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
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, Duke of Aquitaine, Aquitaine and Duchy of Gascony, Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Co ...
.
William was the second son of
Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex and
Rohese de Vere, Countess of Essex. After his father's death while in rebellion (1144), William grew up at the court of the
Count of Flanders. On the death of his elder brother Geoffrey late in 1166, he returned to England and became
Earl of Essex, where he spent much time at the court of Henry II. He stayed loyal to the king during the
Revolt of 1173–1174, known as the Revolt of the Young King.
In 1177 William became a
crusader, in company with Count
Philip of Flanders. Philip attempted to intervene in the court politics of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...
but was rebuffed, and the two fought for the
Principality of Antioch
The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It exte ...
at the siege of
Harim. William returned to England in the autumn of 1178.
In 1180 William married
Hawise, daughter and heiress of
William, Count of Aumale
William le Gros, William le Gras, William d'Aumale, William Crassus (died 20 August 1179) was Earl of York and Lord of Holderness in the English peerage and the Count of Aumale in France. He was the eldest son of Stephen, Count of Aumale, and ...
, a major Yorkshire lord, who had died the previous year. Earl William gained possession of her lands, both in Normandy and in England, along with the title of Count of Aumale (or
Earl of Albemarle as it is sometimes called).
William fought in the wars against the French toward the end of Henry II's reign, and was at the deathbed of that king in 1189. He carried the crown at the coronation of Richard I and enjoyed the favour of the new king. Richard I appointed him one of the two chief justiciars of England.
[Powicke, ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 69] But William died at Rouen a few months later on a mission to Normandy, without legitimate issue. He was buried at Mortemar Abbey in Normandy, founded by his Mandeville ancestors. He was succeeded as chief justiciar by his fellow justiciar
Hugh de Puiset and the Bishop of Ely,
William Longchamp.
The heir to the vast Mandeville estate was William's elderly aunt, Beatrice de Say, née Mandeville, who surrendered her claim to her second but surviving son,
Geoffrey de Saye. Geoffrey contracted to pay an unprecedentedly large relief for the Mandeville inheritance, but he rapidly fell into arrears. Geoffrey Fitz Peter, the husband of Beatrice's granddaughter and namesake, Beatrice de Say, was a prominent man at court and used his position to push his wife's claim. She was the eldest daughter of William de Say, Geoffrey's elder but deceased brother, William de Say. The king awarded the Mandeville estates and, eventually, the earldom of Essex to
Geoffrey Fitz Peter by right of his wife.
[Greenway and Watkiss, eds., The Book of the Foundation of Walden Monastery. Oxford: 1999, pp. 86–115.]
Notes
References
*
Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde ''Handbook of British Chronology'' 2nd. ed. London: Royal Historical Society 1961
{{DEFAULTSORT:Essex, William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of
Essex, William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of
Essex, William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of
12th-century English people
Essex, William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of
Essex, William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of
Justiciars of England
William
Earls of Albemarle
English admirals
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fr:Guillaume II de Mandeville