William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey

William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey († 1138 ) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman from the House of Warenne . He is usually not spoken of as the Earl of Surrey , but as Earl Warenne or Earl of Warenne .

Life

He was the son of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife Gundrada.

Around 1093 William tried to marry Edith , daughter of King Malcolm III. from Scotland to arrange. His plan failed, Edith married King Henry I of England. This probably earned Heinrich a strong dislike of Williams, which determined his actions in the next few years.

He joined the invasion of England under Robert II of Normandy in 1101 and after their failure lost his English titles and lands and went into exile in Normandy . Here he complained to Robert that he had supported him with great effort in his invasion and that he had lost almost everything for it. Robert returned to England in 1103, probably to convince his brother Henry I to restore William's title to count. This project was successful, William got his county back and was henceforth a loyal follower of Heinrich.

In order to further secure Williams' loyalty, Heinrich considered marrying William off to one of his numerous illegitimate daughters. However, the Archbishop of Canterbury Anselm dissuaded Heinrich from this intention by pointing out that all of his daughters were too closely related to William by blood . What kind of family relationships Anselm had in mind has been discussed a lot. Presumably he was referring to the common descent from the father of Duchess Gunnora , wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy.

In the battle of Tinchebray in 1106 William fought as one of Henry's commanders against Robert II of Normandy. The loyalty shown in this way secured him a better position at Heinrich's court.

1110 Robert's son William Clito fled together with Helias of Saint-Saens and William de Warenne received the lands of Saint-Saëns . In this way Heinrich secured the loyalty of Williams again, because if Clitos had returned he would have threatened the loss of the newly won lands.

William fought at the Battle of Brémule in 1119 and was on Henry's deathbed in 1135.

In 1118 William succeeded in marrying a woman of royal origin. He marries Elisabeth of Vermandois (also called Isabella), a daughter of Count Hugo of Vermandois , who was a son of King Henry I of France. Isabella was the widow of Robert de Beaumont , 1st  Earl of Leicester . With her he had three sons and two daughters:

• William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey
• Reginald, who inherited his father's lands in Normandy. He married Adeline, daughter of William, Lord of Wormgay in Norfolk.
• Ralph
• Gundrada, married to Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick and later to William, Lord of Kendal
• Ada de Warenne , married to Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon

See also Rape (Sussex)

predecessor	Office	successor
William de Warenne	Earl of Surrey 1088-1138	William de Warenne