John Russell (knight)
Between 1212 and about 1215 he acquired a moiety of the feudal barony of Newmarch, (shared with John de Bottrel/Bottreaux) the caput of which was at North Cadbury, Somerset, in respect of which he received a summons for the military service of one knight in 1218.
Thereupon John levied a carucage tax on the kingdom and adopted a more active policy towards collection of Aaron's debts, then dealt with on account of their magnitude by a separate specially formed Exchequer of the Jews.
[6] As the widow of a tenant-in-chief, Rohesia's marriage became the property of the crown to dispose of, and in 1201/2 John Russell agreed to pay 50 marks to the royal treasury for the hand of his bride.
[11] The following two charters of the Augustinian Abbey of St Mary du Val, Bayeux, were published in 1899 by J. Horace Round in his Calendar of Documents Preserved in France: 918-1206 [12] (No.1455) Charter of Goslin de Pomeria, giving, with consent of Emma his wife, and Henry, Roger, Philip, Goslin, and Ralph his sons, by the hand of Richard (1107–1133) Bishop of Bayeux, to the church of St. Mary du Val (que dicitur “Valle”) to the canons there serving God, according to the rule of St. Augustine, in cloistered community, with all that follows: 60 acres in the parish of St. Omer, etc.
After Russell's death in 1224 his widow Rohesia obtained royal licence of the king, at the suit of Ralph de Blundeville, Earl of Chester and Lincoln (1172–1232), to marry whomsoever she pleased, so long as he should be a faithful subject of the crown.
[17] The land tax assessment of 1200 shows that he possessed some wealth prior to this grant, yet possibly not of sufficient amount to make the purchase of the wardship of a moiety of a barony comprising several manors.
The marriage of the younger daughter Hawise was awarded to John de Boterell, and the two new holders of the barony split it into moieties, dividing the constituent manors between themselves.
Due to his holding of a moiety of the barony of Newmarch, Russell became liable to provide one knight to the royal army for a fixed number of days per annum.
Even before this grant it appears Russell held other lands by military tenure as in a Chancery document he is recorded as proffering knight service in 1213-14, but the size of his contingent is not legible.
[18] He received such a summons in 1218, as one of seven others in Somerset and Devon, one of 115 England-wide, to attend the royal army at Stamford on St John the Baptist's Day (15 July) in the third week of Henry III (1218).
The following royal order to the Sheriff of London is recorded: "To give John Russell our steward, for the king's use, 300 lbs of wax, a hanaper of almonds and 2 frails of figs"[20] At Christmas 1217 Henry III gave robes to his military knights, which then numbered just 7, greatly reduced due to his lack of finance from the number in excess of 50 retained by his father King John.
In 1220 Hugh was invited by the king to come to England to attend the great ceremony of the translation of Thomas Becket due to occur in Canterbury Cathedral on 7 July 1220, and was assured that all outstanding issues would then be resolved.
Hugh did not accept the invitation, but rather sent to Canterbury his messengers and started to oppress towns in Poitou, in an attempt to persuade Henry to concede to him both Isabella's dower and Joan's maritagium.
[25] Since King John had made himself a vassal of the papacy, which gave it the ultimate ownership of his kingdom, the pope had taken a great interest in the preservation of English royal possessions.
In an attempt to break the deadlock, the regency council decided on 5 October 1220 to release Isabelle's English dower to Hugh, which included Berkhampstead Castle and probably also Rockingham Castle[26] In compensation for her dower lands in Normandy however, she was granted the Stannaries in Devon and the revenue of Aylesbury for a period of 4 years, with £3,000 paid for arrears in her pension[27] In return for these concessions the following stern royal order dated 6th.
October 1220 was issued by Henry to Hugh, nominally his subject as ruler of Poitou, recorded in the Patent Rolls:[28] ”Mandatum est H. de Lezinan quod veniat ad dominum regem in Angliam et adducat secum sororem domini regis et si eam secum ducere non poterit tunc liberet eam in villa Rupelle Johanni Russel, Radulfo Gernun et Godefrido de Craucumb, vel duobus ex illis, si ipsi tres simulm esse non possunt.
[29] The agreement excluded the delivery of Isabella's dower in Niort by Henry and the surrender by Hugh of Joan's maritagium of Oleron, which provided seeds of future conflict.
[30] The main reason why Henry III wished to recover the custody of his sister Joan from Poitou was that he had promised her in marriage to King Alexander II of Scotland.
He promised furthermore to find husbands from the English nobility for Alexander's own sisters Margaret and Isabelle, all matches to be effected within a tightly defined time scale.
Rex archiepiscopis, episcopis, abbatibus, comitibus, baronibus, militibus et libere tenentibus, et omnibus fidelibus suis ad quos presens scriptum pervenerit, salutem.
Et si forte eam habere non poterimus dabimus ei in uxorem Ysabellam juniorem sororem nostram, imfra quindecim dies proximos sequentes post predictum terminum.
Maritabimus etiam Margaretam et Ysabellam sorores ipsius A. regisScottorum a festo Sancti Dionisii anno ab Incarnatione Domini M ducentesimo XX in unum annum in terra nostra ad honorem nostrum et ipsius regis Scottorum vel si eas non maritaverimus infra predictum terminum reddemus eas dicto A. regi Scottorum salvo et libere in terram suam infra mensem proximum post terminum predictum.
Et nos ad majorem rei huius securitatem hanc cartam eidem A. regi Scottorum fieri fecimus sigillo nostro sigillatam.
