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Albini of another family, and the king's butler. William de Albini Brito confirmed, in the fullest extent, the grants made by his father to St. Mary's Priory, and himself added considerably to their amount. He also, as his father and mother had been, was admitted, at his own request, into the fraternity of St. Albans. For it is stated, that he became a brother and a monk of that monastery. This, as various monastic documents shew, was no uncommon proceeding; not only with founders of religious houses, and other considerable benefactors; but with religious laymen generally possessed of property, whether married or not. Neither celibacy, renunciation of secular pursuits, nor the assumption of the clerical office in any form, were necessarily required of monks till the time of Pope Clement V, in 1311. And long after this period (1499) there is evidence, that the Priory at Belvoir was exempt from Papal jurisdiction. The privileges and immunities secured to persons thus becoming members of a religious fraternity, were, the commemorative and intercessory prayers of the religious body, into which they had become incorporated; prayers for their prosperity during life, and for the perfect salvation of their souls after death; through which last intercessions, a primary, or subsequent deliverance from purgatorial fires, was, as then believed, effected. Though, if the incorporated members, had, by their munificence, or from other causes, become entitled to the high privilege of being buried in the habit of an ecclesiastic, that circumstance alone, was believed to procure a direct passport to heaven, without suffering in the intermediate state of purgatory.

Among other acts of kindness shewn to the members of St. Mary's Priory, William de Albini Brito obtained for them from Henry I, a grant of an annual fair, on the anniversary of St. John the Baptist, to continue for eight days. The importance of this benefit can only be appreciated by con

sidering the great difficulties of communication between distant towns at that period; and the necessity there was, to obtain from other places, the necessaries, luxuries, and ornaments of life, which could not be locally produced.

William de Albini Brito has obtained honourable mention in history, for his great bravery at Tenerchebray in Normandy, with his sovereign Henry I, against Robert Curthose, his brother. His single valour appears to have been decisive of the battle. He was accomplished too in civil matters to a degree, which is not often found in a military man of a more educated state of society. He was learned in the laws, and a justice itinerant with Richard Basset in the reign of Stephen. But adhering to the empress Maud, daughter of his former sovereign and friend Henry I, his Castle at Belvoir, appears to have been placed under the paramount jurisdiction of Ranulf de Gernons, Earl of Chester.*

William de Albini Brito married Maud de St. Liz, widow of Robert, son to Richard de Tonebrigg ancestor to the whole family of Fitzwalter, and daughter of Simon, the first Earl of Northampton and Huntingdont of that name; a benefactor to the Priory of St. Mary, at Belvoir. He died in 1155, and was buried near his father, on the north side of the Priory Chapter House; leaving, according to one authority, two sons, William and Ralph; but according to another, five sons.

His eldest son and successor, WILLIAM DE ALBINI II, called also Meschines and Brito, was a considerable benefactor to the Priory at Belvoir, and to the Abbey de Exaquio, in Normandy. He married two wives Adeliza and Cecilia: and dying in 1168, was buried in the old Church of the Priory, before the rood, near his first wife Adeliza. Cecilia, his second wife, was buried nearer the wall of the same side of the

* Lord of the extensive Manor of Barrow upon Soar, co. Leicester. + St. Liz or Senliz. Arms-Argent, on a chief azure, 2 saltires humette, or.

Church. He left three sons; William, then in ward to the king; Roger, who had joined with his father in a liberal benefaction to the Abbey in Normandy; and Robert, who was also a considerable benefactor to the monastery of Beaulieu, in Bedfordshire.

He was succeeded by his son, WILLIAM DE ALBINI III; who accompanied Richard I, at the head of his army, into Normandy, 1195. He was in the following year made Sheriff of the counties of Warwick and Leicester; and Sheriff of Rutland for the three next years succeeding; being re-appointed Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester for the last half of the second year. It was in this same year, that he gave to the king 600 marks (equivalent perhaps in value to £6000 of modern money) to have Agatha Trusbut for his wife; who, it may be supposed from this circumstance, was, with her inheritance, under ward to the king.

