Home > Family History > Elizabeth de Clare

• Name: Elizabeth de Clare
• Born: September 16, 1295 Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England
• Father: Gilbert de Clare II
• Mother: Joan of Acre
• Married:
• Spouse: Roger D'Amory
• Children:
• Elizabeth D'Amory
• Died: November 4, 1360 Ware, Hertfordshire, England
• Buried: Church of Holy Trinity, Minories, London, England

Elizabeth de Clare was descended from a powerful Marcher Lord family, the de Clares, and the Plantagenets that ruled England at this time. Her brother died without an heir which contributed to her personal estate. She married three times and had one child in each marriage. Each husband died and she did not remarry after the third one who died in 1322. She outlived her only son William who died in 1333. She was briefly imprisoned in Barking Abbey in London during the rebellion of the Marcher Lords known as the Despenser War but she was then freed. She evaded the Black Death, which swept through Britain in 1348-1350, by staying in Usk Castle in Wales. Through this series of inheritances and marriages she emerged as one of the wealthiest and most influential women in England if not in all of Europe. She maintained an enormous household with elaborate feasts, she even had her own private goldsmith, and founded Clare College at Cambridge University. She died in 1360 as an extremely wealthy individual and had an elaborate funeral costing £200 with extensive bequests in her will.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_de_Clare