William de Mandeville

For the councillor of Henry II and Richard I of England, see William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex.

William de Mandeville (died before 1130)[1] was an Anglo-Norman baron and Constable of the Tower of London.

Life

William de Mandeville inherited the estates of his father Geoffrey de Mandeville, the Domesday tenant-in-chief, around 1100.[2] He was Constable of the Tower of London at that time,[3] and thus keeper of the first person known to be imprisoned there for political reasons, Ranulf Flambard. Flambard's escape in February 1101 would have significant consequences for William.[4]

It is not known if William was in some way complicit in the escape of Flambard, or was simply a careless keeper. Regardless, as a punishment, in 1103 Henry I confiscated the three richest of William's Essex estates, Sawbridgeworth, Saffron Walden, and Great Waltham, comprising about a third of his entire holdings, as well as the constableship giving them to Eudo Dapifer, William’s father-in-law.[5][6] Little is known of William's activities after this.

William married Margaret, daughter of Eudo FitzHubert (Dapifer)[7] and Rohese de Clare. Widowed, Margaret married secondly Othuer fitz Earl (d. 1120), illegitimate son of Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester.[6][8] William and Margaret's son Geoffrey de Mandeville would recover the seized estates and the constableship during the reign of King Stephen.[5]

Family

References

  1. ^ George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, Vol. V (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1926), p. 113
  2. ^ K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, I Domesday Book, (Boydell Press, 1999) p. 227
  3. ^ Ronald Sutherland Gower, The Tower of London, Vol. ii (George Bell & Sons, 1902), p. 179
  4. ^ a b J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, (Longmans, Green, 1892), p. 37
  5. ^ a b C. Warren Hollister, Henry I, Editor Amanda Clark Frost (Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 2003), p. 173
  6. ^ a b Nicholas Vincent, 'Warin and Henry fitz Gerald, the King’s Chamberlains: The Origins of the FitzGeralds Revisited,' Anglo-Norman Studies 21 (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999) pp. 223-260
  7. ^ "Unfortunately, this service is no longer available | University of Essex". [dead link‍]
  8. ^ K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, I Domesday Book, (Boydell Press, 1999) p. 194
  9. ^ George Edward Cokayne,The Complete Peerage, Vol. V (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1926). pp. 113-16
  10. ^ George Edward Cokayne,The Complete Peerage, Vol. XI (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1949). pp. 464-5

Additional references

Peerage of England
Preceded by Constable of the Tower of London
1100-1103 		Succeeded by