Robert de Morley

Notes:

Admiral of the Fleet North of the Thames. Constable of the Tower of London. Marshal of Ireland. Summoned to Parliament 20 Nov 1317 to 15 Dec 1357.

On 24 Jun 1340 he won the first great English naval victory by destroying the French fleet at Sluys. Fought at Crécy as one of the bannerets in the king's division. In 1347, he supported the siege of Calais by blockading the port; in the same year, he killed deer belonging to Thomas Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, who consequently excommunicated him and made him do penance by walking barefoot through the streets of Norwich carrying a wax taper weighing six pounds.

According to Walter Rye (citation details below) he also fought at Boroughbridge in 1322.

Robert married Hawise Marshal before 20 Oct 1316. Hawise (daughter of William Marshal and Christian de Burgh) was born about 1301; died before Sep 1334. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William de Morley was born on 24 Jun 1319 in of Great Hallingbury, Bishop's Stortford, Essex, England; died on 30 Apr 1379 in Hallingbury, Essex, England; was buried in Austin Friars, Norwich, Norfolk, England.

Notes:

Summoned to Parliament from 29 Dec 1299 to 3 Nov 1306 (after his death). He fought at the battle of Falkirk in 1298.

William married Cecily de Mohaut before 1 Oct 1295. Cecily (daughter of Robert de Mohaut and Joan de Mowbray) died after 1315. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Joan de Mowbray about 1261. Joan (daughter of Roger de Mowbray and (Unknown) de Furnival) died before 1316. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 28 Jun 1260

Notes:

Justice of Cheshire.

Roger married Cecily d'Aubigny. Cecily (daughter of William d'Aubigny and Mabel of Chester) died after 1260. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1220, of the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, England
• Alternate death: 1266
• Alternate death: Abt Nov 1266, Axholme, Lincolnshire, England

Notes:

"He was sum. for service in Scotland in Jan. 1257/8, and in 1260 was ordered to be at Chester to serve against the Welsh, being appointed in Dec. with James de Audley to dictate, on the King's behalf, the terms of the truce with Llewelyn. He appears to have sided with Henry III, at any rate in the earlier days of the opposition of the Barons." [Complete Peerage]

Roger married (Unknown) de Furnival after 13 Apr 1238. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1231

Notes:

Also called Roger de Montalt. Hereditary seneschal to the earl of Chester.

Roger married Nichole. Nichole died after 1232. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Mar 1221, near Rome
• Alternate death: Bef 30 Mar 1221, Cainell, near Rome

Notes:

Earl of Arundel; Earl of Sussex. Chief Butler of England; Privy Councillor; Judge in the King's Court 1198, 1200, 1218. A King's man at Runnymede.

Went on Crusade in 1218; was present at the siege of Damietta.

"In the beginning he was one of King John's favourites, but he joined the baronial party opposing the King in 1216 after the sealing of the Magna Carta. According to the Barnwell Chronicle, when the barons met in London in 1216 to plan the division of England among them, they assigned to d'Aubigny the government of Lincolnshire. In 1217 he switched his support back to the young Henry III." [Leo van de Pas]

From Complete Peerage I:236-38:

William (d'Aubigny), Earl of Sussex, and Earl of Arundel, s. & h. He was a favorite of King John, whose concession of the Kingdom to the Pope, 15 May 1213, he witnessed, and whom he accompanied to Runnymede, 15 June 1215. (d) When, however, King John abandoned Winchester, 14 June 1216, to Louis (afterwards Louis VIII) of France, he joined that Prince, but (consistently taking the winning side) returned to his allegiance 14 July 1217, after the Royalist victory at Lincoln. Shortly afterwards he acted as Justiciar, the young King, Henry III, having restored to him his forfeited possessions. He m. Mabel, 2nd da. of Hugh (le Meschin, surnamed Kevelioc), Earl of Chester, by Bertrade, da. of Simon, Count of Evreux in Normandy. She, in her issue, was (1232) one of the four coheirs to her br. Ranulph (surnamed Blundeville), Earl of Chester. He embarked in the crusade of 1218, and was at the taking of Damietta in Nov. 12 19, but d. at Cainell, near Rome, ("quoddam oppidulum Kainel nomine") shortly before 30 Mar. 1221 (when the news reached England) and was bur. at Wynmondham Priory.

(d) His namesake of Belvoir became one of the sureties for the King's observance of Magna Charta as 'William d'Aubigny, Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester.'

William married Mabel of Chester. Mabel (daughter of Hugh of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort) died before 1232. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Mabel le Meschin.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Thirsk, Yorkshire, England
• Alternate death: Bef Apr 1224, Axholme, Lincolnshire, England

Notes:

Magna Carta surety.

