Fulk FitzWarin, Lord of Whittington and Alderbury

Fulk I FitzWarin (d.1170/1), a supporter of King Henry II (1154-1189), of Whittington in Shropshire and Alveston in Gloucestershire, son of the "shadowy or mythical" Warin of Metz, Lorraine.[2] Fulk I (d.1170/1) was rewarded by King Henry II (1154-1189) for his support of his mother Empress Matilda in her civil war with King Stephen (1135-1154) and conferred to him in 1153 the royal manor of Alveston in Gloucestershire and in 1149 the manor of Whadborough in Leicestershire. Fulk II held those properties after the death of his father in 1171.[7]

One of the most prominent legends concerning Whittington Castle regards the Marian Chalice, thought by some to be the Holy Grail. According to this legend, Sir Fulk FitzWarin, the great grandson of Payne Peveril and one in the line of guardians of the Grail and King Arthur. A story from the 13th century states that the Grail was kept in a private chapel of the castle when Sir Foulke was there. The coat of arms of Fulk FitzWarin is hung above the castle archway

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Whittington Castle and the families of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, Peverel, Maminot, Powys and Fitz Warin (ISBN 1-899376-80-1) 

http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-FITZ-WAR-1130.html

FITZ WARIN , lords of Whittington and Alderbury ( Salop ) and Alveston (Gloucs.) . The lands in Shropshire were an area of dispute between the English and the Welsh until the conquest of Wales by Edward I . In the latter part of the 12th cent. , ‘English’ Maelor was in the hands of Roger de Powis and his brother Jonas but the area around Whittington was held by FULK FITZWARIN I (d. 1156 ) and FULK II (d. 1197 ). FULK III (d. 1256? ) regained possession of Whittington in 1204 after having been outlawed. Fulk aided Llywelyn the Great against the English in 1217 , but made peace with the government of Henry III by Feb. 1218 . Whittington was captured by Llywelyn at the start of 1223 and in 1226 Henry III met the lord of Gwynedd at Shrewsbury to discuss the trouble caused by Fulk Fitz Warin and other border barons . The enmity between Llywelyn and Fulk Fitz Warin resulted in plans, c. 1227 , for the marriage of Angharad , daughter of Madog ap Gruffydd (q.v.) , to the son of Fulk , but the wedding did not take place — it is unknown if Llywelyn 's opposition caused the scheme to fail. [At the battle of Lewes , 14 May 1264 , FULK IV was drowned while escaping from the field; afterwards] Simon de Montfort sought the aid of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and one of the means of doing this was to grant to Llywelyn , on 22 June 1265 , the service of the lord of Whittington ; by the terms of the treaty of Montgomery , 29 Sept. 1267 , this land passed to the Welsh . FULK V ( 1251 - 1315 ), active in the wars against the Welsh at the end of the 13th cent. , was ordered to aid Bere castle , near Towyn, Mer. , in 1294 , and numerous demands were made upon him to find men from Shropshire for the king 's service. He was in conflict with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1277 about lands in Bauseley, Mont. , and before 25 Feb. in this year he m. Margaret , daughter of Gruffydd ap Wenwynwyn (q.v.) by Hawise , daughter of John Lestrange (see the article on that family); Fulk d. 1315 ; his widow d. on 11 May 1336 . [The direct male line came to an end in 1420 , when the last of eleven successive Fulk s died.] A WILLIAM FITZ , who may have been related to the lords of Whittington , was active in Welsh affairs in 1277 when he witnessed an agreement between Pain de Chaworth and Rhys ap Maredudd (q.v. in Appendix) , and was present at the surrender of Gruffydd and Cynan , sons of Maredudd ab Owain , Llywelyn their nephew, and Rhys ap Rhys Fychan . In the 15th cent , another WILLIAM FITZ , levied men in Wales to attack and capture Whittington castle ; [he was Sir William Bourchier ( 1423 - 1469 ) lord Fitz Warin in right of his wife Thomasine , daughter and heiress of Elizabeth ( Hankerford ) , who was sister and heiress of the FULK XI who d. 1420 ; a grant ( 1450 ) of lands in Whittington by William and his wife appears in Edward Owen , Catalogue of MSS. relating to Wales in the B.M. , iii, 37618.]

Bibliography:

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ; The Complete Peerage , 1910–40 v, 1926 ; J. Goronwy Edwards , Calendar of Ancient Correspondence concerning Wales , 1935 , 1935 , Littere Wallie , 1940 , 1940 ; R. W. Eyton , Antiquities of Shropshire , 1854–60 ; A History of Wales Author:

