William Longespée of Salisbury

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Effigy of William Longespée in Salisbury Cathedral

Sir William Longespée (also William II Longespée ) (* around 1209 ; † February 8, 1250 in the Battle of al-Mansura ) was an English magnate . He was involved in numerous wars by King Henry III. involved and remarkably went on two crusades to the Holy Land .

Origin and heritage

William Longespée was the eldest son of William Longespée and his wife Ela of Salisbury . His father was an illegitimate son of King Henry II Plantagenet , his mother the heiress of the Earldom of Salisbury and thus Countess of Salisbury in her own right. As a child, William was betrothed in April 1216 to Idonea, the daughter and heiress of Richard de Canville and Eustacia, the heir to the Baron Gilbert Basset , who died in 1205 . The marriage took place between 1226 and 1230.

After the father's death in 1226, the mother took over his inheritance and the title of Earl of Salisbury , as William was still a minor at the time. Presumably he was in 1230 of age, followed by two events indicate one hand was asked William's mother in March of this year, to give him his father's legacy and possessions which William had received in 1228 and 1229 by the king (the Earl of Salisbury was he did not raise it, however, as his mother was now the holder of this title). On the other hand, his cousin, King Henry III wanted him . to knight at Easter; However, this did not happen until Whitsun 1233 in Gloucester .

Also in 1230 William took part in the failed French campaign of Henry III. and after returning from France in November he paid homage to the king for his wife Idonea's inheritance.

Military in the service of the king

Longespée remained in the king's service, especially as a military. During the rebellion of Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke , he accompanied the king in the fall of 1233 on his failed campaign to Wales. When Lord Treasurer Peter de Rivallis was overthrown towards the end of the rebellion , Longespée pursued and arrested him.

In June 1236 he took a crusade vows in Winchester with Richard of Cornwall , the king's younger brother, and other barons. In June 1240 the Crusaders set out from Dover . They traveled overland through France to Marseilles, from where they embarked for Palestine. In October 1240 they reached Acre . During this crusade of the barons , however, there was hardly any military action or even fighting, and Longespée probably left Acre again on May 3, 1241 together with Richard of Cornwall and returned to England. At the beginning of March 1242 he reached England again, from where he set off again a few weeks later during the Saintonge War on the campaign to south-west France. During this failed campaign he played a leading role. In July 1242 he was one of the defenders in the besieged Saintes . The king then appointed him captain in a series of operations, including leading a raid into the Périgord at the end of 1242 . Back in England, he took part in the king's campaign against Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn in Wales in June 1245 .

In numerous royal documents Longespée is named as the first witness alongside the clergy, which indicates his high rank and the esteem of the king. The king rewarded his services with numerous gifts and favors, but despite Longespée's repeated insists, he did not make him Earl of Salisbury . Thereupon Longespée claimed in vain in 1237 an inheritance right to Salisbury Castle and to the title Comitatus of Wiltshire , which his great-grandfather Earl Patrick of Salisbury had held for a time. During the Saintonge War, he urged the King of Gascon again to make him Earl. The king then promised him on October 16, 1242, to decide on his claim to Wiltshire and Salisbury Castle after his return to England. He promised Longespée 60 marks a year as long as he had not passed a judgment, and he and his heirs 40 marks a year if his judgment was to the disadvantage of Longespée. In 1243 the king actually decided against making Longespée Earl. Although this did not lead to a rift between the two, Longespée apparently fell into the favor of the king and from now on stayed at the royal court much less often. Longespée reluctantly accepted the refusal to raise his rank, which would have given him a third of the royal tax revenue from Wiltshire. Ultimately, he owned the associated lands, which were mostly in Wiltshire and Dorset. He also owned possessions in nine other counties, especially Lincolnshire and Somerset .

religiousness

Longespée was not only a two-time crusader, he was generally a very pious man. In addition to the Franciscan settlements in Salisbury and Oxford and the Dominicans in Wilton , he sponsored several monasteries. Above all, Lacock Abbey and Bradenstoke Priory , with which his family was connected, he considered donations. In 1232 he made a pilgrimage abroad, the destination of which is unknown, and in 1245 he made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela .

