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Birth:          1155 of Winchester, Hampshire, England
Death:          3 Nov 1219 Dalmietta, on way to Palestine
Burial:         Acre, Palestine

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saer_de_Quincy,_1st_Earl_of_Winchester
Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester (c. 1170 – 3 November 1219) (or Saieur di 
Quinci[1]) was one of the leaders of the baronial rebellion against John, King of 
England, and a major figure in both the kingdoms of Scotland and England in the 
decades around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Scottish Upbringing[edit]

Saer de Quincy's immediate background was in the Scottish kingdom: his father, 
Robert de Quincy, was a knight in the service of King William the Lion, and his 
mother, Orabilis de Mar, was the heiress of the lordship of Leuchars in Fife (see 
below).

His own rise to prominence in England came through his marriage to Margaret, the 
younger sister of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester: but it is probably no 
coincidence that her other brother was the de Quincy's powerful Fife neighbour, Roger 
de Beaumont, Bishop of St Andrews. Earl Robert died in 1204, and left Margaret as 
co-heiress to the vast earldom along with her elder sister. The estate was split in half, 
and after the final division was ratified in 1207, de Quincy was made Earl of 
Winchester.

Earl of Winchester[edit]

Following his marriage, Winchester became a prominent military and diplomatic figure 
in England. There is no evidence of any close alliance with King John, however, and 
his rise to importance was probably due to his newly acquired magnate status and the 
family connections that underpinned it.

One man with whom he does seem to have developed a close personal relationship is 
his cousin, Robert Fitzwalter (d. 1235). In 1203, they served as co-commanders of the 
garrison at the major fortress of Vaudreuil in Normandy. They surrendered the castle 
without a fight to Philip II of France, fatally weakening the English position in northern 
France. Although popular opinion seems to have blamed them for the capitulation, a 
royal writ is extant stating that the castle was surrendered at King John's command, 
and both Winchester and Fitzwalter endured personal humiliation and heavy ransoms 
at the hands of the French.

In Scotland, he was perhaps more successful. In 1211 to 1212, the Earl of Winchester 
commanded an imposing retinue of a hundred knights and a hundred serjeants in 
William the Lion's campaign against the Mac William rebels, a force which some 
historians have suggested may have been the mercenary force from Brabant lent to 
the campaign by John.

Magna Carta[edit]

In 1215, when the baronial rebellion broke out, Robert Fitzwalter became the military 
commander, and the Earl of Winchester joined him, acting as one of the chief authors 
of Magna Carta and negotiators with John; both cousins were among the 25 
guarantors of the Magna Carta. De Quincy fought against John in the troubles that 
followed the sealing of the Charter, and, again with Fitzwalter, travelled to France to 
invite Prince Louis of France to take the English throne. He and Fitzwalter were 
subsequently among the most committed and prominent supporters of Louis's 
candidature for the kingship, against both John and the infant Henry III.

The Fifth Crusade[edit]

When military defeat cleared the way for Henry III to take the throne, de Quincy went 
on crusade, perhaps in fulfilment of an earlier vow. In 1219 he left to join the Fifth 
Crusade, then besieging Damietta. While in the east, he fell sick and died. He was 
buried in Acre, the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, rather than in Egypt, and his 
heart was brought back and interred at Garendon Abbey near Loughborough, a house 
endowed by his wife's family.

Family[edit]

The family of de Quincy had arrived in England after the Norman Conquest, and took 
their name from Cuinchy in the Arrondissement of Béthune; the personal name "Saer" 
was used by them over several generations. Both names are variously spelt in primary 
sources and older modern works, the first name being sometimes rendered Saher or 
Seer, and the surname as Quency or Quenci.

The first recorded Saer de Quincy (known to historians as "Saer I") was lord of the 
manor of Long Buckby in Northamptonshire in the earlier twelfth century, and second 
husband of Matilda of St Liz, stepdaughter of King David I of Scotland by Maud of 
Northumbria. This marriage produced two sons, Saer II and Robert de Quincy. It was 
Robert, the younger son, who was the father of the Saer de Quincy who eventually 
became Earl of Winchester. By her first husband Robert Fitz Richard, Matilda was also 
the paternal grandmother of Earl Saer's close ally, Robert Fitzwalter.

Robert de Quincy seems to have inherited no English lands from his father, and 
pursued a knightly career in Scotland, where he is recorded from around 1160 as a 
close companion of his cousin, King William the Lion. By 1170 he had married Orabilis, 
heiress of the Scottish lordship of Leuchars and, through her, he became lord of an 
extensive complex of estates north of the border which included lands in Fife, 
Strathearn and Lothian.

Saer de Quincy, the son of Robert de Quincy and Orabilis of Leuchars, was raised 
largely in Scotland. His absence from English records for the first decades of his life 
has led some modern historians and genealogists to confuse him with his uncle, Saer 
II, who took part in the rebellion of Henry the Young King in 1173, when the future 
Earl of Winchester can have been no more than a toddler. Saer II's line ended without 
direct heirs, and his nephew and namesake would eventually inherit his estate, uniting 
his primary Scottish holdings with the family's Northamptonshire patrimony, and 
possibly some lands in France.

Issue[edit]

By his wife Margaret de Beaumont, Earl Saer had three sons and three daughters:
Lora who married Sir William de Valognes, Chamberlain of Scotland.
Arabella who married Sir Richard Harcourt.
Robert (d. 1217), before 1206 he married Hawise of Chester, 1st Countess of Lincoln, 
sister and co-heiress of Randolph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester.
Roger, who succeeded his father as earl of Winchester (though he did not take formal 
possession of the earldom until after his mother's death).
Robert de Quincy (second son of that name; d. 1257) who married Elen, daughter of 
the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great.
Hawise, who married Hugh de Vere, 4th Earl of Oxford.

Parents
DE QUINCY Robert (ABT 1127 - BEF 29 Sep 1197)
DE LEUCHARS (DE MAR) Orabella (ABT 1133 - 1181)

Siblings
DE QUINCY Saher IV (1155 - 3 Nov 1219)

Marriage To DE HARCOURT [DE BEAUMONT] Margaret (ABT 1156 - 12 Jan 1236)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
HARCOURT [DE BEAUMONT] Robert "Blanchmains" (ABT 1121 - 31 Aug 1190)
DE GRENTMESNIL Petronille (ABT 1134 - 1 Apr 1212)

Children by DE HARCOURT [DE BEAUMONT] Margaret ABT 1156 - 12 Jan 1236
DE QUINCY Robert (ABT 1186 - Aug 1257)
DE QUINCY Roger (ABT 1195 - 25 Apr 1264)
DE QUINCY Hawise (ABT 1197 - 3 Feb 1264)
DE QUINCY ----- (possibly their daughter) (ABT 1200 - )

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