FALKES DE

BREAUTE (d. 1226)  , one of the foreign mercenaries of King John of England, from whom he received in marriage the heiress of the earldom of Devon . On the outbreak of the Barons' War (1213) the king gave him the sheriffdoms of six midland shires and the custody of many castles . He fulfilled his military duties with as much skill as cruelty . The royalists owed to his daring the decisive victory of Lincoln (1217) . But after the death of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, Falkes joined the feudal opposition in conspiring against Hubert de Burgh . Deprived in 1223 of most of his honours, he was drawn into a rebellion by the imprudence of his brother, who captured a royal justice and threw him into prison (1224) . Falkes was allowed to go into exile after his submission, and endeavoured to obtain a pardon through the mediation of Pope Honorius III . But this was refused, and Falkes died at St Cyriac in 1226 . See Shirley, Royal Letters, vol. i.; the Patent and Close Rolls; Pauli, Geschichte von England, vol. i. pp . 540-545 . (H . W .

C .