# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Plugenet, Alan de

​PLUGENET, ALAN de (d. 1299), baron, was son of Alan de Plugenet, by Alicia, sister of Robert Walerand (d. 1273); another account makes him son of Andrew de la Bere (G. E. C[okayne], Complete Peerage, vi. 254). His family was settled at Preston Pluchenet in Somerset. He fought on the king's side in the barons' war, and was rewarded in 1265 with the manor of Haselberg, Northamptonshire, from the lands of William Marshall (Blaauw, Barons' War, p. 300 n.; Deputy-Keeper Publ. Rec. 49th Rep. p. 137; Madox, Hist. Exchequer). In 1267 his uncle Robert Walerand, whose brother's sons, Robert and John Walerand, were both idiots, granted him the reversion of Kilpeck Castle, Hereford, with other lands in Somerset, Dorset, and Wiltshire, for a yearly payment of 140l. and a sparrow-hawk (Hoare, Hist. of Wiltshire, Cawden, p. 25). Walerand had also granted Plugenet his estate at Haselberg, Somerset, for the yearly rent of one rosebud (Feet of Fines, p. 55, Somerset Record Soc.) Plugenet and his son had custody of the Walerand estates till the death of John Walerand in 1309, when Plugenet's son Alan was found the true heir (Liber de Antiquis Legibus, pp. lxvi–ii, Camd. Soc.; Cal. Patent Rolls, Edward I, 1281–92, pp. 12, 117, 462). Plugenet was governor of Dunster Castle in 1271. In 1282 he served in the Welsh war. In June 1287 he was sent to Wales, and continued there two years (ib. p. 271). By his oppressive conduct as king's steward he is alleged to have provoked the rising under Rhys ap Meredith in 1287, when Droselan Castle was captured by Edmund, earl of Lancaster (Annales Monastici, iii. 338; cf. Flores Historiarum, iii. 66). Plugenet was, however, entrusted with the duty of repairing the castle, and on the completion of the work was made its constable (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edw. I, 1281–92, pp. 289, 293, 301, 320). On 24 Jan. 1292 he was present with the king at Westminster, and on 18 Aug. of that year was employed on a commission of gaol delivery at Exeter (ib. pp. 469, 520). In 1294 he was summoned for the war of Gascony, and in 1297 was one of the council for the young Prince of Wales during the king's absence in Flanders (Rishanger, Chron. p. 179, Rolls Ser.) He died in 1299, having been summoned to parliament as a baron from 1292 to 1297. Rishanger (u.s.) describes him as a knight of tried discretion. ​By his wife Joan he had a son Alan and a daughter Joan.
Alan de Plugenet (1277–1319) served in Scotland in 1300, 1301, and 1303, and was knighted at the same time as the Prince of Wales, at Whitsuntide 1306. He again served in the Scottish wars from 1309 to 1311, from 1313 to 1317, and in 1319; he was summoned to parliament as a baron in 1311 (Palgrave, Parliamentary Writs, iv. 1299). In June 1315 his mother died, having directed that she should be buried at Sherborne. John de Drokensford [q. v.], the bishop, ordered Plugenet to comply with her wishes. Plugenet made the bishop's messenger eat the letter and wax, and for this outrage was summoned to Wells. He denied the charge, but admitted that he had the messenger so soundly beaten that in his terror he ate the letter without compulsion (Drokensford, Register, pp. 88–9, Somerset Record Soc.) Plugenet died in 1319, and was buried at Dore Abbey; his tomb was inscribed:
Ultimus Alanus de Plukenet hic tumulatur; Nobilis urbanus vermibus esca datur.
He left no issue by his wife Sybil, who in 1327 married Henry de Pembridge, and died in 1353 (Cal. Patent Rolls, Edward III, 1327–30, p. 169; Cal. Inq. post mortem, ii. 181). His sister, Joan de Bohun, was his heiress; she died in 1327, when her lands passed to Richard, son of Richard de la Bere, who was brother of the whole blood to her father (Hoare, Hist. Wiltshire, u.s.).
[Authorities quoted; Kirby's Quest for Somerset, pp. 2–5, 9, 25 (Somerset Record Society); Registrum Malmesburiense, ii. 246–8, Rolls Ser.; Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, v. 554; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 2–3; Lewis's History of Kilpeck; Battle Abbey Roll, iii. 21; Cal. Patent Rolls, 1292–1301, passim; Robinson's Castles of Herefordshire.]
C. L. K.