Name Suffix:<NSFX> Iii, Lord Of Belvoir Castle
of Belvoir, Leicester
One of the original Magna Carta Sureties
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From: Vol II File 2: The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James, http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~pmcbride/james/f019.htm
"William de Albini, Senior, the Surety of the Magna Charta, Lord of Belvoir Castle, 3rd baron for this family. When his father died, he was in ward to King Henry II., and, in 1194, he was in the army of Richard I., in Normandy. Already a wealthy man at the time of the accession of John to the throne, he received several additional grants of great value. In 1201, when the barons refused to attend their sovereign into France, King John demanded that their castles should be given up to him as security for their allegiance, beginning with William de Albini of whom he claimed Belvoir Castle, instead of which de Albini gave him his son, William, as hostage. He appears to have remained longer faithful to King John, as well as more moderate in his opposition to him, than most of the barons, and did not join the insurgents until he could no longer with safety either remain neutral, or adhere to the King, for so late as January 1214-15, he was one of the King's commissioners appointed for the safe-conduct of such as were traveling in his court, at Northampton. After he joined the baron's party, he entered with great spirit into their cause and was excommunicated; but, after having gained their point, he was looked upon with suspicion by the other sureties because he did not attend the grand tournament in Staine's Wood, on June 29, 1215, to celebrate the victory, and it was not until after other barons had alarmed him, that he forfeited his castle at Belvoir, and joined them at London. But the sequel proves their suspicions were not well grounded. He was placed as governor of Rochester Castle, when, though he found it so utterly destitute of provisions as almost to induce his men to abandon it, he recruited and held it until famine and weakness, and watching, obliged them to surrender to the King. The siege having lasted three months, and his army being attended with considerable loss, King John ordered that all nobles in the castle be hanged; but his chief counselors resolutely opposing the sentence, William de Albini and his son Odonel, with several other barons, were merely committed to the custody of Peter de Mauley, and sent prisoners to Corfe and Nottingham Castles. While de Albini remained at Corfe, the King marched on Christmas morning, 1216, from Nottingham to Langar, near Belvoir Castle, and sent a summons to surrender. Upon this, Nicholas de Albini, one of the baron's sons, and a clerk in orders, delivered the keys to the King, asking only that his father should be mercifully treated. The fortress was then committed to the custody of Geoffrey and Oliver de Buteville. His liberty was gained only by William de Albini's paying a fine to the king of six thousand marks (More than 4,000 pounds), the sum being raised from his own lands by his wife. After King John's death, though he submitted himself to King Henry III., William de Albini was forced to give his wife and son Nicholas as hostages for his allegiance; but in 1217 he was one of the king's commanders at the battle of Lincoln. He died at Offington, May 1, 1236, and was buried at Newstead, and "his heart under the wall, opposite the high altar," at Belvoir Castle. William de Albini, the Surety, had no children by his second wife Agatha, daughter of William de Trusbut. By his first marriage to Margery, daughter of Odonel, Baron d'Umfraville, he had the following children:
1. Robert de Albini, d.s.p.
2. Nicholas de Albini, d.s.p.
3. Odonel de Albini, d.s.p.
4. William de Albini, Junior. See below.
5. William de Albini, Junior, also served in the baronial army. He married, (1) Albreda, daughter of Henry, Lord Biseth, and dying in 1285, left a daughter, Isabel de Albini, sole heiress to the Surety, her grandfather.
6. Isabel de Alb