![Arms of Fitzwarin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Arms_of_Fitzwarin.svg)
Fulk FitzWarin (1160x1180 – c. 1258), variant spellings (
Latinized ''Fulco filius Garini'', Welsh ''Syr ffwg ap Gwarin''), the third (Fulk III), was a prominent representative of a
marcher family associated especially with estates in
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
(on the English border with
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
) and at
Alveston
Alveston is a village, civil parish and former royal manor in South Gloucestershire, England, inhabited in 2014 by about 3,000 people. The village lies south of Thornbury and north of Bristol. Alveston is twinned with Courville sur E ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
. In young life (c. 1200–1203), early in the reign of
King John (1199–1216), he won notoriety as the
outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
ed leader of a roving force striving to recover his familial right to
Whittington Castle
Whittington Castle is a castle in northern Shropshire, England, owned and managed by the Whittington Castle Preservation Fund. The castle was originally a motte-and-bailey castle, but this was replaced in the 13th century by one with buildings ar ...
in Shropshire, which John had granted away to a Welsh claimant. Progressively rehabilitated, and enjoying his lordship, he endured further setbacks in 1215–1217.
Thereafter, his connections with the court of
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth
Llywelyn, Llewelyn or Llewellyn is a name of Welsh language origins. See Llywelyn (name) for the name's etymology, history and other details.
As a surname Arts
* Carmen Llywelyn, American actress and photographer
* Chris Llewellyn (poet), America ...
and his usefulness to the English king placed him in the midst of a larger conflict in which he lost Whittington to Llywelyn for a year in 1223–1224, though that prince was said to have married his daughter. During the 1220s Fulk founded
Alberbury Priory in Shropshire, which became the smallest and last-established of the three English houses dependent upon the
Order of Grandmont
Grandmontines were the monks of the Order of Grandmont, a religious order founded by Saint Stephen of Thiers, towards the end of the 11th century. The order was named after its motherhouse, Grandmont Abbey in the eponymous village, now part of ...
. Always ready to defend his rights, Fulk lived to a ripe old age and was buried at Alberbury beside his two wives, leaving heirs and daughters and a plentiful posterity among whom the name of Fulk FitzWarin was continuously renewed in later centuries. His grandson was
Fulk V FitzWarin, 1st Baron FitzWarin (1251–1315).
After his death, Fulk became the subject of a popular "
ancestral romance" in French verse, ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'', relating his life as an outlaw and his struggle to regain his patrimony from the king.
[T. Wright (ed. and transl.), ''The History of Fulk Fitz Warine, an Outlawed Baron in the Reign of King John'', Warton Club]
(London 1855)
(Internet Archive). This survives in a prose version, and combines historical material with
legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
ary and fantastical elements which are heroic rather than strictly biographical.
[K. Bedford, 'Fouke le Fitz Waryn: Outlaw or Chivalric Hero?', in A.L. Kaufman (ed.), ''British Outlaws of Literature and History: Essays on Medieval and Early Modern Figures from Robin Hood to Twm Shon Catty'', (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2011), p. 97.]
Origins
Although the name Fitz Warin means "son of Warin", it was Fulk's grandfather,
Fulk I FitzWarin
Fulk I FitzWarin ( born 1115, died 1170/1) (''alias'' Fulke, Fouke, FitzWaryn, FitzWarren, Fitz Warine, etc., Latinised to ''Fulco Filius Warini'', "Fulk son of Warin") was a powerful marcher lord seated at Whittington Castle in Shropshire in E ...
, whose father's name was Warin, or Guarine, of
Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...
, in
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
.
[G.E. Cokayne, ''The Complete Peerage'', V, p. 495, note (c)] Warin (who appears in the Romance of ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'' as "Warin de Meer") is however a "shadowy or
myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...
ical figure" about whom little is known.
Whatever his origin, the head of this family is generally held to have come to England during the reign of
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
(1066-1087). Neither he nor his sons were then
tenants-in-chief
In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as oppos ...
(i.e. important
vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...
s or
feudal barons): their estates were granted by later kings.
Fulk I was associated with the Peverels:
William Peverel the Younger
William "the Younger" Peverel ( or – after 1155) was the son of William Peverel. He lived in Nottingham, England.
He married Avicia de Lancaster (1088 – ) in La Marche, Normandy, France. She was possibly the daughter of William de Lancaste ...
granted him a
knight's fee
In feudal Anglo-Norman England and Ireland, a knight's fee was a unit measure of land deemed sufficient to support a knight. Of necessity, it would not only provide sustenance for himself, his family, and servants, but also the means to furnish him ...
in
Tadlow
Tadlow is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England on the River Cam (or Rhee). It is south-west of Cambridge and north-east of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. In 2001 the population was 181 and the area of the village is ...
, Cambridgeshire, before 1148 which King
Henry II confirmed in 1154. Henry rewarded Fulk I for his support of the
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda ( 7 February 110210 September 1167), also known as the Empress Maude, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I of England, she moved to Germany as ...
during the
civil war
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
by conferring upon him the royal
manor of
Alveston
Alveston is a village, civil parish and former royal manor in South Gloucestershire, England, inhabited in 2014 by about 3,000 people. The village lies south of Thornbury and north of Bristol. Alveston is twinned with Courville sur E ...
in Gloucestershire (by 1155) and the manor of Whadborough in
Loddington, Leicestershire. His son Fulk II
held
Held may refer to:
Places
* Held Glacier
People Arts and media
* Adolph Held (1885–1969), U.S. newspaper editor, banker, labor activist
*Al Held (1928–2005), U.S. abstract expressionist painter.
