Next year, on the Earl of Lincoln's death, he was made ‘guardian' of England (March 1811). When Gaveston was once more banished (October 1311) by the ordainers, Clare at first affixed his seal to the king's letters of recommendation, but almost immediately revoked his act on the plea that he was still a minor (Auct. Malmesb. p. 174; Parl. Writs, vol. ii. div. iii.) On the favourite's return (January 1312) he was appointed by the barons to defend Kent, London, and the south-eastern parts of England; but he refused to take any active part in the league against Gaveston, though he let it be understood that he was prepared to confirm the acts of Lancaster. When Gaveston was taken from the custody of the Earl of Pembroke, who had pledged his word and lands to the king for his safety, this nobleman appealed to Gloucester to aid him in securing the restoration of his prisoner; but only received the contemptuous advice that if he should forfeit his estates, it would teach him to be a better trader another time (Chr. of Ed. I and II, i. 203, ii. 178). Later in the year (July 1312), when both parties were mustering their forces for war, Clare again came forward as a mediator and persuaded Edward to hear Lancaster’s defence (ib. i. 210, 221, ii. 185-6). By Christmas he had succeeded in making terms (ib.; cf. Trokelowe, p. 74. In May 1313 Gloucester was again appointed regent during the king's absence in France (Chr. of Ed. I and II, ii. 191). Next year he was slain at the battle of Bannockburn. In this expedition he equipped 500 soldiers at his own expense, and was placed at the head of the vanguard in company with the Earl of Hereford. It was contrary to his advice that Edward joined battle on 24 June instead of allowing his troops the festival as a day of rest. For this prudent counsel the king taunted him with treachery and cowardice, to which the earl made answer that he would on that day prove the falsehood of this charge. The battle opened with Douglas's attack on his division, and, according to one chronicler, the weight of the whole combat rested on him. He rushed on the enemy's ranks ‘like a wild boar, making his sword drunk with their blood.' His horse appears to have stumbled and to have trodden its rider beneath its hoofs. In this predicament he was pierced with many lances and his head battered to pieces. Robert Bruce sent back his dead body to Edward for burial without demanding any ransom (ib. ii. 203-l; Trokelowe, pp. 85, 98; Barbour, p. 263). The vast estates of the house of Clare extending over twenty-three English counties, to say nothing of his immense posseasions in Wales and in Ireland, were divided among his three sisters [see Gilbert de Clarke, ninth earl]. His three earldoms fell into abeyance for a time; later that of Gloucester was renewed (l) in the person of his brother-in-law, Hugh de Spencer; (2) for another brother-in-law, Hugh de Audley (March 1337), on whose death it became once more extinct (1 Ed. III); and thirdly in 21 Rich. II for his sister Eleanor's great-grandson, Thomas de la Spencer (Trokelowe, p. 86; Chr. of Ed. I and II. i. 356, ii.; Dignity of a Peer, iv.; but cf. Nicolas, Hist. Par. p. 214). Clare married Matilda, the daughter of Richard de Burgh, second earl of Ulster, in 1308, but left no children (Trokelowe, p. 86; Ann. Paul. p. 264). He seems to have shared in his father's and grandfather's excessive love for tournaments; but on the whole appears, both intellectually and morally, to have been the noblest member of his great house.
[Osney Annals ap. Luard's Annales Monastici, iv. (Rolls Series); Annals of London and Annals of St. Paul's (in vol. i.); the Malmesbury and Bridlington authors of tha Life of Ed. II in Chronicles and Memorials of Ed. I and II, ad. Stubbs (Rolls Series); Trokelowe, ed. Riley (Rolls Series); Waller of Hemingburgh. ed. Hamilton (English Hist. Soc.); Rolls of Par1iament, vol. i.; Barbour's Bruce. ed. Skeet for Early Eng. Text Society; Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer, vol. ii. iv.; Rymer's Fœdera, cd. 1818; Chronicle of Lanercost.]
CLARE, JOHN (1577–1628), jesuit, was born in Wiltshire in 1677, entered the Society of Jesus in 1604 or 1605, and was professed of the four vows in 1618. He became prefect of studies both at Louvain and the English college, Rome; and was also professor of sacred scripture at Louvain. For some years he served the ‘college’ of St. Francis Xavier (the North and South Wales district) and was rector of that college at the time of his death on 4 June 1628. He was a very learned man, and had prepared for the press a controversial work, but died before it was printed. This was apparently ‘The Converted Iew, or certaine dialogves beween Micheas, a learned Iew, and others, touching diuers points of Religion, controuerted betweene the Catholicks and Protestants. Written by M. Iohn Clare, a Catholicke Priest, of the Society of Iesus. Dedicated to the two Vniuersities of Oxford and Cambridge.’ No place, 1630, 4to. It has a long ‘Appendix, wherein is taken a short view containing a full answere of a pamphlet entitvled, A Treatise of the Perpetuall Visibility, and succession of the true Church in all ages [by George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury] printed anno 1824.’ Dodd and Harris, misled by Wood, erroneously state that the author of ‘The
