William de Mandeville was more than just an ambitious noble; he was a trusted confidant, skilled diplomat, and key player in the turbulent court of Henry II. His rise to power through loyalty, military prowess, and strategic alliances shaped the cross-Channel politics of medieval England and beyond.
By James Turner
He was a brave man, a fine soldier, and universally respected. For that reason, he spent less time in England among his people than in Normandy where he guarded the fortresses and castles and fortifications which had been entrusted to him by King Henry. — The Book of the Foundation of Walden Monastery
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The Mandeville family had some familiarity with the many political and material advantages of courting the reigning monarch’s favour. They had also, on more than one occasion, experienced the perils of rousing a king’s ire. The study of their family history and the turbulent, yet often profitable, relationship they shared with the monarchy allows us to gain a clearer understanding of the carefully negotiated quid pro quo relationships the Angevin monarchy attempted to cultivate among its mingled aristocracy.
William’s grandfather and namesake held a profitable and prestigious position as the constable of the Tower of London. This William’s own father, another Geoffrey de Mandeville, had directly participated in the Norman Conquest and at various times served as the sheriff of London and Essex. The family’s fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse in 1101 when, either through incompetence or corruption, this elder William de Mandeville allowed the imprisoned former Chancellor and Bishop of Durham, Ranulf Flambard, to escape across the Channel, where he took refuge with the new king’s continental rivals. An enraged King Henry I immediately stripped William of his custodianship of the Tower and three of the family’s most valuable estates: Sawbridge, Great Waltham, and Saffron Walden. In addition to these losses, which together formed over a third of the Mandeville family’s previous income, the king imposed an enormous fine upon William.
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The majority of this debt, combined with the substantial additional fees necessary for securing the uncontested inheritance of the family’s remaining estates, was passed from William to his eldest son Geoffrey, the father of our primary subject. Previous generations of historians have held Geoffrey up as an exemplar of the kind of “rogue robber baron” that they believed had become prevalent during the so-called Anarchy, the period of unrest and civil strife caused by the conflict between King Stephen and his cousin and rival for the throne, Empress Matilda.
During this period, Geoffrey, like many of his contemporaries, oscillated between support for King Stephen and Empress Matilda. Both royal claimants were increasingly desperate for tangible aristocratic support as their dynastic conflict wore on, and the aristocracy began to appear increasingly inclined to pursue their own agendas of consolidation and expansion. Geoffrey was able to parlay this division into grants of land from both candidates, effectively playing them off against one another in pursuit of his own interests. Liberated but at the same time rendered vulnerable by the lack of royal scrutiny, Geoffrey attempted to consolidate his geographically fractured landholdings and create a unified power base, both as a means of protection from rivals and as a platform for further expansion.
By 1141, Geoffrey had not only regained custodianship of the Tower but also recovered all three estates confiscated from his father by Henry I. Additionally, and perhaps most significantly for the family’s future, Geoffrey’s wrangling secured for himself the specially created title of Earl of Essex. However, for all of his successes, Geoffrey was ultimately caught out by the shifting and volatile tides of the Anarchy. Having enemies among both primary combatants, his lands were rendered forfeit, and he was eventually killed in a skirmish while trying to piece his fortune back together by extorting the monasteries of the Fenlands.
The Mandeville Coat of Arms – British Library Royal MS 14 C VII
It, therefore, fell to his eldest son, also Geoffrey, to rescue the family and rebuild their fortunes. Geoffrey took advantage of the recent perception of his family as Angevin loyalists, created by his father’s final break with Stephen, to attach himself to the retinue of the Empress’s eldest son, the future Henry II. The Anarchy eventually concluded with the Treaty of Winchester, in which King Stephen agreed to recognise Matilda’s son, Henry, as the heir to the throne of England. Stephen then, rather obligingly, died shortly after the treaty, curtailing any further escalation of tensions between the two parties and allowing Henry to assume the throne peacefully.
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During the following transitory period, Geoffrey worked to cultivate royal favour and, in 1156, was rewarded with the return of much of the Mandevilles’ previous holdings, as well as the title of Earl of Essex. Alongside fellow royal favourite Richard de Luci, Geoffrey held the position of Royal Justiciar, which, procured through royal favour, entrenched him at the heart of the networks of power and patronage that composed the empire. Henry II rewarded Geoffrey’s service by securing for him a politically advantageous marriage to one of his relatives, Countess Eustachia of the powerful and well-connected Blois-Champagne family. However, rather inexplicably, Geoffrey subsequently lost royal favour due to a scandalous incident in which his wife petitioned the king for a divorce, citing Geoffrey’s refusal to cohabit with her. As a result, the Mandeville manors of Walden and Great Waltham, as well as, temporarily, the Priory at Walden itself, once again fell into royal hands.
The Mandeville family owed its rise to prominence to the patronage and goodwill of the Anglo-Norman monarchs. The first Earl, Geoffrey, prospered as a result of negotiations with rival claimants to the throne, recognising the benefits of royal support but being wary of relying on royal favour, seeking to create his own independent power base. While Geoffrey the Younger suffered a decline in Henry II’s esteem, he succeeded in rescuing the core of the family’s holdings. As we shall see, William built upon his brother’s policy of close integration with the administrative apparatus of the realm and the importance of cultivating royal favour.
