Nicholas LONGESP?E,, Bishop of Salisbury

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• FamilySearch ID: KGKV-QFN

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• FamilySearch ID: GJJP-G4J

Notes:

Ancestral File Number: 9FTR-5S

William married Countess Of Salisbury Ela FITZPATRICK, Countess Of Salisbury in 1198 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Ela (daughter of Earl Of Salisbury William D'evereau FITZPATRICK, Earl Of Salisbury and Eleanor DE VITRE) was born about 1191 in Amesbury, Wiltshire, England; died on 24 Aug 1261 in Lacock, Wiltshire, England; was buried in 1261 in Lacock Abbey, Lacock, Wiltshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• FamilySearch ID: KNQB-2Q2
• Name: Ela de SALISBURY
• Occupation: ; Nun & Abbess of Lacock Abbey
• _UID: 170B26AA17854FA284FDCFA69104575CBDDB
• Accomplishments: 1229; She founded Lacock Abbey

Notes:

"Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families," Douglas Richardson (2013):
"ELA OF SALISBURY, suo jure Countess of Salisbury, daughter and heiress, born in or about 1191. She married before Sept. 1197 WILLIAM LONGESP?E, Knt., Earl of Salisbury, Lieutenant of Gascony, 1202, Seneschal of Avranches, 1203, Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports, 1204-6, Sheriff of Wiltshire, 1204-7, 1213-26, Lord of the Honour and Castle of Eye, 1205, Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, 1212-16, Sheriff of Devon, 1217-18, Sheriff of Somersetshire, 1217, Sheriff of Lincolnshire, 1217-21, Sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire, 1223-4, Constable of Portchester, Southampton, and Winchester Castles, 1224, Keeper of the March of Wales, illegitimate son of Henry II, King of England, by his mistress, Ida, daughter of Ralph de Tony, of Flamstead, Hertfordshire [see ENGLAND 4 for his ancestry]. He was born say 1175-80.
They had four sons,
1. William, Knt. [Earl of Salisbury],
2. Stephen, Knt.,
3. Richard [Canon of Salisbury], and
4. Nicholas [Bishop of Salisbury],
and six daughters,
5. Ida,
6. Mary,
7. Isabel,
8. Ela,
9. Ida (2nd of name), and
10. Pernel.
In 1191 he was granted the manor of Kirton, Lincolnshire by his brother, King Richard I. He was present at the Coronation of his brother, King John, in 1199. In 1200 he witnessed the homage of William the Lion, King of Scots to King John at Lincoln. In 1202 he went on a diplomatic mission to France. In 1204 he escorted Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, to the king. In 1206 he was in the escort of William the Lion, King of Scotland, to meet King John at York. In 1209 he headed an embassy to the prelates and princes of Germany, on behalf of the King's nephew, Otto, King of the Romans. In 1212 he and his wife, Ela, instituted suit in the king's court against Ela's kinsman, Henry de Bohun, for the entire barony of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, Henry's chief fief. The king assumed control of the honour, but allowed Earl William's agents to levy scutage from its tenants. In 1213 Earl William was joint commander of an expedition to help the Count of Flanders against France. In 1214, as Marshal of the King of England, he commanded forces which recovered nearly all of Flanders for the Count; after which he and the Counts of Flanders and Boulogne were captured at the Battle of Bouvines and thrown into prison in chains. He was released before May 1215, and returned to England. In 1215 he was present at Runnymeade on the king's side at the signing of the Magna Carta [Great Charter]. He was granted the manor of Andover, Hampshire in 1215 by his brother, King John. He remained a zealous royalist until June 1216, when he surrendered Salisbury Castle to Prince Louis. He returned his allegiance to the king before 7 March 1216/7, when his lands were restored to him. In August 1217 he was with Hubert de Burgh in the victory over the French fleet off Thanet. In 1217 he was granted the manor of Aldbourne, Wiltshire by the king. In 1220 he and his wife laid the 4th and 5th stones at the founding of the new Cathedral at Salisbury, Wiltshire. In 1222 he gave the manor of Heythrop, Gloucestershire to certain monks and brethren of the Carthusian order, and assigned part of his revenues towards the building of a monastery for them there. In 1223 he took part in the successful expedition against Llywelyn. In 1225 he went with Richard, Earl of Cornwall as a supervisory commander on a successful expedition to Gascony. He gave Bradenstoke Priory the advowson of the church of Rogerville (Seine-Inf?rieure), together with land and rents there and in Sandouville (Seine-Inf?rieure), and a virgate of land in Chitterne and one in Amesbury, Wiltshire. At an unspecified date William, with consent of Ela his wife, granted the land called "Chandewyk" to William de Nevill, which property he had by grant of Jordan de Saint Martin. SIR WILLIAM LONGESP?E, Earl of Salisbury, died at Salisbury Castle, Wiltshire 7 March 1225/6, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire. He left a will dated Midlent 1225. Among other bequests he left 200 marks to the new building of the Salisbury Cathedral Church, plus ?200 to the building of St. Mary Bentleywood, Wiltshire, together with his traveling chapel-furniture, breviary, and numerous head of cattle. In 1226 Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, brought an action against Earl William's