Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford

Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford (1176 – 1 June 1220) of Pleshey Castle in Essex, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who became Hereditary Constable of England from 1199.

After the male line of Miles of Gloucester failed, in 1200 King John created Henry de Bohun Earl of Hereford and Constable of England.

[3] His lands lay chiefly on the Welsh Marches, and from this date the Bohuns took a foremost place among the Marcher barons.

[5] Henry was one of the twenty-five barons elected by their peers to enforce the terms of Magna Carta in 1215, and was subsequently excommunicated by the Pope.

[7] In the civil war that followed Magna Carta, he was a supporter of King Louis VIII of France and was captured at the Battle of Lincoln in 1217.

Arms of Bohun, adopted at start of age of heraldry (c.1200-1215): Azure, a bend argent cotised or between six lions rampant of the last
The motte and late-medieval brick bridge of Pleshey Castle in Essex , chief residence of Henry de Bohun
Arms of Bohun drawn by Matthew Paris (d.1259)