William and his elder brother’s relationship with the monarchy stood in marked contrast to that of their father, though their goal was ultimately the same: the advancement of their own wealth and power and that of their family. Geoffrey the Younger and William, however, concluded that this could best be achieved through retaining the royal favour and patronage, which had first seen their family rise to wealth and power within England, and which would, under William, briefly transform them into true cross-Channel magnates. However, as demonstrated by both the younger Geoffrey and their grandfather, the foundations of such a power base were built upon sand and prone to shift.
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Geoffrey, the second Earl of Essex, died suddenly in 1166 while preparing for the imminent royal invasion of Wales. Unsurprisingly, considering his ex-wife’s complaints that the earl refused to cohabit with her, Geoffrey and Eustachia had no children. Geoffrey was succeeded by his younger brother, William. While the circumstances surrounding the annulment of his marriage had certainly damaged Geoffrey’s standing in the Angevin court, he was by no means disgraced, serving alongside royal favourite Richard de Luci as a royal justice right up until his death. This meant that William was accepted as Geoffrey’s heir, and, aside from the levying of the usual fees, he was allowed by the royal administration to inherit the earldom and the majority of the family’s lands.
On the other hand, Henry II made a point of retaining the custodianship of the Tower and two of the Mandeville manors. While the identity of the withheld estates is unknown, it seems probable that they were Walden and Greater Waltham. Both manors had a history of royal administration, having been confiscated from William’s grandfather. They were subsequently returned to the Mandeville family by Henry II at the time of the second earl’s marriage as a dowry for Eustachia, who was a royal ward or kinswoman.
A Diplomat in Henry II’s Court
Despite the withholding of these portions of the Mandeville inheritance, William does not seem to have formed any lasting enmity towards the king. After all, he still retained a significant fortune, with his landed estates being assessed for 150 knights’ fees. For the first few years after his ascension to the upper echelons of the aristocracy, William made only intermittent appearances in the itinerant Angevin royal court. In early December 1169, William attended the royal court held in Le Mans, where he witnessed a charter issued by the king to the monks of Ferley. On the same occasion, William also testified to the king’s confirmation of a grant made by Count William of Ponthieu to the Bishop of Le Mans.
Almost exactly a year later, William reappears in the witness lists of a charter issued by the royal court, confirming the gift of Hinckley to the Abbey of Lyra at Chinon, suggesting a concerted effort on the earl’s part to attend the king’s Christmas court. In 1171, William travelled with the royal court for much of the summer as it toured across Normandy. In January of 1173, William was given his first mission as an envoy and royal representative, a role he would adopt frequently throughout his later career. The timing of this appointment suggests that William may have spent yet another Christmas with the royal court.
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Alongside Earl William of Arundel and Archdeacon Reginald Fitz Joceline of Salisbury, he travelled to the court of Count Humbert III of Savoy, where the trio successfully brokered the marriage between the count’s youngest daughter, Alias, and Henry’s youngest son, John. This marriage, had it gone ahead, would have greatly advanced Henry’s goal to buttress and secure his hold upon the Plantagenets’ enormous continental domains. Unfortunately, Alias fell ill and died in England shortly before the wedding could take place. Later that year, William was present in court for the outbreak of a rebellion launched by Henry II’s eldest son, Henry the Young King. He once again attended the court over Christmas, attesting to a charter confirming the privileges of the nuns of St Mary’s.
Taken in aggregate, this scattered evidence paints a picture in which William, who had developed an urbane and courtly streak during his time in Flanders, slowly but steadily grew in prestige and royal regard over the course of multiple extended visits to the royal court. If that was indeed the case, it was the 1173 rebellion of the Young King that marked Earl William’s transition into the king’s inner circle.
William’s Role in the Rebellion of 1173
The rebellion came perilously close to unseating the king. Its fundamental cause was Henry II’s reluctance to meaningfully share power with his children and his deliberate cultivation of ambiguity regarding the intended division of his lands among his sons. This meant that the Young King was supported in his efforts by his younger brothers, Duke Richard of Aquitaine and Geoffrey, and by their mother, Queen Eleanor. In addition to their own retainers, Henry’s sons were joined by a large portion of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, who seized the chance to reverse the increasing centralisation of power and control created by Henry II’s relentless efforts in the sphere of royal aggrandisement. Sensing the opportunity within this family rift, Henry’s rogue scions and their followers were further supported by the Kings of France and Scotland.
Earl William was a steadfast loyalist and remained, for the most part, with the king and the royal household. William fought directly alongside the king, participating in the campaign against the rebels and the invading French king within eastern Normandy. Serving as one of Henry’s principal lieutenants alongside Earl William of Arundel and Richard de Humez, the Constable of Normandy, he first distinguished himself in the fighting preceding Henry’s push to Rouen and was a leading figure in the repulse of the French army following the siege of Verneuil.
In 1174, the wounded William returned to London to recover, during which time he witnessed a charter issued by Henry to the Archbishop of Rouen, granting certain rights and liberties to the Bishop of Evreux. By September, he had returned to the king’s side, where he witnessed a royal charter granting further land to royal favourite Richard de Luci. He was also one of the English signatories of the Treaty of Falaise, which brought an end to hostilities between Henry and the captured William the Lion of Scotland and decisively shifted the balance of power in the north of Britain in Henry’s favour. William appears to have been with the court throughout 1175, his name appearing in several witness lists from April to October.
