William de Tracy

• General Notes
  • # Note: Note: He was one of the four knights who assassinated Thomas à Becket in 1170.
    # Note: Event: Crime 1170 Canterbury
    # Note:
    # Note:
    
        Sir William de Tracy, 2nd son of Grace de Tracy and husband John de Sudeley, lived in the reign of Henry II, and held lands of his brother, Ralph de Sudeley, by one knight's fee. This holding was the Manor of Toddington, for it appears by  "Doomesday Book" that it was held by the Lord Sudeley, of the Manor of Sudeley, and, in the reign of Edward I, the Tracys are expressly said to be possessed of it; and this William, in a deed of Otwell, Lord of Sudeley, son and heir of the said Ralph is called his uncle. Sir William was one of the four knights who, in 1170, at the instigation of King Henry II, assassinated Thomas a'Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Fuller, in his 'Worthies of England', names the assassin as 'Sir  William Tracy, of Toddington", and describes him as "a man of high birth, state and stomach, a favorite of the king's, and his daily attendant". In the 19th year of the reign of Henry II (1171), he was created "Justiciary" of Normandy, and we know that for a time he performed the duties of that office, for he was present at Falaise in 1174, when William, King of Scotland, did homage to Henry II, and in 1176 he was succeeded in his office by the Bishop of Winchester. Subsequently, Sir William returned to England. During the reign of King John, he appeared in arms against his sovereign with the other rebellious barons, and in consequence his lands were confiscated by the crown. At the beginning of the reign of Henry III, however, these lands were restored to him, as is shown by a roll, dated at Westminster, 11-18, 2nd year of the reign of Hanry III (1218). During the latter psrt of his life he seems to have repented of the murder of the archbishop, for he founded and endowed a chapel to "Thomas a'Becket" in the Conventual Church at Tewkesbury.
    
    # Note:
    
        "There exists a generally received tradition", writes the Dutchess of Cleveland, "that he retired to his estates in the West of England, where he lived a private life, when the wind and weather turned against him; and according to the local history of his native County of Gloucester, reached the good old age of ninety. His residence was at Morthoe, close to Woollacomb Bay, and the worthy folk of Devonshire aver that his tormented spirit may, even now, be heard moaning and lamenting on the Woollacomb sands, where it is doomed to wander restlessly to and fro, toiling to 'make bundles of sand and wisps of the same' for all time to come. He was, it is said, buried at Morthoe, where an effigy, by some believed to be his, remains in the church."
    
    # Note: One of his daughter m. Sir Gervase Courtenay, and one of their sons, Oliver, living in 1184, assumed the family name of his mother - de Tracy.

Click here for details of William's family with Hawise de Born

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