William d'Aubigny (died 1139)

Last updated

William
Butler to Henry I [1]
Died1139
Buried Wymondham Abbey
Noble family House of Mowbray
Spouse(s)Maud, daughter of Roger Bigod of Norfolk
Issue William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel
FatherRoger d'Aubigny
MotherAmice

William d'Aubigny (died 1139), sometimes William de Albini, was an Anglo-French baron and administrator who served successive kings of England and acquired large estates in Norfolk. From his title of Butler (pincerna in medieval Latin) to King Henry I of England, he was called William d'Aubigny Pincerna to distinguish him from other men of the same name. [2]

Contents

Origins

From a family originating in the village of Aubigny in Loira region of France and born before 1070, William was the eldest surviving son of Roger d’Aubigny and his wife, Amice. William‘s brother was Nigel d'Aubigny. [3]

Career

Not mentioned as a landholder in the 1086 Domesday Book, he was associated with King William II of England by 1091 and in that decade is recorded as an important landholder in the county of Norfolk. [2]

His involvement in central government increased after 1100, when Henry I became king of England. In 1101 he was a witness to the treaty in which Robert II, Count of Flanders pledged military support to Henry and is named there as pincerna, evidence that he was one of the chief officers of the royal household. As part of the king's court, he travelled with him and spent about a quarter of his time in Normandy rather than England. By 1130 he was also a royal judge, hearing cases in Essex and in Lincolnshire. [2]

Nave of Wymondham Abbey Interior of Wymondham Abbey.jpg
Nave of Wymondham Abbey

His Norfolk estates grew over the years, until in 1135 he had 22 knights holding lands in his barony there, and he also had lands in Kent. At Old Buckenham, the first castle was probably built in his time, as was the nave of Wymondham Priory, now part of the parish church, [2] which he founded in 1107. [4] He was also a benefactor to his father-in-law's foundation of Thetford Priory and, in Normandy, to the Benedictine abbey of Lessay that his father had supported. [2]

When Stephen became king in 1135, William initially retained his place at court, but had died by June 1139, [2] and was buried at Wymondham.

Founder of Wymondham Priory

In or before 1107, William d'Aubigny, founded the Priory of Wymondham in Norfolk as a subordinate cell to the Monastery of St. Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire, and it continued as such until 1448, when it was converted into an independent abbey by a bull of Pope Nicholas V. Its original foundation occurred during the tenure of William's uncle, Richard d'Aubigny, Abbot of St. Albans from 1097 until his death in 1119. [5]

Family

He married Maud, daughter of Roger Bigod of Norfolk and sister of Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk, and had issue:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wymondham Abbey</span> Church in Norfolk, England

Wymondham Abbey is the Anglican parish church for the town of Wymondham in Norfolk, England.

Roger Bigod was a Norman knight who travelled to England in the Norman Conquest. He held great power in East Anglia, and five of his descendants were earls of Norfolk. He was also known as Roger Bigot, appearing as such as a witness to the Charter of Liberties of Henry I of England.

Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester was Justiciar of England 1155–1168.

Robert de Auberville, of Iham and Iden, Sussex, representative of a wealthy Norman family in Kent and Sussex, was a Justiciar in Kent, Constable of Hastings Castle, and Keeper of the Coast to King Henry III of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford</span> 12th-century Anglo-Norman nobleman and earl

Miles FitzWalter of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford was a great magnate based in the west of England. He was hereditary Constable of England and Sheriff of Gloucestershire.

William d'Aubigny, also known as William d'Albini, William de Albini and William de Albini II, was an English nobleman. He was son of William d'Aubigny and Maud Bigod, daughter of Roger Bigod of Norfolk.

William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel, also called William de Albini IV, was an English nobleman, a favourite of King John, and a participant in the Fifth Crusade.

Nigel d'Aubigny, was a Norman Lord and English baron who was the son of Roger d'Aubigny and Amice or Avice de Mowbray. His paternal uncle William was lord of Aubigny, while his father was an avid supporter of Henry I of England. His brother William d'Aubigny Pincerna was the king's Butler and father of the 1st Earl of Arundel. He was the founder of the noble House of Mowbray.