*Alexander Held (born 1958), German television ...
those properties after the death of his father in 1171. In the time of
Robert Foliot, Bishop of Hereford (1174-1186), Fulk II gave land at Tadlow to
Shrewsbury Abbey
The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Shrewsbury (commonly known as Shrewsbury Abbey) is an ancient foundation in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England.
The Abbey was founded in 1083 as a Benedictine monastery by the Norm ...
to settle a controversy over the
patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
of the church of
Alberbury
Alberbury is a village in Shropshire, England, west of Shrewsbury on the B4393 road which travels from Ford to Lake Vyrnwy. It is on to the England-Wales border, marked by Prince's Oak.
The River Severn runs just north of the village, and most o ...
, Shropshire, in his own favour. The FitzWarin land tenure at Alberbury, held from the
Fee of Caus, was therefore presumably already in place.
At some time before 1178 Fulk II married Hawise, one of the two daughters and co-heirs of
Josce de Dinan
Josce de Dinan (died 1166) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who lived during and after the civil war between King Stephen of England and his cousin Matilda over the throne of England. He was a landholder in the Welsh Marches when he was married by S ...
and his wife
Sybil, widow of
Pain fitzJohn
Pain fitzJohn (before 110010 July 1137) was an Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman nobleman and administrator, one of King Henry I of England's "list of Henry's new men, new men", who owed their positions and wealth to the king.
Pain's family originate ...
. Josce had held
Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle is a ruined medieval fortification in the town of the same name in the English county of Shropshire, standing on a promontory overlooking the River Teme. The castle was probably founded by Walter de Lacy after the Norman conque ...
in the Welsh Marches for the Empress Matilda during the civil war, but it was not expedient for Henry II to confirm Ludlow to Josce, and in place thereof, he granted to him the large manorial estate of
Lambourn
Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of ra ...
in Berkshire, with its appurtenances, amounting to a considerable value. Josce died by 1167, and Lambourn became the inheritance, in two parts, of his daughters Hawise and Sybil (who married Hugo de Plugenet).
Fulk II and Hawise de Dinan were the parents of Fulk FitzWarin III.
;How John and Fulk came to blows
The ''FitzWaryn Romance'' tells that Fulk II and Hawise lived in proximity to the king, and had sons Fulk, William, Philip, John and Alan (who appear as real historical persons in contemporary records). It further states that young Fulk was bred with the four sons of King Henry, who all loved him except for
Prince John (born 1166): ''Fouke le jeouene fust norry ou les iiij. fitz Henré le roy, et mout amé de tous, estre de Johan...'' The story goes that Fulk and John quarrelled over a game of chess: John struck Fulk over the head with the chessboard, whereat Fulk's foot made a connection with the prince's abdomen, and John fell back, banging his head against the wall. John went off to tell his father, who had him beaten for complaining.
This merry episode reflects a truth, for John was brought up under the tutelage of
Ranulf de Glanvill (who became King Henry's
Chief Justiciar
Justiciar is the English form of the medieval Latin term ''justiciarius'' or ''justitiarius'' ("man of justice", i.e. judge). During the Middle Ages in England, the Chief Justiciar (later known simply as the Justiciar) was roughly equivalent ...
in 1180), as were Ranulf's nephews
Hubert Walter and
Theobald Walter, with whom (and with Ranulf's grandson
Robert de Auberville), Fulk III later became closely connected by marriage. The
milieu
The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educate ...
s of the English royal court and the princely courts of Wales are never far distant from Fulk's story.
Career
The lordship of Whittington
![Whittington Castle, Shropshire, UK](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Whittington_Castle%2C_Shropshire%2C_UK.jpg)
Fulk II encountered many problems in receiving his
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
patrimony and other claimed lands. Among the latter was
Whittington Castle
Whittington Castle is a castle in northern Shropshire, England, owned and managed by the Whittington Castle Preservation Fund. The castle was originally a motte-and-bailey castle, but this was replaced in the 13th century by one with buildings ar ...
, a site north-east of
Oswestry
Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads.
The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
which had been fortified by William Peverel the younger in 1138 in support of Empress Matilda.
[Meisel, ''Barons of the Welsh Frontier'', p. 35] Fulk I, it is supposed, had held this from the
Honour of Peverel
The Honour of Peverel (also known as the Feudal Barony of the Peak) is a geographic area in the north of England comprising part of the historic feudal barony held by the Norman Peverel family. The honour was granted to William Peverel (c. 1050 ...
. The Castle stands on the English (eastern) side of
Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke ( cy, Clawdd Offa) is a large linear earthwork that roughly follows the border between England and Wales. The structure is named after Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia from AD 757 until 796, who is traditionally believed to h ...
, the ancient boundary between England and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. During the late 1140s the lordship of
Whittington
Whittington may refer to:
Places
* Whittington, Victoria, Australia
* Whittington, Illinois, United States
England
* Old Whittington, Derbyshire
* New Whittington, Derbyshire
* Whittington Moor, Derbyshire
* Whittington, Gloucestershire
* Whit ...
, as with Oswestry and Overton, was ceded from English authority and became a Welsh
marcher lord
A Marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales.
A Marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in F ...
ship within the
Kingdom of Powys
The Kingdom of Powys ( cy, Teyrnas Powys; la, Regnum Poysiae) was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the northern ...
.
In 1165 Henry II granted the castle of Whittington to Roger de Powys, a Welsh leader, and in about 1173 gave him funds for its repair. Fulk II successfully claimed for the restitution of Whittington, a judgement mentioned in the
Pipe Roll for 1195 when he owed a Fine of 40 marks to have
seisin Seisin (or seizin) denotes the legal possession of a feudal fiefdom or fee, that is to say an estate in land. It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with co ...
: but he never paid this, and was dead by 1197. It, therefore, remained in Welsh hands.
Fulk III then renewed his father's claim,
[Painter, ''The Reign of King John'', p. 52] and in 1197 offered
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
of £100 for it as his inheritance. However, on 11 April 1200
King John granted it to Meurig (Maurice), son of Roger of Powis, who had offered half that sum. Again, after Maurice's death in August 1200, King John granted it to Maurice's son Werennoc.
Rebellion and outlawry
Whether John's refusal to honour Fulk's hereditary claim to Whittington was personal or political, it was this which by April 1201 drove Fulk openly into armed defiance of the King. He was accompanied by approximately fifty-two followers including his brothers William, Phillip and John, by his cousins, and by the family's many tenants and allies in the Marches.
Although it is an important element in the Romance of ''Fouke'', the uprising is not described in detail by more formal chroniclers.
It was sufficiently troublesome, however, that when in the spring of 1201 King John crossed into
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
and
Poitou
Poitou (, , ; ; Poitevin: ''Poetou'') was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. Both Poitou and Poitiers are named after the Pictones Gallic tribe.
Geography
The main historical cities are Poitiers (historical c ...
to suppress a revolt by the
Lusignans
The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries dur ...
, he assigned 100 knights to
Hubert de Burgh
Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent (; ; ; c.1170 – before 5 May 1243) was an English nobleman who served as Justiciar, Chief Justiciar of England and Ireland during the reigns of King John, King of England, John and of his son and successor Kin ...
with instructions for him to put down the activities of Fulk and his band, and those of a renegade in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
. The ''Annales Cestrienses'' tell that in 1202 Fulk was obliged to make his escape by sea, and, having got away with a few of his followers, took refuge in
Stanley Abbey
Stanley Abbey was a medieval abbey near Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, which flourished between 1151 and 1536.
Foundation
The abbey was given by Empress Matilda in 1151 to monks from Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. Originally at Loxwell, t ...
near
Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...
, Wiltshire. There he was besieged by the king's forces, after which Archbishop
Hubert Walter with a number of the clergy got him away and kept him for some time in his court. Then Fulk set off quietly with many armed men to join the King of France.
Pardons were granted during that year for Eustace de Kivilly and Gilbert de Duure, for having been associated with him. Fulk himself seems to have had difficulty coming to terms with the king, for in 1203 there are three separate safe-conducts for him and his company to attend and leave the royal presence. In November 1203 he was pardoned together with over thirty of his followers. In October 1204, by a fine of 200 marks, Fulk at last received "right and inheritance" in Whittington. The castle thereafter descended in the
FitzWarin family, all subsequent holders being named Fulk, until the death of Fulk (XI), the 7th Baron FitzWarin, in 1420.
The first marriage
By 1207 Fulk III married
Maud (Matilda), daughter and heir of Robert le Vavasour, and widow of
Theobald Walter, 1st Chief Butler of Ireland
Theobald Walter (sometimes Theobald FitzWalter, Theobald Butler, or Theobald Walter le Boteler) was the first Chief Butler of Ireland. He also held the office of Chief Butler of England and was the High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1194. Theobald w ...
, who died late in 1205 in Ireland.
[W. Farrer and C.T. Clay, ''Early Yorkshire Charters'', XI: The Percy Fee (Cambridge University Press, 1963 edition)]
p. 130
(Google). Theobald (of
Warrington
Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...
), who was granted his Irish office in 1185 in service to Prince John's Lordship of Ireland, assisted his brother Hubert Walter in receiving the surrender of John's supporters in
Lancaster in 1194. John, after his accession to the throne in 1199, in 1200 deprived Theobald of his lands and offices and did not restore them to him until 1202. His children included the
second Theobald.
Maud's dower included one-third of the lands Theobald had held from the king in Ireland, as well as of those in Norfolk and Lancashire: which were released immediately, but a dower from Theobald's lands in
Amounderness
The Amounderness Hundred () is one of the six subdivisions of the historic county of Lancashire in North West England, but the name is older than the system of hundreds first recorded in the 13th century and might best be described as the name ...
was in the king's hand in 1215. For the huge fine of 1,200 marks levied upon Fulk for this marriage he secured pledges from his brother William and from Maud's father, a tenant of the
feudal barony
A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely been ...
of
Skipton
Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Air ...
in Yorkshire.
The high regard in which Fulk was then held is shown by the names of his sureties, which included the Peverels,
Alan Basset
Alan Basset (died 1232 or 1233) was an English baron.
Basset was a younger son of Adeliza and Thomas Basset of Headington, Oxfordshire. In like favour with Richard I and with John, he received from the former the lordships of Woking and Mapled ...
,
William de Braose (died 1230)
William de Braose (c. 1197 – 2 May 1230) was the son of Reginald de Braose by his first wife, Grecia Briwere. He was an ill-fated member of the House of Braose, a powerful and long-lived dynasty of Marcher Lords.
