William de Mandeville

For the councillor of Henry II and Richard I of England, see William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex.

William de Mandeville (died before 1130)^[1] was an Anglo-Norman baron and Constable of the Tower of London.

Life

William de Mandeville inherited the estates of his father Geoffrey de Mandeville, the Domesday tenant-in-chief, around 1100.^[2] He was Constable of the Tower of London at that time,^[3] and thus keeper of the first person known to be imprisoned there for political reasons, Ranulf Flambard. Flambard's escape in February 1101 would have significant consequences for William.^[4]

It is not known if William was in some way complicit in the escape of Flambard, or was simply a careless keeper. Regardless, as a punishment, in 1103 Henry I confiscated the three richest of William's Essex estates, Sawbridgeworth, Saffron Walden, and Great Waltham, comprising about a third of his entire holdings, as well as the constableship giving them to Eudo Dapifer, William’s father-in-law.^[5][6] Little is known of William's activities after this.

William married Margaret, daughter of Eudo FitzHubert (Dapifer)^[7] and Rohese de Clare. Widowed, Margaret married secondly Othuer fitz Earl (d. 1120), illegitimate son of Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester.^[6][8] William and Margaret's son Geoffrey de Mandeville would recover the seized estates and the constableship during the reign of King Stephen.^[5]

Family

• Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex (d. 1144)^[4][9]
• Beatrice de Mandeville (d. 19 Apr. 1197), married William de Say (d. Aug. 1144).^[10] Their granddaughter Beatrice de Say took some of the Mandeville inheritance to her husband, Geoffrey fitz Peter.

References

1. George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, Vol. V (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1926), p. 113
2. K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, I Domesday Book, (Boydell Press, 1999) p. 227
3. Ronald Sutherland Gower, The Tower of London, Vol. ii (George Bell & Sons, 1902), p. 179
4. J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, (Longmans, Green, 1892), p. 37
5. C. Warren Hollister, Henry I, Editor Amanda Clark Frost (Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 2003), p. 173
6. Nicholas Vincent, 'Warin and Henry fitz Gerald, the King’s Chamberlains: The Origins of the FitzGeralds Revisited,' Anglo-Norman Studies 21 (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999) pp. 223-260
7. "Unfortunately, this service is no longer available | University of Essex". ^{[dead link]}
8. K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, I Domesday Book, (Boydell Press, 1999) p. 194
9. George Edward Cokayne,The Complete Peerage, Vol. V (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1926). pp. 113-16
10. George Edward Cokayne,The Complete Peerage, Vol. XI (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1949). pp. 464-5

Additional references

Peerage of England
Preceded by Geoffrey de Mandeville	Constable of the Tower of London 1100-1103	Succeeded by Eudo Dapifer