Josce de Dinan (died 1166) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who lived during and after the civil war between King Stephen of England and his cousin Matilda over the throne of England. He was a landholder in the Welsh Marches when he was married by Stephen to the widow of Pain fitzJohn, a union that gave Josce control of Ludlow Castle. Control of the castle was contested by other noblemen, and the resulting warfare between the nobles forms the background to a late medieval romance known as Fouke le Fitz Waryn, which is mainly concerned with the actions of Josce's grandson, but also includes some material on Josce's lifetime. Josce eventually lost control of Ludlow and was granted lands in compensation by Matilda and her son, King Henry II of England, who succeeded Stephen in 1154.
Background and early life
Following King Henry I's death in 1135, the succession was disputed between the king's nephews—Stephen and his elder brother, Theobald II, Count of Champagne—and Henry's surviving legitimate child Matilda, usually known as the Empress Matilda because of her first marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V. King Henry's only legitimate son, William, had died in 1120. After Matilda was widowed in 1125, she returned to her father, who married her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou.
All the magnates of England and Normandy were required to declare fealty to Matilda as Henry's heir, but after the king's death in 1135 Stephen rushed to England and had himself crowned before either Theobald or Matilda could react. The Norman barons accepted Stephen as Duke of Normandy, and Theobald contented himself with his possessions in France.
But Matilda was less sanguine, and secured the support of her maternal uncle, the Scottish king David I, and in 1138 also that of her half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry I. Nobles in the Welsh Marches revolted against Stephen in 1136, but the revolt was not settled until 1138. In 1139, Matilda invaded southern England with her half-brother's support and the period of civil war began.
Josce was the youngest son of Geoffrey de Dinan and Radegonde Orieldis, and had two older brothers, Oliver of Dinan and Alan of Becherel. Josce's family was from Brittany, and he was described by the historian Marjorie Chibnall as an "obscure Breton adventurer".
Josce moved from Devon in southern England to the Welsh Marches, the border between England and Wales, because the lords of Monmouth were also of Breton extraction. While in the Marches he joined King Stephen's household.
Ludlow Castle
Josce was married to Sybil, the widow of Pain fitzJohn. Pain died in 1137 and Sybil held Ludlow Castle against Stephen in 1139, but surrendered after a siege. Ludlow was an important strategic stronghold for control of the Welsh Borders, and Stephen decided to marry Pain's widow to someone he felt was trustworthy. Upon his marriage Josce also acquired control of the castle, built in the late 11th century. Josce probably also received many of the de Lacy family's holdings in southern Shropshire, but he rebelled against Stephen and fortified Ludlow against the king. Josce's position was so strong that when Stephen granted much of the surrounding lands to Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, Ludlow was specifically exempted. Stephen told Robert that he would have a royal grant of the castle if he could secure Josce's submission as a vassal.
Custody of Ludlow was contested not only by Stephen but also by Gilbert de Lacy, whose efforts to wrest the castle from Josce are the background to the medieval romance Fouke le Fitz Waryn; the extant prose version dates from the 14th century, but it was originally a 13th-century poem, now lost. Gilbert claimed the castle through his familial link with Sybil, fitzJohn's widow, who was a member of the de Lacy family. Others trying to take Ludlow were Hugh de Mortimer and Gilbert de Lacy. According to the Chronicle of Wigmore Abbey, some time after September 1148 Mortimer and Josce became embroiled in a private war, during which Josce seized Mortimer while the latter was travelling. Josce imprisoned his captive in Ludlow and demanded a ransom of 3,000 silver marks, as well as, according to the Chronicle, Mortimer's "plate, his horses, and his birds". Presumably, Mortimer met the ransom, as he is later known to have been a free man.