GLOUCESTER, GILBERT DE CLARE, EARL OF (I 243 8th earl of Gloucester and 9th earl of Clare, was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on Sept. 2, 1243. He married Alice of Angouleme, niece of king Henry III., succeeded his father in July 1262, and joined the baronial party led by Simon de Montfort. With Simon Gloucester was at the battle of Lewes in May 1264, when the king himself surrendered to him, and after this victory he was one of the three persons selected to nominate a council. Soon, however, he quarrelled with Simon. Leaving London for his lands on the Welsh border he met Prince Edward, afterwards king Edward I., at Ludlow, just after his escape from captivity, and contributed largely to the prince's victory at Evesham in August 1265. But this alliance was as transitory as the one with Leicester. Gloucester championed the barons who had surrendered at Kenil worth in November and December 1266, and after putting his demands before the king, secured possession of London (April 1267). The earl quickly made his peace with Henry III. and with Prince Edward. Under Edward I. he spent several years in fighting in Wales, or on the Welsh border; in 1289 when the barons were asked for a subsidy he replied on their behalf that they would grant nothing until they saw the king in person (nisi Arius perso naliter viderent in Anglia faciem regis), and in I291 he was fined and imprisoned on account of levying private war on Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford. Having divorced his wife Alice, he married in 1290 Edward's daughter Joan, or Johanna (d. 1307). The "Red Earl," as he is sometimes called, died at Monmouth on Dec. 7, 1295, leaving in addition to three daughters a son, Gilbert, earl of Gloucester and Clare, killed at Bannockburn.
See references under MONTFORT, SIMON DE.