Pain fitzJohn
Encyclopedia
Pain fitzJohn was an Anglo-Norman
nobleman and administrator, and one of King Henry I of England
's "new men". The son of a minor nobleman, Pain, along with his brothers, rose through their ability to become important royal officials during the reign of King Henry. Pain was rewarded with marriage to an heiress in 1115, and among the lands he gained control of through his wife was Ludlow Castle
, which he augmented with further land acquisitions.
Although later medieval traditions stated that Pain was a chamberlain
to King Henry, this is not securely attested in contemporary records. Other offices, however, are known to have been held by Pain, including the office of sheriff
in two counties near the border with Wales. Pain also served as a royal justice
, hearing legal cases for the king in much of western England. Although his family had originated in Normandy, Pain appears to have mostly concentrated his career in England and the Welsh Marches
, as little documentary evidence ties him to Normandy. Pain was also generous to a number of monastic houses, gifting them with lands.
After the death of King Henry in 1135, Pain supported Henry's nephew, King Stephen
, and was with the new king throughout 1136. However, Pain was ambushed by the Welsh in July 1137 and killed. His heirs were his daughters, Cecily and Agnes. Cecily married the son of one of Pain's close associates, Miles of Gloucester.
listed in Domesday Book
, and was likely the eldest son. Pain's mother is not known for certain, as his father may have had two wives. On the basis of landholding, it has been speculated that Pain's mother was a daughter of Ralph Mortimer
, who held Wigmore in Domesday Book. Pain's paternal grandfather was from near Avranches
in Normandy and owned a mill as well as being a moneyer
. Pain's brother Eustace fitzJohn
was also a royal official, ending up with lands in the north of England. Other siblings included William, Alice and Agnes. William was probably the same William who later held Harptree
in Somerset
, and was a royal justice in western England in 1130. Alice was the abbess of Barking Abbey
and Agnes became the wife of Roger de Valognes.
Pain was born sometime before 1100. His father may have been in the service of King Henry in Normandy before Henry became king. The family lands in England were based in East Anglia
, and were not very large. Pain, however, appears to have inherited most of the familial lands in England, as his payment for danegeld
in 1130 for his lands in East Anglia was 40 shilling
s, but the danegeld payment for his brother Eustace's lands in the same area were only 9 shillings.
states that he married Sybil de Lacy, the daughter of Hugh de Lacy. The historians Judith Green
and Paul Dalton concur with Keats-Rohan that Sybil was the daughter of Hugh. However, Bruce Coplestone-Crow agrees with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in naming Sybil as niece of Hugh de Lacy. Coplestone-Crow further believes that she was the daughter of Geoffrey Talbot. The historian David Crouch
states that Sybil was the daughter of Hugh's sister, Agnes, which would make Sybil Hugh's niece.
Pain is supposed to have been the builder of Pain's Castle
in the Welsh county of Radnor
. He also had control of Caus Castle
in Shropshire. Besides these castles, Pain acquired through his wife the control of Ludlow Castle in Shropshire. Along with Ludlow, he also acquired the title to Weobley Castle
through his wife, although he does not appear to have exercised any control over Weobley, which eventually went to Gilbert de Lacy
. Pain did not receive the entirety of the lands of Hugh de Lacy, as some went to Jocelin de Dinan and others went to Miles of Gloucester. Pain's share, however, included lands in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. Pain worked to acquire lands near Ludlow, adding to the manors that he held there through his wife. Besides these lands near Ludlow and his ancestral lands, he had also acquried lands in Oxfordshire by 1130, when he was excused payment of dangeld on lands there.
Pain faced difficulties with the lands inherited by his wife. Although both King Henry and King Stephen recognized Pain as the holder of the lands in England, there was another claimant, Gilbert de Lacy. Gilbert was the son of Roger de Lacy, who had been banished from England in 1095 and his lands confiscated. Roger retained his lands in Normandy, however. Roger's English lands were given to his brother Hugh de Lacy, from which Sybil inherited them. On Roger's death, Gilbert inherited the Norman lands, and continued to press his claims to the English lands. One historian, Bruce Coplestone-Crow, speculates that the uncertainty about the inheritance was one reason that Pain endeavoured to secure more lands around Ludlow in order to secure his hold over the Lacy inheritance.
