Maud de Clare ★

1270s–1310s

Born around 1276, eldest daughter of Thomas de Clare, Lord of Thomond, and Juliana FitzMaurice. Married Robert de Clifford on 3 November 1295; they had three children. Widowed when he was killed at Bannockburn in 1314, she married Sir Robert de Welle on 16 November 1315 without royal licence.

1320s

Settled at Badlesmere in Kent, near her sister Margaret, and died there on 4 May 1327.

Family Background

Maud de Clare was born around 1276, eldest daughter of Thomas de Clare, Lord of Thomond, and Juliana FitzMaurice; her father held substantial Irish estates including Inchiquin, Youghal, and Bunratty Castle, along with the stewardship of the Forest of Essex. Her sister Margaret de Clare became Baroness Badlesmere.

First Marriage to Robert de Clifford

Maud married Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, on November 3, 1295, and the marriage produced three children: Roger de Clifford, who succeeded as 2nd Baron; Robert de Clifford, later 3rd Baron; and Idonea de Clifford, who became Baroness Percy through her marriage to Henry Percy, 2nd Lord Percy. The marriage ended when Robert was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

Second Marriage and Royal Displeasure

On November 16, 1315, Maud married Sir Robert de Welle, Constable of Pendragon Castle, without first obtaining royal licence, which angered the king; some accounts say it cost her a share of her nephew's estates, which she and her sister Margaret had been in line to inherit. The couple had no children.

Later Life and Death

After both marriages ended, Maud settled at Badlesmere in Kent to be near her sister Margaret, and died there May 4, 1327, around the age of fifty.