William le Gros, William le Gras, William d'Aumale, William Crassus (died 20 August 1179) was

Earl of York In Anglo-Saxon England, the Earl of York or Ealdorman of York was the ruler of the southern half of Northumbria. The titles ealdorman and earl both come from Old English. The ealdormanry (earldom) seems to have been created in 966 following a peri ...

and

Lord of Holderness Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common wit ...

in the English peerage and the

Count of Aumale The County of Aumale, later elevated to a duchy, was a medieval fief in Normandy. It was disputed between England and France during parts of the Hundred Years' War. Aumale in Norman nobility Aumale was a medieval fief in the Duchy of Normandy and ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He was the eldest son of

Stephen, Count of Aumale Stephen of Aumale (–1127) was Count of Aumale from before 1089 to 1127, and Lord of Holderness. Life He was son of Odo, Count of Champagne, and Adelaide of Normandy, countess of Aumale, sister of William the Conqueror.George Edward Cokayne, ''Th ...

, and his spouse, Hawise, daughter of

Ralph de Mortimer of Wigmore Ranulph I de Mortimer (''Ralf'', ''Ralph'', ''Raoul de Mortemer'') (born before c. 1070–died in/after 1104) was a Marcher Lord from the Montgomery lands in the Welsh Marches (border lands between Wales and England). In England, he was Lord of Wi ...

. William witnessed two charters of King Stephen in 1136, in which he is recorded as ''Willelmus de Albamarla'', but is not placed among the earls. He distinguished himself at the

Battle of the Standard The Battle of the Standard, sometimes called the Battle of Northallerton, took place on 22 August 1138 on Cowton Moor near Northallerton in Yorkshire, England. English forces under William of Aumale repelled a Scottish army led by King David ...

in 1138, and was made Earl of York (apart from

Richmondshire {{Infobox settlement , name = Richmondshire District , type = District , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_blank_emblem= Richmondshire arms.png , blank_emblem_type = Coat ...

) as his reward. He was with Stephen in his defeat at

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

on 2 February 1141. His

Scarborough Castle Scarborough Castle is a former medieval Royal fortress situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the North Sea and Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. The site of the castle, encompassing the Iron Age settlement, Roman signal station, an Ang ...

was forfeited to King Henry II as a result of unauthorised construction during

the Anarchy The Anarchy was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. The conflict was a war of succession precipitated by the accidental death of William Adelin, the only legiti ...

. He founded the Abbey of

Meaux Meaux () is a commune on the river Marne in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is east-northeast of the centre of Paris. Meaux is, with Provins, Torcy and Fontainebleau, ...

in 1150. He was intombed within the Abbey of Thornton,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, which he had founded in 1139. William married Cicely, Lady of Skipton, the daughter and co-heir of

William Fitz-Duncan William fitz Duncan (a modern anglicisation of the Old French Guillaume fils de Duncan and the Middle Irish Uilleam mac Donnchada) was a Scottish prince, the son of King Duncan II of Scotland by his wife Ethelreda of Dunbar. He was a territorial ...

by his spouse Alice, Lady of Skipton, daughter of

William Meschin William Meschin (sometimes William le Meschin; died between 1130 and 1135) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and baron. The brother of the earl of Chester, Meschin participated in the First Crusade. After returning to England, he acquired lands both ...

, Lord of Copeland. As "lady of Harewood" she brought him vast estates. Dying without male issue, he left a daughter and heiress, Hawise (died 11 March 1214), who succeeded her father in the County of Aumale and Lordship of Holderness. Hawise married three times, firstly, on 14 January 1180,

William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex (1st Creation) (died 14 November 1189) was a loyal councillor of Henry II and Richard I of England. William was the second son of Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex and Rohese de Vere, Countess of ...

. He died without issue 14 January 1189. She married secondly after 3 July 1190, the crusader William de Forz (died 1195), by whom she had her heir and successor. Thirdly,

Richard I Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

gave her in marriage to

Baldwin of Bethune Baldwin is a Germanic name, composed of the elements ''bald'' "bold" and ''win'' "friend". People * Baldwin (name) Places Canada * Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario * Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District * Baldwin's Mills, ...

. All three husbands gained from her the title of Count of Aumale.

References

Bibliography

* * Cokayne, G. E., ''The Complete Peerage'', 1904, volume 1, p. 353. * Dalton, Paul. "William Earl of York and royal authority in Yorkshire in the reign of Stephen." ''Haskins Society Journal'' 2 (1990): 155–65. * Dalton, Paul. "William le Gros, Count of Aumale and Earl of York." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004) Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/47237 (Accessed 21 November 2018).

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

Yorkshire, William Earl of Counts of Aumale People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire Year of birth unknown People of The Anarchy

Peers created by King Stephen {{England-earl-stub