, there is some evidence that he may have been a chamberlain for King Henry I, but this information only dates from the later 12th century in the writings of Walter Map
. There is no contemporary evidence that gives Pain that office. Nor is it likely, given Map's story, that Pain was involved with finances for Henry; rather it appears that if he was a chamberlain, his service was as a body servant. Map relates a story about Pain serving the king personally at night with the duties of providing the king with wine if the king called for it during the night. The story continues that once Pain drank the wine and was caught by Henry when the king later desired his nightcap. Map finishes the story by saying that the king then ordered that Pain should have wine every night while awaiting the king's pleasure. Although the story isn't likely to be true in all essentials, it does hint that Pain's service to the king was personal as well as judicial and governmental. Against Map's stating that Pain was a chamberlain is the fact that Pain never attests a royal charter as chamberlain.
The author of the Gesta Stephani described Pain as having been a page at Henry's court, stating that he owed his position to the fact that he was one of the "special and very intimate friends of King Henry" and that although Pain had been "taken into [Henry's] service as court pages", it appears likely that the three brothers – Pain, Eustace and William – worked to advance each other's careers, as they are frequently found witnessing the same charters and other royal documents.
In 1115, Pain was a witness to a charter
of confirmation that King Henry issued to Geoffrey de Clive
, the Bishop of Hereford
, issued in the Welsh Marches. Between 1123 and 1127 he was appointed Sheriff of Herefordshire
and in 1127 he became Sheriff of Shropshire
also. He held the sheriffdom of Hereford through 1136, and likely until his death, along with that of Herefordshire. and Shropshire. Besides the office of sheriff in those counties, Pain is often termed "viceregent" or "justiciar" for the king for Shropshire and Herefordshire. Pain had the custody of King Henry's prisoner, Waleran of Melun
, from September 1126 until late 1126, when Waleran was moved to Wallingford Castle
and the custody of Brian fitzCount
.
Pain was one of Henry's "new men", who owed their positions and wealth to the king. The medieval writer Orderic Vitalis
described them as a group as "of base stock who had served him [Henry] well, raised them, so to say, from the dust" and that the king "stationed them above earls and famous castellans". Although Orderic stated that the families of these men were not considered high status, this likely was an exaggeration on the chronicler's part. Pain's family was respectable enough, as his father held a number of properties directly from the king. It appears that Pain did not always support the king, as the historian C. Warren Hollister
has argued that Pain was not among the supporters of Henry's only surviving legitimate child in 1126, when Henry had his nobility swear that they would support her as his heiress. Hollister feels that the removal of Waleran from Pain's custody was a sign that Pain had not supported Matilda.
Pain consolidated much of his power in Shropshire and Hereford at Bridgnorth Castle
, often using that site as a place of business in preference to Shrewsbury, which had previously been the main center of business for his predecessors as sheriff. Besides Waleran, Pain also imprisoned a Welsh hostage there in 1128. This was Llywelyn ab Owain, the nephew of Maredudd ap Bleddyn
, ruler of the Welsh principality of Powys
.
The 1130 Pipe Roll noted that Pain was a royal justice in Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, and Pembroke. Besides the ordinary justice, Pain also heard cases relating to the forest law in those counties. The Pipe Roll doesn't record Pain as sheriff in Shropshire, but this is likely due to the fact that the Shropshire returns for that year are missing from it. Also in 1130, Pain was consulted by the king about the appointment to a vacant bishopric. The Diocese of Hereford
had been vacant since the death of Richard de Capella
in August 1127, and the king consulted with Pain and the constable of Hereford before accepting the candidate they put forward, Robert de Bethune
, the prior
of Llanthony Priory
.
