Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/St. Amand, Almaric de
ST. AMAND, ALMARIC de, third Baron de St. Amand (1314?–1382), justiciar of Ireland, was son of John de St. Amand. His ancestor, Almaric de St. Amand (fl. 1240), had a grant of Liskeard in 1222, and was heir of the lands of Walter de Verdun in Ireland. He was sheriff of Herefordshire and warden of the castles of Hereford and St. Briavel's in 1234. He was godfather to the future Edward I in 1239, and went on the crusade in 1240 (Matt. Paris, iii. 540, iv. 44). His grandson, Almaric de St. Amand, who died in 1285, left three sons. Guy, the eldest, died soon after his father. Almaric, the second son, born in 1268, served in Gascony in 1294, and in Scotland in 1300 and 1306; was summoned to parliament in 1300, and signed the barons' letter to the pope, on 12 Feb. 1301, as ‘Dominus de Wydehaye’ (Chron. Edw. I and Edw. II, i. 123); he died without issue in 1310, and was succeeded by his brother John, who is styled ‘magister,’ and presumably had received a clerkly training (Cal. Close Rolls, Edw. II, i. 284, iii. 200, 332). John de St. Amand was summoned to parliament from 1313 to 1326, and was the father of the justiciar of Ireland.
Almaric de St. Amand, born probably in 1314, had livery of his lands in 1335. He served in Scotland in 1338 and in the French wars in 1342, 1345, and 1346. In 1347 he had 200l. per annum for his services in the wars. He took part in the abortive campaign in Scotland under Sir Robert Herle in 1355 (Geoffrey le Baker, p. 126, ed. Thompson). He was lord of Gormanstown in Meath, and, after the death of Sir Thomas Rokeby [q. v.] in 1356, was appointed justiciar of Ireland on 14 July 1357 with 500l. per annum (Fœdera, iii. 361). Maurice Fitzgerald, fourth earl of Kildare [q. v.], was for a time his substitute, but St. Amand came to Ireland before the end of the year. He went back to England in 1358, and, on 16 Feb. 1359, vacated his office (ib. iii. 368, 419). During 1358 St. Amand served in France. On 15 March 1361 he was summoned to attend a council on the affairs of Ireland (ib. iii. 610). In 1368 he once more served in France, and in 1373 was steward of Rockingham Castle. He was summoned to parliament from 1370, and died in 1382. His male line became extinct with his son, Almaric de St. Amand, fourth baron, who died in 1403. A daughter of Gerard de Braybrooke, grandson of the last baron, married William Beauchamp of Powyk, who was summoned to parliament as Baron de St. Amand in 1449.
[Annales Hiberniæ ap. Chart. St. Mary, Dublin, ii. 393, Annales Monastici (Rolls Ser.); Book of Howth; Roberts's Calendarium Genealogicum; Fœdera, iii. 49, 82, Record edition; Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edw. I, and of Close Rolls, Edw. II; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 19–20; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland, pp. 211–14; other authorities quoted.]