Biography
William de Braose ...
, a de Lacy,
William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury
William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (born in or before 11677 March 1226) ("Long Sword", Latinised to ''de Longa Spatha'') was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, primarily remembered for his command of the English forces at the Battle of Damme an ...
and
Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal ...
. In 1210 he accompanied the king to Ireland, and was at
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
and
Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus ( , meaning " Fergus' rock") is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It sits on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,998 at the 2011 Census. It is County Antrim's oldest t ...
. In 1213 the king granted timbers from Leicester Forest to Fulk for his dwelling at the Vavasour
hereditament In common law, a hereditament (from Latin ''hereditare'', to inherit, from ''heres'', heir) is any kind of property that can be inherited.
Hereditaments are divided into corporeal and incorporeal. Corporeal hereditaments are "such as affect the se ...
of
Narborough, Leicestershire
Narborough is a large village and civil parish in the Blaby district of Leicestershire, England, around southwest of Leicester. The population of the civil parish (including Littlethorpe) was 8,498.
The name is derived from the Old English ...
, and for the construction of a chamber there.
On 9 February 1214, when King John again set sail for
Poitou
Poitou (, , ; ; Poitevin: ''Poetou'') was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. Both Poitou and Poitiers are named after the Pictones Gallic tribe.
Geography
The main historical cities are Poitiers (historical c ...
, Fulk was among the barons who accompanied him. He is believed to have been a vassal of
Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Gloucester at that time. In September of that year Fulk,
Walter de Lacy and many others were with King John at
Parthenay
Parthenay () is an ancient fortified town and ''commune'' in the Deux-Sèvres department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. It is sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on two sides by the River Thouet, and is the su ...
, to witness John's 5-year peace treaty with King
Philip Augustus of France
Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French m ...
. Over the months immediately following he is found among the malcontent barons who, between their meetings at
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
in November and at the
New Temple in January, sought to bring John to a realization of their grievances. By December 1215 Fulk's name appears in the list of English barons excommunicated by
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...
's
bull
A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions,
includin ...
, for his part in their opposition to the king.
Further confrontations
In 1215 Fulk was one of many giving great trouble to the
Sheriff of Shropshire
This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire
The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibil ...
. Before the accession of the infant king
Henry III (John's son) in 1216, Fulk's manor of Alveston had already been seized by the crown: in the following year (1217) all of his other lands in Gloucestershire were likewise seized. By 1218, however, Fulk had made peace and his lands were ordered to be restored to him by the king's regents: his market at his manor of Narborough was withdrawn from him as being "a manifest enemy" of the king's in 1217, but was regranted in 1218, and the Amounderness dower was also restored. In the latter year the king also granted a fair for his manor of
Lambourn
Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of ra ...
in Berkshire, the inheritance from Joce de Dinant. Fulk's mother Hawise died at about this time.
By 1220 Fulk had regained some favour with the young King Henry III and had been allowed to rebuild and fortify Whittington, and to hold a weekly market and annual two-day fair there. In 1223 Whittington Castle fell to
Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually " Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wales" (in 1240). By a combination of war and d ...
, Prince of Wales, but was recovered and restored to him, as
Kinnerley
Kinnerley ( Welsh: ''Chen-ar-dinlle'') is a small village in Shropshire, England. It lies between the neighbouring villages of Dovaston and Pentre and the nearest town is Oswestry. To the north is the village of Knockin.
History
A mile to th ...
was restored to Fulk's kinsman Baldwin de Hodenet. However his disputes with Llywelyn continued and more of Fulk's lands fell into the king's hands. During the 1220s Fulk hoped to marry his son Fulk to Anghared, daughter of Madog ap Griffin, a union which Llywelyn sought to prevent. By 1228 a truce seems to have been reached between Fulk, Thomas Corbet and Llywelyn, following the intervention of the king.
[I.J. Sanders, 'Fitz Warin lords of Whittington and Alderbury (Salop) and Alveston (Gloucs.)', ''Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig '' (1959)]
(Welsh Dictionary of National Biography online)
Throughout these years Fulk's relations with the King were changeable and seemed to be directly dependent on the state of affairs in Wales. As a marcher lord Fulk's role as a protector of the English border against the Welsh was vital to the English King. He arbitrated several border disputes on behalf of the King and although there were more personal disagreements, there were no more rebellions on the part of Fulk III.
Alberbury Priory
![Alberbury Castle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Alberbury_Castle.jpg)
Between 1221 and 1226 Fulk began to build his priory at
Alberbury
Alberbury is a village in Shropshire, England, west of Shrewsbury on the B4393 road which travels from Ford to Lake Vyrnwy. It is on to the England-Wales border, marked by Prince's Oak.
The River Severn runs just north of the village, and most o ...
on a moated site at a bend in the
river Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
on the border of England and Wales. He first intended it as a house of
Augustinian canons
Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by ...
following the
Arrouasian rule, and invited Alan, the Abbot of
Lilleshall
Lilleshall is a village and civil parish in the county of Shropshire, England.
It lies between the towns of Telford and Newport, on the A518, in the Telford and Wrekin borough and the Wrekin constituency. There is one school in the centre of ...
