Isabella is the eldest daughter of Baldwin…
1293 CE
Isabella is the eldest daughter of Baldwin de Redvers, Sixth Earl of Devon (1217-1245) by his wife Amicia de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Fifth Earl of Hertford.
In 1262, her brother Baldwin de Redvers, Seventh Earl of Devon, died and left her his lands in Devon, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, and Harewood in Yorkshire.
She was in her mid-twenties, had been widowed two years before having been left with a rich dower, and therefore became one of the richest heiresses in England, and a much sought after wife for several powerful and ambitious men.
She subsequently calls herself "Countess of Aumale and of Devon and Lady of the Isle" (of Wight).
At the age of eleven or twelve she became the second wife of William de Forz, Fourth Earl of Albemarle, who held land in Yorkshire and Cumberland and was Count of Aumale in Normandy.
When he died in 1260, part of his estates were granted to her as her dower lands.
Isabella has outlived all six of her children by William de Forz.
It is known that King Edward I had long wanted to acquire Isabella's estates.
In 1276, he had proposed that she should sell her southern lands to him, but the conveyance was not completed.
Following the death of her daughter and last surviving heir Aveline de Forz (1258-1273), a certain John de Eston had been found (against expectations) by a jury at her inquisition post mortem to be Isabella's next heir.
In 1278, this John de Eston had quitclaimed her lands in the north and the County of Aumale and its associated lands to the Crown.
In 1293, the king reopens negotiations to acquire Isabella's southern lands.
While traveling from Canterbury, Isabella is taken ill and stops near Lambeth.
One of Edward's favorite servants, Walter Langton, rushes to her and writes a charter to confirm the sale of the Isle of Wight to the king.
It is read to the dying Isabella, who orders her lady of the bedchamber to seal it.
She dies in the early morning of November 10, 1293 and is buried at Breamore Priory in Hampshire.