Seigneur of Montbrai in Normandy. Constable of York Castle.

"He would appear either to have been in the King's company on his return from Palestine or to have waited upon him in Germany, because on 20 Nov. 1193 he witnessed a charter of Richard I at Spiers. He was, moreover, one of the pledges in Germany for King Richard's ransom, and did not obtain possession of his inheritance until 1194, paying a relief of £100. In 1197 he was present when the pact against France was made in Normandy between King Richard and Baldwin, Count of Flanders. On the death of Richard, Apr. 1199, he fortified his castles, and was one of the magnates who swore fealty to John only on receiving an undertaking that each should receive his rights. He had exemption from the first scutage of John of 2s. per fee. In 1200 William de Stuteville, as great-grandson and heir of Robert de Stuteville who had been dispossessed after Tinchebrai, renewed the claim of his family to certain of the Mowbray lands, and a settlement was made whereby the claimant was allowed 12 librates of land (Brincklow, co. Warwick) and the service of 9 knights in addition to the fee of 10 knights already held by him of Mowbray. William was abroad in the King's service in 1201 and 1203. On 25 Feb. 1203/4 he witnessed a royal charter at York. On the loss of Normandy in 1205 he adhered to John, and his Norman lands, including Montbrai, were taken into the French King's hand and forever lost to the family. He was with the King on his expedition to Ireland in 1210. In the King's quarrel with the Barons he sided with the latter, and at Runnymede in June 1215 demanded as his hereditary right the custody of the forests in Yorkshire and of the castle of York, the latter being committed to him pending inquiry as to his rights. He was one of the 25 Barons appointed to enforce the provisions of Magna Carta. As he continued in opposition to the King, his lands were forfeited, and he was among the Barons whose excommunication the King procured from Innocent III. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Lincoln, 20 May 1217, fighting for Louis against the young King Henry, but in Oct. he returned to his allegiance, and his lands were restored to him. In Feb. 1220/1 he accompanied the King to the siege of Byham. He defaulted in his service against the Welsh in 1223, and his lands were again taken into the King's hand, but he was repossessed in Dec." [Complete Peerage]

William married Avice. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Or Agnes. Often claimed as a daughter of William D'Aubeney and Mabel of Chester, but this is unproven.

Notes:

With his brother, Gerard de Furnival, he accompanied Simon de Montfort on crusade in 1240, and was killed at Damietta.

Thomas married Bertha de Ferrers. Bertha (daughter of William de Ferrers and Agnes of Chester) died after 10 Feb 1267; was buried in Grey Friars, Dunwich, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1278

Notes:

Constable of Cheshire, according to Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans (citation details below). Ormerod omits this generation.

Notes:

Earl of Arundel, also styled earl of Sussex. Hereditary Chief Butler of England; Privy Councillor; Constable of Windsor Castle 1191-3.

According to Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans (citation details below), he was a crusader.

"William d'Aubigny, Earl of Sussex, s. and h., n 1176/7, was confirmed in that dignity, but the Castle and Honour of Arundel having, in accordance with the policy of Henry II, been retained by the Crown, on the death of the last holder, he did not obtain restoration of them till Richard I restored them to him, 27 June 1190, when (according to the admission of 1433 abovenamed) he became Earl of Arundel. He was, however, styled Earl of Arundel before he received possession of the Castle and Honour, namely, on 18 Sep. 1189, and on 26 Nov. of the same year he witnessed King Richard's Charter as 'Will. Earl of Arundel.' He received also at the same time, the third penny of the pleas of Sussex in the precise words of the grant made to his father. In 1191 he was made Custos of Windsor Castle, and in 1194 one of the Receivers of the money raised for the King's ransom. He m. Maud, widow of Roger (de Clare), Earl of Hertford (who had d. 1173), da. and h. of James de St. Hilaire du Harcouet, by Aveline, his wife. He d. 24 Dec. 1193, and was bur. at Wymondham Priory." [Complete Peerage I:235-36]

William married Maud de St. Hilary. Maud (daughter of James de St. Hilary du Harcourt and Aveline) was born in of Field Dalling, Norfolk, England; died on 24 Dec 1193; was buried in Priory of Great Carbrooke, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1195

Notes:

Also called Maud de St. Hilaire du Harcouet.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1147, Merionethshire, Wales

Notes:

Earl of Chester. Also known as Hugh le Meschin; Hugh de Meschines; Hugh of Kevelioc; Hugh de Cyveiliog.

1908 DNB entry on Hugh of Kevelioc:

[By Thomas Frederick Tout.]