, to establish the convent. However his endowments were found insufficient, and Alan's successor Abbot William renounced any interest in the project. Fulk, therefore, turned instead to the
Grandmontine Order, following the example of
Walter de Lacy's house founded at
Craswall Priory in
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...
c. 1220–1225, but placing Alberbury under the immediate authority of Grandmont Abbey in
Limousin
Limousin (; oc, Lemosin ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienn ...
. Having been intended for the Augustinians, the buildings lacked the special features of a Grandmontine plan. In addition to the priory site with its lands and rights in Alberbury with Pecknall, a fishery in the Severn, and the right to construct mills, Fulk's endowments to the priory included his manor of Whadborough at Loddington in eastern Leicestershire. These were confirmed by King Henry III's charter of 1232. The
Castle in Alberbury, of which a ruin remains, is also attributed to Fulk III as representing the seat of his manor here.
Estates and suits
;Narborough, Leicestershire
In 1226 Maud the wife of Fulk FitzWarin died, which was no doubt a stimulus to the completion of the priory, where she was buried.
[Emma Cavell, 'The Burial of Noblewomen in Thirteenth-Century Shropshire,' in B. Weiler, J. Burton, P. Schofield and K. Stöber (eds), ''Thirteenth Century England'' XI (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2007), p. 174 & note 2.] In that year
Theobald Walter the younger (son of Maud's first marriage) unsuccessfully challenged William Pantolf and Hawise his wife (Fulk's daughter) for title to the manor of
Narborough in Leicestershire, a Vavasour hereditament.
Fulke's market at Narborough had received the King's re-confirmation in 1220, but a suit of 1276 shows that the manor had been given by Maud to her daughter Hawise, who by her marriage to Pantolf became Lady of the barony of
Wem, as the ''FitzWarin Romance'' reminds us. Theobald simultaneously challenged Fulk for the manor of
Edlington
Edlington is a town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, lying to the south west of Doncaster and Warmsworth. It has a population of 8,276. The original parish town of Edlington is now known as ''Old Edlington ...
in Yorkshire, another part of the same inheritance. After Pantolf died in 1233, and Fulk paid 600 marks for custody of his heirs and lands, Hawise remarried to Hubert Husse, taking Narborough as her ''
maritagium'' with her, and in 1235 Hubert obtained a renewal of the market, which had by then lapsed.
![Seal-matrix of Fulk FitzWarin (Oxfordshire County Council)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Seal-matrix_of_Fulk_FitzWarin_%28Oxfordshire_County_Council%29.jpg)
;Lambourn and Wantage, Berkshire
In 1227 the fair at
Lambourn
Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of ra ...
was re-granted. Before 1224
William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 or 1147 – 14 May 1219), also called William the Marshal (Anglo-Norman language, Norman French: ', French language, French: '), was an Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman soldier and statesman. He served five ...
had by his charter enfeoffed Fulk III in the nearby manor of
Wantage
Wantage () is a historic market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. Although within the boundaries of the historic county of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire since 1974. T ...
, Berkshire and in the
Hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
of Wantage and ''Gamenefeud'': for although the King's attorney later challenged the FitzWarin right to the Hundreds, they remained in their hands. The King claimed Wantage manor against him as ''terra Flandrensium'' – the land of Robert de Béthune – in 1236–37, but Fulk's possession of it was warranted by
Gilbert Marshal, and he defended his possession again in 1241 against Robert de Béthune in his own person.
In due course, Fulk by charter granted his entire manor of Lambourn to his daughter Mabil and to the heirs of her body, and acknowledged the fact before the Court of King's Bench in 1249. A
seal-matrix of Fulk FitzWarin (
equestrian
The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse".
Horseback riding (or Riding in British English)
Examples of this are:
* Equestrian sports
*Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...
) found at
Little Bedwyn
Little Bedwyn (also spelt Little Bedwin, and sometimes called Bedwyn Parva) is a village and civil parish on the River Dun in Wiltshire, England, about south-west of the market town of Hungerford in neighbouring Berkshire. The parish includes ...
, Wiltshire, about five miles south of Lambourn, corresponds to a seal-impression on a charter in the
Harleian collection
The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants ( la, Bibliotheca Harleiana) is one of the main "closed" collections (namely, historic collections to which new material is no longer added) of the British Library in ...
which is dated probably early in the reign of Henry III, and therefore likely to represent Fulk III: another FitzWarin charter with armorial seal, dated 1258, grants land and rent at Wantage.
The second marriage
Mabil was the daughter of Fulk's second wife, Clarice de Auberville, who (as the
Fine rolls record) was certainly living in 1250. The marriage features in the Romance narrative (which calls her "une molt gentile dame") and is said to have occurred "a good while" after the death of Maud. The legend tells that after their marriage Fulk was struck blind for the last seven years of his life, and that he outlived Clarice by one year. It has been accepted (or asserted) that Clarice was the daughter (rather than the widow) of Sir
Robert de Auberville, of
Iden
Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) is a mobile telecommunications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a trunked radio and a cellular telephone. It was called the first mobile social network by ma ...
and Iham (Higham, in
Icklesham
Icklesham is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located about six miles (10 km) east of Hastings, on the main A259 Hastings to Rye road. The surrounding countryside is a made up of f ...
), near
Winchelsea
Winchelsea () is a small town in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. The ...
, Sussex. Sir Robert, of an influential Norman family seated at
Westenhanger
Stanford is a village and civil parish in Kent, England. It is part of the Folkestone and Hythe district.
It has been divided by the M20 into Stanford North and Stanford South. The Stanford Windmill is to the north of the M20 and west of the a ...