widow, Ela, over the castle and honour of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, including lands in Bishtopstrow, East Coulston, Manningford Bruce (in Wilsford), Newton Tony, Staverton (in Trowbridge), Trowbridge, and Wilsford, Wiltshire; the suit was settled by compromise in 1230, whereby the two parties divided the honour between them. In Jan. 1227 the king transferred Salisbury castle, together with the shrievalty of Wiltshire, to Ela during his pleasure, which she held until 1228. Further evidence of Ela's high standing in royal favour is indicated by the king's regular gifts of venison to her throughout the late 1220s, including one in Sept. 1227 to celebrate the forthcoming nuptials of her daughter, Mary. In 1227 the monks of Heythrop not liking their habitation, prevailed on Ela to remove them to Hinton, Somerset, where, in her park, she began a monastery for them, which was completed in 1232. In 1227 she granted all her land west of Bendeywood, Wiltshire to the Hospital of St. Nicholas' Hospital for the sustenance of the poor and infirm. In 1229 Countess Ela founded Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. In April 1231 Ela secured custody of the county of Wiltshire and Salisbury Castle for the term of her life for a fine of 200 marks, the king stipulating that neither the countess or her heirs possessed any legal claim to the castle and county by hereditary right. She was co-heiress c.1232-3 to her mother, Eleanor de Vitr?, by which she inherited an interest in the manor of Cowlinge, Suffolk. In Feb. 1236 her son and heir, William Longesp?e, guaranteed her gifts to Lacock Abbey, while she agreed to surrender all her lands, rents and rights to him on 1 Nov. following. On 25 October 1236 Ela, Countes of Salisbury, reached agreement with William Longesp?e, her first born son, that she may grant a moiety of the manor of Heddington, Wiltshire to Lacock Priory, which property fell to her on the death of Maud de Mandeville, Countess of Essex and Hereford. In the winter 1236-7 she resigned her custody of the county of Wiltshire. She subsequently entered her religious foundation at Lacock, where she took the veil before spring 1238. She served as abbess there from 1240 to 1257. In 1249 she gave formal license to her son, William, to depart on a crusade. In 1250, on the eve of the battle in which he was killed in Egypt, she saw a vision of him standing fully armed entering heaven, being joyfully received by attendant angels. She died 24 August 1261, and was buried in the convent choir beneath the altar at Lacock Abbey.
Note: William Longesp?e, Earl of Salisbury has long been known to have been an illegitimate child of Henry II, King of England, allegedly by his mistress, Rosamond Clifford. As early as 1902, however, it was suspected that William Longesp?e's mother was connected to the Akeny family, a cadet branch of the Tony family [see Wordsworth 15th Cent. Cartulary of St. Nicholas' Hospital, Salisbury (1902): xxv, footnote 1]. New evidence has surfaced in recent years which proves conclusively that William Longesp?e was the son of King Henry II by another mistress, a certain Ida de Tony, afterwards wife of Roger le Bigod (died 1221), Earl of Norfolk [see C.P. 9 (1936): 586-589 (sub Norfolk); Kemp Reading Abbey Cartularies 1 (Camden 4th Ser. 31) (1986): 3711. For evidence that William Longesp?e was the son of Countess Ida le Bigod, see London Cartulary of Bradenstoke Priory (Wiltshire Rec. Soc. 35) (1979): 143, 188, which includes two charters in which Earl William Longesp?e specifically names his mother, Countess Ida. It is known from contemporary records that Countess Ida le Bigod had a younger son named Ralph le Bigod [see Thompson Libor Vita Ecclesia Dunelmenis (Surtees Soc. 136) (1923): fo. 63b]. Among the English prisoners captured at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, there was a certain Ralph [le] Bigod, who a contemporary French record refers to as "brother" [that is, half-brother] of William Longesp?e, Earl of Salisbury [see Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France 17 (1878): 101 (Guillelmus Armoricus: "Isti sunt Prisiones (capti in bello Bovinensi) ... Radulphus Bigot, frater Comitis Saresburiensis"); see also Malo Un Grand Feudataire, Renaud de Dammartin et la Coalition de Bouvines (1898):199, 209, which author identified Ralph le Bigod as brother of William Longesp?e, Earl of Salisbury]. For evidence that Countess Ida was a member of the Tony family, see Morris Bigod Earls of Norfolk (2005): 2, who cites a royal inquest dated 1275, in which jurors affirmed that Earl Roger le Bigod was given Ida de Tony in marriage by King Henry II, together with the manors of Acle, Halvergate, and South Walsharn, Norfolk [which properties were formerly held by Earl Roger's father] [see Rotuli Hundredorum 1 (1812): 504, 537]. Morris shows that Earl Roger le Bigod received these manors by writ of the king, he having held them for three quarters of a year at Michaelmas 1182 [see PR 28 Henry II, 1181-1182 (Pipe Roll Soc.) (1910): 64]. This appears to pinpoint to marriage of Ida de Tony and Earl Roger le Bigod as having occurred about Christmas 1181. As for Countess Ida's parentage, it seems certain that she was a daughter of Ralph de Tony (died 1162), of Flamstead, Hertfordshire, by his wife, Margaret (b. c.1125, living 1185), daughter of Robert of Meulan, Knt., 1st Earl of Leicester.