The 12th-century Topographica Hiberniae (Topology of Ireland) was dedicated to King Henry II of England, and features a rare contemporary image of the king. – British Library MS Royal 13 B VIII
Henry II made careful use of Earl William’s political connections, aristocratic credentials, and personal charisma through his deployment as an envoy and royal proxy to a wide range of European courts. These embassies were often dispatched to Henry’s neighbours in France and the Lowlands, and their frequent successes represented substantial advancements in the dynastic and territorial interests of the Plantagenet monarchy.
In 1176, Henry capitalised upon William’s long-standing friendship with Count Philip of Flanders by dispatching him, alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely, on a mission to Philip’s court. The primary purpose of this embassy was to reaffirm and, if necessary, negotiate the alliance between Henry and Philip, who were cousins, in the wake of the disruption caused by the Young King’s rebellion and subsequent war with France. Philip had, largely due to his precarious relationship with the French king, supported the rebellion. It was now essential for Henry to win over Philip once again, reasserting a status quo and balance of power which unambiguously favoured the Angevins.
Cross-Channel Magnate and Crusader
In 1177, William accompanied Count Philip on a crusade to Jerusalem, where they visited a variety of pilgrimage sites as well as engaging in strenuous military activity besieging the town of Harran alongside detachments of the Templars and the Hospitallers. William’s presence in his old friend’s expedition could be a further manifestation of the aid Henry’s ambassadors, including William, had promised Philip for the crusade earlier that year.
In 1179, shortly after returning from the Holy Land, William was commanded to meet with and escort a delegation of French pilgrims, including King Louis VII, Henry, Duke of Louvain, and Baldwin, Count of Guisnes, to Dover. At Dover, the party was met by King Henry, who accompanied them to their politically charged destination, the tomb of Thomas Becket. Here we observe William operating at the highest level of European politics as a direct representative of Henry. In 1180, William was dispatched by the king to pay off the Flemish mercenaries who had gathered around Rouen, a task that saw him responsible for a large sum of royal money.
The episode at Dover was far from William’s sole engagement with the zenith of contemporary politics, with Henry dispatching William on numerous embassies to his fellow princes. In 1181, William was sent as an envoy to the court of Frederick I of Germany, where he successfully secured the remission of all but one of the seven years of exile Frederick had imposed on Henry’s relative, the Duke of Saxony. In 1186, Earl William, alongside Archbishop Albermarle of Rouen, attended the court of King Philip II of France, who was energetically opposing Plantagenet dominance in northern and western France. The primary purpose of this crucial embassy was to secure a truce between Philip and Henry to safeguard the English king’s then-flagging fortunes and diffuse a growing conflict over the wardship of the heiress of Brittany.
In 1187, William hosted a summit between King Henry, King Philip, and Count Philip of Flanders on his wife’s lands in Aumale. There, they agreed to a cessation of hostilities and began preparations for the crusade they had agreed to embark on together. It seems that the location for this meeting was selected by Henry with care. By selecting the strategically vital and often disputed Vexin region, Henry was emphasising his effective control over the area and the formidable manner in which it was held by one of his most ardent and capable supporters. Further, William’s prior experience with King Philip and his close friendship with the Count of Flanders was of obvious political advantage to Henry. Interestingly, in his capacity as acting Count of Aumale, William owed military service to the Count of Flanders for his wife’s hereditary territories in Beauvaisis. Due to these obligations and William’s personal relationship with the Count, in 1184 he had participated in Philip’s campaign against the Count of Hainault.
In addition to his efforts as an envoy, William continued to serve Henry in a martial capacity whenever called upon. In the 1187 campaign that immediately preceded the aforementioned peace summit, Henry had gathered a large army from across his patchwork domains, with which he intended to confront Philip of France and break his sieges of the castles of Issoudun, Fréteval, and Châteauroux. Henry intended to strike the French forces more or less simultaneously, decisively driving them from the Vexin in one fell swoop, a plan that necessitated the division of his otherwise unwieldy army. While this expedition ultimately ended in a negotiated settlement before there was any serious fighting, it is indicative of the king’s trust in William’s loyalty and abilities that he was entrusted with command of one of these task forces. The other nominated commanders were Henry’s new heir, Duke Richard, Prince John, and his illegitimate son and royal chancellor, Geoffrey Plantagenet.
William’s military support of Henry, however, was not limited purely to participation alongside the king in his own expeditions but included the protracted series of skirmishes and military actions he engaged in within his domains in Aumale. Henry had arranged the Earl’s marriage to Hawsia, Countess of Aumale, both as a means to reward one of his most reliable followers and to secure the strategically valuable province by placing it under the protection of a loyal and capable lieutenant. As part of this strategy of defence, Henry further granted William custodianship of a number of royal castles within the area: Gisors, Neufle, Bangu, Que Château-sur-Epte, and Vaudreuil. The constant border skirmishes and disputes in which William found himself embroiled were intense. In 1189, following fighting near Mantes, William’s castle at Aumale was sacked, an intrusion which was quickly avenged by the Earl when he burnt the town of St Clair-sur-Epte to the ground shortly afterwards.