Second participation in the crusade

In May 1247 Longespée took another vow of crusade, apparently animated by the example of the French King Louis IX. who wanted to embark on the sixth crusade . He carefully prepared his second crusade. Immediately after taking his vows, he traveled to Lyon , where he asked Pope Innocent IV for financial support. On June 6th, the Pope promised him funds from the money raised in England for a crusade. This was reassured to him again in both 1248 and 1249 before he was finally given 2,000 marks. Longespée himself leased four of his English estates from Michaelis in 1248, and granted a charter to the citizens of Poole for a fee of 70 marks . His cousin, the king, also supported him financially. For the time of his absence, Longespée issued a series of orders and orders and appointed agents and lawyers to secure his property and to have his interests represented. To this end, he wrote his will, which the king confirmed. His mother, now abbess of Lacock Abbey, assured him that he would be included in all the prayers of the nuns at the abbey. Before the beginning of July 1249, perhaps before April 18th, he left England. Presumably before November 20, 1249 he reached the French army of Louis IX with about 200 English knights under his command. in Damiette, already conquered in Egypt. He joined the French with his army and undertook raids from Damiette. This soon led to quarrels with Count Robert von Artois and other French nobles about the division of the booty . Longespée then withdrew to Acre, offended. Without having resolved the dispute, asked Louis IX. Longespée to return, whereupon the English rejoined the French.

Encouraged by the reinforcements that Louis IX. by other French crusaders in October 1249 as well as by Longespée's contingent, he decided to advance to Cairo . The army moved slowly up the Nile on the right bank until it reached the north bank of the Bahr as-Saghir. The main power of the Egyptian army was on the opposite bank near al-Mansura . At dawn on February 8, 1250, the vanguard of the Crusader army, composed of the best horsemen, including English knights, crossed the ford under the command of Robert von Artois. Louis IX had ordered them to form a beachhead so that the main army could safely cross the river. However, Robert did not obey this order, but continued to advance into an Egyptian camp near Jadila and finally into the city of al-Mansura. Cut off from the main power of the Crusaders, the heavily armored knights could hardly maneuver in the narrow streets of the city and were overpowered by the Egyptians. The vast majority of the knights, including Longespée and his standard-bearer Robert de Vere , were killed. According to the Chronica maiora by Matthew Paris , Alexander Giffard was the only English knight who survived the battle seriously wounded. Both Muslim and Christian chroniclers viewed this defeat as the turning point of the crusade, which a little later with the defeat of the crusader army and the capture of Louis IX. completely failed.

In his Historia Anglorum (13th century), Matthäus Paris noted some of the Crusaders who fell near al-Mansura with their coats of arms. While adding a falling black bird to the coat of arms of Robert von Artois (second from right), he has the coat of arms of William Longespée (far left) carried by a white dove and guided by divine hands soar into the sky.

Aftermath

According to legend Longespées mother Ela of Salisbury received by heavenly angels a vision of the martyrdom of her son just a day before his actual death. After a peace treaty was signed, Longespée's body was handed over to the Crusaders by the Egyptians in 1252. He wished to be buried in Lackock Abbey, but Longespée was believed to be buried in Acre Cathedral. His family and descendants made no effort to transfer the body to England. In Salisbury Cathedral there is a funerary memorial of a knight allegedly erected for him by his mother.

Within 25 years Longespée rose to become a glorified hero of the Crusades in England. According to legend, he would have fought valiantly to the death while the cowardly French tried to flee under the arrogant Robert de Artois. In a poem written in Anglo-Norman between around 1275 and 1300 , the last battle of Longespée and his loyal English crusaders is glorified. The poem was not only widespread among the nobility, but also in other versions among other sections of the population, so that the legend of Longespée remained popular in England for over 100 years.

progeny

Longespée had at least two children with his wife Idonea:

His son William became his heir.

literature

  • Simon Lloyd: William Longespée II: The Making of an English Crusading Hero . In: Nottingham Medieval Studies, 35 (1991), pp. 41-69 and 36 (1992), pp. 79-125

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Commons : William II Longespée  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME William Longespée of Salisbury
ALTERNATIVE NAMES William II Longespée
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English magnate and crusader
DATE OF BIRTH around 1209
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1250
Place of death al-Mansura