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Birth:          ABT 1105 Oswestry Castle, Shropshire, England
Death:          1160 Oswestry Castle, Shropshire, England

Notes
also of Dol, Normandy, France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_FitzAlan,_Lord_of_Oswestry
William FitzAlan (1105–1160) was a nobleman of Breton ancestry. He was a major 
landowner, a Marcher lord with large holdings in Shropshire, where he was the Lord of 
Oswestry, as well as in Norfolk and Sussex. He took the side of Empress Matilda 
during the Anarchy and underwent considerable hardship in the Angevin cause before 
regaining his lands and former status. William's younger brother, Walter fitz Alan (d. 
1177), became ancestor of the royal House of Stuart.
Background and early life[edit]

William was born around 1105. He was the eldest son and heir of Alan fitz Flaad, a 
Breton noble whose family were closely associated with the sacred environs of Dol-
de-Bretagne, close to the border with Normandy and a short distance south-west of 
the great abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. Alan was a close ally of Henry I of England 
(1100-1135), who was determined to insert reliable supporters into strategically key 
areas after the disloyalty of Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, who had a 
strong support network in the Marches. Alan received extensive fiefs in Shropshire 
and Norfolk from around the beginning of Henry's reign and more as he proved his 
worth. Much of the Shropshire land was taken from the holdings of Rainald de Bailleul, 
ancestor of the House of Balliol, as was land around Peppering, near Arundel in 
Sussex.[1]

William's mother was Avelina de Hesdin. Her father was Ernulf de Hesdin (also 
transcribed as Arnulf), a crusader baron from Hesdin in Artois, which was a fief of the 
County of Flanders and only loosely attached to France. Ernulf built up large holdings 
in Staffordshire and Gloucestershire. After his death in the First Crusade, Aveline's 
brother, also called Ernulf, inherited his lands and titles.

Baron and rebel[edit]

William succeeded his father around 1114, probably still aged under 10. He was 
appointed the High Sheriff of Shropshire by Adeliza of Louvain, the second wife of 
Henry I.[2] His first notable appearance is as a witness to King Stephen's charter to 
Shrewsbury Abbey in 1136.

As Sheriff of the county, William was also castellan of Shrewsbury Castle. In 1138, he 
joined in the revolt against Stephen and garrisoned the castle against the king. After 
resisting the attacks of the royal army for a month,[2] he fled with his family in August 
1138, leaving the castle to be defended by his uncle, Ernulf de Hesdin. When the 
town fell, Stephen acted in anger, hanging Ernulf and 93 others immediately, 
frightening the local people and magnates into transferring their allegiance to him.[2]

William was deprived of his lands and titles and spent the next fifteen years in exile, 
until the accession of Henry II to power in place of Stephen in 1153-4.[2][3] He was a 
close supporter of the Angevin cause, accompanying the Empress or her son on 
numerous occasions. He was present with Empress Matilda at Oxford in the summer of 
1141,[4] and shortly after at the siege of Winchester Castle. He remained in 
attendance on her at Devizes, witnessing the charter addressed to himself by which 
she grants Aston to Shrewsbury Abbey. In June 1153 he was present with Henry 
FitzEmpress, then Duke of Normandy, at Leicester. It was during this period that his 
younger brother, Walter, used the family's royal connections to make a new career in 
Scotland under David I of Scotland, an uncle of the Empress.

William's active support did not end with Henry's accession to the throne. In July 
1155, when the king marched against Hugh de Mortimer, a turbulent Marcher lord who 
had been a key supporter of Stephen, and recaptured the castles at Shrewsbury and 
Bridgnorth, William FitzAlan was the chief beneficiary. At Bridgnorth ‘the king restored 
his lands’ and William there received the feudal homage of his tenants. Thus he 
regained his paternal fief. He was also restored as High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1155, 
holding the post until his death in 1160.

Benefactor[edit]

It was probably between 1130 and 1138 that FitzAlan made the first recorded grant to 
Haughmond Abbey: a fishery at Preston Boats on the River Severn, near Shrewsbury.
[1] It is possible that there was a hermitage or a small religious community at 
Haughmond even in his father's time, and a small church from this earlier period has 
been revealed by excavations on the site, so it is not clear that William was the 
founder of the abbey. However, it was he who set it on a secure financial basis, with 
a series of important land grants in Shropshire and Sussex, which were reciprocated 
by other magnates in the region. Haughmond received lands from the Empress, 
confirmed by Stephen and Henry II. William continued to make benefactions to it when 
he returned from exile, including the wealthy portionary church of Wroxeter, declaring 
his intention to increase the number of priests there too. He also made grants to 
nearby Lilleshall Abbey, another Augustinian house.[5] Though not the founder of 
Wombridge Priory, a smaller Augustinian house, he sanctioned its foundation by the 
Hadley family, his vassals.[6] It was, however, Haughmond that became the FitzAlan 
shrine, with all heads of the family after William buried there for a century and a half.
[1]

Death and burial[edit]

William died around Easter 1160. He was buried at Shrewsbury Abbey, according to 
Eyton, noted in the Haughmond Abbey history ("After William FitzAlan (I), who left his 
body for burial in Shrewsbury Abbey").[1][7]

Family and heritage[edit]

William's first wife was Christiana. She was the mother of his heir and other children.
William's eldest son and heir was also called William FitzAlan.
Christiana, their daughter married Hugh Pantulf, 4th Baron of Wem, a later High Sheriff 
of Shropshire.

His wife Christiana died before William regained his ancestral estates in 1155. Henry II 
therefore gave him the hand of Isabel de Say.[8] She was the sole heiress of Helias 
de Say, who held the lordship of Clun and was an early benefactor of Haughmond 
Abbey. Clun was to pass to the FitzAlans on the death of Helias, but he outlived 
William, so it passed to his son, the second William. Isabel brought prestige as well as 
land. She was the niece of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry 
I, and thus cousin to William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester, who was a principal 
supporter of the Empress.

The FitzAlans remained important Marcher lords and magnates in central England for 
several centuries. A strategic marriage with their Sussex neighbours, the d'Aubigny 
family, brought the FitzAlans the rich and important Earldom of Arundel. This they held 
from 1243 until 1580. It was as earls of Arundel that William FitzAlan's descendants 
made their most important mark on the history of England.

In literature[edit]

The taking of Shrewsbury in 1138 by King Stephen, including the escape of William 
FitzAlan and the hanging of the supporters who did not escape, was the historical 
background for the novel One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters. Agents of FitzAlan are 
characters in a few of the later novels in The Cadfael Chronicles.

Parents
FITZ FLAALD Alan (1078 - AFT 1121)
DE HESDIN Avelina (1081 - )

Siblings
FITZ ALAN William (ABT 1105 - 1160)
FITZ ALAN Walter (ABT 1106 - 1177)

Marriage To OF GLOUCESTER Christiana (ABT 1118 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE CAEN Robert "The King's Son" (1090 - 31 Oct 1147)
FITZ HAMON Maud (Mabel) (Sibyl) (1090 - 29 Sep 1157)

Children by OF GLOUCESTER Christiana ABT 1118 - 
FITZ ALAN Christiana (ABT 1142 - )

Marriage To DE SAY Isabel (1135 - ABT 1199)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE SAY (SAYE) Elias (ABT 1111 - BEF 1166)
----- ----- ()

Children by DE SAY Isabel 1135 - ABT 1199
FITZ ALAN William (ABT 1154 - 1210)
FITZ ALAN DE EATON Robert (ABT 1158 - )

Produced by Fzip 1.7 6/20/2017