William’s bride, Hawsia, the only legitimate child of William le Gros, had inherited her father’s extensive landholdings in Normandy and England. The couple married and likely met at Pleshey Castle, the heart of William’s English estates. The chronicler and Archdeacon of Middlesex, Ralph de Diceto, elaborated on the details of the wedding, emphasizing the king’s involvement in its arrangement and his specifications regarding the extent of Hawsia’s dowry and William’s access to it. Diceto was a firm contemporary of both Henry II and Earl William, politically well-connected and thus well-informed on the manoeuvrings within courtly circles. Diceto’s claims of Henry’s involvement are further lent credibility by the policy of Henry II and his Anglo-Norman successors to capitalise on the inheritance process for their financial and political gain by inserting themselves as the guardians of orphans and widows. This method of control can also be seen later in Hawsia’s life when she was married in turn to William de Forz and Baldwin de Béthune, both fixtures at the court of Richard I and members of his military entourage.
The county of Aumale was located perilously close to the constantly contested border separating the Angevin Empire from the kingdom of France and the strategically vital yet volatile Vexin region. By bequeathing all of Countess Hawsia’s land to Earl William through marriage, Henry effectively conjoined William’s interests in the region with his own, gaining a subordinate of proven loyalty and military competency, heavily invested in the protection of the area. Indeed, as we have seen, William’s court within Aumale sometimes acted as a host for diplomatic relations in the ever-shifting struggle between the rulers of England, France, and Flanders.
In addition to the lands held by the Count of Aumale, which were spread throughout Normandy, Hawsia’s inheritance and dowry included extensive lands in England, particularly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Despite a reversal of fortune in the aftermath of the Anarchy, William le Gros, and through him his eventual son-in-law William, retained the dual Lordships of Holderness and Skipton. When these lands were effectively incorporated into the Mandeville domains, they enjoyed the same degree of protection from taxation as the traditional Mandeville estates. King Henry’s routine grant of the third penny of Essex can be seen in the Pipe Rolls of every year from 1166 to 1189, the year of his death. This was a right, nominally held by all earls but in practice awarded at the king’s discretion, in which an earl was entitled to a third of all incomes derived from court fees and dispensation of justice within their earldom.
While the exact sum raised in this manner is difficult to determine, it was clearly a financial boon to the Earl and a sign of the favour in which he was held by King Henry. William also benefited greatly from other financial mechanisms used by Henry to signal his favour. For instance, in 1176, William was pardoned from scutage, a form of tax meant to cover military dues on his lands in Essex and Hertfordshire, by royal writ. A decade later, in 1186, when William was approaching the zenith of his power and influence, the Pipe Roll formulated by Oto, son of William, records that he was pardoned all his taxes and debts for Essex and Hertfordshire as well as in nearby Buckinghamshire. Unlike many of his contemporaries who held honours through the rights of their wives, such as Henry II’s half-brother Hamelin de Warrene, the Earl of Surrey, Earl William appears to have felt little need to reference the consent of his wife when issuing charters pertaining to her inheritance, rather treating it as an extension of his own demesne.
William’s Final Years and Legacy
William once again answered Henry’s call to war in 1189, fighting alongside the king in yet another rebellion launched by one of his sons, in tandem with an invasion from the French king. He was consequently by the king’s bedside later that year when, possibly weakened by the exertions of a largely fruitless campaign, Henry died. Despite his status as one of the late king’s most loyal supporters and their recent engagement in hostilities, William adroitly negotiated the succession of Richard I. Indeed, the new king was keenly aware of the possibly divisive circumstances through which he had come to the throne and took care to placate and even reward his father’s supporters. It was in keeping with this strategy that William was afforded a place of great prestige within Richard’s coronation.
The new king then called upon William’s diplomatic experience by appointing him as an envoy to the court of Philip of France, where, acting as Richard’s proxy, William and the French king exchanged oaths regarding the date of their departure for crusade. Meanwhile, Richard busied himself with the consolidation of his rule and preparations for his imminent departure. One such preparation for his extended absence was the appointment of Earl William de Mandeville and Bishop Hugh de Puiset of Durham as Co-Chief Justiciars, an appointment which placed the two of them at the head of the royal administration and made them the primary deputies of the absent king. While it is reputed by some sources that Bishop Hugh paid the colossal sum of £3,000 in exchange for the appointment, it is unclear what, if anything, William paid to secure this most prestigious and vital of offices.
Hopefully, it was not a great sum, for William died suddenly while travelling to Normandy, mere months after taking up the office. Childless, William’s closest heir was his paternal aunt, Beatrice de Say. Beatrice’s second son, Geoffrey de Say, attempted to claim the Mandeville inheritance but struggled to raise the cash necessary to secure royal confirmation, paving the way for Geoffrey Fitz Peter, the husband of Beatrice’s granddaughter and namesake, to claim the Mandeville fortune. Meanwhile, his wife, Hawsia, would eventually remarry another upcoming royal favourite. In light of the enormous disputes and civil disruption that erupted as a result of the rivalry between Hugh de Puiset and Mandeville’s replacement as co-justiciar, Bishop William Longchamp of Ely, it is an interesting counterfactual exercise to consider briefly what might have happened had William lived.
This potentially intriguing “what if” aside, as I hope it is now clear, the study of the life and political career of Earl William de Mandeville of Essex is of great interest and value to us because of the insights it grants us into the manner in which Angevin royal government functioned—ultimately reciprocal and symbiotic in nature. William proved himself to be a talented diplomat and soldier in the service of Henry II. In exchange for these efforts, William was inducted into the king’s inner circle and showered with rewards. Yet Henry, ever canny, ensured that the majority of these rewards further bound this valuable ally to the defence of their now conjoined interests.
