William de Valence | |
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| Earl of Pembroke | |
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| Native name | Guillaume de Lusignan |
| Born | c. 1227 |
| Died | 13 June 1296 |
| Buried | Westminster Abbey |
| Wife | Joan de Munchensi |
| Issue | 6 |
| Father | Hugh X of Lusignan |
| Mother | Isabella of Angoulême |
William de Valence (died 13 June 1296), bornGuillaume de Lusignan, was a French nobleman andknight who became important inEnglish politics due to his relationship to KingHenry III of England. He was heavily involved in theSecond Barons' War, fighting for the King andPrince Edward against the rebels led bySimon de Montfort. He took the namede Valence ("of Valence") after his birthplace, the Cistercian abbey of Valence, nearLusignan in Poitou.[1]
William de Valence was the fourth son ofIsabella of Angoulême, widow of KingJohn, and her second husband,Hugh X of Lusignan,Count of La Marche, and was thus a half-brother to Henry III, and uncle toEdward I. William was born in theCistercian abbey in Valence [fr],Couhé-Vérac,Vienne,Poitou-Charentes, nearLusignan,[2] sometime in the late 1220s (his elder sister Alice was born in 1224).
The French conquest ofPoitou in 1246 created great difficulties for William's family, and so he and his brothers, Guy de Lusignan and Aymer, accepted Henry III's invitation to come to England in 1247.[1] The king found important positions for all of them; William was soon married to a great heiress,Joan de Munchensi or Munchensy (c. 1230 – after 20 September 1307), the only surviving child ofWarin de Munchensy, lord of Swanscombe, and his first wifeJoan Marshal, who was one of the five daughters ofWilliam Marshal, a previous Earl, andIsabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembrokesuo jure. As an eventual co-heiress of the Marshal estates, Joan de Munchensi's portion included the castle and lordship ofPembroke and the lordship erected earldom ofWexford in Ireland. The custody of Joan's property was entrusted to her husband,[1] who apparently assumed thelordships of Pembroke and Wexford between 1250 and 1260. In 1304, after William's death, Joan is found vigorously asserting her rights in her lordship of Wexford, appealing directly to the king against a Cort order dispossessing her of her lands there.
This favouritism to royal relatives was unpopular with many of the Englishnobility, a discontent which would culminate in theSecond Barons' War. It did not take long for William to make enemies in England. From his new lands inSouth Wales, he tried to regain thepalatine rights which had been attached to theEarldom of Pembroke, but his energies were not confined to this. The king heaped lands and honours upon him, and he was soon thoroughly hated as one of the most prominent of the rapacious foreigners. Moreover, some trouble in Wales led to a quarrel between him and Simon de Montfort, who was to become the figurehead for the rebels. He refused to comply with theprovisions imposed on the king atOxford in 1258, and took refuge inWolvesey Castle atWinchester, where he was besieged and compelled to surrender and leave the country.[3]
In 1259 William and de Montfort were formally reconciled in Paris, and in 1261 Valence was again in England and once more enjoying the royal favour. He fought for Henry at the disastrousBattle of Lewes, and after the defeat again fled to France, while de Montfort ruled England. However, by 1265 he was back, landing inPembrokeshire, and taking part in thesiege of Gloucester and the final royalist victory atEvesham. After the battle he was restored to his estates and accompanied Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I, toPalestine.[3]
From his base in Pembrokeshire, he was a mainstay of the English campaigns againstLlywelyn ap Gruffudd and laterDafydd ap Gruffudd; in the war of 1282–3 that led to theconquest of Wales he negotiated the surrender of one of Dafydd's last remaining castles,Castell-y-Bere, with its custodian,Cynfrig ap Madog.[citation needed] He also went several times to France on public business and he was one of Edward's representatives in the famous suit over thesuccession to the crown ofScotland in 1291 and 1292.[3]
William de Valence died atBayonne on the 13 June 1296, and his body was buried in splendour atWestminster Abbey.[3]
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William and Joan de Munchensi (described above) had the following children:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pembroke, Earls of".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 78–80.| Peerage of England | ||
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| New creation | Earl of Pembroke 1247–1296 | Succeeded by |
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