Mary de Monthermer

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BornOctober 1297 (1297-10)
Died1371
Mary de Monthermer
Countess of Fife
BornOctober 1297 (1297-10)
Died1371
SpouseDuncan IV, Earl of Fife
IssueIsabella, Countess of Fife
FatherRalph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer
MotherJoan of Acre

Mary MacDuff, Countess of Fife (née de Monthermer; October 1297 – c.1371) was an English noblewoman. She was a daughter of Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer and his wife Princess Joan, thereby making her the grandchild of King Edward I of England. Other sources have her being born in 1298.[1]

Mary's mother Joan was a daughter of Edward I of England. In early 1297, her mother faced the intense disapproval of King Edward when she decided to secretly marry Ralph de Monthermer, a squire in her household.[2][3] For her second marriage, the King had hoped to marry Joan to Amadeus V, Count of Savoy. Ralph was subsequently imprisoned at Bristol Castle for a brief time.[3][4] Joan is said to have told her father that if it was no disgrace for an earl to marry a poor woman, it should not be blameworthy for a countess to advance a capable young man. Monthermer was released and their Clare estates restored. Monthermer was made Earl of Gloucester and Hertford during his wife's lifetime.[4]

He and Joan had two sons and two daughters before her death on 23 April 1307.[4] Mary de Monthermer was the eldest of them. Mary and her full-siblings most likely lived in her mother's quarters in Windsor Castle and Marlborough Castle until her marriage.[5] Mary also had four half-siblings from her mother's first marriage to Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford. They were Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, Eleanor de Clare, (wife of Hugh le Despenser the Younger), Margaret de Clare, and Elizabeth de Clare.

Upon Joan's death, Ralph ceased to be referred to as Earl of Gloucester, passing the title onto Joan's only son from her first marriage. In 1318, Mary's father married the widowed Isabel le Despenser, daughter of Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Winchester.[3]

Marriage and issue

Ancestry

References

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