Lord of Prudhoe Odinel de Umfreville II

• General Notes
  • Odonell de Umfreville was one of the twelve English knights who went with Robert FitzHamon into Wales, when he came into full possession of the territories of the Lord of Glamorganshire, a considerable portion of which he divided among his twelve companions in arms. Odonell is the first of his family upon whom history has thrown any of her broader lights. He stands conspicuous in the field, was admitted at court, and though the cloister has censured him as an extortioner and a tyrant, yet he was a considerable benefactor to it. In the Red Book his name is written Odinal D'unfrancville. In 1262 and 1272 we find him paying assessments to scutage; and in the memorable incursion of William, the Lion, King of Scotland, into England in 1174, his castle of Harbottle was taken, and that of Prudhoe besieged, but relieved by the timely assistance of the Sheriff of Yorkshire, de Vescy, Lord of Alnwick and Malton, and other northern lords. He had, however, ample revenge on the Lion King for the injuries he had done him, for he was one of the eight barons who captured that monarch near Alnwick, in his return from that destructive raid. In 1176 Odanel was at the court of the King of England, and a witness to Henry's arbitration between the kings of Castile and Navarre; and on October 4th, the following year, he witnessed a grant of the King of Scotland, dated at Edinburgh. In the time of Richard I, his Northumberland property holden by knight's service of the crown, was assessed at two knight's fees, at which rate it continued for several generations afterwards, through his son Robert. He had other sons, William and Richard, and two daughters. Maud or Margery married William de Albini before 1198. Odonel died in 1182. Married Alice, daughter of Richard de Lucy.
    (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 696)