Maud de St Valéry

1154 - 1211  (57 years)

• Name	Maud de St Valéry  [1, 2, 3]
  Birth	1154	Beckley, Oxfordshire, England   [1, 2, 3]
  Gender	Female
  Military - Old World	1198
  	Maud defended Painscastle in Elfael against a massive Welsh attack led by Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys. She successfully held off Gwenwynwyn's forces for three weeks until English reinforcements arrived. Over three thousand Welsh were killed
  Death	9 Aug 1211	Corfe Castle, Dorset, England   [1, 2, 3]
  	Starved to death by King John
  Burial	Corfe Castle, Dorset, England
  	Maud and son, William, were walled up in their castle to starve (and die) by John Lackland, so they might not be 'buried'
  		Castle-Corfe Corfe Castle, within whose dungeon Maud de Braose and her son William were starved to death
  Person ID	I19893	A Tree Called Smith
  Last Modified	21 Jul 2025

  
  

  Father	Bernard de St Valéry, IV,   b. 1125, Beckley, Oxfordshire, England d. 1190, Israel (Age 65 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Matilda de st valery,   b. Abt 1128, Isleworth, Middlesex, England d. 1157 (Age 29 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Marriage	1146	Isleworth, Middlesex, England
  Family ID	F1617	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Lord Brecknock of Bramber, 11th Lord of Abergavenny, 5th Baron de Braiose William de Braose, III,   b. 24 Dec 1153, Bramber, Sussex, England d. 9 Aug 1211, Corbeil, Essonne, Île-de-France, France (Age 57 years)
  Marriage	1172	Bramber, Sussex, England
  	Bramber Castle
  Children	1. 5th Lord of Bramber William de Braose, IV,   b. 1175, Bramber, Sussex, England d. 9 Aug 1211, Corfe Castle, Dorset, England (Age 36 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F7646	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	21 Jul 2025

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1154 - Beckley, Oxfordshire, England Marriage - 1172 - Bramber, Sussex, England Death - 9 Aug 1211 - Corfe Castle, Dorset, England Burial - - Corfe Castle, Dorset, England  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Arms Icons & Insignia

  Arms-St VALERY St Valery Coat of Arms

  
  

  Biographies and Histories

  History-deBRAOSE William III and IV William de Braose III, 4th Lord of Bramber, and William de Braose IV, and how their deaths influenced the Magna Carta

  
  

  Places

  Castle-Corfe Corfe Castle, within whose dungeon Maud de Braose and her son William were starved to death

  
  

• Sources

  [S984] Heritage Consulting, Millennium File, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2003;). [S6040] FindAGrave Old World, Maud de St. Valéry de Braose 1154-1210. Maud de St. Valéry was born in France in about 1154, she was the daughter of Bernard de St. Valéry. Her paternal grandfather was Reginald de St. Valery. She married William de Braose, Lord Abergavenny, 4th Lord of Bramber about 1166. He was the son of William de Braose, 3rd Lord of Bramber and Bertha of Hereford de Pitres In 1208, William de Braose quarrelled with his friend and patron King John. John demanded Maud's son William be sent to him as a hostage for her husband's loyalty. Maud refused, and stated loudly within earshot of the King's officers that "she would not deliver her children to a king who had murdered his own nephew (Arthur of Brittany)." Maud tried to make amends but King John refused to be mollified and quickly led a force to the Welsh border and seized all of the castles that belonged to William de Braose. Maud and her son escaped but were apprehended on the Antrim coast while trying to sail for Scotland. After being briefly held at Carrickfergus Castle, they were sent to England. They were first imprisoned at Windsor Castle, but were shortly afterwards transferred to Corfe Castle in Dorset where they were walled alive inside the dungeon. Maud and William both starved to death. Her husband died a year later in exile in France. The manner in which Maud and her son William met their deaths so outraged the English nobility that Magna Carta, which King John was forced to sign in 1215, contains clause 39; it reads: No man shall be taken ,imprisoned, outlawed, banished or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86930058/maud-de_braose [S202] Ancestry.com, Web: Netherlands, GenealogieOnline Trees Index, 1000-Current, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2014;).