Sibyl de Neufmarché

Sibyl de Neufmarché, Countess of Hereford, suo jure Lady of Brecknock (c. 1100 – after 1143), was a Cambro-Norman noblewoman, heiress to one of the most substantial fiefs in the Welsh Marches.

Sibyl inherited the titles and lands of her father, Bernard de Neufmarché, Lord of Brecon, after her mother, Nest ferch Osbern, had declared her brother Mahel to have been illegitimate.

Sibyl, with her extensive lands, was central to the King's plans of consolidating Anglo-Norman power in south-east Wales by the merging of her estates with those of Miles, his loyal subject on whom he relied to implement Crown policy.

As an adult, Sibyl lived through King Stephen's turbulent reign, known to history as the Anarchy, in which her husband played a pivotal role.

Following Miles' accidental death in 1143, Sibyl entered a religious life at Llanthony Secunda Priory, Gloucestershire, England, which she had endowed up to six years previously.

[5][7] Kingship in Wales ended with Rhys' death, and allowed Bernard to confirm his hold on Brycheiniog, becoming the first ruler of the Lordship of Brecknock.

[12] Author Jennifer C. Ward suggests that, although the marriage charter recorded that King Henry was acting at the request of Bernard, Nest, and the barons, it was probable he had put considerable pressure on the Neufmarchés to disinherit Mahel in favour of Sibyl and, thereby, Miles.

[12][23] Historian C. Warren Hollister found the charter's wording telling, noting that "the king gave the daughter as if he were making a grant of land": "Know that I [King Henry I] have given and firmly granted to Miles of Gloucester Sibyl, daughter of Bernard de Neufmarché, together with all the lands of Bernard her father and of her mother after their deaths ...

[12] By arranging a series of matrimonial alliances, similar to that between Sibyl and Miles, King Henry I of England transformed "the map of territorial power in south-east Wales".

At the time Matilda was the de facto ruler of England, Stephen having been imprisoned at Bristol following his capture the previous February after the Battle of Lincoln.

This was in appreciation of the skilled military tactics Miles had deployed which had spared Brien's castle of Wallingford during King Stephen's besiegement in 1139/1140.

In order to raise money to pay his troops and to assist Matilda financially, Miles had imposed a levy on all the churches in his earldom, an act which the bishop had regarded as unlawful.

[22] In retaliation against Miles' earlier attacks on the royalist city of Worcester and the castles of Hereford and Wallingford, King Stephen bestowed the title "Earl of Hereford" on Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester; Miles, however, never surrendered the earldom nor the title to Robert de Beaumont.

[40] While on a deer-hunting expedition in his own Forest of Dean, Sibyl's husband was accidentally shot in the chest by an arrow which killed him on 24 December 1143.

[21] In protest against his father's excommunication, Roger remained an outspoken enemy of the Church until close to the end of his life when he entered a Gloucester monastery as a monk.

[41][42] After her husband's death, Sibyl entered a religious life at Llanthony Secunda Priory, Gloucester,[35] which she had previously endowed.

[citation needed] Upon the childless death of Roger in 1155, the Earldom of Hereford fell into abeyance until 1199 when King John bestowed the title on Henry de Bohun, Sibyl's grandson through her eldest daughter, Margaret.