William de Mandeville

William de Mandeville (died before 1130)<ref>George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, Vol. V (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1926), p. 113</ref> was an Anglo-Norman baron and Constable of the Tower of London.

Life

William de Mandeville inherited the estates of his father Geoffrey de Mandeville, the Domesday tenant-in-chief, around 1100.<ref>K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, I Domesday Book, (Boydell Press, 1999) p. 227</ref> He was Constable of the Tower of London at that time,<ref>Ronald Sutherland Gower, The Tower of London, Vol. ii (George Bell & Sons, 1902), p. 179</ref> and thus keeper of the first person known to be imprisoned there for political reasons, Ranulf Flambard. Flambard's escape in February 1101 would have significant consequences for William.<ref name="H. Round, 1892 p. 37">J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, (Longmans, Green, 1892), p. 37</ref>

It is not known if William was in some way complicit in the escape of Flambard, or was simply a careless keeper. Regardless, as a punishment, Henry I confiscated the three richest of William's Essex estates, Sawbridgeworth, Saffron Walden, and Great Waltham in 1103, comprising about a third of his entire holdings, as well as the constableship giving them to Eudo Dapifer, William’s father-in-law.<ref name="Hollister">C. Warren Hollister, Henry I, Editor Amanda Clark Frost (Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 2003), p. 173</ref><ref name="Vincent">Nicholas Vincent, 'Warin and Henry fitz Gerald, the King’s Chamberlains: The Origins of the FitzGeralds Revisited,' Anglo-Norman Studies 21 (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999) pp. 223-260</ref> Little is known of William's activities after this.

William married Margaret, daughter of Eudo FitzHubert (Dapifer)<ref>Template:Cite web </ref> and Rohese de Clare. Widowed, Margaret married secondly Othuer fitz Earl (d. 1120), illegitimate son of Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester.<ref name="Vincent" /><ref>K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, I Domesday Book, (Boydell Press, 1999) p. 194</ref> William and Margaret's son Geoffrey de Mandeville would recover the seized estates and the constableship during the reign of King Stephen.<ref name="Hollister" />

Family

• Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex (d. 1144)<ref name="H. Round, 1892 p. 37"/><ref>George Edward Cokayne,The Complete Peerage, Vol. V (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1926). pp. 113-16</ref>
• Beatrice de Mandeville (d. 19 Apr. 1197), married William de Say (d. Aug. 1144).<ref>George Edward Cokayne,The Complete Peerage, Vol. XI (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1949). pp. 464-5</ref> Their granddaughter Beatrice de Say took some of the Mandeville inheritance to her husband, Geoffrey fitz Peter.