Pain fitzJohn was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and administrator. He was one of King Henry I of England’s ‘new men’ who owed their positions and wealth to the king. He appears to have spent most of his career in England and the Welsh Marches. In 1115, he was rewarded with marriage to an heiress, thereby gaining control of the town of Ludlow and its castle. In July 1137, Pain was ambushed by the Welsh and killed while leading a relief expedition to the garrison at Carmarthen. His heirs were his daughters, Cecily and Agnes.
About Pain fitzJohn in brief
Pain fitzJohn was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and administrator. He was one of King Henry I of England’s ‘new men’ who owed their positions and wealth to the king. Pain’s family originated in Normandy, but there is little to suggest that he had many ties there. He appears to have spent most of his career in England and the Welsh Marches. In 1115, he was rewarded with marriage to an heiress, thereby gaining control of the town of Ludlow and its castle. In July 1137, Pain was ambushed by the Welsh and killed while leading a relief expedition to the garrison at Carmarthen. His heirs were his daughters, Cecily and Agnes. Pain was generous in his gifts of land to a number of monastic houses. He also controlled Causus Castle in the Welsh county of Radnor, which went to his wife’s brother Gilbert de Lacy. On Gilbert’s death, Pain pressed his claim to the former English estates in Normandy and pressed for control of Weobley Castle. Pain died in 1137 and was buried in Ludlow, in the county of Shropshire, in Wales. He is buried alongside his wife Sybil, who he married in 1115. Pain may have been a chamberlain to King Henry, but that position is not securely confirmed in contemporary records. He did hold other offices, however, including that of sheriff in two counties near the border between England and Wales. In his capacity as a royal justice, Pain also heard legal cases for the king throughout much of western England. After King Henry’s death in 1135, Pain supported Henry’s nephew, King Stephen, and was with the new king throughout 1136.
The identity of Pain’s mother is uncertain, but it has been speculated that she was a daughter of Ralph Mortimer, who held Wigmore in Domesday Book. The historian K. S. Keats-Rohan states that Pain married Sybil de L Stacy, the daughter of Hugh de L Tracy, a view shared by fellow historians Judith Green and Paul Dalton. Others such as Bruce Coplestone-Crow and David Crouch agree with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’s designation of Sybil as Hugh’s niece, and daughter of Geoffrey Talbot andAgnes, the sister of Agnes, who was herself likely to have been married to Walter de Lacies. Pain is believed to have died in around 1137. His son Eustace was a royal official who owned lands in the north of England. The family lands in England, which were not extensive, were mainly in East Anglia, and Pain appears to has inherited most of them. His other siblings included William, Alice and AgNES. William was probably the same William who later held Harptree in Somerset. Alice was the abbess of Barking Abbey. Agnes became the wife of Roger de Valognes. His brother, EustacesfitzJohn, became a royal. official who Owned lands in north England. He had been in the service of Henry in Normandy before Henry became king. In 1130, his payment for danegeld, a tax, in 1130 for his East Anglian properties was 40 shillings, compared to only 9 shillings.
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