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 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 ...

seated at

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 ...

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 ...

in England on the 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 also 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. His grandson was Fulk III FitzWarin (c. 1160–1258) the subject of the famous mediaeval legend or "ancestral romance" entitled ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'', himself the grandfather of Fulk V FitzWarin, 1st Baron FitzWarin (1251-1315).

Origins

Fulk I Fitzwarin was the son of Warin (his

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

representing the Norman French ''Fitz'', in modern French ''fils de'', 'son of'). The later mediaeval romance ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'' gives the father's name as Warin de Meer, others{{who, date=July 2022 deriving him from Metz, Loraine. This Warin, the family's earliest known ancestor, is a "shadowy or mythical figure" about whom little is certain. It is however generally believed that the head of the Warin family came 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 Warin nor his son Fulk I were

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 ...

( feudal barons who were direct

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 of the king) during William's reign. Instead, the family's lands were obtained from later kings.

Career

Fulk I FitzWarin was rewarded by King Henry II (1154-1189) for his support of his mother

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 ...

in her civil war with King Stephen (1135-1154) and conferred to him in 1153 the royal manor of

in Gloucestershire and in 1149 the manor of Whadborough in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

Marriage and children

Fulk I married a lady, Malet Peveral, daughter of Pagan Peveral and they had children including the following: *Fulk II FitzWarin (fl. 1194), son and heir who

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 ...

his father's lands following his death in 1170/1. *William ''de Brightley'', younger son, who according to

Sir William Pole Sir William Pole (1561–1635) of Colcombe House in the parish of Colyton, and formerly of Shute House in the parish of Shute (adjoining Colcombe), both in Devon, was an English country gentleman and landowner, a colonial investor, Member ...

(d.1635) was granted by his father "in King Henry 2 tyme" (i.e. between 1154 and 1189) the Devonshire manor of Brightley in the parish of

Chittlehampton Chittlehampton is a village and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Swimbridge, Filleigh, South Molton, Satterleigh and Warkleigh, High Bickington ...

, which he made his seat and where his descendants lived for many generations having adopted "de Brightley" as their surname in lieu of "FitzWarin". Pole, Sir William (d. 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, pp. 420-1

References

Year of birth unknown 1170s deaths 12th-century English nobility People from Shropshire 12th-century English landowners People from Alveston 1115 births