Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester
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Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester (d. November 3, 1219) was one of the leaders of the baronial rebellion against king John of England.
His name is variously spelled. The first name is sometimes rendered Saher or Seer, and the last name Quency or Quenci.
His background is a little uncertain. He was probably the son of Robert FitzRichard and nephew of another Saer de Quincy, who was lord of Buckby in Northamptonshire.
Sometime between 1168 and 1173 de Quincy married Margaret, youngest daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester.
Quincy was one of the barons who took part in the rebellion of Henry the Young King in 1184. Like most of the rebels, he eventually received his lands back after the rebellion failed. He subsequently served as castellan at various castles in the English royal possessions in France. Most notably, in 1203 he was castellan at Vandreuil in Normandy, and surrendered it to the French.
In 1204 de Quincy's brother-in-law Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester died, leaving de Quincy's wife as co-heiress along with her elder sister. The estate was split in half, and after the final division was ratified in 1207 de Quincy was made earl of Winchester.
Quincy never got along with king John, and was one of the 25 guarenteors of the Magna Carta. He fought against John in the troubles that followed the signing of the Charter, and against Henry III as well.
After the failure of the early attempts to depose Henry III, de Quincy decided to fulfill a vow he had made to go on crusade. In 1219 he left to join the Fifth Crusade, then besieging Damietta. There he fell sick and died.
By his wife Margaret de Beaumont he had three sons and a daughter:
- Robert (d. 1217). Some sources say he married Hawise, sister and co-heiress of Ranulf de Blundeville, earl of Chester. However, it is more likely Hawise married Saer's brother Robert;
- Roger, who succeeded his father as earl of Winchester (though he did not take formal possession of the earldom until after his mother's death);
- another Robert (d. 1257) who married Helen, daughter of the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great;
- Hawise, who married Hugh de Vere, 4th Earl of Oxford.
| Preceded by: New Creation | Earl of Winchester | Succeeded by: Roger de Quincy |
References
- Sidney Painter, "The House of Quency, 1136-1264", Medievalia et Humanistica, 11 (1957) 3-9; reprinted in his book Feudalism and Liberty