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Surnames: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
No Surnames: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
In the early days of civilization, the preservation of a pedigree
was necessary to maintain all that was valuable in blood, station,
and property. Without a pedigree a man was an outlaw; he had
no clan, consequently no legal rights or standing. Genealogies
were guarded with extreme jealousy and recorded with painful exactitude
by the bards of each clan. On the public reception into the clan
of a child at the age of fifteen, his family genealogy was proclaimed,
and all challengers of it commanded to come forward.
Today we are not so deeply committed to our ancestors as in those ancient times, but the knowledge of where each of us derives our genetic heritage, the varied experiences of out forbearers, can enrich our overall understanding of where we came from and where we are in the great web of existence.
The following individuals were brother and
sister:
Of the illegitimate issue of Hugh Lupus there were Ottiwell, tutor
to those children of King Henry I. who perished at sea; Robert,
originally a monk in the abbey of St. Ebrulf, in Normandy, and
afterwards abbot of St. Edmundsbury, in Suffolk; and possibly
the daughter, Geva, listed above.
That Hugh Lupus enjoyed immense wealth in England is evident,
from the many lordships he held at the general survey; for, besides
the whole of Cheshire, excepting the small part which at the time
belonged to the bishop, he had nine lordships in Berkshire, two
in Devonshire, six in Wiltshire, ten in Dorsetshire, four in Somersetshire,
thirty-two in Suffolk, twelve in Norfolk, one in Hampshire, five
in Oxfordshire, three in the shire of Buckingham, four in Gloucestershire,
two in Huntingdonshire, four in Nottinghamshire, one in Warwickshire,
and twenty-two in Leicestershire. It appears too, by the charter
of foundation to the abbey of St. Werburge, at Chester, that several
eminent persons held the rank of baron under him. This charter
was signed by the earl himself, Richard, his son; Ranulph de Meschines,
his nephew, who eventually inherited the earldom; Roger Bigod;
and others. All those barons were each and all of them men of
great individual power, and large territorial possessions.
Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, was succeeded by his son (then but seven years of age), Richard.
Ed. Note: It is noteworthy that the following
Albini (Aubigny) family which is the ancestral line which eventually
comes to the Fitz Alan line is not the family which contains William
de Albini, the Surety of the Magna Charta. The information in
Burke is consistent with the proper ancestral line and is confirmed
by the information found in the Harliean Society.
The following genealogy is derived from Burke,
pp. 2-3, and from the Harleian Society, Vol 80, "Knights
of Edward I" Vol 1 (A to E), with additions from Crispin
and Macary, pp. 6-7.
From Crispin and Macary is the following:
"The family of Aubigny derived its
name from Aubigny, near Periers, in the Contentin, and Wace, the
chronicler, mentions `li boteillier d'Aubigny.' The pedigree
commences with Grimoult du Plessis, the traitor of Valognes and
Val-Des-Dunes, who died in a dungeon in 1047. William d'Aubigny,
first of the name, married the sister of Grimoult and had issue
Roger, who married Amicia, sister of Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances,
and of Roger de Montbray (i.e., Mowbray). The latter had issue,
William d'Aubigny II, pincerna to Henry I., who married Maud Bigot,
daughter of Roger Bigot, and died in 1139."
" Roger de Montbray, referred to in
Wace as `cil de Moubrai,' was a brother of Geoffrey de Montbray,
Bishop of Coutances, whom he accompanied to the battle of Hastings.
He witnessed a charter in Normandy, 1066, and was the father
of Robert de Montbray or Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, who
died about 1125 and is therefore not believed to have attended
the conquest of England. He joined the conspiracy against William
Rufus and died in prison."
"Geoffrey (Geoffroi, Eveque de Coutances
was from Montbrai (Montrai) in the canton of Percy, arrondissement
of Saint-Lo. Geoffrey de Montbray, Bishop of Coutances, was at
the battle of Senlac. Dugdale remarks, "This Geoffroi being
of noble Norman extraction and more skillful in arms than divinity,
knowing better to train up soldiers than to instruct clergy, did
good service at the battle of Hastings," for which he received
vast possessions in Somerset and other counties, amounting to
280 manors, and dedicated his immense wealth to the building of
the cathedral of Coutances. In 1069 he marched against the insurgents
of Dorset and Somerset and raised the siege of Montacute. Two
years later he represented the king in a suit against Bishop Odo
and Archbishop Lanfranc, and in 1074, with Bishop Odo, suppressed
the rebellion of the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk, at which time
he was appointed Earl of Northumberland but soon relinquished
the earldom to his nephew, Robert, who became his heir.
He assisted at the coronation of the Conqueror and died in 1093/94."
He was succeeded by his eldest son, William.
[Ed. Note: Homer Beers James and his wife, Genevieve Simmons James, stayed at a hotel directly across the road from the Abbey of Wymondham in July 1993, while on a Elderhostel bicycle tour of Essex and Norfolk].
William de Albini also gave to the monks of
Rochester the tithes of his manor of Elham; as also one carucate
of land in Achestede, with a wood called Acholte. He likewise
bestowed upon the Abbey of St. Etienne at Caen, in Normandy, all
his lands lying in Stavell, which grant he made in the presence
of King Henry and his barons. He married Maud Bigod, daughter
of Roger Bigod, with whom he obtained
ten knight's fees in Norfolk. They had the following children:
At the obsequies of Maud, William de Albini gave to the monks of Wymondham, the manor of Hapesburg, in pure alms, and made livery thereof to the said monks by a cross of silver in which (says Dugdale) was placed certain venerable reliques, viz., "part of the wood of the cross whereon our Lord was crucified; part of the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin; as also a gold ring, and a silver chalice, for retaining the holy Eucharist, admirably wrought in the form of a sphere; unto which pious donation his three sons were witnesses, with several other persons." The exact time of the decease of this great feudal lord is not certain (Crispin and Macary state that he died in 1139), but it is known that he was buried before the high altar in the Abbey of Wymondham, and that the monks were in the constant habit of praying for his soul, by the name of "William de Albini, the king's butler." He was succeeded by his eldest son, William.
