General Notes

Ela, "of whom (writes Dugdale) it is thus reported; that being so great an inheritrix, one William Talbot, and Englishman and an eminent soldier, tool upon him the habit of a pilgrim, and went into Normandy where, wandering up and down for the space of two months, at length he found her out. Likewise, that he then changed his habit and, having entered the court where she resided, in the garb of a harper, being practised in mirth and jesting, he became well accepted. Moreover, that growing acquainted with her, after some time he conducted her to England, and presented her to King Richard who, receiving her very courteously, gave her in marriage to William, surnamed Longespee, from the long sword which he usually wore, his brother, that is, a natural son of King Henry II by Fair Rosamond; and that thereupon King Richard rendered unto him the earldom of Rosmar, as her inheritance." Be this store true of false, it is certain, however, that the great heiress of d'Evereux, Ela, espoused the above-named William Longespee, who thereupon became, in her right, Earl of Salisbury. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 167, d'Evereux, Earls of Salisbury]