The author of the Gesta Stephani stated that Pain, along with Miles of Gloucester, were major landholders in the western part of England, and managed to dominate justice in the regions where they held lands. He stated that the two men "raised their power to such a pitch that from the Severn to the sea, all along the border between England and Wales, they involved everyone in litigation and forced services." The later medieval writer Gerald of Wales called Miles and Pain "secretaries and privy councillors of the king". In 1132 Pain was present at the Christmas court held by King Henry, along with his brother. By the end of Henry's reign, Pain had witnessed over 60 royal charters for the king, spanning a period from around 1115 until 1135. Although Pain witnessed a large number of royal documents, this activity took place mostly in England, as few of the documents he witnessed were drawn up while the king was in Normandy. As a reward for Pain's service, Henry gave Pain the lordship of Ewias Lacy as well as Archenfield
. Both properties were in Wales, but the date of their gift to Pain is unknown.
, although he was said to have initially been afraid to appear at Stephen's court for fear of being confronted with those he had oppressed. Whether or not this was true, Pain was with the new king by early January 1136 when he was a witness to one of Stephen's documents at Reading
, that is dated to approximately 4 January 1136. By Easter, both Pain and Eustace had submitted to the king. He witnessed a royal charter at Oxford in April 1136. The king rewarded the pair by continuing to appoint them to judicial functions and confirmed grants made by the brothers to various religious houses.
After Henry's death, the Welsh attempted to drive out the Norman lords who had been extending their control into Wales during Henry's reign. Even before Henry's death, the Welsh had been restless, and in 1134 Caus Castle, which was under the control of Pain, was burnt by the Welsh. As lord of Caus, Pain was involved in efforts to suppress the Welsh efforts. Although Pain held Caus, his title to the fortification was unclear, as it had earlier been held by Robert Corbet. Early on in Stephen's reign, Pain was with the king at the siege of Exeter from June to August 1136. The historian David Crouch argues that Stephen did not trust Pain at this time, and kept him at the siege in order to keep an eye on Pain's activities as well as prevent him from defecting to Matilda's cause.
, and ordering them to return those lands to Llandaf. Pain was again amongst a group of nobles accused of the same crime by Pope Honorius II
in 1128. Honorius once again commanded the named nobles to restore the lands they had confiscated to the church.
Pain gave lands to Llanthony Priory, helping to establish the endowment of that monastic house, although it is difficult to distinguish his gifts from those of Hugh de Lacy, as the monks of Llanthony grouped the gifts of both men together in their records. Besides his grants to Llanthony, he also granted lands to Gloucester Abbey
, which had also benefited from gifts by his father and brother. His wife, Sybil, also gave lands to Gloucester, and other grants to her uncle, the abbot of Gloucester. Other grants by Sybil were to two churches in Hereford – St Peter and St Guthlac.
when the ambush was sprung. His burial was in Gloucester Abbey, with the funeral service conducted by Robert de Bethune. A number of barons from the Welsh Marches attended, including Miles of Gloucester. After his death, his widow continued to hold Ludlow Castle until the summer of 1139, when she was forced to surrender it to King Stephen. Stephen then gave Sybil in marriage to Jocelin de Dinan who also acquired Ludlow Castle through his new wife. This set up the background to Gilbert Lacy's attempts to seize Ludlow from Dinan, which forms the basis for the medieval Welsh romance
work Fouke le Fitz Waryn.
Pain left as heirs his two daughters – Cecily and Agnes. His heir male was his brother, Eustace fitzJohn. The two daughters were married five times in total, with Cecily marrying three times but failing to have any direct heirs. Cecily's first husband was Roger
, the son of Miles of Gloucester. Pain arranged the marriage of Cecily and Roger before Pain's death, with the marriage contract specifying that Roger would inherit all of Pain's lands. With Pain's death, the marriage was delayed until December 1137, when it was contracted, with King Stephen confirming the terms of the marriage settlement. The king also settled the bulk of the inheritance on Cecily, which led to disturbances and a minor war from disappointed claimants to the properties.
The historian W. E. Wrightman described Pain as a "second-class baron and first-class civil servant".
