Dervorgille de Balliol

ACHIEVEMENTS: established Balliol College, one of the oldest colleges at the University of Oxford

(c. 1210-1290) She was one of the great women of the Late Medieval period. She became Lord of the Manor of both Lothingland and Lowestoft in 1228, doing a large swap of her family lands in Cheshire, with Henry III, for many royal manors in various parts of England. This, because the King wanted a buffer zone against the Welsh. She would never have visited Lowestoft, but collected the annual rents due from Lowestoft tenants via the manor’s steward.

She founded Balliol College, Oxford, for poor students in 1263 and guaranteed its survival with a permanent endowment in 1282. Wife of John de Balliol, Lord of Barnard Castle. CREDIT: David Butcher

See also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/