♂William de Warenne

William de Warenne (died 19 January 1147/8) was the third Earl of Surrey, or Earl Warenne, a Norman lord who fought for King Stephen at Lincoln in 1141 and was killed by the Turks on the Second Crusade. He was the twenty-fifth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Isabel de Warenne.

Earl of Surrey

William was the eldest son and heir of William de Warenne^W, the second Earl of Surrey, and of Isabel of Vermandois^W. He was born probably about 1118, and he succeeded his father on 11 May 1138. In the war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud he held to the king. He was knighted before 2 February 1141, when he was in command in Stephen’s army at the Battle of Lincoln^W, and his flight from the field did much to bring about the king’s defeat.

Marriage and crusade

William and Ela Talvas were married before 1143. She was a daughter of William Talvas, Count of Alençon and Ponthieu. Their daughter Isabel de Warenne was his sole heir.

William went on the Second Crusade^W under Louis VII of France, who called him his cousin. He was killed by the Turks in the passes near Laodicea on 19 January 1147/8, leaving no son. Isabel, the heiress of the Warenne earls, carried the title to each of her two husbands, a son of King Stephen and then a half-brother of King Henry II, and each was recognized as Earl Warenne through her. Ela married Patrick, Earl of Salisbury, as his second wife.

Notes

Sources

William’s parentage, his birth “probably about 1118”, his succession, his knighthood and command at Lincoln, his crusade and death, his marriage to Ela and her remarriage, and Isabel’s place as his “da. and sole heir” are given in the first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. 7, 1896, under Surrey, p. 326). The same page says that on his death the earldom may be considered to have passed to his daughter, or, as it thought more probable, to have reverted to the Crown. These are compiled peerage accounts, not records of the time.

His death

The Complete Peerage (1st ed., vol. 7, p. 326, note) says the date and place of his death were generally unknown until G. W. Watson published the contemporary authorities in The Genealogist (new series, vol. 11, p. 132): a letter of King Louis himself, who calls him his cousin, and William, Archbishop of Tyre, who speaks of him as “Vir inter Majores eximius”.

The descent through John Washburn

The line from William to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs through his daughter Isabel and her descendants to John Washburn of Bengeworth, who died in 1547. That the John Washburn of the pedigrees was this man is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is probable.