, Kent, was a grandson of
Ranulf de Glanvill's, and on the death of his father William de Auberville, c. 1195, had become a ward of
Hubert Walter's. He was a Constable of
Hastings Castle
Hastings Castle is a keep and bailey castle ruin situated in the town of Hastings, East Sussex. It overlooks the English Channel, into which large parts of the castle have fallen over the years.
History
Immediately after landing in England ...
, and Keeper of the Coast in 1228–1229. Robert's wife Clarice was daughter of Robert and granddaughter of Samson de
Gestling, benefactors of
Robertsbridge Abbey
Robertsbridge Abbey was a Cistercian abbey in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, England. It was founded in 1176 by Alured and Alicia de St Martin.
Due to its position, the Abbey lands suffered continually from the effects of the sea and it was never r ...
. Robert de Auberville is supposed to have died c. 1230.
In 1230 Fulk commenced a suit against Philip de Burwardsley (i.e. of
Broseley
Broseley is a market town in Shropshire, England, with a population of 4,929 at the 2011 Census and an estimate of 5,022 in 2019. The River Severn flows to its north and east. The first The Iron Bridge, iron bridge in the world was built in 17 ...
, Shropshire), apparently a FitzWarin cousin, concerning lands in Shropshire and Staffordshire which had been disputed between their grandfathers, and which did not come to a full Assize until after 1233.
Service
Fulk attended the King's court in Westminster in October 1229: he received a writ of protection during absence upon foreign service in April 1230, and was required to supply one knight for foreign service in aid of the "
Earl of Bretaigne" in May 1234. In July 1236 he was appointed one of the Arbitrators (for North Wales) of the truce between King Henry and Llywelyn, as William FitzWarin was among those for South Wales. In March 1238 he was among the powerful men summoned by the King to Oxford, to deliberate upon Llywelyn's action in causing his son
Dafydd Dafydd is a Welsh masculine given name, related to David, and more rarely a surname. People so named include:
Given name Medieval era
:''Ordered chronologically''
* Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (c. 1145-1203), Prince of Gwynedd
* Dafydd ap Gruffydd (12 ...
to receive homage from the magnates of
Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
and Powys. The Romance narrative tells that, after the death of
Joan, Lady of Snowdon in 1237 (who was buried at
Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from ...
),
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth
Llywelyn, Llewelyn or Llewellyn is a name of Welsh language origins. See Llywelyn (name) for the name's etymology, history and other details.
As a surname Arts
* Carmen Llywelyn, American actress and photographer
* Chris Llewellyn (poet), America ...
took Eva, daughter of Fulk, as his last wife (with which the ''Annales Cestrienses'' concur
[Christie (ed.), ''Annales Cestrienses'',]
pp. 60-61, s.a. 1239
(Internet Archive).): and, after Llywelyn's death in 1240, she remarried to William de Blancmouster (de Whitchurch).
In June 1245, faced by the rapacity of the
Papal nuncio
An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...
Martin (resulting in a prohibition of
tournaments
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
), an assembly of nobles at
Dunstable
Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...
and Linton deputed Fulk to proceed to London to order Martin out of the kingdom. As
Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris ( la, Matthæus Parisiensis, lit=Matthew the Parisian; c. 1200 – 1259), was an English Benedictine monk, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey ...
relates their interview, Fulk told him to leave England immediately, but Martin questioned his authority to demand it. Fulk told him to be off within three days if he did not wish to be utterly brought down, and withdrew in anger, heaping threats upon threats with a terrible oath against him. Martin hurried off to the king, who told him that he had brought the kingdom to the brink of revolt: being asked for safe conduct the King answered, "May the Devil take you to hell." A week later Fulk witnessed a charter of the King's at Windsor.
Last controversies
Although Fulk seems certainly to have lived after 1250, in this late period it is increasingly difficult to distinguish him from his two sons named Fulk, among the various references to Fulk "senior" and "junior". At a Shropshire Assize of January 1256, Fulk "junior" (possibly the younger son called Fulk Glas) was claiming that
Thomas Corbet
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the ...
had disseised him of his free tenement of Alberbury. At an earlier hearing, he had become enraged when Corbet referred to his father as "Proditor" (Traitor), and had renounced any homage he had made to Corbet, vowing never to hold land of him again. The court found for FitzWarin, but Corbet later brought an appeal.
The
Hundred Rolls The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are named after the hundreds by which most returns were recorded.
Th ...
for 1255 show that Fulk FitzWarin was then holding two
hides geldable in Alberbury of the fee of Caus (of which Thomas Corbet of
Caus Castle
Caus Castle is a ruin of a hill fort and medieval castle in the civil parish of Westbury in the English county of Shropshire. It is situated up on the eastern foothills of the Long Mountain guarding the route from Shrewsbury, Shropshire to Mon ...
was lord), and that the Grandmontensian brothers there held two
virgate
The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( la, virgāta was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal ...
s by the gift of Fulk FitzWarin ''senior'' (i.e. Fulk III in 1232), and of the fee of Caus. The services owing by Fulk FitzWarin for a knight's fee held from Corbet at Alberbury had been set forth in a concord of 1248, the Fine for which was recorded in the
Great Roll of the Pipe for 1250 and remained unpaid in 1252.
