Joan "of Acre" Plantagenêt

  General Notes:

Weis' "Ancestral Roots. . ." (8:29), (11:29), (63:30), (94A:32), (257:33).

  Noted events in her life and other information:

• Dates & Events: ¹¹⁶
From Michael Altschul, *A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares,1217-1314*, Baltimore MD (Johns Hopkins Press) 1965:
"Joan of Acre, on the other hand [as compared to GILBERT's first wife Alice de Lusignan], was a remarkably active woman in the dozen years
following the Red Earl's death. By the terms of the marriage agreement
of 1290, the entire inheritance was enfeoffed jointly on GILBERT and
Joan. This meant that it would not be possible for her father EDWARD I to grant her only a third of the estates and control the rest himself during the long minority of her son Gilbert. Joan was thus sole mistress of the inheritance, and she controlled it with marked ability. In 1297, much to EDWARD's displeasure, she secretly married an otherwise obscure knight in her 'familia', Ralph de Monthermer (d. 1325).

Joan of Acre died in April, 1307, but during her tenure of the inheritance important modifications were introduced in its administrative structure. After Isabella de Fortibus, dowager countess of Devon and Aumale (1262-93), Countess Joan stands as perhaps the best example in thirteenth century English history of the ability of a widow to run the estates and otherwise manage the complex affairs of a great comital house." ( pp. 38-39).

"The marriage between GILBERT and Joan had long been planned and long
delayed. Joan was EDWARD's second surviving daughter, born when her
father was still on crusade in 1272. In 1276 Rudolf of Hapsburg, the German Emperor, had prosed a marriage between the girl and his son Hartmann. Negotiations were conducted in 1277 and 1278, but the whole project had to be abandoned when Hartmann was accidentally killed in
December, 1281. In May, 1283, THE KING agreed to a marrige between his daughter and EARL GILBERT. THE EARL had been separated from Alice de Lusignan since 1271, but a formal annulment was now required, and the marriage was finally dissolved in May, 1285. The king and the earl still had to wait for a papal dispensation for the new marriage, and it
was only forthcoming in November, 1289."

Joan married Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester, son of Richard de Clare 2nd Earl of Gloucester and Maud de Lacy, in May 1290 in London, England. (Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester was born on 2 Sep 1243 in Christchurch, , , England, died on 7 Dec 1295 in Monmouth Castle and was buried on 22 Dec 1295 in Tewkesbury.)