"It happened that the Queen of France,
being then a widow, and a very beautiful woman, became much in
love with a knight from an other country, who was a comely person,
and in the flower of his youth; and because she thought that no
man excelled him in valor, she caused a tournament to be proclaimed
throughout her dominions, promising to reward those who should
exercise themselves therein, according to their respective abilities;
and concluded that if the person whom she so well affected should
act his part better than others in those military exercises, she
might marry him without any dishonor to herself. Hereupon divers
gallant men, from foreign parts hasting to Paris, amongst others
came this our William de Albini, bravely accoutered, and in the
tournament excelled all others, overcoming many, and wounding
one mortally with his lance, which being observed by the queen,
she became exceedingly enamored of him, and forthwith invited
him to a costly banquet, and afterwards bestowing certain jewels
upon him, offered him marriage; but, having plighted his troth
to the Queen of England, then a widow, he refused her, whereat
she grew so discontented that she consulted with her maids how
she might take away his life; and in pursuance of that design,
inticed him into a garden, where there was a secret cave, and
in it a fierce lion, unto which she descended by divers steps,
under color of showing him the beast; and when she told him of
its fierceness, he answered, that it was a womanish and not a
manly quality to be afraid thereof. But having him there, by
the advantage of a folding door, thrust him to the lion; being
therefore in this danger, he rolled his mantle about his arm,
and putting his hand into the mouth of the beast, pulled out his
tongue by the root; which done, he followed the queen to her palace,
and gave it to one of her maids to present her. Returning thereupon
to England, with the fame of this glorious exploit, he was forthwith
advanced to the Earldom of Arundel, and for his arms the Lion
given him."
He subsequently married Adeliza of Lorraine, Queen of England,
widow of King Henry I., and the daughter
of Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine. See her ancestral lineage elsewhere
in Volume I. Adeliza had the castle
of Arundel in dowry from her deceased husband, the monarch, and
thus her new lord became its feudal earl, 1st Earl of Arundel
in this family. The earl was one of those who solicited the Empress
Maud to come to England, and received her and her brother Robert,
Earl of Gloucester, at the port of Arundel, in August 1139, and
in three years afterwards (1142), in the report made of King Stephen's
taking William de Mandeville at St. Albans, it is stated "that
before he could be laid hold on, he underwent a sharp skirmish
with the king's party, wherein the Earl of Arundel, though a stout
and expert soldier, was unhorsed in the midst of the water by
Walceline de Oxeai, and almost drowned." In 1150, he wrote
himself Earl of Chichester, but we find him styled again Earl
of Arundel, upon a very memorable occasion, namely, the reconciliation
of Henry, Duke of Normandy, afterwards King Henry II., and King
Stephen at the siege of Wallingford Castle in 1152. "It
was scarce possible," says Rapin, "for the armies to
part without fighting. Accordingly the two leaders were preparing
for battle with equal ardor, when, by the prudent advice of the
Earl of Arundel, who was on the king's side, they were prevented
from coming to blows." A truce and peace followed this interference
of the earl's, which led to the subsequent accession of Henry
after Stephen's decease, in whose favor the earl stood so high
that he not only obtained for himself and his heirs the castle
and honor of Arundel, but a confirmation of the Earldom of Sussex,
of which county he was really earl, by a grant of the Tertium
Denarium of the pleas of the shire. In 1164, we find the
Earl of Arundel deputed with Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London,
to remonstrate with Louis, King of France, upon according an asylum
to Thomas a Becket within his dominions, and on the failure of
that mission, dispatched with the archbishop of York, the Bishops
of Winchester, London, Chichester, and Exeter, Wido Rufus, Richard
de Invecestre, John de Oxford (priests), Hugh de Gundevile, Bernard
de St. Valery, and Henry Fitzgerald, to lay the whole affair of
Becket at the foot of the pontifical throne. Upon levying the
aid for the marriage of the king's daughter, in the 12th year
of Henry II., the knight's fees of the honor of Arundel were certified
to be ninety-seven, and those in Norfolk, belonging to the earl,
forty-two. In 1173, we find the Earl of Arundel commanding, in
conjunction with William, Earl of Mandeville, the king's army
in Normandy, and compelling the French monarch to abandon Verneuil
after a long siege, and in the next year, with Richard de Lucy,
Justice of England, defeating Robert, Earl of Leicester, then
in rebellion at St. Edmundbury. This potent nobleman, after founding
and endowing several religious houses, died at Waverley, in Surrey,
on October 3, 1176, and was buried in the Abbey of Wymondham.
He and his wife, Adeliza, widow of King Henry I.,
had four sons and three daughters as follows:
William de Albini was succeeded by his son, William.
See the continuation of the above lineage
in the Fitz Alan Line.
The following is obtained from Wurts, Vol
I., pg. 39-42, which shows no connection to the lineage of the
Fitz Alans or any other direct relations. Similar information
is found in Crispin and Macary. Therefore, the William de Albini, who was the Surety of the Magna Charta, is lost to this ancestry and cannot be claimed, based on the information available
It would seem possible that there is an earlier ancestral connection between these two lines, but the available data does not so indicate at this time.