hn, was entertained in the monastery soon
afterwards, so that the damage cannot have been quite so overwhelming
as the Winchester Chronicles allege it to have been. The fire might
have been much more serious than it was, and it seems that only the
fact of the wind being north-east saved the church. Judging by the
marks of calcination on the outside of the tower, and the chief arch
of the south transept, the roof must have been seriously damaged, and
the roof of the cloister walk abutting on to the south aisle must have
been completely burned. In all probability the group of roofing next
to the south transept was destroyed.

William Fitzcount, dying in 1183, after a long and successful life,
was buried at Keynsham, a magnificent abbey built by him in memory of
a son who died young. Earl William's other children were girls, and
the lordship of Gloucester was vested in Henry II. for some years. In
1189 the Abbey lands were granted by Richard I. to his brother John
(who was afterwards king, 1199 to 1215), the first husband of
Isabella, third daughter of William Fitzcount. Being divorced from
John after his accession in 1199, she married Geoffrey de Mandeville,
Earl of Essex, who paid 20,000 marks for the honour of Gloucester and
the possessions of the Lady Isabel.

The earldom of Gloucester finally passed in 1221 to Amice--sister of
the Lady Isabella--great granddaughter of Fitz-Hamon the founder, who
had married Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford. This Richard de Clare
was the ancestor of the Tewkesbury De Clares, a family which held the
honour of Tewkesbury for nearly a century.

His son, Gilbert de Clare, married Isabelle de Marechal. His name, as
also that of his father, is among the signatories of Magna Charta, and
he was a strenuous supporter of the barons against the King. Though he
died in Brittany, his body was brought home and buried in Tewkesbury,
at the foot of the steps leading up to the high altar. In a few
months' time his widow, Isabelle, married Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
brother of King Henry III. At her death she wished to be buried next
to Gilbert de Clare, but as her husband objected to this, she
bequeathed her heart to the Abbey, and this was duly interred in
Gilbert de Clare's grave. As the Register quaintly says in its rhyming
hexameters--

"Postrema voce legavit cor comitissa
Pars melior toto fuit huc pro corpore missa
Haec se divisit dominum recolendo priorem
Huc cor quod misi