. Of this house, spoken of by Jordan Fantosme as
"Clarreaus," the Daventrys of Daventry (extinct 1380) and Fawsleys of
Fawsley (extinct 1392) were cadets. One of Richard's two daughters
married the famous Walter Tirel.

Gilbert, Richard's heir in England, held his castle of Tunbridge against
William Rufus, but was wounded and captured. Under Henry I., who
favoured the Clares, he obtained a grant of Cardigan, and carried his
arms into Wales. Dying about 1115, he left four sons, of whom Gilbert,
the second, inherited Chepstow, with Nether-Gwent, from his uncle,
Walter, the founder of Tintern, and was created earl of Pembroke by
Stephen about 1138; he was father of Richard Strongbow, earl of Pembroke
(q.v.). The youngest son Baldwin fought for Stephen at the battle of
Lincoln (1141) and founded the priories of Bourne and Deeping on lands
acquired with his wife. The eldest son Richard, who was slain by the
Welsh on his way to Cardigan in 1135 or 1136, left two sons Gilbert and
Roger, of whom Gilbert was created earl of Hertfordshire by Stephen.

It was probably because he and the Clares had no interests in
Hertfordshire that they were loosely and usually styled the earls of
(de) Clare. Dying in 1152, Gilbert was succeeded by his brother Roger,
of whom Fitz-Stephen observes that "nearly all the nobles of England
were related to the earl of Clare, whose sister, the most beautiful
woman in England, had long been desired by the king" (Henry II.). He was
constantly fighting the Welsh for his family possessions in Wales and
quarrelled with Becket over Tunbridge Castle. In 1173 or 1174 he was
succeeded by his son Richard as third earl, whose marriage with Amicia,
daughter and co-heir of William, earl of Gloucester, was destined to
raise the fortunes of his house to their highest point. He and his son
Gilbert were among the "barons of the Charter," Gilbert, who became
fourth earl in 1217, obtained also, early in 1218, the earldom of
Gloucester, with its great territorial "Honour," and the lordship of
Glamorgan, in right of his mother; "from this time the house of Clare
became the acknowledged head of the baronage." Gilbert had also
inherited through his father his grandmother's "Honour of St Hilary" and
a moiety of the Giffard fief; but the vast possessions of his house were
still further swollen by his marriage with a daughter of William
(Marshal), earl of Pembroke, through whom his son Richard succeeded in
1245 to a fifth of the