The Starr Family of America

UTZ@aol.com [Dave Utzinger] posted to
GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com on 10 Jan 1999
Subject: HENRY II, COUNT OF EU--PART 2"
. "Surnamed "William with the strong hand," from the followingcircumstance, as related by William Dugdale: "It happened that the Queenof France [ADELAIDE OF SAVOY (RIN 1532)], being then a widow, and a verybeautiful woman, became much in love with a knight from another
country, who was a homely person, and in the flower of his youth; andbecause she thought that no man excelled him in valor, she caused atournament to be proclaimed throughout her dominions, promising to rewardthose who should exercise themselves therein, according to their
respective abilities; and concluded that if the person whom she so wellaffected should act his part better than others in those militaryexercises, she might marry him without any dishonor to herself.
Whereupon divers gallant men, from foreign parts hasting to Paris,amongst others came this our William de Albini, ravely accoutered, and inthe tournament excelled all others, overcoming many, and wounding onemortally with his lance, which being observed by the queen, she
became exceedingly enamored of him, and forthwith invited him to a costlybanquet, and afterwards bestowing certain jewels upon him, offered himmarriage; but, having plighted his troth to the Queen of England, awidow, he refused her, whereat she grew so discontented that
she consulted with her maids how she might take away his life; and inpursuance of that design, inticed him into a garden - which she descendedby divers steps, under color of showing him the beast; and when she toldhim of its fierceness, he answered, that it was a womanish and not amanly quality to be afraid thereof. But having him
there, by the advantage of a folding door, thrust him to the lion; beingtherefore in this danger, he rolled his mantle about his arm, and puttinghis hand into the mouth of the beast, pulled out his tongue by the root;which done, he followed the queen to her palace, and gave it to one ofher
maids to present her. Returning thereupon to England, with the fame ofthis glorious exploit, he was forthwith advanced to the Earldom ofArundel, and for his arms the Lion given him."
He subsequently married Adeliza of Lorraine, Queen of England, widow ofKing Henry I., and the daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine. Adeliza hadthe castle of Arundel in dowry from her deceased husband, the monarch,and thus her new lord became its feudal earl, 1st Earl of Arundel in thisfamily. The earl was one of those who solicited the Empress Maud to cometo England, and
received her and her brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, at the port ofArundel, in August 1139, and in three years afterwards (1142), in thereport made of King Stephen's taking William de Mandeville at St. Albans,it is stated "that before he could be laid hold on, he underwent a sharp
skirmish with the king's party, wherein the Earl of Arundel, though astout and expert soldier, was unhorsed in the midst of the water byWalceline de Oxeai, and almost drowned."
In 1150, he wrote himself Earl of Chichester, but we find him styledagain Earl of Arundel, upon a very
memorable occasion, namely, the reconciliation of Henry, Duke ofNormandy, afterwards King Henry II (RIN 761)., and King Stephen at thesiege of Wallingford Castle in 1152. "It was scarce possible," saysRapin, "for the armies to part without fighting. Accordingly the twoleaders were preparing for battle with equal ardor, when, by the prudent
advice of the Earl of Arundel, who was on the king's side, they wereprevented from coming to blows." A truce and peace followed thisinterference of the earl's, which led to the subsequent accession ofHenry after Stephen's decease, in whose favor the earl stood so high that
he not only obtained for himself and his heirs the castle and honor ofArundel, but a confirmation of the Earldom of Sussex, of which county hewas really earl, by a grant of the Tertium Denarium of the pleas of theshire.
In 1164, we find the Earl of Arundel deputed with Gilbert Foliot, Bishopof London, to remonstrate with Louis VII, King of France (RIN 1530), uponaccording an asylum to Thomas a Becket within his dominions, and on thefailure of that mission, dispatched with the archbishop of York, theBishops of Winchester, London, Chichester, and Exeter, Wido Rufus,Richard de Invecestre, John de Oxford (priests), Hugh de Gundevile,Bernard de St. Valery, and Henry Fitzgerald, to lay the whole affair ofBecket at the foot of the pontifical throne. Upon levying the aid for themarriage of the king's daughter, in the 12th year of Henry
II., the knight's fees of the honor of Arundel were certified to beninety-seven, and those in Norfolk, belonging to the earl, forty-two.
In 1173, we find the Earl of Arundel commanding, in conjunction withWilliam, Earl of Mandeville, the king's army in Normandy, and compellingthe French monarch to abandon Verneuil after a long siege, and in thenext year, with Richard de Lucy, Justice of England, defeating Robert,
Earl of Leicester (RIN 861), then in rebellion at St. Edmundbury. Thispotent nobleman, after founding and endowing several religious houses,died at Waverley, in Surrey, on October 3, 1176, and was buried in theAbbey of Wymondham.Buried in Wymondham Priory, NOR, ENG; Earl of Arundel,Earl of Lincoln. With his marriage to Adela, widow of Henry I, acquiredArundel Castle as part of her dowry. His possession of the castle andhonor of Arundel was confirmed by Henry II in 1154."
--http://www.gendex.com/users/jast/D0020/G0000083.html#I930