James Turner has recently completed his doctoral studies at Durham University before which he attended the University of Glasgow. Deeply afraid of numbers and distrustful of counting, his main research interests surround medieval aristocratic culture and identity. You can follow James on X/Twitter @HistorySchmstry
William de Mandeville was more than just an ambitious noble; he was a trusted confidant, skilled diplomat, and key player in the turbulent court of Henry II. His rise to power through loyalty, military prowess, and strategic alliances shaped the cross-Channel politics of medieval England and beyond.
By James Turner
He was a brave man, a fine soldier, and universally respected. For that reason, he spent less time in England among his people than in Normandy where he guarded the fortresses and castles and fortifications which had been entrusted to him by King Henry. — The Book of the Foundation of Walden Monastery
The Mandeville family had some familiarity with the many political and material advantages of courting the reigning monarch’s favour. They had also, on more than one occasion, experienced the perils of rousing a king’s ire. The study of their family history and the turbulent, yet often profitable, relationship they shared with the monarchy allows us to gain a clearer understanding of the carefully negotiated quid pro quo relationships the Angevin monarchy attempted to cultivate among its mingled aristocracy.
William’s grandfather and namesake held a profitable and prestigious position as the constable of the Tower of London. This William’s own father, another Geoffrey de Mandeville, had directly participated in the Norman Conquest and at various times served as the sheriff of London and Essex. The family’s fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse in 1101 when, either through incompetence or corruption, this elder William de Mandeville allowed the imprisoned former Chancellor and Bishop of Durham, Ranulf Flambard, to escape across the Channel, where he took refuge with the new king’s continental rivals. An enraged King Henry I immediately stripped William of his custodianship of the Tower and three of the family’s most valuable estates: Sawbridge, Great Waltham, and Saffron Walden. In addition to these losses, which together formed over a third of the Mandeville family’s previous income, the king imposed an enormous fine upon William.
The majority of this debt, combined with the substantial additional fees necessary for securing the uncontested inheritance of the family’s remaining estates, was passed from William to his eldest son Geoffrey, the father of our primary subject. Previous generations of historians have held Geoffrey up as an exemplar of the kind of “rogue robber baron” that they believed had become prevalent during the so-called Anarchy, the period of unrest and civil strife caused by the conflict between King Stephen and his cousin and rival for the throne, Empress Matilda.
During this period, Geoffrey, like many of his contemporaries, oscillated between support for King Stephen and Empress Matilda. Both royal claimants were increasingly desperate for tangible aristocratic support as their dynastic conflict wore on, and the aristocracy began to appear increasingly inclined to pursue their own agendas of consolidation and expansion. Geoffrey was able to parlay this division into grants of land from both candidates, effectively playing them off against one another in pursuit of his own interests. Liberated but at the same time rendered vulnerable by the lack of royal scrutiny, Geoffrey attempted to consolidate his geographically fractured landholdings and create a unified power base, both as a means of protection from rivals and as a platform for further expansion.
By 1141, Geoffrey had not only regained custodianship of the Tower but also recovered all three estates confiscated from his father by Henry I. Additionally, and perhaps most significantly for the family’s future, Geoffrey’s wrangling secured for himself the specially created title of Earl of Essex. However, for all of his successes, Geoffrey was ultimately caught out by the shifting and volatile tides of the Anarchy. Having enemies among both primary combatants, his lands were rendered forfeit, and he was eventually killed in a skirmish while trying to piece his fortune back together by extorting the monasteries of the Fenlands.
It, therefore, fell to his eldest son, also Geoffrey, to rescue the family and rebuild their fortunes. Geoffrey took advantage of the recent perception of his family as Angevin loyalists, created by his father’s final break with Stephen, to attach himself to the retinue of the Empress’s eldest son, the future Henry II. The Anarchy eventually concluded with the Treaty of Winchester, in which King Stephen agreed to recognise Matilda’s son, Henry, as the heir to the throne of England. Stephen then, rather obligingly, died shortly after the treaty, curtailing any further escalation of tensions between the two parties and allowing Henry to assume the throne peacefully.
During the following transitory period, Geoffrey worked to cultivate royal favour and, in 1156, was rewarded with the return of much of the Mandevilles’ previous holdings, as well as the title of Earl of Essex. Alongside fellow royal favourite Richard de Luci, Geoffrey held the position of Royal Justiciar, which, procured through royal favour, entrenched him at the heart of the networks of power and patronage that composed the empire. Henry II rewarded Geoffrey’s service by securing for him a politically advantageous marriage to one of his relatives, Countess Eustachia of the powerful and well-connected Blois-Champagne family. However, rather inexplicably, Geoffrey subsequently lost royal favour due to a scandalous incident in which his wife petitioned the king for a divorce, citing Geoffrey’s refusal to cohabit with her. As a result, the Mandeville manors of Walden and Great Waltham, as well as, temporarily, the Priory at Walden itself, once again fell into royal hands.
The Mandeville family owed its rise to prominence to the patronage and goodwill of the Anglo-Norman monarchs. The first Earl, Geoffrey, prospered as a result of negotiations with rival claimants to the throne, recognising the benefits of royal support but being wary of relying on royal favour, seeking to create his own independent power base. While Geoffrey the Younger suffered a decline in Henry II’s esteem, he succeeded in rescuing the core of the family’s holdings. As we shall see, William built upon his brother’s policy of close integration with the administrative apparatus of the realm and the importance of cultivating royal favour.
