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, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

. William was the second son of

Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex Geoffrey de Mandeville II, 1st Earl of Essex (died September 1144) was a prominent figure during the reign of King Stephen of England. His biographer, the 19th-century historian J. H. Round, called him "the most perfect and typical presentment of ...

and

Rohese de Vere, Countess of Essex Rohese de Vere, Countess of Essex (c. 1110 – 1170 or after) was a noblewoman in England in the Anglo-Norman and Angevin periods. Married twice, she and her second husband founded the Gilbertine monastery of Chicksands in Bedfordshire. Life A ...

. After his father's death while in rebellion (1144), William grew up at the court of the

Count of Flanders The count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders, beginning in the 9th century. Later, the title would be held for a time, by the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. During the French Revolution, in 1790, the co ...

. On the death of his elder brother Geoffrey late in 1166, he returned to England and became

Earl of Essex Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...

, where he spent much time at the court of Henry II. He stayed loyal to the king during the

Revolt of 1173–1174 The Revolt of 1173–1174 was a rebellion against King Henry II of England by three of his sons, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their rebel supporters. The revolt ended in failure after eighteen months; Henry's rebellious family members had ...

, known as the Revolt of the Young King. In 1177 William became a

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...

r, 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 establishe ...

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 extende ...

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, 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 Earl of Albemarle is a title created several times from Norman times onwards. The word ''Albemarle'' is derived from the Latinised form of the French county of ''Aumale'' in Normandy (Latin: ''Alba Marla'' meaning "White Marl", marl being a ty ...

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 Hugh de Puiset ( c. 1125 – 3 March 1195) was a medieval Bishop of Durham and Chief Justiciar of England under King Richard I. He was the nephew of King Stephen of England and Henry of Blois, who both assisted Hugh's ecclesiastical ca ...

and the Bishop of Ely,

William Longchamp William de Longchamp (died 1197) was a medieval Lord Chancellor, Chief Justiciar, and Bishop of Ely in England. Born to a humble family in Normandy, he owed his advancement to royal favour. Although contemporary writers accused Longchamp's fa ...

. 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 de Saye II (1155–1230), was the Lord of West Greenwich, and a Magna Carta surety. He owned land at Edmonton and Sawbridgeworth. His family bore the arms ''Quarterly, or and gules''. Geoffrey de Saye II was born in 1155 in West G ...

. 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 Geoffrey Fitz Peter, Earl of Essex (c. 1162–1213) was a prominent member of the government of England during the reigns of Richard I and John. The patronymic is sometimes rendered Fitz Piers, for he was the son of Piers de Lutegareshale (born ...

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 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 ...

Earls of Albemarle English admirals W fr:Guillaume II de Mandeville