Humphrey de Bohun should have been given command of the army because that was his responsibility as Constable of England. However, since the execution of Piers Gaveston in 1312 Humphrey had been out of favour with Edward II, who gave the Constableship for the 1314 campaign to the youthful and inexperienced Earl of Gloucester, Gilbert de Clare. Nevertheless, on the first day, de Bohun insisted on being one of the first to lead the cavalry charge. In the melee and cavalry rout between the Bannock Burn and the Scots' camp he was not injured although his cousin (some say nephew) Henry de Bohun(?)*, who could have been no older than about 22, charged alone at Robert Bruce and was killed by the Bruce's axe, an action that would become legendary and incisive to Scots moral and the battles outcome.
* As to the knight being identified as Henry de Bohun, it appears the first instance of this is in John Barbour?s The Brus. Barbour himself was born a year or two after Bannockburn, and wrote the epic poem at age 60, in 1375, for which he received a life pension. In addition, the poem recounting the incident where the Bruce split the helm of the attacking knight, the text has often been translated as the nephew of Humphrey de Bohun:
25 And quhen Glosyster and Herfurd wer
With thar bataill approchand ner
Befor thaim all thar come ridand
With helm on heid and sper in hand
Schyr Henry the Boune the worthi,
30 That was a wycht knycht and a hardy
And to the erle off Herfurd cusyne,
genforum.genealogy.com/plantagenet |
| Notes |
- This individual has the following other parents in the Ancestral File:
Humphrey /de Bohun/ (AFN:HK72-SS) and Maud /de FIENNES/ (AFN:HK72-T0)
!Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages of America (973 D2ah) Vol. 2 Earl of Hereford and Essex.
Also called Humphrey de Bohun Hereford VIII
GEN: Also 4th Earl of Essex; and Lord High Constable.
GEN: !Ancestral Roots 6th Ed 1988 By Weis 97:31
- Bohun, Humphrey VIII de, fourth Earl of Hereford, and third Earl of Essex 1276-1322
Name: Bohun, Humphrey VIII de
Title: fourth Earl of Hereford, and third Earl of Essex
Dates: 1276-1322
Active Date: 1316
Gender: Male
Field of Interest: Law
Occupation: Constable of England
Place of
Death: Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire
Burial: Church of the Friars Preachers of York
Spouse: Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I, and widow of John, Earl of Holland
Sources: Chronicles of Thomas Walsingham and Walt. Hemingburgh;...
Contributor: E. M. T. (Edward Maunde Thompson)
Article
Bohun, Humphrey VIII de, fourth Earl of Hereford, and third Earl of Essex 1276-1322, constable of England, was son of Humphrey VII, third Earl of Hereford. He was born in 1276. In 1301 he appears among the Barons who addressed the letter of protest to the Pope from the parliament of Lincoln. In 1302 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I, and widow of John, Earl of Holland, and on the occasion made surrender to the crown of all his lands and title, receiving them back in tail. In a great tournament held at Fulham in 1305 he took a leading part, and again in 1307 he was present at another passage of arms at Wallingford, held against the king's favourite, Piers Gaveston. In 1308 he was sent north, in company with the Earl of Gloucester, to oppose Robert Bruce. The next year he joined with other Barons in a letter of remonstrance addressed to the pope. In 1310 Humphrey de Bohun was one of the twenty-one ordainers appointed on 20 March to reform the government and the king's household. The ordinances which they presented were finally accepted in October 1311; but three months later, January 1312, the King recalled his banished favourite, Gaveston. Immediately Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and the confederate Barons, including Hereford, took up arms and besieged Gaveston in Scarborough. On 19 May Gaveston surrendered, and was shortly afterwards beheaded by Lancaster's party at Blacklow Hill. Edward was powerless to punish the rebellious lords; negotiations for a peace were opened, and in October 1313 the earls and their followers were pardoned. In 1314 the war with Scotland was renewed, and the battle of Bannockburn was fought on 24 June. Here Gloucester was slain and Hereford taken prisoner. He was exchanged for the wife of Robert Bruce, who had long been a captive in England.
The jealousy of the Barons was now moved by the growing power of the two Despensers, father and son. At a parliament held at York, September 1314, Edward was called upon to confirm the ordinances of 1311, and the elder Despenser was removed from the council. In 1315 Hereford was engaged upon the Welsh border, and was successful in quelling a rising. The factions which now sprang up among the Barons threatened to bring about a state of civil war, when the movements of Robert Bruce, who had advanced south and captured Berwick, 2 April 1318, compelled the different parties to submit to a reconciliation. A general pardon was granted to Lancaster and his followers, and a new council was appointed August 1318. of this council Hereford was a member, and he also took part in the military operations against Scotland, which, however, were hampered by Lancaster's perverse refusal to assist. A truce was concluded in 1319.
The feeling against the Despensers now broke out in open revolt. Bohun and Roger Mortimer, the principal lords on the Welsh border, prepared to attack Hugh le Despenser the younger, who held Glamorgan, in the autumn of 1320. Early in the next year the King issued writs forbidding unlawful assemblies; and a parliament was summoned to meet at Westminster on 15 July 1321. Bohun appeared in London at the head of an armed force, and took the lead in denouncing the favourites, who were sentenced to forfeiture and exile. But in October the King appeared in the field, and with unwonted vigour attacked his enemies in detail. They were driven north, and at the battle of Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, 16 March 1322, they were totally defeated. Hereford was among the slain, and was buried in the Church of the Friars Preachers of York.
By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I, Humphrey de Bohun had six sons and four daughters. He was succeeded by his second son, John, who, dying in 1335, was followed by his brother, Humphrey IX, as sixth earl. In 1361 Humphrey X, earl of Northampton, succeeded, being the son of William de Bohun, another son of the fourth Earl of Hereford. With Humphrey X the title became extinct in 1372, but was revived as a dukedom in 1397, in the person of Henry Bolingbroke, who married Mary, daughter and coheir of the last earl.
Sources
Chronicles of Thomas Walsingham and Walt. Hemingburgh; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 183; Stubbs's Constitutional History.
Contributor: E. M. T.
published 1885
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Abt 1276 - 1322 (~ 46 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
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: Not Set
