Richard de Clare

Richard de Clare, third Earl of Hertford, sealed his place in history at Runnymede in 1215 as one of the twenty-five surety barons of Magna Carta, with his son Gilbert standing beside him on the same list. He had married Amice of Gloucester, through whom the earldom of Gloucester came to the Clares and made them the richest house in England. He died in 1217 with the war of the charter still burning. Counting his son, the de Veres, the Bigods, the Lacys and the Quincys, this family descends from a full fifth of the twenty-five.