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Birth:          ABT 1135 Bradninch, Tiverton, Devonshire, England

Notes
One of the four murderers of Thomas a Becket
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I11536
ID: I11536 William de TRACY , of Bradninch, Sir 

Sir William de Tracy, b. say 1135, seen 1170, of Bradninch, Devon, one of the 4 
murderers of Thomas à Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, s. of WILLIAM DE TRACY, 
d. ca. 1135, lord of Bradninch, Devon. [Ref: Weis AR7 124A:29] 

TRACY, WILLIAM De (d. 1173), murderer of Thomas (Becket),belonged to a family 
which in the twelfth century held considerable property in Devonshire and 
Gloucestershire; but his place in the pedigree has never been ascertained. The 
version given in Britten's 'Toddington,' and generally accepted by later writers, has no 
evidence to support it; Dugdale is more wisely content to leave the matter 
undetermined. 'William de Tracy' witnessed an agreement between Henry II and the 
Count of Flanders in 1163 (Rymer, i. 23; _Liber Niger_, i. 35), and figures also in the 
'Liber Niger' (pp. 115,121, 168; cf. _Red Book_, pp. 248, 254, 295) and in the pipe 
rolls of 1165, 1168, 1169, 1172, and 1173 (_Pipe Roll_, 11 Hen. II p. 80,14 Hen. II p. 
128, 15 Hen. II p. 53, 18 Hen. II p. 102, 19 Hen. II p. 148); but there were evidently 
living during this period at least two men who bore the name, and it is impossible to 
distinguish with certainty between them, or to decide which of them is to be identified 
with the subject of this article. 
This last is described by a contemporary as 'one who, though he had borne himself 
bravely in many a fight, yet in his manner of life was such that his sins must needs 
drag him down in the end to the lowest depths of crime' (_Materials for Hist, of 
Becket_, i. 129). He had been the 'man' of Thomas when the latter was chancellor 
(_ib._ iii. 135), and was one of the four conspirators who, on Christmas-eve 1170, 
vowed to slay him. When they entered the archbishop's chamberon the afternoon of 
Tuesday, 29 Dec., Tracy was the only one whom Thomas greeted by name (_ib._ iv. 
70). When they came to the church an hour later to slay him, Tracy first, according to 
the Thomas Saga (i. 639), 'strideth forward to the archbishop, saying, "Flee! thou art 
death's man;"' then, as Thomas refused to flee, 'the knight seizeth the mantle with 
one hand, and with the other smiteth the mitre from the archbishop's head, saying, 
"Go hence, thou art a prisoner; it is not to be endured that thou shouldest live any 
longer."' William of Canterbury, however, who is probably a better authority, ascribes 
this action to Reginald Fitzurse (_Materials_, i. 133). After some further altercation the 
knights determined to drag Thomas out of the church. Tracy was the first to approach 
him for that purpose, but Thomas seized him by the hauberk and shook him with such 
force that, as he himself owned afterwards, he fell nearly prostrate on the pavement 
(_ib._ iii. 492-3), whereupon he threw off his hauberk, 'to be lighter' (Garnier, p. 194). 
According to William of Canterbury (_Materials_, i. 133), Fitz- Stephen (_ib._. iii. 141), 
Gamier (_1. c._), and the Saga (i. 648), it was Tracy who struck the first blow which 
wounded the archbishop, and which nearly cut off the arm of Edward Grim; but there 
is some confusion on this point, for Grim himself (_Materials_, ii. 437) seems to imply 
that the blow was struck by Fitzurse, as is actually stated by another contemporary 
(_ib._ iv. 77) ; while Garnier adds that Tracy, by his own account afterwards, thought 
it was John of Salisbury whose arm he had cut off. Tracy certainly struck the 
archbishop twice, and his last blow cleft the crown of Thomas's head (Garnier, _l. c._) 