In the succeeding reign, (that of John) he took a prominent part, and was deeply interested in the fluctuations of that disastrous period of our history. In 1211, he was one of the sureties for the preservation of the peace concluded between John and the French king. He was also one of the twenty-five barons, who swore to the observance of Magna Charta, and Charta Foresta, sealed by the king at Runnymede, in 1216: and with his compeers as solemnly promised, that he would compel the king to the performance of this memorable covenant, in the event, as was not unwisely expected, of John's attempting to recede. The part which this infatuated king afterwards adopted, is familiar to every one. The sentence of excommunication against his barons, which John had obtained from the Pope, had no other effect, than to convince them of his perfidy, and to excite them to an energetic combination against his authority: in which, William de Albini appears to have been the trusted leader; and to have experienced for his prominent share in

the opposition to John, the full measure of his vengeance. Being appointed by the insurgent barons, governor of Rochester Castle, with a promise on their part, that they would use the most strenuous efforts to relieve him, if the Castle were besieged; he entered upon his charge: and though the garrison were slenderly furnished with arms, ammunition, and provisions; and ill-affected to the cause they had engaged to support; he defended the Castle with the most obstinate valour, when besieged by the king and his army. It was not until the outworks of the Castle were demolished, and one half the keep, to which they then retreated, was destroyed; and they were reduced to horse-flesh and water for food, that he would consent to yield. During the siege, he acted with a magnanimity—it might more properly be characterized as a higher feeling-which prior provocations, and present opportunity, would scarcely lead us to expect. One day, when John with some of his chief commanders, was surveying the strength of the Castle, an excellent bowman among the besieged, observed him, and entreated of William de Albini, that he might kill him with his arrow, which he had already notched. Albini's answer was, "No". The bowman replying, "He would not spare us, if he had the like advantage."-"God's will be done", said the noble Norman, "who will dispose, and not he".

The Castle was surrendered on the Feast of St. Andrew: and John highly enraged at the length of the siege, the loss of so many men, and the vast charge incurred; commanded that all the noblemen engaged in its defence, should be hanged without mercy. From this savage course, he was scarcely restrained by the remonstrances of one of his commanders, a noble foreigner, who boldly warned the king of the ultimate consequences to himself, in the deadly retaliation on his party by the barons, and the probable desertion of every one from his standard.

William de Albini was at last, with others, committed to the custody of Peter de Mauley, in Corfe Castle. During his confinement there, the king on the morning after Christmas, marched from Nottingham to Langar; and sent from thence, on the following day, a solemn message to Belvoir Castle, requiring its speedy surrender into his hands: and threatening, that if those who held it, insisted upon any conditions, its lord should eat no more. Upon which, Nicholas de Albini, one of William's sons, and an ecclesiastic, taking with him a knight, (Hugh Charnels) carried the keys of the Castle to the king, upon condition, that his father should be mercifully dealt with; and they with their horses and arms remain in peace. These conditions being granted, the custody of the Castle was committed to two of the king's followers, an oath of fidelity being exacted from all others in it. While William was prisoner at Corfe, the king seized on his manor of Uffington, and gave it to William Earl of Warren, for the better defence of his Castle, at Stamford. Before he was set at liberty, a fine of 6000 marks was imposed by the king; and his wife Agatha Trusbut enjoined to raise it from his lands, by sale, mortgage, or any other available means.

HENRY III, though his predecessor and parent had thus crippled the power of William de Albini, and received his submission, trusted him not; but compelled him to yield up his wife as a hostage; and afterwards his son Nicholas the priest, in her stead. He did not long, however, remain an object of royal distrust; but was nominated to a chief command in the battle of Lincoln, (1217) when Louis, the dauphin, and the English barons, his abettors, were overthrown; and shared in the property confiscated on this occasion; having had granted to him, the Castle of Muleton, in the county of Lincoln, and all the lands and fees of Thomas de Muleton (one of the English barons of the French party)

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