HUGH (D. 1181) called HUGH of CYVEILIOG, palatine Earl of Chester, was the son of Ranulf II, Earl of Chester, and of his wife Matilda, daughter of Earl Robert of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I. He is sometimes called Hugh of Cyveiliog, because, according to a late writer, he was born in that district of Wales (Powel, Hist. of Cambria, p. 295). His father died on 16 Dec. 1153, whereupon, being probably still under age, he succeeded to his possessions on both sides of the Channel. These included the hereditary viscounties of Avranches and Bayeux. Hugh was present at the council of Clarendon in January 1164 which drew up the assize of Clarendon (Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 138). In 1171 he was in Normandy (Eyton, Itinerary of Henry II, p. 158).

Hugh joined the great feudal revolt against Henry II in 1173. Aided by Ralph of Fougeres, he utilised his great influence on the north-eastern marches of Brittany to excite the Bretons to revolt. Henry II despatched an army of Brabant mercenaries against them. The rebels were defeated in a battle, and on 20 Aug. were shut up in the castle of Dol, which they had captured by fraud not long before. On 23 Aug. Henry II arrived to conduct the siege in person (Hoveden, ii. 51). Hugh and his comrades had no provisions (Jordan Fantosme in Howlett, Chron. of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, iii. 221). They were therefore forced to surrender on 26 Aug. on a promise that their lives and limbs would be saved (W. Newburgh in Howlett, i. 176). Fourscore knights surrendered with them (Diceto, i. 378). Hugh was treated very leniently by Henry, and was confined at Falaise, whither the Earl and Countess of Leicester were also soon brought as prisoners. When Henry II returned to England, he took the two earls with him. They were conveyed from Barfleur to Southampton on 8 July 1174. Hugh was probably afterwards imprisoned at Devizes (Eyton, p. 180). On 8 Aug., however, he was taken back from Portsmouth to Barfleur, when Henry II went back to Normandy. He was now imprisoned at Caen, whence he was removed to Falaise. He was admitted to terms with Henry before the general peace, and witnessed the peace of Falaise on 11 Oct. (Fœdera, i. 31).

Hugh seems to have remained some time longer without complete restoration. At last, at the council of Northampton on 13 Jan. 1177, he received grant of the lands on both sides of the sea which he had held fifteen days before the war broke out (Benedictus, i. 135; Hoveden, ii. 118). In March he witnessed the Spanish award. In May, at the council at Windsor, Henry II restored him his castles, and required him to go to Ireland, along with William Fitzaldhelm and others, to prepare the way for the king's son John (Benedictus, i. 161). But no great grants of Irish land were conferred on him, and he took no prominent part, in the Irish campaigns. He died at Leek in Staffordshire on 30 June 1181 (ib. i. 277; Monasticon, iii. 218; Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 29). He was buried next his father on the south side of the chapter-house of St. Werburgh's, Chester, now the cathedral.

Hugh's liberality to the church was not so great as that of his predecessors. He granted some lands in Wirral to St. Werburgh's, and four charters of his, to Stanlaw, St. Mary's, Coventry, the nuns of Bullington and Greenfield, are printed by Ormerod (i. 27). He also confirmed his mother's grants to her foundation of Austin Canons at Calke, Derbyshire, and those of his father to his convent of the Benedictine nuns of St. Mary's, Chester (Monasticon, vi. 598, iv. 314). In 1171 he had confirmed the grants of Ranulf to the abbey of St. Stephen's in the diocese of Bayeux (Eyton, p. 158). More substantial were his grants of Bettesford Church to Trentham Priory, and of Combe in Gloucestershire to the abbey of Bordesley, Warwickshire (Monasticon, vi. 397, v. 407).

Hugh married before 1171 Bertrada, the daughter of Simon III, surnamed the Bald, count of Evreux and Montfort. He was therefore brother-in-law to Simon of Montfort., the conqueror of the Albigenses, and uncle of the Earl of Leicester. His only legitimate son, Ranulf III, succeeded him as Earl of Chester [see Blundevill, Randulf de]. He also left four daughters by his wife, who became, on their brother's death, co-heiresses of the Chester earldom. They were: (1) Maud, who married David, earl of Huntingdon, and became the mother of John the Scot, earl of Chester from 1232 to 1237, on whose death the line of Hugh of Avranches became extinct; (2) Mabel, who married William of Albini, earl of Arundel (d. 1221); (3) Agnes, the wife of William, earl Ferrers of Derby; and (4) Hawise, who married Robert de Quincy, son of Saer de Quincy, earl of Winchester. Hugh was also the father of several bastards, including Pagan, lord of Milton; Roger; Amice, who married Ralph Mainwaring, justice of Chester; and another daughter who married R. Bacon, the founder of Roucester (Ormerod, i. 28). A great controversy was carried on between Sir Peter Leycester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring, Amice's reputed descendant, as to whether that lady was legitimate or not. Fifteen pamphlets and small treatises on the subject, published between 1673 and 1679, were reprinted in the publications of the Chetham Society, vols. lxxiii. lxxix. and lxxx. Mainwaring was the champion of her legitimacy, which Leycester had denied in his 'Historical Antiquities.' Dugdale believed that Amice was the daughter of a former wife of Hugh, of whose existence, however, there is no record. A fine seal of Earl Hugh's is engraved in Ormerod's 'Cheshire,' i. 32.