After the murder Tracy went and confessed himself to his diocesan bishop, 
Bartholomew (d. 1184) of Exeter (_Materials_, iii. 612-13; Gir. Cambr., _Vita S. 
Remigii_, c. xxviii). Gerald of Wales says his confession included a statement that he 
and his three comrades had been compelled by the king to bind themselves by an oath 
sworn in Henry's presence to slay the primate. The story, however, is doubtful. Tracy 
shared the adventures of his fellow-murderers in Scotland and at Knaresborough [see 
Fitzurse, Reginald, and Morville, Hugh de, d. 1204]. He was first of the four to 
surrender himself to the pope's mercy (_Materials_, iv. 162), but last to set out for Holy 
Land (_ib._ iii. 536; _Thomas Saga_, ii. 39), where Alexander III bade them serve 
under the Templars for fourteen years, in addition to a lifelong penance of fasting and 
prayer. The last dated notice of him as living is in 1172, when he was at the papal 
court (_Materials_, vii. 511). The statement which some modern writers have adopted 
from Dugdale, that he was steward or seneschal of Normandy from 1174 to 1176, is 
founded on two passages of the so-called Bromton (Twysden, cols. 1105 and 1116), 
where 'Tracy' is a scribe's blunder for 'Courcy' (_Gesta Hen_. i. 99, 124, 125; Rog. 
Hov. ii. 82). Equally baseless are the legends which tell either that Tracy never 
started on his pilgrimage at all, or that he returned secretly and lived for many years 
hidden in some lonely spot on the Devonshire coast. A letter written between 1205 
and 1230 relates the history of a grant made to Christ Church, Canterbury, by one 
William de Thaun, 'when he was setting out for Holy Land with his lord, William de 
Tracy' (Stanley, _Memorials of Canterbury_, App., note F). Tracy, however, got no 
further than Cosenza in Sicily. There he was smitten with a horrible disease, his flesh 
decaying while he was yet alive, so that he could not refrain from tearing it off with his 
own hands, and he died in agony, praying incessantly to St. Thomas. Herbert of 
Bosham relates this on the authority of the bishop of Cosenza, who had been Tracy's 
confessor during his sickness (_Materials_, iii. 536-7; cf. _Thomas Saga_, ii. 39-41). 
By a charter without date of place or time, William de Tracy granted the manor of 
Doccombe (Devon) to the chapter of Canterbury' for the love of God, the salvation of 
his own soul and his ancestors' souls, and for love of the blessed Thomas, archbishop 
and martyr, of venerable memory." The first witness is the abbot of 'Eufemia,' i.e. 
doubtless Santa Eufemia, a monastery some eighteen miles from Cosenza: and the 
grant was confirmed by Henry II in a charter whose date must lie between July and 
October 1174 (Stanley, note F). Evidently Tracy's charter was drawn up at or near 
Cosenza during his fatal illness, and brought home by his followers after his death, 
which a comparison of dates thus shows to have occurred, as Herbert says 
(_Materials_, iii. 537), within three years of his crime, i.e. in 1173. 
[Authorities cited; cf. Dr. E. A. Abbott's Death and Miracles of Thomas à Beckett. 
1898.] K. N.* [Ref: DNB, Editor, Sidney Lee, MacMillan Co, London & Smith, Elder & 
Co., NY, 1909, vol. xix, pp. 1069-1070] 

* Miss Kate Norgate, author of this article. 

Regards, 
Curt

Parents
DE TRACY William (AFT 1090 - ABT 1136)
----- ----- ()

Siblings
DE TRACY William (ABT 1135 - )

Marriage To DE POMEROY ----- (ABT 1147 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
DE POMEROY Henry (ABT 1110 - AFT 1167)
FITZ HERBERT Rohese (ABT 1114 - )

Children by DE POMEROY ----- ABT 1147 - 
DE TRACY (DE CAMPO ERNALDO) Rohese (Rohais) (Rose) (ABT 1180 - AFT 1237)

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