In 1245 the king had appointed Fulk FitzWarin, John le Strange and Henry de Audley to settle a land dispute between Gruffydd ap Madog, whose land had been seized by
Dafydd ap Llywelyn
Dafydd ap Llywelyn (''c.'' March 1212 – 25 February 1246) was Prince of Gwynedd from 1240 to 1246. He was the first ruler in Wales to claim the title Prince of Wales.
Birth and descent
Though birth years of 1208, 1206, and 1215 have ...
during the king's last war, and which had been seized back from Dafydd and was now claimed by
Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn
Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn (died c. 1286) was a Welsh king who was lord of the part of Powys known as Powys Wenwynwyn and sided with Edward I in his conquest of Wales of 1277 to 1283.
Gruffydd was the son of Gwenwynwyn and Margaret Corbet. He was st ...
(whose mother was Margaret Corbet, and whose wife Hawise was daughter of John le Strange of
Knockin Castle
Knockin Castle is situated in the village of Knockin on Shropshire between Oswestry and Shrewsbury ().
This was a motte and bailey castle founded by Guy le Strange between 1154 and 1160 and it remained the principal holding of the le Strange ...
). On the occasion of Thomas Corbet's outrageous remark, the court had been meeting by royal precept to settle contentions between Corbet and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn. In time, Gruffydd's daughter Margaret became the wife of
Fulk V FitzWarin, son of Fulk IV.
Death and burial
Historians cannot exactly state when FitzWarin passed away, but 1258 is given as the latest probable date. Most likely, he handed some of his affairs over to his son Fulk IV during his lifetime. According to the Romance narrative, his second wife Clarice died before him. She was buried at Alberbury Priory, and he died a year later and was laid to rest beside both of his wives in the monastery church, part of which was incorporated into later buildings at the site.
Family
![Pembridge Castle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Pembridge_Castle.jpg)
Fulk III FitzWarin married first, c. 1207, to
Maud (Matilda) le Vavasour, daughter of Robert le Vavasour and widow of Theobald Walter. Maud died in 1226 and was buried at Alberbury Priory (''alias'' New Abbey, Alberbury) in Shropshire.
Their offspring included:
* Fulk IV FitzWarin (d.1264).
[Meisel, ''Barons of the Welsh Frontier'', p. 37] He received the manor of Edlington, Yorkshire, as part of his inheritance. He married Constance de Tosny, and was the father of
Fulk V FitzWarin, 1st Baron FitzWarin.
* Hawise FitzWarin, married (first) William Pantulf, a
Marcher Lord
A Marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales.
A Marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in F ...
(who died in 1233), and (secondly) Hubert Huse.
She received the manor of Narborough.
* Joan FitzWarin
married Sir Henry de Penebrugge, of
Pembridge Castle
Pembridge Castle, originally called Newland Castle, is a late 12th century to early 13th century Grade I listed former border castle located approximately northwest of Welsh Newton in Herefordshire, England.
It was most likely constructed by ...
, Herefordshire.
* Eleanor FitzWarin, married William de Rivers (de Ripariis) of
Great Shefford in the Lambourn valley, Berkshire, son of Richard de Rivers of
East Mersea
East Mersea is a scattered village and civil parish on Mersea Island in the English county of Essex.
It was historically referred to as ''Mersea'' in the Domesday book
St Edmund's Church
The Grade I listed parish Church of St Edmund King and M ...
(Essex).
* Eve FitzWarin,
married William de Blanchminister. It was claimed in the Romance narrative and in the ''Annales Cestrienses'' that she first married
Llywelyn ap Iorwerth
Llywelyn, Llewelyn or Llewellyn is a name of Welsh language origins. See Llywelyn (name) for the name's etymology, history and other details.
As a surname Arts
* Carmen Llywelyn, American actress and photographer
* Chris Llewellyn (poet), America ...
.
[
* Fulk Glas] (sometimes attributed to his father's second marriage)
Fulk's second marriage, to Clarice de Auberville, is described in the Romance narrative. Clarice is taken to have been the daughter and heiress of Robert de Auberville of Iden
Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) is a mobile telecommunications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a trunked radio and a cellular telephone. It was called the first mobile social network by ma ...
and Iham (Higham, in Icklesham
Icklesham is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located about six miles (10 km) east of Hastings, on the main A259 Hastings to Rye road. The surrounding countryside is a made up of f ...
), Sussex, and his wife Clarice de Gestling. Fulk's daughter by this marriage was:
* Mabel FitzWarin (−1297), who married (first) William de Crevequer (no issue), and (secondly) John Tregoz, Lord Tregoz (died before 6 Sept 1300). By the second marriage she had two daughters and coheirs, Clarice and Sybil Tregoz. She received the manor of Lambourn.
Sir William Dugdale
Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.
Life
Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coleshi ...
, in his ''Baronage'', accepted as factual the identification of Clarice as the second wife of Fulk III and, despite occasional doubts, later accounts of the family have followed this precedent.
Romance of ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn''
During the later 13th century, when the actual events of Fulk's life were still in living memory or common report, a romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
known as ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'', probably first in French verse, was written about him. This survives in an early 14th-century French prose version, in a single manuscript in the Royal manuscripts, British Library
The Royal manuscripts are one of the "closed collections" of the British Library (i.e. historic collections to which new material is no longer added), consisting of some 2,000 manuscripts collected by the sovereigns of England in the "Old Royal ...
, which is thought to follow the lost verse quite closely. The 16th-century antiquary John Leland saw and briefly described the French verse version, and made an extended abstract from a Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
verse version called ''The Nobile Actes of the Guarines'', the original of which is also lost. Various contemporary references show that the tale was widely-known in the later Middle Ages.