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• FamilySearch ID: LYD7-TB9
• Name: Henri COMTE D'ANJOU
• Name: Henry II CURTMANTLE
• Occupation: ; King of England
• Residence: Abad?a de Fontevrault, Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, , France
• _UID: 1732A7A23693403A840A0D5C65FAB2F5D278
• Knighted - by David, King of the Scots: 22 May 1149, Carlisle, Cumberland, England
• RULED: Between 1154 and 1189, King Of England
• ACCEDED: 19 Dec 1154, Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England
• Coronation: 19 Dec 1154, Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England

Notes:

Henry was the first of the Plantagenets, the name coming from the fact that he was fond of wearing a spring of the broom-plant in his helmet.

From Enclopedia Britannica Online, article titled Henry II:

"by name HENRY OF ANJOU, HENRY PLANTAGENET, HENRY FITZEMPRESS, OR HENRY CURTMANTLE (SHORT MANTLE) duke of Normandy (from 1150), count of Anjou (from 1151), duke of Aquitaine (from 1152), and king of England (from 1154), who greatly expanded his Anglo-French domains and strengthened the royal administration in England. His quarrels with Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, and with members of his family (his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and such sons as Richard the Lion-Heart and John Lackland) ultimately brought about his defeat.

"Henry II lived in an age of biographers and letter writers of genius. John of Salisbury, Thomas Becket, Giraldus Cambrensis, Walter Map, Peter of Blois, and others knew him well and left their impressions. All agreed on his outstanding ability and striking personality and also recorded his errors and aspects of his character that appear contradictory, whereas modern historians agree upon the difficulty of reconciling its main features. Without deep religious or moral conviction, Henry nevertheless was
respected by three contemporary saints, Aelred of Rievaulx, Gilbert of Sempringham, and Hugh of Lincoln. Normally an approachable and faithful friend and master, he could behave with unreasonable inhumanity. His conduct and aims were always self-centred, but he was neither a tyrant nor an odious egoist. Both as man and ruler he lacked the stamp of greatness that marked Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror. He seemed also to lack wisdom and serenity; and he had no comprehensive view of the
country's interest, no ideals of kingship, no sympathetic care for his people. But if his reign is to be judged by its consequences for England, it undoubtedly stands high in importance, and Henry, as its mainspring, appears among the most notable of English kings." Henry II was Count of Anjou (1151-1189) whose family emblem was the 'plantegenet', a yellow flowering broom; Duke of Normandy (1151-1189); Duke of Aquitane (1152-1189) and as King of England (1154-1189), ruled an empire that stretched from the Tweed to the Pyrenees. He was the Founder of the Angevin, or Plantagenet, line. Henry was the first of fourteen hereditary kings, who were later referred to in the history oracles as Plantagenets. He is more commonly known as FitzEmpress, Henry II Curtmantle, King of England.
In spite of frequent hostilities with the French King, his own family and rebellious Barons (culminating in the great revolt of 1173-74) and his quarrel with Thomas Becket, Henry II maintained control over his possessions until shortly before his death.
Henry II's judicial and administrative reforms, which increased Royal control and influence at the expense of the Barons, were of great constitutional importance. Henry II Introduced trial by Jury.
Henry II, by marrying ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE immediately after her divorce from Louis VII, King of France, gained vast territories in France. Henry had lands reaching for 1000 miles, and it was this vast domain, which was called the Angevin Empire.
