William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle

William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle (d. March 26, 1242) was an English nobleman. He is described by William Stubbs as "a feudal adventurer of the worst type". He was the son of William de Forz (d. 1195), and Hawisa, 2nd Countess of Albemarle, a daughter of William le Gros, 1st Earl of Albemarle. His father was a minor noble from the village of Fors in Poitou; the toponymic is variously rendered as de Fors, de Forz, or de Fortibus.

Soon after 1213, he was established by King John in the territories of the Countship of Albemarle, and in 1215 the whole of his mother's estates were formally confirmed to him. The Earldom of Albemarle which he inherited from his mother included a large estate in Yorkshire, notably the wapentake of Holderness and the castle of Skipsea, and the honor of Craven, as well as property in Lincolnshire and elsewhere. It had also included the county of Aumale, but this had recently been lost to the French, along with the rest of Normandy. De Forz was the first earl of Albemarle to see his earldom as wholly English.

He was actively engaged in the struggles of the Norman barons against both John and Henry III. He was generally loyal to King John during the baronial revolt, though he did eventually join the barons after the people of London joined them and the king's cause looked hopeless.

He was one of the 25 executors of the Magna Carta, but amongst them was probably the least hostile to the king. The barons made de Forz constable of Scarborough Castle, but when soon after fighting began between the barons and the king, he went over to John's side, the only executor to do so. He fought for the king until the French capture of Winchester in June 1216, when again the king's cause looked hopeless. He then stayed on the barons side until their cause fell apart. He sided with John, then subsequently changing sides as often as it suited his policy.

After John's death, he supported the new king Henry III, fighting in the siege of Montsorrel and at the Battle of Lincoln.

His real object was to revive the independent power of the feudal barons, and he co-operated to this end with Falkes de Breauté and other foreign adventurers established in the country by John. This brought him into conflict with the great justiciar, Hubert de Burgh, who was effectively regent. In 1219 he was declared a rebel and excommunicated for attending a forbidden tournament. In 1220 matters were brought to a crisis by his refusal to surrender the two royal castles of Rockingham and Sauvey of which he had been made constable in 1216. Henry III marched against them in person, the garrisons fled, and they fell without a blow. In the following year, however, Albemarle, in face of further efforts to reduce his power, rose in revolt.

He was now again excommunicated by the legate Pandulph at a solemn council held in St Paul's, and the whole force of the kingdom was set in motion against him, a special scutage—the "scutagium de Bihan"—being voted for this purpose by the Great Council. The capture of his Castle of Bytham broke his power; he sought sanctuary and, at Pandulph's intercession, was pardoned on condition of going for six years to the Holy Land. He remained in England, however, and in 1223 was once more in revolt with Falkes de Breauté, the Earl of Chester and other turbulent spirits. A reconciliation was once more patched up; but it was not until the fall of Falkes de Breauté that Albemarle finally settled down as an English noble.

He eventually gave in when the cause was lost in 1224, and was thenceforth loyal to Henry III.

In 1225 he witnessed Henry's third re-issue of the Great Charter; in 1227 he went as, ambassador, to Antwerp; and in 1230 he accompanied Henry on his expedition to Brittany. In 1241 he set out for the Holy Land, but died at sea, on his way there, on March 26 1242.

Family

By his wife Avelina of Montfichet, daughter of Richard de Montfichet, William left a son, also named William, who succeeded him as Earl.

References

*Ralph V. Turner, "William De Forz, Count of Aumale: An Early Thirteenth-Century English Baron", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 115, No. 3 (Jun. 17, 1971), pp. 221-249