Bells Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury | Page 4

part of the church, as it now stands, is usually assigned to
about 1123, and substantially is as strong now as it was then.

In the following year, 1124, Abbot Robert died, and soon afterwards
Theulf, the old Bishop of Worcester, also passed away.
Of Fitz-Hamon's four daughters two became abbesses, another was
married to the Earl of Brittany, and Mabel was given to Robert, one of
the many illegitimate sons of Henry I. She seems to have been a
business-like lady, and to have hesitated at the proposed union with a
nameless lord, unless a title could be made to go with him. As Robert
of Gloucester writes:
"The Kyng understood that the mayde seyde non outrage And that
Gloucestre was chief of hyre eritage. 'Damozel,' he seyde, 'thy lord
shall have a name For hym and for hys eyrs, fayr wyth out blame, For
Robert of Gloucestre hys name shall be and is: For he shall be Erl of
Gloucestre and his eyres, I wis.'"
This Robert Fitzroy, thus made the first Earl of Gloucester, was a great
benefactor to the Abbey. To him are due the completion of the church
and the greater part of the tower. According to Leland, the stone was
brought over from Caen, but some seems to have been local stone from
Prestbury and Cheltenham. He was as prominent in the arts of peace as
he was afterwards in those of war, inheriting his taste for the former
from his scholarly father. It is to him that the chronicler William of
Malmesbury dedicated his work.
Robert Fitzroy died in Gloucester in 1147, but was buried at St. James'
Priory, Bristol, another foundation which was indebted to his
munificence. His successor was William Fitzcount, the second Earl of
Gloucester.
In 1178 the monastery was partly burnt down, the church fortunately
suffering but little. There are some slight traces of fire on the exterior
walls of the south and west faces of the tower, and on the interior of the
south transept. The Annals of Winton say, "Combusta est et redacta in
pulverem Ecclesia de Theokesberia"--an untenable hypothesis; but the
Tewkesbury Chronicles merely mention that the monastery and the
offices were destroyed. John, Earl of Cornwall, better known as King
John, was entertained in the monastery soon afterwards, so that the

damage cannot have been quite so overwhelming as the Winchester
Chronicles allege it to have been. The fire might have been much more
serious than it was, and it seems that only the fact of the wind being
north-east saved the church. Judging by the marks of calcination on the
outside of the tower, and the chief arch of the south transept, the roof
must have been seriously damaged, and the roof of the cloister walk
abutting on to the south aisle must have been completely burned. In all
probability the group of roofing next to the south transept was
destroyed.
William Fitzcount, dying in 1183, after a long and successful life, was
buried at Keynsham, a magnificent abbey built by him in memory of a
son who died young. Earl William's other children were girls, and the
lordship of Gloucester was vested in Henry II. for some years. In 1189
the Abbey lands were granted by Richard I. to his brother John (who
was afterwards king, 1199 to 1215), the first husband of Isabella, third
daughter of William Fitzcount. Being divorced from John after his
accession in 1199, she married Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex,
who paid 20,000 marks for the honour of Gloucester and the
possessions of the Lady Isabel.
The earldom of Gloucester finally passed in 1221 to Amice--sister of
the Lady Isabella--great granddaughter of Fitz-Hamon the founder, who
had married Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford. This Richard de Clare
was the ancestor of the Tewkesbury De Clares, a family which held the
honour of Tewkesbury for nearly a century.
His son, Gilbert de Clare, married Isabelle de Marechal. His name, as
also that of his father, is among the signatories of Magna Charta, and
he was a strenuous supporter of the barons against the King. Though he
died in Brittany, his body was brought home and buried in Tewkesbury,
at the foot of the steps leading up to the high altar. In a few months'
time his widow, Isabelle, married Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of
King Henry III. At her death she wished to be buried next to Gilbert de
Clare, but as her husband objected to this, she bequeathed her heart to
the Abbey, and this was duly interred in Gilbert de Clare's grave. As
the Register quaintly says in its rhyming hexameters--

"Postrema voce legavit cor comitissa Pars melior toto fuit huc pro
corpore missa Hæc se divisit dominum recolendo priorem Huc cor
quod misit verum testatur amorem