General Notes

Source:  Stange/McDaniel/Cox/Horvath/Konkoly
Entries: 63153    Updated: Sun Aug 31 23:50:05 2003    Contact: Jim Horvath-Stange 


Name: William De WARENNE
Given Name: William De
Surname: WARENNE
Sex: M
Birth: Abt 1055 in Varenne near Bellencombre,Seine-Inferieure,Normandy,France 1
Death: 24 Jun 1088 in Lewes,Sussex,England 2
Title: 1st Earl Of Surrey
Burial: Priory of Lewes,Sussex,England
Change Date: 20 Dec 2002 3 4 5 6
Note:
Also Known As:<_AKA> William de /Warrene/
Name Suffix: 1st Earl Of Surrey
[From "The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families"]

For this identification see Mr. Loyd's paper 'The Origin of the Family of Warenne' in Yorkshire Arch. Journal, vol. xxxi, pp. 97-113. The hamlet of Varenne lies on the river Varenne c. 2 miles S of Arques and c. 13 miles N of Bellencombre. The latter place, arr. Dieppe, cant. Bellencombre, where there was a castle, became the caput of the Warenne honour in Normandy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Warenne was one of those followers of William of Normandy who made their fortunes by the conquest of England. The younger son of Rudulf of Varenne in Normandy, he distinguished himself in ducal service as a very young man in the early 1050s. After the ducal victory at Mortemer (1054) he received estates in upper Normandy, but it was only after the English invasion that he attained the front rank. He fought at Hastings and was rewarded with lands which by 1086 extended into thirteen counties, most notably strategically important estates in Sussex centered round Lewes. By the end of William I's reign he was one of the dozen largest individual landowners in England. He repaid his debt with vigorous loyalty in both England and France. In 1075 he played a leading role in suppressing the revolt of the earls of Hereford and Norfolk. After the Conqueror's death, Warenne supported William Rufus in 1087-88 against Robert Curthose and Odo of Bayeux. Rufus encouraged his service by creating him earl of Surrey in 1088. The same year Warenne was seriously wounded by an arrow in his leg at the siege of Pevensey and died at his foundation of Lewes Priory on 24 June 1088.

Warenne's career was more than meteoric. A younger son of an obscure minor Norman nobleman, he had risen through conspicuous loyalty to his lord to become not only one of the richest men in one of the richest kingdoms of Europe but also the founder of a dynasty which, powerful, wealthy and influential, survived as earl of Surrey until 1347. Warenne's foundation at Lewes (1078/80) was the first Cluniac house in England, another sign of the Conquest's effect on establishing institutional as well as personal links across the Channel. Warenne's success depended on the traditional chivalric virtues of loyalty, bravery and prowess in arms. His life illustrates the stupendous prizes and the personal dangers on offer to those who joined the conquest of England. It was appropriate that Warenne's direct descendent, John De Warenne, Earl of Surrey (1231-1304), when challenged in 1278 by royal commissioners to produce title to his land, produced an old rusty sword declaring, 'Here, my Lord, is my warrant (warrantus: a pun which no doubt appealed to the somewhat intractable sense of honour of the time). My ancestors came with William the Bastard and won their lands with the sword, and by the sword I will hold them against all comers.' Earl John won his case. William of Warenne would have approved. [Who's Who in Early Medieval England, Christopher Tyerman, Shepheard-Walwyn, Ltd., London, 1996]

----------

William de Warrenne, Earl of Warrenne, in Normandy, a near kinsman of William the Conqueror, came into England with that prince and, having distinguished himself at the battle of Hastings, obtained an immense portion of the public spoliation. He had large grants of land in several counties, amongst which were the Barony of Lewes, in Sussex, and the manors of Carletune and Benington, in Lincolnshire. So extensive indeed were those grants that his possessions resembled more the dominions of a sovereign prince than the estates of a subject. He enjoyed, too, in the highest degree, the confidence of the king, and was appointed joint justice-general with Richard de Benefactis for administering justice throughout the whole realm. While in that office, some great dist


Father: Ralph I De WARENNE b: 998 in Varenne near Bellencombre,Seine-Inferieure,Normandy,France
Mother: Emma De WARENNE b: Abt 1020 in France

Father: Ralph II De WARENNE b: Abt 1020 in Varenne near Bellencombre,Seine-Inferieure,Normandy,France
Mother: UNKNOWN EMMA b: Abt 1020 in France

Marriage 1 Gundred UNKNOWN b: 1063 in Normandy,FR
Married: in Normandy,FR
Children
Edith De WARENNE b: 1080
William De WARENNE b: Abt 1071 in Lewes,Sussex,England

Marriage 2 Gundred of FLANDERS b: Abt 1052 in Flanders,France
Married: Bef 1077 in Normandy,France 2
Children
William De WARENNE b: Abt 1071 in Lewes,Sussex,England
Edith De WARENNE b: Abt 1076 in Lewes,Sussex,England

Sources:
Title: The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families, by Lewis C Loyd, 1999
Page: 111
Note: "Ancestors of John Whitcomb" from GEDCOMs downloaded from AOL on 06/21/97, p. 8
Title: The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999
Page: 158-1
Note: "Ancestors of John Whitcomb" from GEDCOMs downloaded from AOL on 06/21/97, p. 8
Title: The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999
Page: 158-1
Title: GEDCOM File : ~AT3A.ged
Date: 30 Aug 2002
Title: GEDCOM file imported on 30 Mar 1999.
Text: ancestry.com
Title: GEDCOM File : ~ATAA.ged
Date: 4 Jun 2000