Mary de Monthermer

Mary de Monthermer
Countess of Fife
Spouse(s)	Duncan IV, Earl of Fife
Issue	Isabella, Countess of Fife
Father	Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer
Mother	Joan of Acre

Mary de Monthermer, Countess of Fife (October 1297 – circa 1371) was an English noblewoman. She was a daughter of Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer and his wife Joan of Acre.

Family and early life

Mary's mother Joan was a daughter of Edward I of England. In January 1297, her mother faced the intense disapproval of King Edward when she decided in early 1297 to secretly marry Ralph de Monthermer, a lowly knight in her household. For her second marriage, the King had hoped to marry Joan to Amadeus V, Count of Savoy. Ralph was subsequently imprisoned at Bristol Castle. His release later that year occurred only when Joan made various attempts to persuade her father. She first tried to sway Edward by sending her three young daughters by her first marriage; when this failed to soften his mood, she was allowed to come plead to him in person, according to chroniclers. This she did in July 1297, and is said to have told him that it was no disgrace for an earl to marry a poor woman, it was not blameworthy for a countess to advance a capable young man. However, a more probable reason for his acquiesce is due to the fact that Joan was visibly pregnant with Mary at this time. He restored most of her lands and pardoned Ralph, making him Earl of Gloucester.

He and Joan would come to have five children together. Mary was eldest of them. Mary and her full-siblings most likely lived in her mother's quarters in Windsor Castle and Marlborough Castle until her marriage. Because of the obscurity of her father's birth, Mary's paternal ancestors are not known.

Mary also had four half-siblings from her mother's first marriage to Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford. They were Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, Eleanor de Clare, (wife of Hugh le Despenser the Younger), Margaret de Clare, and Elizabeth de Clare.

Marriage and issue

In 1306-07, her grandfather Edward I and uncle Edward, Prince of Wales arranged for her to wed Duncan Macduff, 8th Earl of Fife (1289–1353). A papal dispensation was granted in 1307. A posthumous child, Donald had spent his minority in England. As was common for the time, she was very young - only nine years old. They had one surviving daughter, who was born fourteen years after they married. She would come to inherit Duncan's lands:

• Isabella, Countess of Fife (1320–1389); married four times with no issue.

In April 1307, Mary's mother died. Ralph ceased to be referred to as Earl of Gloucester shortly after her death, passing the title onto Joan's only son from her first marriage. On 6 November 1314, Duncan freed himself from English control and left for Scotland, leaving his wife behind (Mary would not join him in Scotland until January 1320).

In 1318, Ralph made another advantageous marriage to the widowed Isabella de Hastings, daughter of Hugh le Despenser, Earl of Winchester. The couple apparently had no surviving children.

Later life

In 1332, Mary and her daughter were captured at Perth by supporters of King David II of Scotland. Isabella was sent as a ward to Northumberland, where she married her guardian Sir William Felton. Felton was styled "Lord of Fife" in right of his wife, as Isabella has no brothers.

In 1346, Mary's husband was tried for treason and sentenced to a traitor's death by Edward III of England. He was able to obtain mercy however and was allowed to return ot Scotland to raise money for his ransom, which he did in 1350. Duncan died three years later. Mary would die eighteen years later; their daughter succeeded as Countess of Fife, but resigned the earldom to Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany the same year her mother died.

Ancestry

Family of Mary de Monthermer

2. Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer 1. Mary de Monthermer 24. John of England 12. Henry III of England 25. Isabella of Angoulême 6. Edward I of England 26. Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence 13. Eleanor of Provence 27. Beatrice of Savoy 3. Joan of Acre 28. Alfonso IX of León 14. Ferdinand III of Castile 29. Berengaria of Castile 7. Eleanor of Castile 30. Simon of Dammartin 15. Joan, Countess of Ponthieu 31. Marie, Countess of Ponthieu

Sources

• Lundy, Darryl. "The Peerage: Mary de Monthermer". Retrieved 22 December 2009.
• Underhill, Frances Ann (1999). For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth de Burgh. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312213557.