Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bohun, Humphrey III de
BOHUN, HUMPHREY III de (d. 1187), baronial supporter of Henry II, was the third of his name in the family settled in England after the Norman conquest. The founder of the house, Humphrey de Bohun, surnamed ‘with the beard,’ was succeeded by his son Humphrey II, who married, at some date between 1087 and 1100, Maud, daughter of Edward de Saresburie. Humphrey III was probably born about the end of the first decade of the twelfth century, and in some points he seems to have been confounded with his father. For example, to the father was probably due the foundation of the priory of Farleigh in Wiltshire, which is attributed to the son. The latter is also said to have served as steward or sewer to Henry I. At the beginning of Stephen's reign he was one of the witnesses of that king's laws; but in 1139, when the Empress Matilda landed, he joined her standard, and by the advice of Milo of Gloucester, earl of Hereford, his father-in-law, he fortified his stronghold of Trowbridge against the king. Yet in the next year he appears as sewer to Stephen, an office which he also held in the empress's household. He was taken prisoner at Winchester in 1141, fighting on Matilda's side.
After the accession of Henry II Humphrey de Bohun scarcely appears at all in the history of the early years of the reign. He was, however, one of the barons summoned to the council held at Clarendon in January 1164, in which were framed the celebrated constitutions, and nine years later, 1173, he stood firm by the king in the rebellion of Prince Henry, and with Richard de Lucy, the justiciar, and other loyal barons invaded Scotland to check William the Lion, who supported the prince. But the landing of Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester, compelled them hastily to conclude a truce and to march against the earl's forces, which they totally defeated at Fornham St. Genevieve in Suffolk, 16 or 17 Oct. In 1176 Bohun was present at the convention of Falaise, when the Scottish king recognised the supremacy of the English crown. He died 6 April 1187, and was buried at Lanthony, Gloucestershire; having married Margaret, eldest daughter of Milo of Gloucester, earl of Hereford, and constable of England (d. 1140), on the failure of whose male line those honours were carried over through the same Margaret to the house of Bohun. Humphrey's son, Humphrey IV, sometimes styled earl of Hereford and constable, predeceased him in 1182, having married Margaret, daughter of Henry, earl of Huntingdon (son of David, king of Scotland), and widow of Conan-le-Petit, earl of Brittany and Richmond (d. 1171), and leaving a son Henry [q. v.], created earl of Hereford in 1199.
[Chronicles of Benedict of Peterborough and Roger of Hoveden; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 179; Foss's Judges of England, i. 125; Upton's Itinerary of Henry II; Add. MS. 31939. f. 182.]