ESSEX, Henry de^[1]

1089 - 1163  (74 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	ESSEX, Henry de
  Birth	1089	Essex, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	1163	Raleigh, Essex, England
  WAC	24 Sep 1936
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I32644	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	SWEIN, Robert ,   b. 1068, Essex, England Essex, Englandd. Bef 1159, Ongar, Essex, England (Age < 90 years)
  Mother	BIGOD, Gunnora ,   b. Abt 1083, Belvoir, Leicestershire, England Belvoir, Leicestershire, Englandd. Bef 1137, Rayleigh, Essex, England (Age < 53 years)
  Marriage	1088
  Family ID	F18556	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	VERE, Adeliza de ,   b. 1093, , Essex, Norfolk, England Essex, Norfolk, Englandd. DECEASED
  Marriage	1120	England   [2]
  Family ID	F18526	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

  Family 2	VALOGNES, Cecely de ,   b. 1095, North Weald Basset, Epping, Essex, England North Weald Basset, Epping, Essex, Englandd. 1185, Rochford, Essex, England (Age 90 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1123	Northampton, Northamptonshire, England
  Children	+ 1. ESSEX, Countess Lucia ,   b. 1140, Essex, Norfolk, England Essex, Norfolk, Englandd. 1212, Chelmsford, Essex, England (Age 72 years)
  Family ID	F18563	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Notes

  Henry of Essex or Henry de Essex (died c. 1170) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who held the honours of Rayleigh (by inheritance) and Haughley (by right of his second wife, Alice de Montfort). He was also one of the royal constables during the reigns of Kings Stephen and Henry II. That office included the duty of bearing the royal standard to indicate the location of the king when on campaign or in battle. Life Henry was the son and heir of Robert fitz Swein of Essex, a pre-conquest English landowner who was favoured by King Edward the Confessor. William the Conqueror allowed Robert to build Rayleigh Castle some time after 1066. He was a grandson of Swein, son of Robert fitz Wimarch, a kinsman of Kings Edward and William. Henry is mentioned in several chronicles, including that of Jocelin of Brakelond. His influence at the royal court was greatest during the reign of Stephen, but it continued into the early years of Henry II's. He served Henry as Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire from 1156 to 1159 and as a justiciar, as well as being his constable. Henry participated in the king's Toulouse campaign in the spring and summer of 1159. After he dropped the royal standard in a Welsh ambush during Henry II's campaign into Wales of 1157, however, his political importance waned. As royal constable, his office required that he hold the standard to indicate the king's position during any military engagement. Dropping the standard seemed to signal the king's death. At the royal court held at Easter, 1163, Henry was accused of treason for that act by a claimant to the Montfort estate of Haughley. The two men fought a judicial duel a few months later. Jocelin details Henry's judicial duel with Robert de Montfort (a rival for Henry's wife's inheritance) on Fry's Island in the River Thames at Reading. Henry's body was carried senseless from the site of the duel by monks of the nearby Reading Abbey, but he survived and took the Benedictine cowl. As he was a convicted traitor, however, his estates and offices were forfeit, and his family was disgraced. Henry was allowed to remain as a monk at Reading Abbey, where he remained for the rest of his life. Henry of Essex is thought to have died at Reading Abbey in the same year that Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered, 1170. Family Henry married firstly a woman named Cecily, by whom he seems to have had two sons, Henry and Hugh.[5] Henry's second wife Alice de Montfort (probably daughter of Hugh de Montfort of Haughley Castle) bore him at least one daughter, Agnes, who married Aubrey de Vere, first Earl of Oxford, as his third wife. Henry's arms were blazoned Argent, an Orle Gules.

  
  

• Sources

  [S72] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM), (June 1998 (c), data as of 5 JAN 1998). [S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index. Henry De ESSEX; Male; Spouse: Adeliza De VERE; Marriage: 1120 , Essex, England; No source information is available. Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church. Search performed using PAF Insight on 27 Nov 2004