Ivor John Sanders, M.A., (1911-91), Aberystwyth

[The ‘ Romance of Foulques Fitz Warin ,’ extant in prose in a single French manuscript of c. 1320 which reflects a lost metrical romance of the late 13th cent. , is described in the D.N.B. article cited above. Much of it is pure story-telling, of marvellous adventures in France , Brittany , Ireland , the Orkneys , Scandinavia , and North Africa . But large parts of it have a historical basis, however obscured by conflating Fulk II and Fulk III into a single personage (‘ Fouke le Brun ’), with consequent anachronisms such as describing king John 's daughter Joan (wife of Llywelyn the Great ) as Henry II 's daughter. The romancer's acquaintance with the history and topography of North Wales and the March , and with Welsh personages like Owain Gwynedd , Iorwerth Drwyndwn and his son Llywelyn , Owain Cyfeiliog , Gwenwynwyn , is quite detailed, and his statement that Llywelyn the Great and Fulk (this would be Fulk III ) and prince John were lads together at the English court is by no means incredible — the scuffle between Fulk and young John over a game of chess, e.g., is quite in John 's character. No Welsh version of the romance has as yet come to light, but Welsh familiarity, if not with the romance itself then at least with the oral tradition which underlay it, is attested by the fairly frequent references to ‘ Syr Ffwg ’ or ‘ Ffwg ap Gwarin ’ in the poets, e.g. Gruffudd ap Maredudd (in his awdl to Owain Lawgoch , Poetry of the Red Book of Hergest , p. 107, lines 24-5), Iolo Goch , Guto'r Glyn , Dafydd Nanmor , Tudur Aled (consult the indexes to the modern edns. of their poetry), and Wiliam Llyn (ed. Morrice , p. 53, line 73). It must however be added that these poets never refer to the content of the romance; ‘ Syr Ffwg ’ is to them merely a type among others, of knightly prowess, and probably the exigencies of cynghanedd alone account for clichés like ‘Ffwg a'i ffon’ — ‘Fulk and his staff,’ i.e. probably his spear-shaft, or possibly his cudgel (referring in that case to the incident on p. 339 of the Rolls Series ed. of the romance.)

A curious variant of the story — indeed, a matter which occurs not at all in the ‘Romance’ itself — appears in a ‘moral parable’ printed by Isaac Foulkes in his Cymru Fu , p. 84. Here, the hero is called ‘ Fulk of Glamorgan ,’ is sheriff of Cardiff , and lives in Cardiff castle . If we deleted the comma between ‘Ffwg’ and ‘Morgannwg’ on p. 17 of T. Parry 's ed. of the Dafydd ap Gwilym corpus (in a set of englynion to Ifor Hael , q.v.) , we might see in the words a reference to this ‘ Fulk of Glamorgan .’ That ‘ Fulk of Glamorgan ’ was Fulk Fitz Warin is clear from the fact that the Cymru Fu anecdote speaks of his combats with Saracens .

Bibliography:

The Romance of Foulques Fitz Warin ; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ; Th. M. Chotzen , Recherches sur la poésie de Dafydd ap Gwilym, barde gallois du XIVe siècle , Amsterdam, 1928 , 100, 104, 106, 140. Author:

Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D., F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor

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• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 19
• Fitzwarine, Fulk by Henry Richard Tedder
• FITZWARINE, FULK, was the name of several persons living in Shropshire in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, some of whose actions are attributed to one individual in the romance of ‘Foulques FitzWarin.’ Fulk Fitzwarine I was the second son of Warin de Metz, and of a daughter of the Peverels, then very powerful in Shropshire and the marches. He was the head of his family in 1156, when Henry II had given him the Gloucestershire manor of Alveston (R. W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, vii. 67), and died 1170–1. He had four sons, of whom the eldest, Fulk II, married Hawise, daughter and coheiress of Joceas of Dinan, and is traditionally stated to have made a claim upon Ludlow, which was never allowed (ib. vii. 69). The Shropshire Pipe Roll of 1177 shows that he had been amerced forty merks by Henry II for forest trespass. About 1180 he successfully disputed the right of Shrewsbury Abbey to the advowson of Alberbury. Ten years later he was fined 100l. for his wife's share of an inheritance (Rot. Pipe, 2 Ric. I, ‘Wilts’), and through her probably acquired an interest in several Wiltshire manors (Testa de Nevill, 1807, p. 150). On 6 Nov. 1194 he was named as attorney for his wife in a suit of mort d'ancestre on account of lands in the same county (Rot. Curiæ Regis, 1835, i. 35, 37); and was fined ten merks to be excused transfretation to Normandy (Rot. Canc. de 3° Joannis, 1833, p. 122). In 1195 he is entered as owing forty merks for the castle of Whittington adjudged to him in the curia regis. The fine remained unliquidated in 1202 (ib. p. 225). He died in 1197. Next year his widow paid thirty merks that she might not be obliged to remarry (Rot. Pipe, 10 Ric. I, ‘Wilts’). Her name constantly appears as a litigant down to 1226 (Testa de Nevill, 1807, p. 128). Fulk had six sons, of whom the eldest, Fulk III, in the year ending Michaelmas 1200, was ‘fined 100l. with King John to have judgment concerning Witinton Castle and its appurtenances as his right, which had been adjudged to him by consideration of the curia regis’ (Eyton, Antiquities, vii. 72). The king was bribed by Meuric de Powis to confirm the latter in the possession of Whittington, whereupon in 1201 Fulk, his brothers, and friends rebelled. The traditional story of the rebellion may be seen in the romance mentioned later. The outlawry was revoked by patent dated from Rouen, 11 Nov. 1203 (Rot. Patent, 1835, i. 36). In the next year John restored Whittington (ib. i. 46). Probably before 1 Oct. 1207 Fulk married Matilda, daughter of Robert le Vavasour, and widow of Theobald Walter. He received several marks of favour from the king (Rot. Litt. Claus. an. 9° et an. 14° Joannis, 1833, i. 92, 126, 129), and was with him in 1212 at Allerton and Durham (Rot. Chart. in turri Lond. asserv. 1837, i. pt. i. 187, 188), and at Bere Regis in 1213 (ib. pp. 193, 199). In 1215 he was making war upon his neighbours, had lost the royal favour, and had been despoiled of fiefs (Rot. Litt. Claus. i. 270). He was one of the malcontent barons who met at Stamford and Brackley in 1215 (Matt. Paris, Chronica, 1874, ii. 585), and was among those specially excommunicated in the bull of Innocent III of 16 Dec. (Rymer, Fœdera, 1816, i. 139). Henry III bestowed some of the lands of the rebellious baron upon his own adherents (Testa de Nevill, pp. 45, 48, 49, 55, 56). The king styles him ‘manifestus inimicus noster’ in 1217 (Rot. Litt. Claus. i. 321). Fulk made his peace in the following year (ib. pp. 352, 376). Some time between 1220 and 1230 he founded Alberbury Priory. In 1221 and 1222 sufficient confidence was not placed in him to be permitted to strengthen Whittington without giving security for loyal behaviour (ib. i. 460, 520). Full seisin was granted to him by writs of 11 July and 9 Oct. 1223 (ib. pp. 554, 565). On 30 June 1245 an assembly of the barons sent him as their representative to order the papal nuncio to quit the country (Matt. Paris, Chronica, iv. 420). His first wife having died he married Clarice de Auberville (Excerpta e Rot. Fin. 1836, ii. 89). He probably died about 1256–1257. The romance states that he was blind during the last seven years of his life. He died before August 1260, and his affairs were managed for some time before his death by his son, Fulk IV, who was drowned at the battle of Lewes in 1264. By the death of an infant in 1420 the elder male line of this family became extinct. Eleven Fulk Fitzwarines in succession bore the same christian name.
• In the traditional history Fulk I is omitted, and the career of his two successors combined as that of ‘Fouke le Brun,’ the outlaw and popular hero. We are told how he roamed through the country with his four brothers (recalling the ‘Quatre Fils Aimon’), cousins, and friends, and the nimble-witted jongleur, John de Rampayne, seeking forest adventures of the Robin Hood type, spoiling the king, and succouring the poor, and how he was twice compelled to quit England and encounter sea perils from the Orkneys to Barbary. The story is preserved in a single manuscript in French in the British Museum (Reg. 12, c. xii.), first printed privately by Sir T. Duffus Hardy, and then published as 'Histoire de Foulques Fitz-Warin, par Francisque Michel,' Paris, 1840, large 8vo, and with an English translation and notes by Thomas Wright for the Warton Club in 1855. It is included by L. Moland and C. d'Héricault in 'Nouvelles Francises en prose du xive siecle,' Paris, 1858, 12mo. The text and a new translation are given in J. Stevenson's edition of 'Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon' (Rolls Series, 1875). The manuscript was transcribed before 1320, and is evidently paraphrased from an earlier record written before the end of the thirteenth century in octosyllabic verses, some of which remain unaltered. An English version in alliterative verse was seen by Leland, who reproduces 'Thinges excerptid owte of an old Englisch boke yn Ryme of the Gestes of Guarine' (Collectanea, 1774, i. 230-7). Pierre de Langtoft of Bridlington (Cottonian MS. Julius A. v.), writing probably before 1320, refers to the romance, and Robert de Brunne, writing about the same period, says :
  • Thus of dan Waryn in his boke men rede.
• It is a compilation from family records and traditions first put into shape by 'an Anglo-Norman trouvere in the service of that great and powerful family, and displays an extraordinarily minute knowledge of the topography of the borders of Wales, and more especially of Ludlow and its immediate neighbourhood' (T. Wright's ed. 1855, p. xv). There are historical anachronisms and other inaccuracies. As a story it is full of interest.
• [Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, ii. 2-12, vii. 66-99, xi. 29-42; T. Wright's Sketch of Ludlow Castle, 2nd ed. 1856, and Essays on the Middle Ages, 1846, ii. 147-63 ; Frere's Bibliographe Normand, 1860, ii. 616, 619; Histoire Littéraire de la France, 1877, xxvii. 164-86; Revue Contemporaine, 1858, iii. 308-17; Ward's Cat. of Romances in the British Museum, 1883, i. 501-8. The account of the Fitzwarines by Dugdale (Baronage, 1675, pp. 443, &c.) is full of errors.]
• From: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fitzwarine,_Fulk_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati19stepuoft#page/223/mode... to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati19stepuoft#page/224/mode... __________________________________

Please see Darrell Wolcott: Welsh Origins of the Peverel Family; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id50.html. (Steven Ferry, April 15, 2020.)