Bretby: Early lords were men of power and wealth

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Every rank of nobility from knights and barons to dukes and kings has held the manor of Bretby. Local history writer Richard Stone tells of the coming of the Segraves and a grand mediaeval castle.

BRETBY is a picturesque and tranquil village set on the south-west margin of Derbyshire. Its Scandinavian “by” suffix reveals a name originating in the late 9th century when a Danish army settled in central England.

The rivers Trent and Dove marked a boundary between the Danelaw and Anglo-Saxon territory. For many years, Bretby, or “Place of the British”, was a frontier settlement on a troubled border.

Before the Norman Conquest, Earl Algar, son of Lady Godiva and Leofric of Mercia, held Bretby. After Algar died, in 1062, Bretby would have passed either to his widow or one of his sons, Edwin and Morcar.

By the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Bretebi is among the possessions owned by William the Conqueror himself.

Sometime later, ownership transferred to the de Kymba family and, in 1208, it was briefly in the hands of Ranulf de Blundevill, the powerful Earl of Chester.

For the early-mediaeval peasants of Bretby tilling the land, it can have mattered little which rapacious lord of the manor demanded their service.

These were absentee landlords, rarely, if ever, seen, with vast estates spread around the country. That changed when Earl Ranulf sold Bretby to Stephen Segrave around 1209.

Segrave, newly appointed as Justice Itinerant for Derbyshire, chose to make Bretby his home and built himself a fashionable residence suitable for an ambitious young man on the make.

The result was Bretby “Castle”, a spacious hall in the latest style, with domestic buildings arranged around two internal courtyards and a surrounding moat.

Not a castle in the traditional sense of a draughty stronghold perched on an inaccessible rocky crag, but a comfortable home, more Haddon Hall than Peveril of the Peak.

With a large manorial household to support, Bretby now needed other village necessities. Foundations were laid for a church just beyond the castle moat and a watermill was built beside Repton Brook.

The church, dedicated to St Wystan, became one of a number (there were others at Newton Solney, Foremark, Ingleby, Milton, Ticknall, Smisby and Measham) in surrounding villages linked to Repton Priory.

Uniquely among the early religious orders, the Augustinians, known as the Black Canons, did not lead a secluded life in cloisters but worked in the community, taking daily services, running schools and hospitals and helping the poor and needy.

Stephen Segrave is a fascinating figure. A contemporary chronicler, Matthew Paris, claimed that “he came of no parentage”.

While it is true that he was largely a self-made man who rose on merit and against the odds, he did have some advantages. Although his family were from a humble background and were Saxon in a Norman dominated, class-ridden society with a French-speaking elite, his father, Gilbert had prospered.

Henry I, tired of struggling to impose his will on truculent, independent-minded barons, decided on a deliberate policy of training a ministerial class to fill administrative positions.

Gilbert, first of the family to adopt Segrave (after his home village in Leicestershire) as a surname, was clever and able enough to take advantage of the opportunity.

Various public appointments followed. By the time of the Third Crusade, Gilbert was wealthy enough to contribute handsomely (400 marks, the equivalent of £250,000 today) to Richard the Lionheart’s fighting fund.

In 1192, he was appointed joint sheriff of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, a position of power with endless scope for personal profit.

His father’s success enabled Stephen to have the rare privilege of an education, most probably with the monks of Leicester Abbey, where he would also have learned the values of hard work and discipline.

As a clerk, the crown of Stephen’s head would have been shaved in a ceremonial tonsure in preparation for holy orders.

He may even have planned a life of religious dedication. But, instead of the church, Stephen chose to make use of a sharp brain by becoming a lawyer.

He was successful enough to attract the attention of King John, who had shared a similar monastic upbringing and was impressed by the young man’s ability.

Like John, Stephen was something of an outsider. He took no part in the baronial opposition faced by the King and his support and loyalty were rewarded with lucrative and powerful public positions.

In 1203, aged just 27, he was made Constable of the Tower of London and, in 1209, travelling justice for Derbyshire, a meteoric rise that enabled Stephen to buy the manor of Bretby.

Under John’s son and successor, Henry III, he landed the top legal job of Chief Justice, was made governor of several strategically important castles, and served as sheriff of no less than seven counties: Bedfordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Essex and Hertfordshire.

Successive marriages to women from prominent, wealthy families, first Rose Despenser and then Ida Hastings, added to his standing.

When Henry III left to campaign in France, the lord of the manor of Bretby was left in charge of England.

Segrave used his position to appoint his cronies to plum jobs. He and his clique showed little respect for feudal tradition and became increasingly unpopular with the established aristocracy.

According to Matthew Paris, Stephen Segrave “had the reputation of one of the chief men of the realm, managing the greatest affairs as he pleased. In doing whereof, he more minded his own profit than the common good”.

In 1233, there were violent disturbances. Civil war threatened. Arsonists targeted Segrave’s property.

To head off outright insurrection, King Henry brought charges against Segrave for “wasting the King’s treasure” and a warrant was issued.

Stephen avoided arrest by seeking sanctuary at Leicester Abbey. Peace was restored and a deal negotiated. Segrave paid a fine of 1,000 marks, was forgiven by King Henry and reappointed chief counsellor.