In recent years the work has proved a fruitful and versatile resource for the speculative analysis of its themes and its representation of literary archetypes. The ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'' narrative, while constructed around historical events and factual or quasi-factual information, is not a fully historical account. It cultivates the literary and social preoccupations and heroic landscapes of its age, and is consciously absorbed within the framework of legendary and folkloric themes which are sometimes referred to as the "Matter of England
''Matter of England'', romances of English heroes and romances derived from English legend are terms that 20th century scholars have given to a loose corpus of Medieval literature''Medieval insular romance: translation and innovation'', Judith Weis ...
".[N. Cartlidge, ''Boundaries in Medieval Romance'', (D.S. Brewer, 2008), pp. 29–42. , 9781843841555.] That term should not deflect the recognition that the literary and cultural, as well as the geographical, landscape which the real Fulk inhabited was equally English and Welsh in outlook, as it was also French and Latin in language.
About one-third of the text sets up the historical backdrop to Fulk's life, through his father and grandfather FitzWarin (who merge into one figure) and his grandfather Josce de Dinan, their relations with the Peverels during the Civil War, and the confrontations of the English and Welsh rulers. Themes of outlawry, dispossession and restitution, adventure and occasional piety surround the main subject, culminating in Fulk's second marriage, blindness, death, and burial at Alberbury. Its tales of mysterious lands, imprisoned maidens, prophecies and similarly allegorical or chivalric material are instructive in the operations of the romance idiom. Some episodes have been compared to elements of the Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
legends.[R. Kiessmann, ''Untersuchungen über die Motive der Robin-Hood-Balladen'' Inaugural-Dissertation. (E. Karras, Halle a.S. 1895)]
pp. 28-31 and passim
(Internet Archive).
;Editions
* F. Michel (ed.), ''Histoire de Foulques Fitz-Warin, d'après un Manuscrit du Musée Britannique'
(Silvestre Libraire, Paris 1840)
(Google) (Edition without translation, but includes the Leland abstracts).
* T. Wright (ed. and translator), ''The History of Fulk FitzWarin, an Outlawed Baron, in the Reign of King John'', edited from a manuscript preserved in the British Museum, with an English translation and illustrative notes (Printed for the Warton Club, London, 1855)
at pp. 1–183 text, pp. 183–231 notes
* J. Stephenson (ed. and translator), 'The Legend of Fulk FitzWarin' (parallel French text and English translation), in ''Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores'', Rolls Series Vol. 66: ''Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum'' (etc.) (Longman & Co., Trübner & Co., London 1875)
at pp. 277-415
(Google).
* A.C. Wood (ed.), ''Fulk Fitz-Warin. Text, and a Study of the Language'' (Blades, East and Blades, London 1911).
* L. Brandin (ed.), ''Fouke Fitz Warin'', Les Classiques françaises du Moyen Age (Paris 1930).
* E.J. Hathaway (ed.), ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'', Anglo-Norman Text Society (Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1976).
References
Further reading
* Benecke, I., ''Der gute Outlaw: Studien zu einem literarischen Typus im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert'' Studien zur Englischen Philologie, Neue Folge, Vol. XVII (Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1973).
* Burgess, G.S., ''Two Medieval Outlaws: Eustace the Monk and Fouke Fitz Waryn'' (D.S. Brewer, Woodbridge 2009)).
* Burton, J., P. Schofield and M. Lieberman, ''The English and the Welsh in "Fouke le Fitz Waryn"'' (Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009).
* Cavell, E., 'Fouke le Fitz Waryn: Literary Space for Real Women?', ''Parergon'', Vol. 27, no. 2 (Project Muse, 2010), pp. 89–109.
* Cox, E., 'Women of the Fitz Waryn Family in "Fouke Le FitzWaryn",' in H.T. Düzgün (ed.), ''Texts and Territories: Historicized Fiction and Fictionalised History in Medieval England and Beyond'' (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 2018)
pp. 39-55
(Google).
* Dolmans, E., 'Locating the Border: Britain and the Welsh Marches in ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'',' in L. Ashe, W. Scase and D. Lawton (eds)
(Boydell and Brewer, 2016), pp. 109–134.
* Francis, E., 'The background to Fulk Fitz Warin', ''Studies in Medieval French Presented to Alfred Ewart'' (Oxford 1961).
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* Zink, M., 'Le rêve avéré. La mort de Cahus et la langueur d'Arthur, du Perlesvaus à Fouke le Fitz Waryn', ''Littératures'', Vol. 9, no. 1 (1984), pp. 31–38.
;Fiction
* Elizabeth Chadwick
Elizabeth Chadwick (born 1957) is an author of historical fiction. She is a member of Regia Anglorum, a medieval reenactment organisation.
Biography
Elizabeth Chadwick was born in Bury, Lancashire in 1957. She moved with her family to Scotlan ...
, ''The Outlaw Knight'' (Sourcebooks); formerly published as ''Lords of the White Castle'' (Little, Brown, 2000).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulk Fitzwarin
1160s births
1258 deaths
12th-century English nobility
13th-century English nobility
English heroic legends
FitzWarin, Fulk
English rebels
Medieval legends
FitzWarin, Fulk
Anglo-Normans
Robin Hood
Marcher lords
Norman warriors
People from Alveston