[Benedictus Abbas and Roger de Hoveden (both ed. Stubbs in Rolls Ser.); Howlett's Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I (Rolls Ser.); Eyton's Itinerary of Hen. II; Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 26-32; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 40-1; Dugdale's Monasticon, ed. Ellis, Caley, and Bandinel; Doyle's Official Baronage, i. 364; Beamont's introduction to the Amicia Tracts, Chetham Soc.]

[DNB, Editor, Sidney Lee, Macmillan Co., London & Smith, Elder & Co., NY, 1908, vol. x, pp. 164-5]

Hugh married Bertrade de Montfort in 1169. Bertrade (daughter of Simon de Montfort and Maud) was born about 1155; died after 31 Mar 1227. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1156

Notes:

Also called Bertrade of Evreux. CP notes that at her wedding she was given away by King Henry II "because she was his own cousin." In fact she and the king were second cousins once removed, Simon de Montfort and Agnes d'Evreaux being his great-great grandparents and her great-grandparents.

Notes:

"[P]resent at the Council of Clarendon in Jan. 1163/4. In 1172, his father being still alive, he was in possession of the Norman lands. He joined with his father in the rebellion of 1173. He was present at King Richard's Coronation, 3 Sep. 1189, and accompanied him on the Crusade." [Complete Peerage]

Nele married Mabel before Sep 1170. Mabel died about 1203. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"[O]f unknown parentage." [Ancestral Roots]

Gerard married Maud de Lovetot before 1201. Maud (daughter of William de Luvetot and Maud fitz Walter) was born about 1178; died after 23 Jun 1247; was buried in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Sheriff of Notts and Derby, for 7 weeks, February-March 1194. About that time, before the King's return to England, he supported the justiciar against John, Count of Mortain, and, with the Earl of Chester, besieged Nottingham Castle. Shortly afterwards he took part at Richard's second Coronation, 17 April, being one of the four Earls who bore the canopy. After the King's death, he was at the Council of Northampton, which declared for John as Richard's successor: he was present at the Coronation, 27 May 1199. On 7 June 1199, the King restored and confirmed to him the third penny of all the pleas pleaded per vicecomitem de Dereby, unde ipse Comes est, as amply as any of his predecessors had had the same, to hold, to him and his heirs for ever, and with his own hand girded him with the sword as an Earl. On the same day the King gave him Higham with the hundred and a half, and the park of that town, and Newbottle and Blisworth, as his right and inheritance which descended to him as right heir of the land which was of William Peverel, to hold, to him and his heirs for ever, by the service of a knlght's fee. And the Earl quit-claimed the residue of the land which was of William Peverel to the King, and paid 2,000 marks for his charter. He was present at the Coronation of Henry III, 28 October 1216. On 30 October the King granted him the castles of Peak and Bolsover, co. Derby, with the homages, and on 16 January 1216/7 the manor of Melbourne in that co., to hold till the King was 14 years of age. He assisted the Regent to raise the siege of Lincoln Castle, 20 May 1217, and with his brother-in-law, the Earl of Chester, commanded the royal forces which took and razed the castle of Montsorel. In June 1218 he went on Crusade. He was warned, 26 June 1222, to surrender the castles of Peak and Bolsover before Michaelmas. Sheriff of co. Lancaster and Keeper of the honour of Lancaster, 30 December 1223 to 2 January 1227/8. He accompanied the King in the expedition to Brittany and Poitou, April to October 1230. On 19 January 1230/1 he was given the custody of all the lands of the Normans in England which were of his fee. He was at the Council of London, February 1231/2. He was summoned for Military Service against the Scots 15 May 1244, by writ directed W. de Ferar' comiti Derebi." [Complete Peerage]

Died of the complications of gout.

William married Agnes of Chester in 1192. Agnes (daughter of Hugh of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort) died on 2 Nov 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

According to CP XIV, she may actually have been called Alice. The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz calls her "Agnes (?Alice) de Blundeville".