In 1153 he invaded England and forced STEPHEN to acknowledge him as his heir. As king he restored order to war-ravaged England, subdued the barons, centralized the power of government in royalty, and strengthened royal courts. Henry's desire to increase royal authority brought him into conflict with THOMAS ?A BECKET, whom he had made (1162) archbishop of Canterbury. The quarrel, which focused largely on the jurisdiction of the church courts, came to a head when Henry issued (1163) the Constitutions of CLARENDON, defining the relationship between church and state, and ended (1170) with Becket's murder, for which Henry was forced by public indignation to do penance. During his reign he gained northern counties from Scotland and increased his French holdings.
Henry II was also involved in family struggles. Encouraged by their mother and LOUIS VI of France, his three oldest sons, Henry, RICHARD I, and Geoffrey, rebelled (1173-74) against him. The rebellion collapsed, but at the time of Henry's death, Richard and the youngest son, JOHN, were in the course of another rebellion. He was unfortunate in love, relentlessly and romantically pursuing the hand of his wife, Eleanor, who became a selfish spoilt lady, and who turned her sons against their own father. Because of the rebellion by the eldest son, Henry was crushed, and Eleanor was placed under house arrest for fifteen years. The other brothers placed continual pressure on their father, in alliances with the King of France. Henry died a lonely and grief stricken man deserted by all of those he had loved and honored.

Contemporaries: Louis VII (King of France, 1137-1180), Thomas Beckett (Archbishop of Canterbury), Pope Adrian IV, Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, 1152-1190)
Henry II, first of the Angevin kings, was one of the most effective of all England's monarchs. He came to the throne amid the anarchy of Stephen's reign and promptly collared his errant barons. He refined Norman government and created a capable, self-standing bureaucracy. His energy was equaled only by his ambition and intelligence. Henry survived wars, rebellion, and controversy to successfully rule one of the Middle Ages' most powerful kingdoms.

Henry was raised in the French province of Anjou and first visited England in 1142 to defend his mother's claim to the disputed throne of Stephen. His continental possessions were already vast before his coronation: He acquired Normandy and Anjou upon the death of his father in September 1151, and his French holdings more than doubled with his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitane (ex-wife of King Louis VII of France). In accordance with the Treaty of Wallingford, a succession agreement signed by Stephen and Matilda in 1153, Henry was crowned in October 1154. The continental empire ruled by Henry and his sons included the French counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, Gascony, Anjou, Aquitane, and Normandy. Henry was technically a feudal vassal of the king of France but, in reality, owned more territory and was more powerful than his French lord. Although King John (Henry's son) lost most of the English holdings in France, English kings laid claim to the French throne until the fifteenth century. Henry also extended his territory in the British Isles in two significant ways. First, he retrieved Cumbria and Northumbria form Malcom IV of Scotland and settled the Anglo-Scot border in the North. Secondly, although his success with Welsh campaigns was limited, Henry invaded Ireland and secured an English presence on the island.

English and Norman barons in Stephen's reign manipulated feudal law to undermine royal authority; Henry instituted many reforms to weaken traditional feudal ties and strengthen his position. Unauthorized castles built during the previous reign were razed. Monetary payments replaced military service as the primary duty of vassals. The Exchequer was revitalized to enforce accurate record keeping and tax collection. Incompetent sheriffs were replaced and the authority of royal courts was expanded. Henry empowered a new social class of government clerks that stabilized procedure - the government could operate effectively in the king's absence and would subsequently prove sufficiently tenacious to survive the reign of incompetent kings. Henry's reforms allowed the emergence of a body of common law to replace the disparate customs of feudal and county courts. Jury trials were initiated to end the old Germanic trials by ordeal or battle. Henry's systematic approach to law provided a common basis for development of royal institutions throughout the entire realm.