Honour restored, Stephen left public life soon afterwards, retiring to end his days as a humble canon at Leicester Abbey, leaving Bretby to his son, Gilbert.

Gilbert Segrave was made governor of Bolsover Castle and Kenilworth Castle and, in 1242, the year after his father’s death, justice for all the royal hunting forests south of the River Trent.

Gilbert’s heir, Nicholas, supported Simon de Montfort against Henry III and led the first charge at the Battle of Lewes, in 1264.

As virtual ruler of England, De Montfort made Nicholas a peer. A year later, defeat at the Battle of Evesham left Nicholas wounded and outlawed, hiding out with the remnants of the rebel army on the Isle of Ely.

Temporarily, Bretby was forfeit to the Crown, but Nicholas was a good soldier and was offered the chance to redeem himself in the King’s service.

Fighting beside the future Edward I on crusade in Wales and in Ireland, he earned a full pardon and also regained the title of 1st Lord Segrave.

John Segrave inherited his father’s fighting spirit, serving with distinction against the Welsh and as the King’s Lieutenant in Scotland where he invented the “Segrave” siege-engine, a type of trebuchet using a counterpoise mechanism to launch rocks at a target. In 1301, John was granted a licence to add battlements to Bretby Castle, more as a trendy fashion statement than for serious military purpose.

No shots were ever fired in anger at Bretby.

John was captured twice during the Scottish campaign of 1302. The first time he was ransomed, the second he was daringly rescued by Ralph Nevill, the “Peacock of the North”.

In 1305, he was one of the judges who condemned William Wallace to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Fighting alongside his older brother in Scotland was Nicholas Segrave. Nicholas quarrelled with John Cromwell, a fellow officer. Forbidden to fight a duel while on campaign, Nicholas and Cromwell withdrew their men and left secretly to settle their differences in France.

On his return to Dover, Nicholas was arrested and summoned to appear before Parliament. He pleaded guilty, knowing the only possible verdict was death. In the event, his sentence was remitted to imprisonment. He was released and pardoned by Edward II when he succeeded to the throne in 1307.

In 1314, the Segrave brothers were back in Scotland, this time with Edward II, and on the losing side against Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.

Once again, John was captured but released in an exchange of prisoners negotiated by his son, Stephen.

Stephen followed in his great-grandfather’s footsteps as Constable of the Tower of London. Understandably angry after rebel Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, escaped from the Tower (in exile Mortimer became Queen Isabella’s lover and was destined to depose the King) , Edward II ordered John, Stephen, and Stephen’s teenage son, John, to defend England’s interests in France.

It was almost as good as a death sentence. An epidemic was raging in Gascony. Stephen and his father both died.

John junior survived and returned to Bretby as 4th Lord Segrave. His marriage to Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Norfolk and granddaughter of Edward I, allied the Segraves to the Plantagenets.

John fought in Scotland and France. In 1346, he left for France from Portsmouth and took part in Edward the Black Prince’s famous victory at Crécy where an outnumbered English army cut down the flower of French aristocracy.

Imagine Lord Segrave marching out from Bretby, lion rampant banner fluttering in the breeze, accompanied by eight knights in burnished armour with their squires, and perhaps 80 men-at-arms and archers.

It was the dawn of a new age of chivalry inspired by Arthurian legend. When John Segrave died in 1353 with no male heir, ownership of Bretby passed to John Mowbray, husband of eldest daughter Elizabeth Segrave.

An elusive trail of clues led me to the tomb of an unknown knight in St Luke’s Church, Gaddesby, Leicestershire, that may be Sir John, 4th Lord Segrave, but positive identification had not been possible.

Lady Margaret lived on at Bretby Castle until her death in 1399, remarrying first Sir Walter Manny, another Crécy veteran, and then Thomas de Erdington.

In the aftermath of Crécy, the prestigious Order of the Garter was founded. Edward III sought to recapture the spirit of chivalry with Windsor as his Camelot and 26 hand-picked nobles representing the Knights of the Round Table.

Lady Margaret was at the joust in Lichfield to see Sir Walter Manny invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1359.

In 1384, their daughter, Anne, became one of the first Ladies of the Garter when she was invested alongside Anne of Bohemia, Queen Consort of England.

Eight generations of Mowbrays held Bretby, but after the death of Lady Margaret, Bretby Castle was no longer a main residence.

When the last of the line, Thomas, Earl of Nottingham, Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshall of England, died childless around 1480, Bretby passed to a cousin William, Viscount Berkeley.

William was followed by his brother Maurice who found himself promptly disinherited for marrying a commoner whose father was “in trade” in Bristol.

It was 70 years before the extensive Berkeley family estate was fully restored. By then, Bretby Castle was neglected, run down and rented out.

In 1585, Bretby was sold, the castle an outdated anachronism whose days were numbered. An even greater house would soon replace it, a house to rival Chatsworth in its magnificence.

Next month, Richard continues the story of the lords of Bretby with tales of rebellion, siege, an eminent Victorian prime minister, a future Queen of England and the curse of Tutunkhamun. Richard Stone’s latest book, The River Trent, is available from local bookshops, priced £14.99.

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