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
nobleman and administrator, and one of King Henry I of England
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
's "new men". The son of a minor nobleman, Pain, along with his brothers, rose through their ability to become important royal officials during the reign of King Henry. Pain was rewarded with marriage to an heiress in 1115, and among the lands he gained control of through his wife was Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle is a large, partly ruined, non-inhabited castle which dominates the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. It stands on a high point overlooking the River Teme...
, which he augmented with further land acquisitions.
Although later medieval traditions stated that Pain was a chamberlain
Chamberlain (office)
A chamberlain is an officer in charge of managing a household. In many countries there are ceremonial posts associated with the household of the sovereign....
to King Henry, this is not securely attested in contemporary records. Other offices, however, are known to have been held by Pain, including the office of sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
in two counties near the border with Wales. Pain also served as a royal justice
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
, hearing legal cases for the king in much of western England. Although his family had originated in Normandy, Pain appears to have mostly concentrated his career in England and the Welsh Marches
Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...
, as little documentary evidence ties him to Normandy. Pain was also generous to a number of monastic houses, gifting them with lands.
After the death of King Henry in 1135, Pain supported Henry's nephew, King Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
, and was with the new king throughout 1136. However, Pain was ambushed by the Welsh in July 1137 and killed. His heirs were his daughters, Cecily and Agnes. Cecily married the son of one of Pain's close associates, Miles of Gloucester.
Early life
Pain was the son of John fitzRichard, a tenant-in-chiefTenant-in-chief
In medieval and early modern European society the term tenant-in-chief, sometimes vassal-in-chief, denoted the nobles who held their lands as tenants directly from king or territorial prince to whom they did homage, as opposed to holding them from another nobleman or senior member of the clergy....
listed in Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, and was likely the eldest son. Pain's mother is not known for certain, as his father may have had two wives. On the basis of landholding, it has been speculated that Pain's mother was a daughter of Ralph Mortimer
Ralph Mortimer
Ralph Mortimer was an English cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman who played for Lancashire. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland and died in Milbourne Hall, near Ponteland, Northumberland....
, who held Wigmore in Domesday Book. Pain's paternal grandfather was from near Avranches
Avranches
Avranches is a commune in the Manche department in the Basse-Normandie region in north-western France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. The inhabitants are called Avranchinais.-History:...
in Normandy and owned a mill as well as being a moneyer
Moneyer
A moneyer is someone who physically creates money. Moneyers have a long tradition, dating back at least to ancient Greece. They became most prominent in the Roman Republic, continuing into the empire.-Roman Republican moneyers:...
. Pain's brother Eustace fitzJohn
Eustace fitz John
Eustace fitz John was a powerful magnate in northern England during the reigns of Henry I, Stephen and Henry II. From a relatively humble background in the south-east of England, Eustace made his career serving Henry I, and was elevated by the king through marriage and office into one of the most...
was also a royal official, ending up with lands in the north of England. Other siblings included William, Alice and Agnes. William was probably the same William who later held Harptree
East Harptree
East Harptree is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated north of Wells and south of Bristol, on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills overlooking the Chew Valley. The parish has a population of 680...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, and was a royal justice in western England in 1130. Alice was the abbess of Barking Abbey
Barking Abbey
The ruined remains of Barking Abbey are situated in Barking in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in east London, England, and now form a public open space.- History :...
and Agnes became the wife of Roger de Valognes.
Pain was born sometime before 1100. His father may have been in the service of King Henry in Normandy before Henry became king. The family lands in England were based in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, and were not very large. Pain, however, appears to have inherited most of the familial lands in England, as his payment for danegeld
Danegeld
The Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources; the term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century...
in 1130 for his lands in East Anglia was 40 shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s, but the danegeld payment for his brother Eustace's lands in the same area were only 9 shillings.