William and his elder brother’s relationship with the monarchy stood in marked contrast to that of their father, though their goal was ultimately the same: the advancement of their own wealth and power and that of their family. Geoffrey the Younger and William, however, concluded that this could best be achieved through retaining the royal favour and patronage, which had first seen their family rise to wealth and power within England, and which would, under William, briefly transform them into true cross-Channel magnates. However, as demonstrated by both the younger Geoffrey and their grandfather, the foundations of such a power base were built upon sand and prone to shift.
Geoffrey, the second Earl of Essex, died suddenly in 1166 while preparing for the imminent royal invasion of Wales. Unsurprisingly, considering his ex-wife’s complaints that the earl refused to cohabit with her, Geoffrey and Eustachia had no children. Geoffrey was succeeded by his younger brother, William. While the circumstances surrounding the annulment of his marriage had certainly damaged Geoffrey’s standing in the Angevin court, he was by no means disgraced, serving alongside royal favourite Richard de Luci as a royal justice right up until his death. This meant that William was accepted as Geoffrey’s heir, and, aside from the levying of the usual fees, he was allowed by the royal administration to inherit the earldom and the majority of the family’s lands.
On the other hand, Henry II made a point of retaining the custodianship of the Tower and two of the Mandeville manors. While the identity of the withheld estates is unknown, it seems probable that they were Walden and Greater Waltham. Both manors had a history of royal administration, having been confiscated from William’s grandfather. They were subsequently returned to the Mandeville family by Henry II at the time of the second earl’s marriage as a dowry for Eustachia, who was a royal ward or kinswoman.
A Diplomat in Henry II’s Court
Despite the withholding of these portions of the Mandeville inheritance, William does not seem to have formed any lasting enmity towards the king. After all, he still retained a significant fortune, with his landed estates being assessed for 150 knights’ fees. For the first few years after his ascension to the upper echelons of the aristocracy, William made only intermittent appearances in the itinerant Angevin royal court. In early December 1169, William attended the royal court held in Le Mans, where he witnessed a charter issued by the king to the monks of Ferley. On the same occasion, William also testified to the king’s confirmation of a grant made by Count William of Ponthieu to the Bishop of Le Mans.
Almost exactly a year later, William reappears in the witness lists of a charter issued by the royal court, confirming the gift of Hinckley to the Abbey of Lyra at Chinon, suggesting a concerted effort on the earl’s part to attend the king’s Christmas court. In 1171, William travelled with the royal court for much of the summer as it toured across Normandy. In January of 1173, William was given his first mission as an envoy and royal representative, a role he would adopt frequently throughout his later career. The timing of this appointment suggests that William may have spent yet another Christmas with the royal court.
Alongside Earl William of Arundel and Archdeacon Reginald Fitz Joceline of Salisbury, he travelled to the court of Count Humbert III of Savoy, where the trio successfully brokered the marriage between the count’s youngest daughter, Alias, and Henry’s youngest son, John. This marriage, had it gone ahead, would have greatly advanced Henry’s goal to buttress and secure his hold upon the Plantagenets’ enormous continental domains. Unfortunately, Alias fell ill and died in England shortly before the wedding could take place. Later that year, William was present in court for the outbreak of a rebellion launched by Henry II’s eldest son, Henry the Young King. He once again attended the court over Christmas, attesting to a charter confirming the privileges of the nuns of St Mary’s.
Taken in aggregate, this scattered evidence paints a picture in which William, who had developed an urbane and courtly streak during his time in Flanders, slowly but steadily grew in prestige and royal regard over the course of multiple extended visits to the royal court. If that was indeed the case, it was the 1173 rebellion of the Young King that marked Earl William’s transition into the king’s inner circle.
William’s Role in the Rebellion of 1173
The rebellion came perilously close to unseating the king. Its fundamental cause was Henry II’s reluctance to meaningfully share power with his children and his deliberate cultivation of ambiguity regarding the intended division of his lands among his sons. This meant that the Young King was supported in his efforts by his younger brothers, Duke Richard of Aquitaine and Geoffrey, and by their mother, Queen Eleanor. In addition to their own retainers, Henry’s sons were joined by a large portion of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, who seized the chance to reverse the increasing centralisation of power and control created by Henry II’s relentless efforts in the sphere of royal aggrandisement. Sensing the opportunity within this family rift, Henry’s rogue scions and their followers were further supported by the Kings of France and Scotland.
Earl William was a steadfast loyalist and remained, for the most part, with the king and the royal household. William fought directly alongside the king, participating in the campaign against the rebels and the invading French king within eastern Normandy. Serving as one of Henry’s principal lieutenants alongside Earl William of Arundel and Richard de Humez, the Constable of Normandy, he first distinguished himself in the fighting preceding Henry’s push to Rouen and was a leading figure in the repulse of the French army following the siege of Verneuil.
In 1174, the wounded William returned to London to recover, during which time he witnessed a charter issued by Henry to the Archbishop of Rouen, granting certain rights and liberties to the Bishop of Evreux. By September, he had returned to the king’s side, where he witnessed a royal charter granting further land to royal favourite Richard de Luci. He was also one of the English signatories of the Treaty of Falaise, which brought an end to hostilities between Henry and the captured William the Lion of Scotland and decisively shifted the balance of power in the north of Britain in Henry’s favour. William appears to have been with the court throughout 1175, his name appearing in several witness lists from April to October.
