Pain fitzJohn

Pain was born some time before 1100.

Marriage and lands All accounts agree that Pain married in 1115 and that his wife was named Sybil, although the identity of Sybil's parents is unclear. Pain's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry states that he married Sybil Talbot, the niece of Hugh de Lacy. a view shared by fellow historians Judith Green and Paul Dalton. and W. E. Wightman. Others such as Bruce Coplestone-Crow and David Crouch agree with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographys designation of Sybil as Hugh's niece, and daughter of Geoffrey Talbot and Agnes, the sister of Hugh de Lacy.

King Henry and King Stephen recognised Pain as the legitimate holder of the lands acquired through his wife Sybil. Her kinsman Gilbert de Lacy was the son of Roger de Lacy, who had been banished from England in 1095 and his English estates confiscated; he had though retained his properties in Normandy. Roger's English possessions were given to his brother Hugh de Lacy, from whom Sybil had inherited them. On Roger's death Gilbert inherited the lands in Normandy and pressed his claim to the family's former English estates. Coplestone-Crow speculates that the uncertainty hanging over the inheritance was one reason why Pain endeavoured to secure more lands around Ludlow.

Pain is the presumed builder of Pain's Castle in the Welsh county of Radnor. He also controlled Caus Castle in Shropshire, Although he held the title to Weobley Castle, Pain was not the only recipient of Hugh de Lacy's lands; some went to Jocelin de Dinan and some to Miles of Gloucester. his holdings of land were considered to be worth 17 knights fees. By 1130 he had evidently acquired additional properties in Oxfordshire, where he is recorded as being excused payment of danegeld that year. Other evidence against Map's claim that Pain was a chamberlain is that he never attested a royal charter in that office. it appears likely that the three fitzJohn brothers—Pain, Eustace and William—worked to advance each other's careers, as they are frequently found witnessing, or attesting, the same charters and other royal documents.

In 1115, Pain was a witness to a charter of confirmation that King Henry issued to Geoffrey de Clive, the Bishop of Hereford, issued in the Welsh Marches. Sometime between 1123 and 1127 he was appointed Sheriff of Herefordshire, and in 1127 became Sheriff of Shropshire also. and probably until his death. and he had the custody of King Henry's prisoner, Waleran of Melun, from September 1126 until late 1126, when Waleran was moved to Wallingford Castle and the custody of Brian fitzCount. Although Orderic stated that the families of these men were not considered high status, this was probably an exaggeration on the chronicler's part. Pain's family was respectable enough, as his father held a number of properties directly from the king. It appears that Pain did not always take the king's side; the historian C. Warren Hollister has argued that Pain was not among the supporters of Henry's only surviving legitimate child, Matilda, in 1126, when Henry had his nobility swear that they would recognise her as his heiress. Hollister feels that the removal of Waleran from Pain's custody was a sign that Pain had not supported Matilda.

Pain consolidated much of his power in Shropshire and Herefordshire at Bridgnorth Castle, often using that site as a place of business in preference to Shrewsbury, which had previously been the main centre of business for his predecessors as sheriff. As well as Waleran, Pain imprisoned a Welsh hostage there in 1128, Llywelyn ab Owain, the nephew of Maredudd ap Bleddyn, ruler of the Welsh principality of Powys. During Henry's reign, the Welsh border was a zone of frequent raids and conflict between the Anglo-Normans and the Welsh.

The Gesta Stephani indicates that Pain, along with Miles of Gloucester, was a major landholder in the western part of England, and the pair managed to dominate justice in that region. According to the document the two men "raised their power to such a pitch that from the Severn to the sea, all along the border between England and Wales, they involved everyone in litigation and forced services."

The 1130 Pipe Roll noted that Pain was a royal justice in Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, and Pembroke. The Pipe Roll does not record Pain as sheriff in Shropshire, but this is likely because the Shropshire returns for that year are missing from it. Also in 1130, Pain was consulted by the king about the appointment to a vacant bishopric. The Diocese of Hereford had been vacant since the death of Richard de Capella in August 1127, and the king consulted with Pain and the constable of Hereford before accepting their candidate—Robert de Bethune, the prior of Llanthony Priory. Subsequently Caus Castle, which was under Pain's control, was burnt by the Welsh in 1134. Although Pain held Caus, his title to the fortification was unclear, as it had earlier been held by Robert Corbet.

By the end of Henry's reign, Pain had witnessed over 60 royal charters for the king, spanning a period from around 1115 until 1135. Although Pain witnessed a large number of royal documents, this activity took place mostly in England, as few of the documents he witnessed were drawn up while the king was in Normandy.

Under Stephen Following King Henry'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 when Henry I died 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. Matilda, though, was less sanguine, and secured the support of the Scottish king, David, who was her maternal uncle, and in 1138 also that of her half-brother, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry I.

On Henry's death in December 1135, Pain attended the king's funeral. Pain was an early supporter of King Stephen, Nevertheless, Pain was with the new king by early January 1136, when he witnessed one of Stephen's documents, dated to around 4 January 1136, at Reading. By Easter, both Pain and his brother Eustace had formally submitted to the king.

After Henry's death, the Welsh attempted to drive out the Norman lords who had been extending their control into Wales during Henry's reign. Crouch argues that Stephen did not at that time trust Pain, and kept him at the siege to more easily monitor his actions, and to prevent him from defecting to Matilda's cause.

Relations with the Church In 1119 Pope Callixtus II addressed letters to a group of Anglo-Norman landholders in the Welsh Marches, including Pain, accusing them of having appropriated the lands of the Diocese of Llandaff and ordering their return. Pain was among a group of nobles similarly accused by Pope Honorius II in 1128. Honorius once again ordered the nobles to restore to the Church lands they had confiscated.

Pain gave lands to Llanthony Priory, helping to establish the endowment of that monastic house, although it is difficult to distinguish his gifts from those of Hugh de Lacy, as the monks of Llanthony grouped the gifts of both men together in their records. In addition Pain granted lands to Gloucester Abbey, which had benefited from the generosity of his father and brother, as did his wife Sybil, together with other grants to her uncle the abbot. She also gave to two churches in Hereford: St Peter and St Guthlac.

Death and legacy On 10 July 1137 Pain was killed by a javelin blow to the head He was buried in Gloucester Abbey, Pain's widow continued to hold Ludlow Castle until the middle of 1139, when she was forced to surrender it to King Stephen. Stephen then gave Sybil in marriage to Jocelin de Dinan, who consequently acquired Ludlow Castle through his new wife, setting up the background to Gilbert Lacy's attempts to seize Ludlow from Dinan on which the medieval Welsh romance work Fouke le Fitz Waryn is based.

Pain's heirs were his two daughters, Cecily and Agnes. Her first husband was Roger, the son of Miles of Gloucester. Agnes married Warin de Munchensy and after his death Haldenald de Bidun. She died after 1185, by which time she was described as a widow.