| Magna Carta Surety Baron William Malet was one of the twenty-five medieval barons who were surety for Magna Carta in 1215. Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta |
There were several William Malets in this period, and care needs to be taken not to confuse them. See Research Notes
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William Malet was of age no later than 1194 when his father died, meaning he was almost certainly born no later than 1173.[1][2] His parents were Gilbert Malet[3][1][2][4] and Alice Picot.[1][2]
William inherited the Barony of Curry Malet, Somerset from his father.[4] He also had lands in much of the southern half of England, including elsewhere in Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Surrey and Wiltshire.[1][2]
William married twice. The identity of his first wife is unknown (see below). Douglas Richardson lists four children:
William's second wife was Alice Basset.[1][2][3] They had no children.[1][2] Alice was the daughter of Thomas Basset,[1][2] one of the Illustrious Men who were King John's counsellors listed in the preamble to the Magna Carta.[5]
In 1191 William was with Richard I on the Third Crusade.[3] Four years later, in 1195, he was with Richard I in Normandy.[1][2][3] The following year he paid the king £100 to enter into his inheritance.[1][2]
From 1200 to 1203 William was in a legal dispute with his cousin and namesake William Malet of Enmore, Somerset: this related to land at Sutton Mallet, Somerset.[1][2] In 1204 he was involved in another land dispute, this time with William de Evermue.[1][2][6]
In December 1209 he was appointed Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, a position he held until 1212.[3]
William fell into substantial debt to the Crown by 1212.[3] The debt stood at 2000 marks in 1214,[3] when, in return for cancellation of the debt, he agreed to serve with King John in Poitou, bringing ten knights and twenty ordinary soldiers.[1][2][3]
In 1215 William joined the group of Barons who rebelled against King John and subsequently became one of the Surety Barons for the Magna Carta. As a result he was excommunicated in December 1215.[1][2][3]
William died very soon after his excommunication.[1][2][4] His heirs were his daughters Helewise, Mabel and Bertha.[3][4] William was probably buried in the parish church of Curry Mallet, Somerset.[7]
His second wife Alice subsequently married John Bisset. She died in about 1263.[1][2]
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for William postulates a birth date of about 1175.[3] Douglas Richardson says he was of age in 1194.[1][2]
Some sources give Alice Basset as mother of William's daughters. But Alice's heirs were not children by William Malet but children by her second marriage to John Biset. This strongly suggests that the daughters were children of William by a previous marriage, to someone whose name is unknown.[1][2][8]
Douglas Richardson states that William had a son William who witnessed a charter of his grandfather Gilbert Malet in 1196, and who died before the William of this profile.[1][2] If the latter may have been born as late as 1173, there is a question as to whether a son would have been old enough to witness a charter in 1196.
There were a number of other William Malets in this period, and they can be easily confused. Those with profiles on WikiTree at 24 February 2020 are:
In the records cited in Medieval Lands[8] it appears difficult to be certain which William Malet is being referred to.
For the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in 2015, Professor Nigel Saul wrote a set of biographies of the Surety Barons. He and the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee generously gave permission for them to be reproduced on WikiTree. They can be viewed here.
This week's featured connections are Summer Olympians: William is 39 degrees from Simone Biles, 34 degrees from Maria Johanna Philipsen-Braun, 26 degrees from Pierre de Coubertin, 26 degrees from Étienne Desmarteau, 27 degrees from Fanny Gately, 31 degrees from Evelyn Konno, 44 degrees from Paavo Johannes Nurmi, 27 degrees from Wilma Rudolph, 41 degrees from Carl Schuhmann, 24 degrees from Zara Tindall, 26 degrees from Violet Robb and 27 degrees from Mina Wylie on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
The "stubbs" footnote looks like a copy paste of a bunch of sources from a secondary source, without anyone having actually checked if they were relevant. Not good.
The "roots" footnote is to Weis, but, as cited by Richardson, why would we not just cite Richardson? If there are important differences they would need to be spelled out, but I don't think that is the problem?
Why is Wurts being used? Does not look strong.
William Malet is written WILLIAM MALET by Richardson in Royal Ancestry, Vol Iv, page 3, without the honorific "SIR".
Regardless that there may be more to it than can be covered here, and this era produces conflicting opinions among experts, it is my opinion WikiTree should continue to use "SIR" unless a question in G2G produces changes in the guidelines.