Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon

Who was Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon?

Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon was the son of Richard de Redvers and his wife Adeline Peverel.

He was one of the first to rebel against King Stephen, and was the only first rank magnate never to accept the new king. He seized Exeter, and was a pirate out of Carisbrooke, but he was driven out of England to Anjou, where he joined the Empress Matilda. She made him Earl of Devon after she established herself in England, probably in early 1141.

He founded several monasteries, notably those of Quarr Abbey, in the Isle of Wight, a priory at Breamore, Hampshire, and the Priory of St James, at Exeter. Some monastic chronicles call his father also Earl of Devon, but no contemporary record uses the title, including the monastic charters.