Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford
Anglo-Norman nobleman and Welsh baron
Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford (c. 1153–1217), feudal baron of Clare in Suffolk, and lord of Tonbridge in Kent and of Cardigan in Wales, was a powerful Anglo-Norman nobleman with vast landholdings in England and Wales.
Career
Richard was the son and heir of Roger de Clare, 2nd Earl of Hertford, 5th feudal baron of Clare, by his wife Maud de St Hillary, a daughter of James de St Hillary. More commonly known as the Earl of Clare, he had the majority of the Giffard estates from his ancestor, Rohese. He was present at the coronations of King Richard I at Westminster, 3 September 1189, and King John on 27 May 1199. He was also present at the homage of King William of Scotland as English Earl of Huntingdon at Lincoln.
Magna Carta
He sided with the Barons against King John, even though he had previously sworn peace with the King at Northampton, and his castle of Tonbridge was taken. He played a leading part in the negotiations for Magna Carta, being one of the twenty five sureties. On 9 November 1215, he was one of the commissioners on the part of the Barons to negotiate the peace with the King. In 1215, his lands in counties Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex were granted to Robert de Betun. He and his son were among the Barons excommunicated by the Pope in 1215.
“Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford” enters the record as anglo-Norman nobleman and Welsh baron. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Richard, Clare and Earl can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2151007. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1153, 1217, 1189 and 1199.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.