Marriage and lands
All accounts agree that Pain married in 1115 and that his wife was named Sybil, however the identity of Sybil's parents is unclear. Pain's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry states that he married Sybil Talbot, the niece of Hugh de Lacy. The Complete Peerage states that he married Sybil, the daughter of Geoffrey Talbot and Talbot's wife Agnes who was probably the daughter of Walter de Lacy. The historian K. S. B. Keats-RohanKatharine Keats-Rohan
Dr Katharine Stephanie Benedicta Keats-Rohan is a history researcher at Linacre College, University of Oxford, specialising in prosopography. She has produced seminal work on early European history, and collaborated with, among others, Christian Settipani...
states that he married Sybil de Lacy, the daughter of Hugh de Lacy. The historians Judith Green
Judith Green (historian)
Judith Green is an English medieval historian, who is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh. A graduate of King's College, London and Somerville College, Oxford, she held a research fellowship and then a lectureship at the University of St Andrews before transferring...
and Paul Dalton concur with Keats-Rohan that Sybil was the daughter of Hugh. However, Bruce Coplestone-Crow agrees with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in naming Sybil as niece of Hugh de Lacy. Coplestone-Crow further believes that she was the daughter of Geoffrey Talbot. The historian David Crouch
David Crouch (historian)
David Crouch is an English historian, and Professor of Medieval History at the University of Hull. Crouch's main focus is on the social and political history of the period from 1000 to 1300, primarily in England...
states that Sybil was the daughter of Hugh's sister, Agnes, which would make Sybil Hugh's niece.
Pain is supposed to have been the builder of Pain's Castle
Painscastle
Painscastle is a castle in Powys in mid Wales and also a village which takes its name from the castle. It lies between Builth and Hay-on-Wye, approximately 3 miles from the Wales-England border today.- Early history:...
in the Welsh county of Radnor
Radnorshire
Radnorshire is one of thirteen historic and former administrative counties of Wales. It is represented by the Radnorshire area of Powys, which according to the 2001 census, had a population of 24,805...
. He also had control of Caus Castle
Caus Castle
Caus Castle is a hill fort and medieval castle in the civil parish of Westbury in the English county of Shropshire. It is situated up on the eastern foothills of the Long Mountain guarding the route from Shrewsbury, Shropshire to Montgomery, Powys on the border between England and Wales.- History...
in Shropshire. Besides these castles, Pain acquired through his wife the control of Ludlow Castle in Shropshire. Along with Ludlow, he also acquired the title to Weobley Castle
Weobley Castle
Weobley Castle is a fortified manor house on the Gower Peninsula, Wales in the care of Cadw.It is near the village of Leason overlooking Llanrhidian Marsh and the Loughor estuary. The castle dates from the 13th Century. It was attacked and damaged by the forces of Owain Glyndŵr in 1403.- External...
through his wife, although he does not appear to have exercised any control over Weobley, which eventually went to Gilbert de Lacy
Gilbert de Lacy
Gilbert de Lacy was a medieval Anglo-Norman baron in England, the grandson of Walter de Lacy a Norman soldier.-Background and family:...
. Pain did not receive the entirety of the lands of Hugh de Lacy, as some went to Jocelin de Dinan and others went to Miles of Gloucester. Pain's share, however, included lands in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. Pain worked to acquire lands near Ludlow, adding to the manors that he held there through his wife. Besides these lands near Ludlow and his ancestral lands, he had also acquried lands in Oxfordshire by 1130, when he was excused payment of dangeld on lands there.
Pain faced difficulties with the lands inherited by his wife. Although both King Henry and King Stephen recognized Pain as the holder of the lands in England, there was another claimant, Gilbert de Lacy. Gilbert was the son of Roger de Lacy, who had been banished from England in 1095 and his lands confiscated. Roger retained his lands in Normandy, however. Roger's English lands were given to his brother Hugh de Lacy, from which Sybil inherited them. On Roger's death, Gilbert inherited the Norman lands, and continued to press his claims to the English lands. One historian, Bruce Coplestone-Crow, speculates that the uncertainty about the inheritance was one reason that Pain endeavoured to secure more lands around Ludlow in order to secure his hold over the Lacy inheritance.
Under Henry I
Although Pain was too young to serve King William RufusWilliam II of England
William II , the third son of William I of England, was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers over Normandy, and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales...