The process of strengthening the royal courts, however, yielded an unexpected controversy. The church courts instituted by William the Conqueror became a safe haven for criminals of varying degree and ability, for one in fifty of the English population qualified as clerics. Henry wished to transfer sentencing in such cases to the royal courts, as church courts merely demoted clerics to laymen. Thomas Beckett, Henry's close friend and chancellor since 1155, was named Archbishop of Canterbury in June 1162 but distanced himself from Henry and vehemently opposed the weakening of church courts. Beckett fled England in 1164, but through the intervention of Pope Adrian IV (the lone English pope), returned in 1170. He greatly angered Henry by opposing the coronation of Prince Henry. Exasperated, Henry hastily and publicly conveyed his desire to be rid of the contentious Archbishop - four ambitious knights took the king at his word and murdered Beckett in his own cathedral on December 29, 1170. Henry endured a rather limited storm of protest over the incident and the controversy passed.

Henry's plans of dividing his myriad lands and titles evoked treachery from his sons. At the encouragement - and sometimes because of the treatment - of their mother, they rebelled against their father several times, often with Louis VII of France as their accomplice. The deaths of Henry the Young King in 1183 and Geoffrey in 1186 gave no respite from his children's rebellious nature; Richard, with the assistance of Philip II Augustus of France, attacked and defeated Henry on July 4, 1189 and forced him to accept a humiliating peace. Henry II died two days later, on July 6, 1189.

A few quotes from historic manuscripts shed a unique light on Henry, Eleanor, and their sons.
From Sir Winston Churchill Kt, 1675: "Henry II Plantagenet, the very first of that name and race, and the very greatest King that England ever knew, but withal the most unfortunate . . . his death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life, his ungracious sons. . ."

From Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England: Concerning endowments of mind, he was of a spirit in the highest degree generous . . . His custom was to be always in action; for which cause, if he had no real wars, he would have feigned . . . To his children he was both indulgent and hard; for out of indulgence he caused his son henry to be crowned King in his own time; and out of hardness he caused his younger sons to rebel against him . . . He married Eleanor, daughter of William Duke of Guienne, late wife of Lewis the Seventh of France.

Henry married Rosamund DE CLIFFORD in Not Married. Rosamund was born about 1136 in Clifford Castle, Hay, Herefordshire, England; died about 1176 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England; was buried about 1176 in Godstow Nunnery, Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• FamilySearch ID: GJJP-2J8
• _UID: 0AC7F39C016D468EA203AB2A0A290C80DB28
• Alt. Birth: 1137; Alt. Birth

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Ancestral File Number: 8WL8-K1

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• FamilySearch ID: L5P2-HJH
• _UID: E558870776C04FD6BAFB59E1101F7D2EEF86

William married Eleanor DE VITRE. Eleanor was born about 1158 in Brittany, Normandy, France; died in 1232. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• FamilySearch ID: LTZB-8L4
• _UID: 7C2C91782DA641F095FB7FD75BC7368A7DFB

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Married:
2 _PREF Y

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• FamilySearch ID: 9HBT-X6S
• Name: Le Bon
• _UID: E35D5492E8104A0E86CB349DB6C840D1271E

Notes:

Plantagenet, surname, originally nickname, of the English royal house of Anjou or the Angevin dynasty, founded by Geoffrey IV, count of Anjou (1113-1151), husband of Matilda (1102-1167), daughter of King Henry I of England. The name is derived from the Latin planta ("sprig") and genista ("broom plant"), in reference to the sprig that Geoffrey always wore in his cap. Reigning from 1154 to 1485, the Plantagenet kings, in the main line of descent, were Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, and Richard II; through the house of Lancaster, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI; and through the house of York, Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III.

Geoffrey married Emporess Maud Matilda ANGEVIN, Queen Of England on 22 May 1127 in , Le Mans, Sarthe, France. Maud (daughter of King Henry I Beauclerc Of Angevin ENGLAND, Of England and Princess Matilda "Atheling" CAENMOR, Of Scotland) was born on 5 Aug 1103 in London, Middlesexshire, England; died on 10 Sep 1169 in Notre Dame, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France; was buried in Bec Abbey, Le Bec-Hellouin, Eure, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• FamilySearch ID: 9CW3-3SK
• _UID: AFFDD381E24346B999BDF3FA274503885E10

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Ancestral File Number: 9FM0-NL