Miles of Gloucester

Miles FitzWalter of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, Lord of Brecknock (died 24 December 1143) was High Sheriff of Gloucester and Constable of England.

Miles was the son and heir of Walter of Gloucester, hereditary castellan of Gloucester and sheriff of Gloucester, by Berta, his wife. Miles' grandfather, Roger de Pitres, had been sheriff from about 1071, then was succeeded by his brother Durand, the Domesday sheriff, before 1083. Durand was succeeded by his nephew Walter of Gloucester, c. 1096, who was sheriff in 1097 and in 1105–1106. Walter was in favour with Henry I, three of whose charters to him are extant. Walter held the post of a Constable of England. Early in 1121 his son Miles was given the hand of Sibyl, daughter of Bernard de Neufmarché, the conqueror of Brecknock, with the reversion of her father's possessions. In the Pipe Roll of 1130 Walter is found to have been succeeded by his son, having died in or around 1126.

Miles was (from 1128 at least) sheriff of Gloucestershire, a justice itinerant, and a justice of the forest, and by 1130 was sheriff of Staffordshire. He had also (though the fact has been doubted) been granted his father's office of constable by a special charter. In conjunction with Pain Fitzjohn, sheriff of Herefordshire and Shropshire, he ruled the whole Welsh border "from the Severn to the sea".

On his accession, King Stephen set himself to secure the allegiance of these two lords-marchers, who at length, on receiving a safe-conduct and obtaining all they asked for, did him homage. It was at Reading that they met the king early in 1136. Miles is next found attending the Easter court at Westminster as one of the royal constables, and, shortly after, the Oxford council in the same capacity. He was then despatched to the aid of the widow of Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare, who was beleaguered in her castle by the Welsh and whom he gallantly rescued.

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