The Skaggs-Files

William de Albini (d'Aubigny), III, surnamed "William with the strong hand," from the following circumstance, as related by William Dugdale:

"It happened that the Queen of France, being then a widow, and a very beautiful woman, became much in love with a knight from an other country, who was a comely person, and in the flower of his youth; and because she thought that no man excelled him in valor, she caused a tournament to be proclaimed throughout her dominions, promising to reward those who should exercise themselves therein, according to their respective abilities; and concluded that if the person whom she so well affected should act his part better than others in those military exercises, she might marry him without any dishonor to herself. Hereupon divers gallant men, from foreign parts hasting to Paris, amongst others came this our William de Albini, bravely accoutered, and in the tournament excelled all others, overcoming many, and wounding one mortally with his lance, which being observed by the queen, she became exceedingly enamored of him, and forthwith invited him to a costly banquet, and afterwards bestowing certain jewels upon him, offered him marriage; but, having plighted his troth to the Queen of England, then a widow, he refused her, whereat she grew so discontented that she consulted with her maids how she might take away his life; and in pursuance of that design, inticed him into a garden, where there was a secret cave, and in it a fierce lion, unto which she descended by divers steps, under color of showing him the beast; and when she told him of its fierceness, he answered, that it was a womanish and not a manly quality to be afraid thereof. But having him there, by the advantage of a folding door, thrust him to the lion; being therefore in this danger, he rolled his mantle about his arm, and putting his hand into the mouth of the beast, pulled out his tongue by the root; which done, he followed the queen to her palace, and gave it to one of her maids to present her. Returning thereupon to England, with the fame of this glorious exploit, he was forthwith advanced to the Earldom of Arundel, and for his arms the Lion given him."

He subsequently married Adeliza of Lorraine, Queen of England, widow of King Henry I., and the daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine. See her ancestral lineage elsewhere in Volume I. Adeliza had the castle of Arundel in dowry from her deceased husband, the monarch, and thus her new lord became its feudal earl, 1st Earl of Arundel in this family. The earl was one of those who solicited the Empress Maud to come to England, and received her and her brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, at the port of Arundel, in August 1139, and in three years afterwards (1142), in the report made of King Stephen's taking William de Mandeville at St. Albans, it is stated "that before he could be laid hold on, he underwent a sharp skirmish with the king's party, wherein the Earl of Arundel, though a stout and expert soldier, was unhorsed in the midst of the water by Walceline de Oxeai, and almost drowned." In 1150, he wrote himself Earl of Chichester, but we find him styled again Earl of Arundel, upon a very memorable occasion, namely, the reconciliation of Henry, Duke of Normandy, afterwards King Henry II., and King Stephen at the siege of Wallingford Castle in 1152. "It was scarce possible," says Rapin, "for the armies to part without fighting. Accordingly the two leaders were preparing for battle with equal ardor, when, by the prudent advice of the Earl of Arundel, who was on the king's side, they were prevented from coming to blows." A truce and peace followed this interference of the earl's, which led to the subsequent accession of Henry after Stephen's decease, in whose favor the earl stood so high that he not only obtained for himself and his heirs the castle and honor of Arundel, but a confirmation of the Earldom of Sussex, of which county he was really earl, by a grant of the Tertium Denarium of the pleas of the shire. In 1164, we find the Earl of Arundel deputed with Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London, to remonstrate with Louis, King of France, upon according an asylum to Thomas a Becket within his dominions, and on the failure of that mission, dispatched with the archbishop of York, the Bishops of Winchester, London, Chichester, and Exeter, Wido Rufus, Richard de Invecestre, John de Oxford (priests), Hugh de Gundevile, Bernard de St. Valery, and Henry Fitzgerald, to lay the whole affair of Becket at the foot of the pontifical throne. Upon levying the aid for the marriage of the king's daughter, in the 12th year of Henry II., the knight's fees of the honor of Arundel were certified to be ninety-seven, and those in Norfolk, belonging to the earl, forty-two. In 1173, we find the Earl of Arundel commanding, in conjunction with William, Earl of Mandeville, the king's army in Normandy, and compelling the French monarch to abandon Verneuil after a long siege, and in the next year, with Richard de Lucy, Justice of England, defeating Robert, Earl of Leicester, then in rebellion at St. Edmundbury. This potent nobleman, after founding and endowing several religious houses, died at Waverley, in Surrey, on October 3, 1176, and was buried in the Abbey of Wymondham. He and his wife, Adeliza, widow of King Henry I., had four sons and three daughters as follows:

1. William de Albini, the eldest son. See below.
2. a second son, no data available at this time.
3. a third son, no data available at this time.
4. a fourth son, no data available at this time.
5. Alice, eldest daughter, married John, Earl of Ewe.
6. a second daughter, no data available at this time.
7. a third daughter, no data available at this time.