William de Warenne 11th Earl de Warren & Surrey

  General Notes:

~Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 50:24, 83:24, 84:24, 88:24, 89:24, 93:24, 140:24, 141:24. ¹⁶⁰

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
William de Warenne, first son and heir by first wife, usually styled Earl de Warenne. In 1090 he fought in Normandy against Robert de Bellême (afterwards third Earl of Shrewsbury), who was supported by Duke Robert. Shortly after 1093 he sought unsuccessfully to marry Maud, daughter of Malcolm III, King of Scotland. He was with Henry I at Windsor on 3 September 1101, but later in that autumn he went with Duke Robert to Normandy and supported him against the King, who confiscated his inheritance in England. In 1103, the Duke induced Henry to restore his English Earldom.

In 1106 he commanded a division of the royal army at the battle of Tinchebrai. In 1109 he was at a Great Council at Nottingharn; and in 1110 he was a surety for the performance of the treaty with the Count of Flanders. In 1111 he was one of the nobles sitting in judgment in Normandy. He commanded a division of the royal army at the battle of Brémule in 1119. In 1131 he attended the Council at Northampton. He was present at the death of Henry I on 1 December 1135 at Lyons-la-Foret. After Henry I's death, the councilors put him in charge of the district of Rouen and the pays de Caux. Later he went to England, and he was at Westminster with Stephen at Easter 1136.

William de Warenne was probably still living in June 1137. He was a benefactor, or confirmed previous benefactions, to the abbeys of St. Evroul and St. Amand (Rouen), and the priories of Lewes, Castle Acre, Wymondham, Longueville and Bellencombre. Henry I had proposed to marry William to one of his illegitimate daughters, but on Archbishop Anselm's objection this match was abandoned on the ground of affinity. William eventually married Isabella (or Elizabeth), widow of Robert de Beaumont, comté de Beaumont et Meulan, and first Earl of Leicester who died 5 June 1118. Isabella was the daughter of Hugh de Crépi (styled "the Great"), comté de Vermandois (who was the younger son of Henri I, King of France), by Adelaide, daughter and heir of Herbert, comté de Vermandois et Valois.

William probably died on 11 May 1138 and was buried at his father's feet in the chapter-house at Lewes. Isabel survived him and with the consent of her son the third Earl gave the church of Dorking to Lewes priory . She died probably before July 1147. The children of William and Isabella were: William, the third Earl; Ralph; and Rainald who was the ancestor of the Warennes of Wormegay; Gundred, who married as her first husband, Roger de Beaumont, second Earl of Warwick, and as her second husband (as his second wife), William de Lancaster; and Ada, who married Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, son of David I, King of Scotland, by whom she was mother of Malcolm IV and William the Lion, Kings of Scotland.

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, second Edition, (Surry), Vol. XIIA pp.495-496

William married Isabella de Vermandois Countess of Leicester, daughter of Hugh Magnus Capet comté de Vermandois and Adélaide comtesse de Vermandois.^141,530 (Isabella de Vermandois Countess of Leicester was born in 1081 in Valois, Bretagne, France and died on 13 Feb 1131 in France or England ¹⁶⁰.)