Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leybourne, Roger de
LEYBOURNE, LEYBURN, LEMBURN, or LEEBURN, ROGER de (d. 1271), warden of the Cinque ports, son of Roger de Leybourne of Leybourne, Kent, who took arms against King John, was made prisoner at the fall of Rochester Castle, 30 Nov. 1215, and paid 250 marks for his release. His mother was Eleanor, daughter and coheiress of Stephen de Thurnham or Turnham, another Kentish magnate (Archæologia Cantiana, v. 152, 193; a chart facing p. 222 corrects Dugdale, Baronage, ii. 13). He could hardly have been born later than 1220. In 1251 he came into his inheritance on the death of his father. At the jousts held at Walden, Essex, in 1252, he slew Arnold de Montigny, against whom he was tilting; he professed deep sorrow, but as it was discovered that his lance's point was not covered by a socket, as it should have been, he was suspected of murderous intent, for it was remembered that he had had his leg broken by Arnold in a joust. He assumed the cross and took out a pardon from the king. In 1253 he accompanied Henry III [q. v.] to Gascony. He was intimate with the king's son Edward [see Edward I], accompanied him to many jousts in England and France, was his steward, and kept his purse (Gervase, Gesta Regum Continuata, ii. 220). While serving against Llewelyn of Wales in 1256 he narrowly escaped being slain. In 1258 he sided with the baronial party, swore to the Provisions of Oxford, and was with his associates included by name in the papal bull of excommunication. Acting as Edward's steward in 1260 he hanged some of the servants of the Earl of Gloucester [see Clare, Richard de, eighth Earl of Clare, &c.] in the Welsh marches, unjustly it was said, and without trial, whereupon the earl quarrelled with Edward (Chronicles of Edward I, i. 54). In the same year he accompanied Edward to France, and at Paris received from him a grant of the manor of Elham, Kent. Soon afterwards the queen [see Eleanor of Provence], angered by Leybourne's association with the baronial party, stirred up Edward against him. An account of his stewardship was demanded, and he was declared by the exchequer to be 1,000l. in arrears, though the accusation is said to have been false. Process was issued, and as he removed all his goods from his manors to avoid distraint, writs were sent out to inquire after and seize them in Kent, Essex, and Sussex. At the same time the king demanded from him the manor of Elham, on the plea that it was inalienable from the crown (Gervase, u.s.; documents cited in Archæologia Cantiana, v. 166–70). Being stripped of all his revenues, Leybourne took to marauding, and Sir William de Detling having been dispossessed of Detling, Kent, by his lord the Archbishop of Canterbury, for homicide, Leybourne joined him in forcibly ejecting the archbishop's officers, and put his own son in possession of the manor. He attended the meeting of the barons at Oxford at Whitsuntide 1263, and joined himself with Roger de Clifford (d. 1285?) [q. v.] and others. Associating themselves with Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, they seized Peter the Savoyard bishop of Hereford, took Gloucester, with the consent of the townsmen occupied Bristol, and then proceeded eastward, everywhere seizing the property of the aliens and their supporters. Leybourne marched with Earl Simon to Dover, and on 9 July to Romney. By 18 Aug., however, he and other lords, some of whom were, like himself, old servants of Edward, were won over by Edward, and executed a deed of reconciliation with him. Leybourne was at once made steward of the household to the king and queen and Edward, and on 3 Dec. was appointed warden of the Cinque ports.
