William de Roumare, 1st Earl of Lincoln

William de Romare (around 1096; † before 1161; also Roumare , Romayre , Romay ) was Earl of Lincoln , Baron of Kendall , Lord of Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire , and Lord of Roumare in Normandy .

He was the son of Roger FitzGerald (de Roumare), 1st Baron of Kendall, Lord of Bolingbroke and Lord of Roumare, and Lucy († around 1136), widow of Yves de Taillebois, 1st Baron of Kendall . Lucy's mother belonged to a high Anglo-Saxon family and was the heir to numerous domains and castles in Lincolnshire . William was thus the (older) half-brother of Ranulph de Gernon, 2nd Earl of Chester .

Under King Henry I.

Wilhelm von Romare was constable of the Neufmarche fortress , which he defended in September 1118 in the uprising that Hugo von Gournay led against the English King Henry I. He fought for Henry in the Battle of Brémule in 1119 and escaped the sinking of the White Ship in November 1120 because he had refused to take part in the voyage.

A little later he argued with the king about his mother's inheritance. In 1122 he joined the uprising led by Waleran de Beaumont , Count of Meulan , and others, and then stood in opposition to the king until about 1127, when the king granted him a large part of the lands he claimed. In the following years he became one of the king's favorites. When Henry I died in 1135, William was one of those charged with defending the borders of Normandy.

Under King Stephen

Under King Stephen he was initially involved in the government of Normandy. But when this William d'Aubigny the Earl of Lincoln did, he and his half-brother Ranulph de Gernon decided (which also the possession of his father in northern England claimed for himself), in Lincolnshire had from the legacy of her mother large estates to act.

In December 1140, when their plan to capture or kill the Scottish King David I , who had received the territories in the north by a treaty with Stephen, failed, they tricked into possession of Lincoln Castle .

At first Stephan did not want to take action against Ranulf, to drive him, one of the most powerful lords of the kingdom, into the arms of his opponent, Matilda , and decided to make an agreement with Ranulf and his half-brother. Wilhelm received the title of Earl of Lincoln , Ranulf the rule of Derby , county, town and castle.

A little later, however, Stephan - informed by the residents that Ranulf and Wilhelm were inattentive - got the city of Lincoln back and besieged the castle. Ranulf, who was in Chester, now joined Matilda and asked his father-in-law Robert of Gloucester , Matilda's half-brother, for help. The Battle of Lincoln on February 2, 1141 resulted in the defeat and capture of Stephen.

After his release at the end of 1141, William seems to have reconciled himself with Stephan, who now got the upper hand in the country again, since he was granted the title of Earl of Lincoln.

A little later he broke out on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela . With the help of Ranulf he founded the Abbey of Revesby in Lincolnshire, a Cistercian abbey , to which he retired as a monk, where he also died.

Family and children

He married Hadewise de Redvers (* around 1097), sister of Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon and daughter of Richard de Redvers , Lord of Redvers, and Adeline Peverel; her children were:

1. William (II.) De Roumare (* around 1117; † 1151), married to Agnes von Aumale , daughter of Stephan von Aumale ( Blois house ); her descendant was William (III) de Roumare († 1198), who seems to have also been Earl of Lincoln for a while
2. Hawyse de Roumare (* around 1117), married Gilbert de Gant, 1st Earl of Lincoln ,
3. Rohese de Roumare, married Roger FitzReinfride (1114–1198).

Footnotes

1. ↑ perhaps daughter of Turold de Bucknell, Sheriff of Lincoln , and a daughter of Guillaume Malet ( House of Malet ); There are several studies on their genealogy, B. Katharine Keats-Rohan : Antecessor Noster: The Parentage of Countess Lucy Made Plain , Prosopon, n ° 2 ( Memento from October 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ There are different opinions on this point; Gilbert de Gant was married to Rohaise de Clare, daughter of Richard de Clare , it may be that this marriage was invented by later historians to explain how he came into possession of County Lincoln.