Notizen zu dieser Person
SAIRE de QUINCEY, the Surety, born before 1154, was a Baron pres ent at Lincoln when William the Lion of Scotland did homage to t he English monarch in Oct 1200. He obtained large grants an d immunities from King John and was created Earl of Winchester , 2 Mar 1207, having been governor in 1203 of the Castle of Ru il in Normandy. He is created with rewriting Magna Charta from t he Charter of King Henry I and the Saxon Code. Because he had op posed the KingÕs concession to the PopeÕs legate, he was bitterl y hated by King John. One of the Barons to whom the City and Tow er of London were resigned, Saire de Quincey was excommunicate d with the other Barons the following year. He was sent, with Ro bert FitzWalter, the Surety, by the other Barons, to invite th e Dauphin of France to assume the Crown of England and, even aft er the death of King John, he kept a strong garrison in Montsore ll Castle in behalf of Prince Louis. When the Barons, being grea tly outnumbered, were defeated by the troops of King Henry III , Saire de Quincey, with many others, was made prisoner and hi s estates forfeited. In the following Oct his immense estate s were restored upon his submission. In 1218 the Earl of Winches ter went with the Earls of Chester and Arundel to the Holy Land , assisted at the siege of Damietta in 1219, and died 3 Novembe r in the same year, on the way to Jerusalem. His wife was Margar et Beaumont, whom he married before 1173. At the beginning of JohnÕs reign, Saire de Quincey was not a Bar on, much less a great one. In the civil war the King had had th e advantage over the rebels. Few of the Barons had had much actu al military experience. The BaronsÕ contribution to the war wa s the scutage they paid, a war fund substituted for the continge nt of knights owed to the KingÕs service. The money was collecte d from vassals, and mercenary knights were paid from it. Many o f the mercenaries were regulars who served the same Baron from c ampaign to campaign, but those Barons who are known to have ha d extensive military experience were only Saire de Quincey, Robe rt FitzWalter, William de Mowbray, William dÕAlbini, Roger de Cr essi and Robert de Roos. Saire de Quincey is associated with two stalwart Castles in th e South of England: Colchester and Winchester, both with the Lat in castrum root, signifying that they were once the site of Roma n forts. Colchester Castle could not have been built before the early 12t h Century, though Roman materials may have been re-used in its c onstruction. The keep, the only portion now surviving, is in com plete harmony with other Norman castles. Colchester must have be en a formidable stronghold, and a challenge to Saire de Quincey . The King's men held the Castle against Quincey, the first Ear l to attack Colchester. John had given the fortress into the cha rge of a Fleming whom he thought he could trust. But Quincey too k the Castle, and later found holding it more difficult. The fig hting was of such a nature that John himself came to Colcheste r to see just how stubborn Saire de Quincey was. The Earl held t he Castle for two months, but lack of food forced him to give u p and take flight to France. Colchester was the largest Norman keep in England. It measures o ne hundred fifty-two by one hundred seventeen feet, enclosing ne arly twice the area of the Tower of London. Its walls vary betwe en eleven and thirty feet in thickness. It was erected either b y William the Conqueror or by William II. It is of the quadrangu lar variety, turreted at the corners. In it and elsewhere herrin gbone masonry has been noted. Winchester Castle was first erected by William the Conqueror. La ter alterations and extra height were added by Henry III, abou t the year 1138. The great Hall has Purbeck columns of 13th Cent ury architecture, supporting a restored roof and containing hand some windows of the same approximate period. Only the keep remai ns. "How commonplace this saying, 'Only the keep still stands, ' . . . thanks to the old builders who made the keep strong an d high to withstand time, and so difficult to tear down that i t escaped the looters of the ages." Perhaps Murphy was thinkin g of Colchester or Winchester when he thus wrote, for this was t he fate of the Quincey strongholds. Appreciation is expressed to Reed M. W. Wurts, one of the Herald s of the Society for furnishing the BaronÕs Shield on this page.
Michael
Grimes