, there is some evidence that he may have been a chamberlain for King Henry I, but this information only dates from the later 12th century in the writings of Walter Map
Walter Map
Walter Map was a medieval writer of works written in Latin. Only one work is attributed to Map with any certainty: De Nugis Curialium.-Life:...
. There is no contemporary evidence that gives Pain that office. Nor is it likely, given Map's story, that Pain was involved with finances for Henry; rather it appears that if he was a chamberlain, his service was as a body servant. Map relates a story about Pain serving the king personally at night with the duties of providing the king with wine if the king called for it during the night. The story continues that once Pain drank the wine and was caught by Henry when the king later desired his nightcap. Map finishes the story by saying that the king then ordered that Pain should have wine every night while awaiting the king's pleasure. Although the story isn't likely to be true in all essentials, it does hint that Pain's service to the king was personal as well as judicial and governmental. Against Map's stating that Pain was a chamberlain is the fact that Pain never attests a royal charter as chamberlain.
The author of the Gesta Stephani described Pain as having been a page at Henry's court, stating that he owed his position to the fact that he was one of the "special and very intimate friends of King Henry" and that although Pain had been "taken into [Henry's] service as court pages", it appears likely that the three brothers – Pain, Eustace and William – worked to advance each other's careers, as they are frequently found witnessing the same charters and other royal documents.
In 1115, Pain was a witness to a charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
of confirmation that King Henry issued to Geoffrey de Clive
Geoffrey de Clive
Geoffrey de Clive was a medieval Bishop of Hereford.-Life:Clive's nationality and origins are unknown. He was a royal clerk or chaplain for King Henry I of England before being nominated to the see of Hereford. He was consecrated on 26 December 1115 at Canterbury by Archbishop Ralph d'Escures. He...
, the Bishop of Hereford
Bishop of Hereford
The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury.The see is in the City of Hereford where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelbert which was founded as a cathedral in 676.The Bishop's residence is...
, issued in the Welsh Marches. Between 1123 and 1127 he was appointed Sheriff of Herefordshire
High Sheriff of Herefordshire
The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions are now...
and in 1127 he became Sheriff of Shropshire
High Sheriff of Shropshire
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...
also. He held the sheriffdom of Hereford through 1136, and likely until his death, along with that of Herefordshire. and Shropshire. Besides the office of sheriff in those counties, Pain is often termed "viceregent" or "justiciar" for the king for Shropshire and Herefordshire. Pain had the custody of King Henry's prisoner, Waleran of Melun
Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester
Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, 1st Earl of Worcester , was the son of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois, and the twin brother of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester...
, from September 1126 until late 1126, when Waleran was moved to Wallingford Castle
Wallingford Castle
Wallingford Castle was a major medieval castle situated in Wallingford in the English county of Oxfordshire , adjacent to the River Thames...
and the custody of Brian fitzCount
Brien FitzCount
Brien FitzCount , held the lordships of Wallingford and Abergavenny, and was a staunch supporter of the Empress Matilda during the Anarchy of King Stephen's reign in England in the 1140s.- Illegitimate Birth :He was the illegitimate son of Alan IV, Duke of Brittany...
.
Pain was one of Henry's "new men", who owed their positions and wealth to the king. The medieval writer Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis was an English chronicler of Norman ancestry who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th and 12th century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. The modern biographer of Henry I of England, C...
described them as a group as "of base stock who had served him [Henry] well, raised them, so to say, from the dust" and that the king "stationed them above earls and famous castellans". Although Orderic stated that the families of these men were not considered high status, this likely was an exaggeration on the chronicler's part. Pain's family was respectable enough, as his father held a number of properties directly from the king. It appears that Pain did not always support the king, as the historian C. Warren Hollister
C. Warren Hollister
Charles Warren Hollister was an American author and historian, "one of the best medieval generalists in the world" A professor emeritus, he was one of the founding members of the University of California Santa Barbara history department...
has argued that Pain was not among the supporters of Henry's only surviving legitimate child in 1126, when Henry had his nobility swear that they would support her as his heiress. Hollister feels that the removal of Waleran from Pain's custody was a sign that Pain had not supported Matilda.