Henry II made careful use of Earl William’s political connections, aristocratic credentials, and personal charisma through his deployment as an envoy and royal proxy to a wide range of European courts. These embassies were often dispatched to Henry’s neighbours in France and the Lowlands, and their frequent successes represented substantial advancements in the dynastic and territorial interests of the Plantagenet monarchy.
In 1176, Henry capitalised upon William’s long-standing friendship with Count Philip of Flanders by dispatching him, alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely, on a mission to Philip’s court. The primary purpose of this embassy was to reaffirm and, if necessary, negotiate the alliance between Henry and Philip, who were cousins, in the wake of the disruption caused by the Young King’s rebellion and subsequent war with France. Philip had, largely due to his precarious relationship with the French king, supported the rebellion. It was now essential for Henry to win over Philip once again, reasserting a status quo and balance of power which unambiguously favoured the Angevins.
Cross-Channel Magnate and Crusader
In 1177, William accompanied Count Philip on a crusade to Jerusalem, where they visited a variety of pilgrimage sites as well as engaging in strenuous military activity besieging the town of Harran alongside detachments of the Templars and the Hospitallers. William’s presence in his old friend’s expedition could be a further manifestation of the aid Henry’s ambassadors, including William, had promised Philip for the crusade earlier that year.
In 1179, shortly after returning from the Holy Land, William was commanded to meet with and escort a delegation of French pilgrims, including King Louis VII, Henry, Duke of Louvain, and Baldwin, Count of Guisnes, to Dover. At Dover, the party was met by King Henry, who accompanied them to their politically charged destination, the tomb of Thomas Becket. Here we observe William operating at the highest level of European politics as a direct representative of Henry. In 1180, William was dispatched by the king to pay off the Flemish mercenaries who had gathered around Rouen, a task that saw him responsible for a large sum of royal money.
The episode at Dover was far from William’s sole engagement with the zenith of contemporary politics, with Henry dispatching William on numerous embassies to his fellow princes. In 1181, William was sent as an envoy to the court of Frederick I of Germany, where he successfully secured the remission of all but one of the seven years of exile Frederick had imposed on Henry’s relative, the Duke of Saxony. In 1186, Earl William, alongside Archbishop Albermarle of Rouen, attended the court of King Philip II of France, who was energetically opposing Plantagenet dominance in northern and western France. The primary purpose of this crucial embassy was to secure a truce between Philip and Henry to safeguard the English king’s then-flagging fortunes and diffuse a growing conflict over the wardship of the heiress of Brittany.
In 1187, William hosted a summit between King Henry, King Philip, and Count Philip of Flanders on his wife’s lands in Aumale. There, they agreed to a cessation of hostilities and began preparations for the crusade they had agreed to embark on together. It seems that the location for this meeting was selected by Henry with care. By selecting the strategically vital and often disputed Vexin region, Henry was emphasising his effective control over the area and the formidable manner in which it was held by one of his most ardent and capable supporters. Further, William’s prior experience with King Philip and his close friendship with the Count of Flanders was of obvious political advantage to Henry. Interestingly, in his capacity as acting Count of Aumale, William owed military service to the Count of Flanders for his wife’s hereditary territories in Beauvaisis. Due to these obligations and William’s personal relationship with the Count, in 1184 he had participated in Philip’s campaign against the Count of Hainault.
In addition to his efforts as an envoy, William continued to serve Henry in a martial capacity whenever called upon. In the 1187 campaign that immediately preceded the aforementioned peace summit, Henry had gathered a large army from across his patchwork domains, with which he intended to confront Philip of France and break his sieges of the castles of Issoudun, Fréteval, and Châteauroux. Henry intended to strike the French forces more or less simultaneously, decisively driving them from the Vexin in one fell swoop, a plan that necessitated the division of his otherwise unwieldy army. While this expedition ultimately ended in a negotiated settlement before there was any serious fighting, it is indicative of the king’s trust in William’s loyalty and abilities that he was entrusted with command of one of these task forces. The other nominated commanders were Henry’s new heir, Duke Richard, Prince John, and his illegitimate son and royal chancellor, Geoffrey Plantagenet.
William’s military support of Henry, however, was not limited purely to participation alongside the king in his own expeditions but included the protracted series of skirmishes and military actions he engaged in within his domains in Aumale. Henry had arranged the Earl’s marriage to Hawsia, Countess of Aumale, both as a means to reward one of his most reliable followers and to secure the strategically valuable province by placing it under the protection of a loyal and capable lieutenant. As part of this strategy of defence, Henry further granted William custodianship of a number of royal castles within the area: Gisors, Neufle, Bangu, Que Château-sur-Epte, and Vaudreuil. The constant border skirmishes and disputes in which William found himself embroiled were intense. In 1189, following fighting near Mantes, William’s castle at Aumale was sacked, an intrusion which was quickly avenged by the Earl when he burnt the town of St Clair-sur-Epte to the ground shortly afterwards.
William’s bride, Hawsia, the only legitimate child of William le Gros, had inherited her father’s extensive landholdings in Normandy and England. The couple married and likely met at Pleshey Castle, the heart of William’s English estates. The chronicler and Archdeacon of Middlesex, Ralph de Diceto, elaborated on the details of the wedding, emphasizing the king’s involvement in its arrangement and his specifications regarding the extent of Hawsia’s dowry and William’s access to it. Diceto was a firm contemporary of both Henry II and Earl William, politically well-connected and thus well-informed on the manoeuvrings within courtly circles. Diceto’s claims of Henry’s involvement are further lent credibility by the policy of Henry II and his Anglo-Norman successors to capitalise on the inheritance process for their financial and political gain by inserting themselves as the guardians of orphans and widows. This method of control can also be seen later in Hawsia’s life when she was married in turn to William de Forz and Baldwin de Béthune, both fixtures at the court of Richard I and members of his military entourage.
