 1 8. 



M JUnv. R. Original. (Rec. Com.), i. 1 2. 17 Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), ii. 96. 



355 



