General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> William /d'Aubigny/ III
[GarlandPeter.FTW]
[bedwig.ged]
It happened that the Queen of France, being then a widow, and a very
beautiful woman, became much in love with a knight from an other country,
who was a comely person, and in the flower of his youth; and because she
thought that no man excelled him in valor, she caused a tournament to be
proclaimed throughout her dominions, promising to reward those who should
exercise themselves therein, according to their respective abilities; and
concluded that if the person whom she so well affected should act his
part better than others in those military exercises, she might marry him
without any dishonor to herself. Hereupon divers gallant men, from
foreign parts hasting to Paris, amongst others came this our William de
Albini, bravely accoutered, and in the tournament excelled all others,
overcoming many, and wounding one mortally with his lance, which being
observed by the queen, she became exceedingly enamored of him, and
forthwith invited him to a costly banquet, and afterwards bestowing
certain jewels upon him, offered him marriage; but, having plighted his
troth to the Queen of England, then a widow, he refused her, whereat she
grew so discontented that she consulted with her maids how she might take
away his life; and in pursuance of that design, inticed him into a
garden, where there was a secret cave, and in it a fierce lion, unto
which she descended by divers steps, under color of showing him the
beast; and when she told him of its fierceness, he answered, that it was
a womanish and not a manly quality to be afraid thereof. But having him
there, by the advantage of a folding door, thrust him to the lion; being
therefore in this danger, he rolled his mantle about his arm, and putting
his hand into the mouth of the beast, pulled out his tongue by the root;
which done, he followed the queen to her palace, and gave it to one of
her maids to present her. Returning thereupon to England, with the fame
of this glorious exploit, he was forthwith advanced to the Earldom of
Arundel, and for his arms the Lion given him.
Adeliza had the castle of Arundel in dowry from her deceased husband, the
monarch, and thus her new lord became its feudal earl, 1st Earl of
Arundel in this family. The earl was one of those who solicited the
Empress Maud to come to England, and received her and her brother Robert,
Earl of Gloucester, at the port of Arundel, in August 1139, and in three
years afterwards (1142), in the report made of King Stephen's taking
William de Mandeville at St. Albans, it is stated "that before he could
be laid hold on, he underwent a sharp skirmish with the king's party,
wherein the Earl of Arundel, though a stout and expert soldier, was
unhorsed in the midst of the water by Walceline de Oxeai, and almost
drowned." In 1150, he wrote himself Earl of Chichester, but we find him
styled again Earl of Arundel, upon a very memorable occasion, namely, the
reconciliation of Henry, Duke of Normandy, afterwards King Henry II., and
King Stephen at the siege of Wallingford Castle in 1152. "It was scarce
possible," says Rapin, "for the armies to part without fighting.
Accordingly the two leaders were preparing for battle with equal ardor,
when, by the prudent advice of the Earl of Arundel, who was on the king's
side, they were prevented from coming to blows." A truce and peace
followed this interference of the earl's, which led to the subsequent
accession of Henry after Stephen's decease, in whose favor the earl stood
so high that he not only obtained for himself and his heirs the castle
and honor of Arundel, but a confirmation of the Earldom of Sussex, of
which county he was really earl, by a grant of the Tertium Denarium of
the pleas of the shire. In 1164, we find the Earl of Arundel deputed with
Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London, to remonstrate with Louis, King of
Fran