House of Herbert
Marcher house of Pembroke and Raglan — the bridge between the Welsh gentry and the Tudor court.
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of House of Herbert
Seat vacantChief
No chief yet. The seat awaits its first claimant — be the first to stake your name to House of Herbert.
Current mission
No mission proclaimed. The chief, once seated, sets the clan’s public focus — a campaign, a contest, a piece of restoration, a year of remembrance.
The pledge surface for chiefdoms and missions is being built. Until it ships, register your name through the submit form.
Stake your name →Motto
Ung je serviray
— One I will serve
What does the Herbert name mean?
From the Old German Heribert — 'army-bright' — brought into Wales through the Norman lords of the southern March. The Welsh-language form was Sir Herbert — Sir, in this case, the Welsh 'sir' for a county — and the family rooted in the south-east March became the principal Marcher house of the late medieval and Tudor period. The Herberts of Raglan and Pembroke are the principal line.
The history of House of Herbert
The House of Herbert traces to Sir William ap Thomas (d.1445) of Raglan Castle in Monmouthshire — a Welsh knight in the service of the Duke of York. His son William Herbert (c.1423–1469) took the surname in the English fashion, was created Earl of Pembroke by Edward IV in 1468 — the first Welshman to hold an English earldom — and was the principal Yorkist magnate in Wales. He was executed after defeat at the Battle of Edgcote in 1469.
His grandson, the second creation of the Herbert earldom of Pembroke in 1551, made the Herberts the leading Welsh-Marcher house at the Tudor court. William Herbert, 3rd Earl, was the patron to whom Shakespeare's First Folio is co-dedicated and the 'Mr. W. H.' of the Sonnets, in the most-defended of several scholarly readings. Wilton House, the Herbert seat in Wiltshire, was a centre of Elizabethan literary life.
George Herbert (1593–1633), priest and poet, member of the same family, wrote The Temple — published posthumously, the foundational text of Anglican devotional poetry alongside John Donne's. The Herbert line continues today through the Earls of Pembroke at Wilton.
Notable bearers of the Herbert name
- William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (c.1423–1469) — the first Welshman to hold an English earldom
- George Herbert (1593–1633) — priest and poet (The Temple)
- William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke — patron of the First Folio
Frequently asked
What does the surname Herbert mean?
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Editor notes
- · Verify the Edgcote-execution narrative and the 1551 second-creation of the Pembroke earldom.
- · Cross-border with England — populate alsoIn: ['england'] when the England catalogue ships.
Neighbouring clans
- DaviesSon of David — born of the patron saint's name and densest in his own corner of Wales.
- LewisLlywelyn anglicised — a princely name carried into common use across the Marches and the south.
- Powellap Hywel — the contracted patronymic that descends from Hywel Dda, the king who wrote Welsh law.
- VaughanFychan — the younger — the descriptive surname that marks a son.