As one of the king's adherents Leybourne swore to submit to the award of Louis IX of France, and in February 1264 crossed over to Witsand to bring Henry back to England. He marched with the king's army to Northampton, and was sent with Earl John de Warrenne to secure the south-eastern counties. He joined in the defence of Rochester against the baronial army, and burnt some of the buildings of the monastery and the suburbs of the city (Rishanger, De Bellis, notes p. 127). He was badly wounded during the siege (Hemingburgh, i. 313), which was raised on the approach of the royal army. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Lewes on 14 May, and was set at liberty on giving security that he would appear in parliament when summoned (Annals of Dunstable, p. 232). Joining himself to the marchers and others of the king's side he took part in the attempt to rescue Edward at Wallingford and in the war carried on in the marches of Wales and the western districts. When summoned to appear at Windsor before the king's council he and his allies refused to obey, and sentence of banishment for a year and a day was pronounced against them. In December they came to terms with the government, and Leybourne and Clifford met the king at Pershore, and were allowed to visit Edward at Kenilworth (Fœdera, i. 449). They promised to retire to Ireland, but soon took up arms again, and caused the Earl of Leicester much trouble. On 23 May 1265 Leybourne and Clifford received a safe-conduct to visit Edward at Hereford, and there, no doubt, arranged with him for his escape, which he effected on the 28th. Leybourne joined Edward and took part in the battle of Evesham on 4 Aug. In September he was sent by the king to London, held an assembly of the citizens in Allhallows Barking, received their submission, and conducted the mayor and forty of the chief men of the city to the king at Windsor (Liber de Antiquis Legibus, pp. 77, 78). After marching with the king to Northampton in April 1266 [see under Henry III] he was again sent to London with an armed force, and overawed the discontented party in the city. He assisted in the pacification of the country, reduced Winchelsea and Sandwich to obedience, received the custody of the castles of Dover, Rochester, and Nottingham, and of the Tower of London, and kept order in Huntingdonshire, Essex, and the weald of Kent. The king gave him large rewards, including thirteen manors held by William FitzAucher, one of the baronial party, and the house of Peter de Montfort in Westminster. He was sheriff of Kent and warden of the forests beyond the Trent. In 1265 he received the wardship and marriage of Idonea, younger daughter and coheiress of Robert de Vipont, baron of Westmoreland, and in 1268, by exchange with the king, the manor and castle of Leeds, Kent. In 1267 he was sent to the Counts of St. Pol and Boulogne to obtain help for the king against Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester [q. v.] (Royal Letters, ii. 335; Gervase, ii. 246). He took the cross, went with Edward to Paris in 1269, joined in the arrangements there made for the projected crusade, and evidently intended to accompany Edward upon it. It is certain that he did not go (see on other side Archæologia Cantiana, v. 142), for in December 1270, four months after Edward's departure, he was upholding the official of Christ Church, Canterbury, against the prior of Dover (Gervase, ii. 256). He died in 1271, at some date prior to 7 Nov. It has been suggested that a niche in Leybourne Church contained his heart (Archæologia Cantiana, v. 135 sqq.) To Elham Church he left an endowment for a light, which was maintained until the suppression of chantries (ib. x. 49); he gave some land in Kent to Bermondsey Priory, Surrey, and a small endowment to Cumbwell Priory, Kent (ib. v. 219). His arms were azure, six lioncels argent. He was twice married; the name of his first wife has not been discovered (ib. v. 154, 193; Dugdale, confusing him with his father, makes Eleanor de Thurnham his wife; and Hasted, confusing him with his younger son, gives him Idonea de Vipont, who was only about twelve at the time of his death); his second wife was Eleanor, daughter of William de Ferrers, earl of Derby, who had previously married, first, William de Vaux, and next Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester; she survived him. He left two sons, William, who succeeded him, and Roger, who married Idonea de Vipont, his father's ward. Idonea brought her husband great wealth, and appears to have held, jointly with her elder sister, Isabella, wife of Roger de Clifford, the barony and sheriffdom of Westmoreland (Fœdera, i. 753, 804).
William de Leybourne (d. 1309), baron, Roger's elder son by his first wife (not by his second, because William was of age at his father's death, and Roger could not have married his second wife before 1264, the date of the Earl of Winchester's death), served in Wales in 1277 and 1282 (Fœdera, i. 538, 608), was constable of Pevensey, and in 1294 was appointed captain of the fleet gathered at Portsmouth for the recovery of Gascony (ib. p. 809; Trivet, p. 332). He was described in 1297 by the title of ‘Admiral of the Sea of the King of England’ (Fœdera, i. 861; Burrows, Cinque Ports, p. 129). He received a summons to parliament in 1299 and in later years, and in 1301 joined in the letter from the barons to the pope. In 1299 he served in Scotland at the head of five knights and fifteen esquires, and in 1300 was present at the siege of Caerlaverock, being described in the Caerlaverock roll (La Siège de Carlaverock, ed. Nicolas) as ‘a valiant man without but or if.’ He served again in Scotland in 1304, and died in 1309. He married Juliana, daughter and heiress of Henry de Sandwich, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and Henry. Thomas was enfeoffed of Leybourne by his father, and died in 1307, leaving by his wife Alice (sister and heiress of Robert de Toeni, who married for her second husband Guy de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick [q. v.], and for her third William la Zouche) one daughter, Juliana, three years old at her father's death, who in 1309 became sole heiress of her grandfather William. She was a great lady, for many inheritances had devolved upon her. She married, first, John de Hastings, third baron Hastings (see under Hastings, John, second Baron Hastings, where Juliana's other marriages are noted; Archæologia Cantiana, i. 1 sqq., v. 189–91, 193).
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.182
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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