Pain consolidated much of his power in Shropshire and Hereford at Bridgnorth Castle
Bridgnorth Castle
Bridgnorth Castle is in the town of Bridgnorth, Shropshire beside the River Severn .The castle was founded in 1101 by Robert de Belleme, the son of the French Earl, Roger de Montgomery, who succeeded his father to become the Earl of Shrewsbury...
, often using that site as a place of business in preference to Shrewsbury, which had previously been the main center of business for his predecessors as sheriff. Besides Waleran, Pain also imprisoned a Welsh hostage there in 1128. This was Llywelyn ab Owain, the nephew of Maredudd ap Bleddyn
Maredudd ap Bleddyn
Maredudd ap Bleddyn was a prince of Powys in eastern Wales.Maredudd was the son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn who was king of both Powys and Gwynedd...
, ruler of the Welsh principality of Powys
Powys
Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...
.
The 1130 Pipe Roll noted that Pain was a royal justice in Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, and Pembroke. Besides the ordinary justice, Pain also heard cases relating to the forest law in those counties. The Pipe Roll doesn't record Pain as sheriff in Shropshire, but this is likely due to the fact that the Shropshire returns for that year are missing from it. Also in 1130, Pain was consulted by the king about the appointment to a vacant bishopric. The Diocese of Hereford
Diocese of Hereford
The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England; and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales....
had been vacant since the death of Richard de Capella
Richard de Capella
Richard de Capella or Richard of the Chapel was a medieval Bishop of Hereford.-Life:Capella was a member of the chancery in charge of the king's seal during the reign of King Henry I of England before being elected bishop. He was elected to the see of Hereford on 7 January or just before 2...
in August 1127, and the king consulted with Pain and the constable of Hereford before accepting the candidate they put forward, Robert de Bethune
Robert de Bethune
Robert de Bethune was a medieval Bishop of Hereford. The son of a knight, he became a teacher before becoming a canon, a type of monk, by 1115. He was elected prior of Llanthony Priory in the middle 1120s, and was named bishop by King Henry I of England in 1130...
, the prior
Prior
Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...
of Llanthony Priory
Llanthony Priory
Llanthony Priory is a partly ruined former Augustinian priory in the secluded Vale of Ewyas, a steep sided once glaciated valley within the Black Mountains area of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It lies seven miles north of Abergavenny on an old road to Hay...
.
The author of the Gesta Stephani stated that Pain, along with Miles of Gloucester, were major landholders in the western part of England, and managed to dominate justice in the regions where they held lands. He stated that the two men "raised their power to such a pitch that from the Severn to the sea, all along the border between England and Wales, they involved everyone in litigation and forced services." The later medieval writer Gerald of Wales called Miles and Pain "secretaries and privy councillors of the king". In 1132 Pain was present at the Christmas court held by King Henry, along with his brother. By the end of Henry's reign, Pain had witnessed over 60 royal charters for the king, spanning a period from around 1115 until 1135. Although Pain witnessed a large number of royal documents, this activity took place mostly in England, as few of the documents he witnessed were drawn up while the king was in Normandy. As a reward for Pain's service, Henry gave Pain the lordship of Ewias Lacy as well as Archenfield
Archenfield
Archenfield is the historic English name for an area of southern and western Herefordshire in England. Since the Anglo-Saxons took over the region in the 8th century, it has stretched between the River Monnow and River Wye, but it derives from the once much larger Welsh kingdom of...
. Both properties were in Wales, but the date of their gift to Pain is unknown.
Under Stephen
On King Henry's death, Pain attended the king's funeral. Pain was an early supporter of King StephenStephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
, although he was said to have initially been afraid to appear at Stephen's court for fear of being confronted with those he had oppressed. Whether or not this was true, Pain was with the new king by early January 1136 when he was a witness to one of Stephen's documents at Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, that is dated to approximately 4 January 1136. By Easter, both Pain and Eustace had submitted to the king. He witnessed a royal charter at Oxford in April 1136. The king rewarded the pair by continuing to appoint them to judicial functions and confirmed grants made by the brothers to various religious houses.