The county of Aumale was located perilously close to the constantly contested border separating the Angevin Empire from the kingdom of France and the strategically vital yet volatile Vexin region. By bequeathing all of Countess Hawsia’s land to Earl William through marriage, Henry effectively conjoined William’s interests in the region with his own, gaining a subordinate of proven loyalty and military competency, heavily invested in the protection of the area. Indeed, as we have seen, William’s court within Aumale sometimes acted as a host for diplomatic relations in the ever-shifting struggle between the rulers of England, France, and Flanders.
In addition to the lands held by the Count of Aumale, which were spread throughout Normandy, Hawsia’s inheritance and dowry included extensive lands in England, particularly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Despite a reversal of fortune in the aftermath of the Anarchy, William le Gros, and through him his eventual son-in-law William, retained the dual Lordships of Holderness and Skipton. When these lands were effectively incorporated into the Mandeville domains, they enjoyed the same degree of protection from taxation as the traditional Mandeville estates. King Henry’s routine grant of the third penny of Essex can be seen in the Pipe Rolls of every year from 1166 to 1189, the year of his death. This was a right, nominally held by all earls but in practice awarded at the king’s discretion, in which an earl was entitled to a third of all incomes derived from court fees and dispensation of justice within their earldom.
While the exact sum raised in this manner is difficult to determine, it was clearly a financial boon to the Earl and a sign of the favour in which he was held by King Henry. William also benefited greatly from other financial mechanisms used by Henry to signal his favour. For instance, in 1176, William was pardoned from scutage, a form of tax meant to cover military dues on his lands in Essex and Hertfordshire, by royal writ. A decade later, in 1186, when William was approaching the zenith of his power and influence, the Pipe Roll formulated by Oto, son of William, records that he was pardoned all his taxes and debts for Essex and Hertfordshire as well as in nearby Buckinghamshire. Unlike many of his contemporaries who held honours through the rights of their wives, such as Henry II’s half-brother Hamelin de Warrene, the Earl of Surrey, Earl William appears to have felt little need to reference the consent of his wife when issuing charters pertaining to her inheritance, rather treating it as an extension of his own demesne.
William’s Final Years and Legacy
William once again answered Henry’s call to war in 1189, fighting alongside the king in yet another rebellion launched by one of his sons, in tandem with an invasion from the French king. He was consequently by the king’s bedside later that year when, possibly weakened by the exertions of a largely fruitless campaign, Henry died. Despite his status as one of the late king’s most loyal supporters and their recent engagement in hostilities, William adroitly negotiated the succession of Richard I. Indeed, the new king was keenly aware of the possibly divisive circumstances through which he had come to the throne and took care to placate and even reward his father’s supporters. It was in keeping with this strategy that William was afforded a place of great prestige within Richard’s coronation.
The new king then called upon William’s diplomatic experience by appointing him as an envoy to the court of Philip of France, where, acting as Richard’s proxy, William and the French king exchanged oaths regarding the date of their departure for crusade. Meanwhile, Richard busied himself with the consolidation of his rule and preparations for his imminent departure. One such preparation for his extended absence was the appointment of Earl William de Mandeville and Bishop Hugh de Puiset of Durham as Co-Chief Justiciars, an appointment which placed the two of them at the head of the royal administration and made them the primary deputies of the absent king. While it is reputed by some sources that Bishop Hugh paid the colossal sum of £3,000 in exchange for the appointment, it is unclear what, if anything, William paid to secure this most prestigious and vital of offices.
Hopefully, it was not a great sum, for William died suddenly while travelling to Normandy, mere months after taking up the office. Childless, William’s closest heir was his paternal aunt, Beatrice de Say. Beatrice’s second son, Geoffrey de Say, attempted to claim the Mandeville inheritance but struggled to raise the cash necessary to secure royal confirmation, paving the way for Geoffrey Fitz Peter, the husband of Beatrice’s granddaughter and namesake, to claim the Mandeville fortune. Meanwhile, his wife, Hawsia, would eventually remarry another upcoming royal favourite. In light of the enormous disputes and civil disruption that erupted as a result of the rivalry between Hugh de Puiset and Mandeville’s replacement as co-justiciar, Bishop William Longchamp of Ely, it is an interesting counterfactual exercise to consider briefly what might have happened had William lived.
This potentially intriguing “what if” aside, as I hope it is now clear, the study of the life and political career of Earl William de Mandeville of Essex is of great interest and value to us because of the insights it grants us into the manner in which Angevin royal government functioned—ultimately reciprocal and symbiotic in nature. William proved himself to be a talented diplomat and soldier in the service of Henry II. In exchange for these efforts, William was inducted into the king’s inner circle and showered with rewards. Yet Henry, ever canny, ensured that the majority of these rewards further bound this valuable ally to the defence of their now conjoined interests.
James Turner has recently completed his doctoral studies at Durham University before which he attended the University of Glasgow. Deeply afraid of numbers and distrustful of counting, his main research interests surround medieval aristocratic culture and identity. You can follow James on X/Twitter @HistorySchmstry
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Top Image: British Library MS Cotton Claudius D. II, f.73
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