General Notes

William de Albini (d'Aubigny), III, surnamed "William with the stronghand," from the following circumstance, as related by William Dugdale:

"It happened that the Queen of France, being then a widow, and a verybeautiful 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 shethought that no man excelled him in valor, she caused a tournament to beproclaimed throughout her dominions, promising to reward those who shouldexercise themselves therein, according to their respective abilities; andconcluded that if the person whom she so well affected should act hispart better than others in those military exercises, she might marry himwithout any dishonor to herself. Hereupon divers gallant men, fromforeign parts hasting to Paris, amongst others came this our William deAlbini, bravely accoutered, and in the tournament excelled all others,overcoming many, and wounding one mortally with his lance, which beingobserved by the queen, she became exceedingly enamored of him, andforthwith invited him to a costly banquet, and afterwards bestowingcertain jewels upon him, offered him marriage; but, having plighted histroth to the Queen of England, then a widow, he refused her, whereat shegrew so discontented that she consulted with her maids how she might takeaway his life; and in pursuance of that design, enticed him into agarden, where there was a secret cave, and in it a fierce lion, untowhich she descended by divers steps, under color of showing him thebeast; and when she told him of its fierceness, he answered, that it wasa womanish and not a manly quality to be afraid thereof. But having himthere, by the advantage of a folding door, thrust him to the lion; beingtherefore in this danger, he rolled his mantle about his arm, and puttinghis 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 ofher maids to present her. Returning thereupon to England, with the fameof this glorious exploit, he was forthwith advanced to the Earldom ofArundel, and for his arms the Lion given him."

He subsequently married Adeliza of Lorraine, Queen of England, widow ofKing Henry I., and the daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine. Adeliza hadthe 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 thisfamily. The earl was one of those who solicited the Empress Maud to cometo 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 Mandevilleat St. Albans, it is stated "that before he could be laid hold on, heunderwent a sharp skirmish with the king's party, wherein the Earl ofArundel, though a stout and expert soldier, was unhorsed in the midst ofthe water by Walceline de Oxeai, and almost drowned."

In 1150, he wrote himself Earl of Chichester, but we find him styledagain Earl of Arundel, upon a very memorable occasion, namely, thereconciliation of Henry, Duke of Normandy, afterwards King Henry II., andKing Stephen at the siege of Wallingford Castle in 1152. "It was scarcepossible," 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'sside, they were prevented from coming to blows." A truce and peacefollowed this interference of the earl's, which led to the subsequentaccession of Henry after Stephen's decease, in whose favor the earl stoodso high that he not only obtained for himself and his heirs the castleand honor of Arundel, but a confirmation of the Earldom of Sussex, ofwhich county he was really earl, by a grant of the Tertium Denarium ofthe pleas of the shire.
In 1164, we find the Earl of Arundel deputed with Gilbert Foliot, Bishopof London, to remonstrate with Louis, King of France, upon according anasylum to Thomas a Becket within his dominions, and on the failure ofthat mission, dispatched with the archbishop of York, the Bishops ofWinchester, London, Chichester, and Exeter, Wido Rufus, Richard deInvecestre, John de Oxford (priests), Hugh de Gundevile, Bernard de St.Valerie, and Henry Fitzgerald, to lay the whole affair of Becket at thefoot of the pontifical throne. Upon levying the aid for the marriage ofthe king's daughter, in the 12th year of Henry II., the knight's fees ofthe honor of Arundel were certified to be ninety-seven, and those inNorfolk, belonging to the earl, forty-two. In 1173, we find the Earl ofArundel commanding, in conjunction with William, Earl of Mandeville, theking's army in Normandy, and compelling the French monarch to abandonVerneuil after a long siege, and in the next year, with Richard de Lucy,Justice of England, defeating Robert, Earl of Leicester, then inrebellion at St. Edmundbury. This potent nobleman, after founding andendowing several religious houses, died at Waverley, in Surrey, onOctober 3, 1176, and was buried in the Abbey of Wymondham.