General Notes

EARLDOM OF SURREY (III)

WILLIAM (DE WARENNE) III, EARL OF SURREY, 1st son and heir, was born probably in 1119. In June 1137 he was one of the nobles who deserted Stephen's army in Normandy. The King pursued them to Pontaudemer, where he held William de Warenne junior and other youths and did his best to pacify them; but did not dare to make them fight. He was with his half-brother Waleran, Count of Meulan, at Rouen on 18 Dec. 113 8, and at Oxford in 1139 or early in 1140. On 2 February 1140/1 he was in Stephen's army at the battle of Lincoln, and with Waleran fled before the enemy's opening charge. However, the brothers soon rallied to the Queen and were with her in London about June 1141. After the King's release on 1 November he witnessed royal charters at Canterbury at Christmas 1141 and at Ipswich early in 1142. On Palm Sunday, 24 March 1145/6, he took the cross, and in June 1147 he set off on crusade. He was a benefactor to the priories of Lewes, Castle Acre, Nosteil and Thetford, the Templars and St. Mary's Abbey, York. He married Ela or Ala, daughter of William TALVAS, COUNT OF PONTHIEU (son of Robert DE BELL ME, 3rd EARL OF SHREWSBURY), by Ela, widow of Bertrand, COUNT OF TOULOUSE, and daughter of Eudes BOREL, DUKE OF BURGUNDY. He died s.p.m. 19 January 1147/8, being slain when the rearguard of the French King's army was cut to pieces in the defiles of Laodicea (i). His widow married, probably in or before 1152, Patrick (DE SALISBURY), 1st EARL OF WILTSHIRE or SALISBURY (died 1168). She is said to have died 4 October 1174. [Complete Peerage XII/1:496-7, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(i) He left an only daughter and heir Isabel.  He was probably the first to assume the checkered shield of gold and azure, differenced by the change of colour from the checkered shield borne by his half-brother Waleran, Count of Meulan.

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William de Warrenne (Earl of Warrenne), 3rd Earl of Surrey, zealously espoused the cause of King Stephen and had a chief command in the army of that monarch in the battle fought at Lincoln between him and the adherents of the Empress Maud. His lordship m. Adela, dau. of William Talvace, son of Robert de BelesmÈ, Earl of Shrewsbury, and had by her (who m. 2ndly, Patrick de Evreux, Earl of Salisbury) had an only dau. and heir, Isabel. In 1147, the Earl of Warrenne and Surrey assumed the cross and accompanoied Lewis, King of France, to the Holy Land against the Saracens. From this unfortunate enterprise the earl never returned, but whether he fell in battle or died in captivity has not been ascertained. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 569, Warren, Earls of Surrey]