William de Forz, Count of Aumale († 1260)

William de Forz, Count of Aumale (also de Fortibus ) (* before December 17, 1216; † 1260 in Amiens ) was an English magnate .

origin

William de Forz was the eldest son of his father of the same name, William de Forz, Count of Aumale and his wife Aveline, a daughter of Richard de Montfichet († 1203), lord of Stansted in Essex . His father held the title of Count of Aumale as the English pretender to the county of Aumale in Normandy, which his grandmother Hawise had still owned, but which was occupied by France in 1196 and finally lost with the Franco-English War in 1214, ruled as Lord of Holderness but also extensive property in northern England. The family name developed from Forz to Fortibus, with both forms still being used in parallel.

First marriage and claims to Chestershire

His father held his son William hostage during the First Barons' War on December 17, 1216, presumably one of the children who had been brought to Devizes Castle with their mothers a few months earlier . After that, William was not mentioned again until 1234 when he married Christiana, a daughter of the Scottish Lord Alan of Galloway and his wife Margaret, the eldest sister of John of Scotland , who later became the Earl of Chester . His wife became part-heir to her father's lands in Galloway in 1235 and part-heir to her mother's claim to Chestershire in 1237 . After the death of John of Scotland in 1237, Forz claimed that Chestershire, as a palatinate county, was indivisible and that his wife, the eldest heir , should inherit the lands and the title of Earl of Chester . The title was initially awarded to Forz by the court, while the lands were divided among the heiresses. Under pressure from King Henry III. however, the other heirs waived their claims, so that Chestershire fell to the crown. The heirs received other lands in compensation, and in October 1241 Forz and his wife also gave up their claims. Christiana died childless in 1246, so Forz had to forego his wife's inheritance claims.

Forz's father had died in March 1241, and on September 18, 1241 Forz had paid homage to the king , after which he was allowed to inherit his father. These included Cockermouth , Cumberland, and Skipton and Skipsea Castle in Yorkshire . In 1242 Forz took part in the Saintonge War in south-west France and in 1245 in the king's campaign against Wales .

Second marriage and later life

After the death of his first wife, Forz married in 1248 or 1249 Isabel de Redvers , daughter of Baldwin de Redvers, 6th Earl of Devon , another wealthy heiress. Because of his vast holdings in northern England and the family ties of his first wife, Forz was an important negotiator between the king and the Scots. When Heinrich III. In 1231 signed a truce with the Scottish king in York , Forz served as one of the guarantors for the Scottish king. In 1251 Forz was appointed Judge of the Royal Forests of Cumberland. In 1255 he was named as envoy to Scotland. In the same year he became Sheriff of Cumberland and administrator of Carlisle Castle , both of which he retained until his death. In 1257 he did not take part in the war in Wales due to illness and instead paid shield money . However, during the crisis of 1258 it again played an important role. After the Provisions of Oxford were recognized, he was a member of the new Council of State and escorted the Lusignans, the king's half-brothers, when they had to leave England. In March 1259 he supported Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford , who had changed back to the king's side, and also allied himself with the heir to the throne, Lord Edward . In the autumn of 1259 he accompanied the king to France, where the latter concluded the treaty of Paris with the French king. From Paris he accompanied the king to Saint Omer in February 1260 . A little later he traveled to France again because of legal issues and died in Amiens. He was buried near his mother at Thornton Abbey , Lincolnshire, except for his heart, which was buried next to one of his daughters at Meaux Abbey , Yorkshire.

The marriage with his first wife Christiana had remained childless. He had three sons and two daughters with his second wife Isabella, but only his daughter Aveline reached adulthood. She married Edmund, Earl of Lancaster , a younger son of the king, and died childless in 1274.

literature

• Barbara English: Forz, William de, count of Aumale (b. Before 1216, d. 1260). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• George Edward Cokayne , Vicary Gibbs (Eds.): The Complete Peerage . Volume 1, Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester 2000, pp. 355 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
William de Forz	Titular Count of Aumale 1241–1260	Thomas de Forz