Robert de Stafford was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, the first feudal baron of Stafford in Staffordshire in England, where he built as his seat Stafford Castle. His many landholdings are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The Priory of St. Andrews of the Ards (Blackabbey) was a Benedictine Abbey in County Down, Ireland. It was founded by John de Courcy as a daughter-house of the alien Benedictine Priory at Stogursey in Somerset, England. As Stogursey Priory was itself a cell of Lonlay-l'Abbaye in Normandy, Blackabbey also became affiliated to that house. In around 1356 the Blackabbey, with all its lands, was effectively dissolved and assigned by Lonlay to Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh and his successors, under whom it continued.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontefract Priory</span> Vanished mediaeval monastery in Yorkshire

Pontefract Priory was a Cluniac monastery dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, founded about 1090 by Robert de Lacy, 2nd Baron of Pontefract, and located in Yorkshire, England. It existed until the dissolution of the monasteries. The Church and buildings have been completely destroyed, but the site is still indicated by the name of Monk-hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Langdon Abbey</span> Abbey in Kent, England from c. 1192 to 1535

Langdon Abbey was a Premonstratensian abbey near West Langdon, Kent, founded in about 1192 and dissolved in 1535, reportedly the first religious house to be dissolved by Henry VIII. The visible remains of the abbey are now confined to the extensive cellaring below the 16th-century house that occupies its site and small remains of a 17th-century ice house.

William d'Aubigny, 2nd Earl of Arundel, also called William de Albini III, was the son of William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel and Adeliza of Louvain, widow of Henry I of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stogursey Priory</span> Former English priory

Stogursey Priory, also called Stoke Courcy Priory or The Priory of St Andrew de Stoke, was a Benedictine alien priory dedicated to St Andrew at Stogursey in Somerset, England. It was founded by William de Falaise, around 1100, to become a cell of Lonlay-l'Abbaye in Normandy. In around 1185 John de Courcy, its hereditary patron, founded the Priory of the Ards (Blackabbey) in County Down, Ireland, making an endowment of that estate to Stogursey Priory. The priory church survives as the parish church, and contains some of the original Norman architecture. Many of the priory's muniments are held in the archives of Eton College, which King Henry VI endowed with the appurtenances when the house was dissolved in about 1440.

Horton Priory was a priory at Horton in Dorset, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Dunmow Priory</span>

Little Dunmow Priory in Little Dunmow was an Augustinian priory in Essex, England. The priory was founded as a church by Juga de Baynard in 1104, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and consecrated by Maurice, bishop of London. Juga was the widow of Ralph Baynard, baron of Little Dunmow, sheriff of Essex and builder of Baynard's Castle in the City of London, since demolished. Her son Geoffrey was sheriff of Yorkshire who, in 1097, beat William II, Count of Eu in a trial by battle. After her death (c.1106), and following her wishes and the advice of Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey populated Juga's church with Augustinian canons. In 1110, Lady Juga’s grandson, and Geoffrey’s son, William de Baynard, fell from grace and lost his lands. Henry I gave those lands to Robert Fitz Richard, but Henry and his wife Matilda of Scotland confirmed the canons’ possessions in Little Dunmow. Robert’s wife Maud, the step-daughter of Matilda’s brother David I, gave more lands to the canons, establishing the priory in perpetuity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burwell Priory</span>

Burwell Priory was a priory in the village of Burwell, Lincolnshire, England.

Blakenham Priory was an estate in monastic ownership in the late Middle Ages, located at Great Blakenham in Suffolk, England.

William Devereux was an Anglo-Norman nobleman living during the reigns of kings William I, William II, and Henry I of England. The Devereux, along with the Baskervilles and Pichards, were prominent knightly families along the Welsh marches at the beginning of the twelfth century, and linked to the Braose and Lacy lordships of the region. William Devereux's descendants would later give rise to the Devereux family of Hereford, and the Devereux Viscounts of Hereford and Earls of Essex.

Robert II de Vaux of Pentney also known as Robert de Vallibus, Lord of Pentney, was a prominent 12th-century noble. He succeeded to the lands in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex in England, held by his father Robert which had been received from Roger Bigod after the Norman conquest of England. Robert was the founder of the Augustinian Pentney Priory, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St Mary and St Magdalene, which he established c.1130, for the souls of Agnes his wife and their children. He was succeeded by his eldest son William.

References

  1. Carta Willelmi d'Albineio de Ecclesia de Wymundeham in Dugdale. Monasticon Anglicanum Volume III (1846). London. James Bohn. p. 330.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Aubigny, William d' [William de Albini; known as William d'Aubigny Pincerna](d. 1139)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47244.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Ellis, William Smith. The Antiquities of Heraldry, J.R. Smith, 1869, p. 207
  4. Wymondham Abbey
  5. Dugdale, Sir William, Knight. Monasticon Anglicanum Volume III (1846) London: James Bohn, pp. 323-341