After Henry's death, the Welsh attempted to drive out the Norman lords who had been extending their control into Wales during Henry's reign. Even before Henry's death, the Welsh had been restless, and in 1134 Caus Castle, which was under the control of Pain, was burnt by the Welsh. As lord of Caus, Pain was involved in efforts to suppress the Welsh efforts. Although Pain held Caus, his title to the fortification was unclear, as it had earlier been held by Robert Corbet. Early on in Stephen's reign, Pain was with the king at the siege of Exeter from June to August 1136. The historian David Crouch argues that Stephen did not trust Pain at this time, and kept him at the siege in order to keep an eye on Pain's activities as well as prevent him from defecting to Matilda's cause.
Relations with the Church
In 1119, Pope Calixtus II addressed letters to a group of Anglo-Norman landholders in the Welsh Marches, accusing them of having appropriated the lands of the Diocese of LlandaffDiocese of Llandaff
The Diocese of Llandaff is a Church in Wales diocese. It is headed by the Bishop of Llandaff, whose seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Llandaff, a suburb of Cardiff...
, and ordering them to return those lands to Llandaf. Pain was again amongst a group of nobles accused of the same crime by Pope Honorius II
Pope Honorius II
Pope Honorius II , born Lamberto Scannabecchi, was pope from December 21, 1124, to February 13, 1130. Although from a humble background, his obvious intellect and outstanding abilities saw him promoted through the ecclesiastical hierarchy...
in 1128. Honorius once again commanded the named nobles to restore the lands they had confiscated to the church.
Pain gave lands to Llanthony Priory, helping to establish the endowment of that monastic house, although it is difficult to distinguish his gifts from those of Hugh de Lacy, as the monks of Llanthony grouped the gifts of both men together in their records. Besides his grants to Llanthony, he also granted lands to Gloucester Abbey
Gloucester Abbey
Gloucester Abbey was a Benedictine abbey for monks in the city of Gloucester, England. The abbey was founded about 1022 and was dedicated to Saint Peter. It is recorded that the abbey lost about a quarter of its complement of monks in 1377 due to the Black Death.In 1540, the abbey was dissolved by...
, which had also benefited from gifts by his father and brother. His wife, Sybil, also gave lands to Gloucester, and other grants to her uncle, the abbot of Gloucester. Other grants by Sybil were to two churches in Hereford – St Peter and St Guthlac.
Death and legacy
On 10 July 1137 Pain was killed by the Welsh in an ambush, from a javelin blow to the head. He had been attempting to lead a relief expedition to garrison at CarmarthenCarmarthen
Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....
when the ambush was sprung. His burial was in Gloucester Abbey, with the funeral service conducted by Robert de Bethune. A number of barons from the Welsh Marches attended, including Miles of Gloucester. After his death, his widow continued to hold Ludlow Castle until the summer of 1139, when she was forced to surrender it to King Stephen. Stephen then gave Sybil in marriage to Jocelin de Dinan who also acquired Ludlow Castle through his new wife. This set up the background to Gilbert Lacy's attempts to seize Ludlow from Dinan, which forms the basis for the medieval Welsh romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
work Fouke le Fitz Waryn.
Pain left as heirs his two daughters – Cecily and Agnes. His heir male was his brother, Eustace fitzJohn. The two daughters were married five times in total, with Cecily marrying three times but failing to have any direct heirs. Cecily's first husband was Roger
Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford
Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford, was born some time before 1125 and, according to the Hereford Cathedral Book of Obits, died on 22 September 1155...
, the son of Miles of Gloucester. Pain arranged the marriage of Cecily and Roger before Pain's death, with the marriage contract specifying that Roger would inherit all of Pain's lands. With Pain's death, the marriage was delayed until December 1137, when it was contracted, with King Stephen confirming the terms of the marriage settlement. The king also settled the bulk of the inheritance on Cecily, which led to disturbances and a minor war from disappointed claimants to the properties.
The historian W. E. Wrightman described Pain as a "second-class baron and first-class civil servant".