Margaret de Clare (*12 October 1293, † 9 April 1342) was a niece of the English King Edward II. At his request, she married Piers Gaveston on 7 November 1307. This marriage meant a great social advancement for Gaveston. On 6 January 1312 a daughter was born to them, who died in 1323. The circumstances of the Clare family play a significant role in understanding the reign of
Edward II. Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, 6th Earl of Hertford, (* 2 September 1243, † 7 December 1295) was a powerful magnate whom Edward I tried to bind closer to him by marrying him to his daughter Joan of Acre (* 1272, † 23 April 1307). Four children were born of this marriage. Gilbert de Clare died childless at the Battle of Bannockburn.
After the King and the Earl of Lancaster, he had been the richest nobleman in the country. His property was to be divided equally among his three sisters or their husbands. Eleanor de Clare (* 3 October 1292, † 30 June 1337) took Hugh Despenser as her husband in 1306 at Edward I’s request.
He was the firstborn of Hugh Despenser, Earl of Winchester, to whom the King was in debt. He settled the debt by providing his creditor’s son with a prestigious marriage including a high dowry. Margaret de Clare was married to Hugh de Audley, another favourite of Edward II, after Gaveston’s death in 1317.
Elizabeth de Clare (* 16 September 1295, † 4 November 1360) married John de Burgh, son of the Earl of Ulster, in 1308. Her second marriage to Theobald de Verdun ended with his death in 1316. The following year Edward II married her to his favourite Roger d’Amory, who died in 1322.
Edward II
In [Scene 5] she rejoices at the return to court of Gaveston, with whom she maintains a tender correspondence, to where she is also summoned by a letter from Edward II. It is interesting to note that (only) in the drama both Hugh Despenser and Robert Baldock are in service to the de Clare family. This is made clear again in the following scene, when Margaret de Clare introduces them to the king as her father’s servants.
