Biography of William Forz 3rd Earl Albemarle -1242

On 15th June 1215 King John of England (age 48) met with his Baron's at Runnymede [Map] where he agreed to the terms of the Magna Carta which attempted to reduce the King's authority through political reform. Those who signed as surety included:

Roger Bigod 2nd Earl Norfolk (age 71)

his son Hugh Bigod 3rd Earl Norfolk (age 33)

Henry Bohun 1st Earl Hereford (age 39)

Richard Clare 3rd Earl Hertford (age 62)

his son Gilbert Clare 5th Earl Gloucester 4th Earl Hertford (age 35)

William "The Younger" Marshal 2nd Earl Pembroke (age 25)

William Mowbray 6th Baron Thirsk (age 42)

Saer Quincy 1st Earl Winchester (age 45)

Robert Ros, Richard Percy 5th Baron Percy Topcliffe (age 45)

Robert de Vere 3rd Earl of Oxford (age 50)

Eustace Vesci (age 46)

John Fitzrobert 3rd Baron Warkworth (age 25)

John Lacy Earl Lincoln (age 23).

William D'Aubigny (age 64), Geoffrey Mandeville 2nd Earl Essex (age 24)

Robert Clare Fitzwalter

William Forz 3rd Earl Albemarle

William Hardell

William Huntingfield

William Llanvallei

William Malet 1st Baron Curry Mallet

Roger Montbegon, [his future brother-in-law] Richard Montfichet

Geoffrey Saye (age 60) signed as surety the Magna Carta.

Ranulf de Blondeville Gernon 6th Earl Chester 1st Earl Lincoln (age 45) witnessed.

Chronica Majora.

April 1236. About the same time, several nobles and powerful men from the various provinces of the West, namely from Galloway, the Isle of Man, and parts of Ireland, assembled at the instance of Hugh de Lacy (age 60), whose daughter had been married to Alan of Galloway, lately deceased, and they all united together for the purpose of restoring Galloway to the illegitimate son of the aforesaid Alan, and of annulling by force the just disposition made by the king of Scots (age 37), who had distributed the inheritance amongst the three daughters of Alan, to whom it belonged by hereditary right. In order, therefore, to revoke and annul his distribution, and to restore the territory to the aforesaid Thomas, or to the son of Thomas, Alan's brother, or at least to one of that family, these presumptuous chiefs flew to arms, and, bursting forth into insolence, endeavoured to free themselves from the authority of the king. And in order to bring their attempts to the desired result, they entered into a strange kind of treaty, by means of a certain mode of divination, yet according to an abominable custom of their ancestors. For all these barbarians and their chiefs and magistrates drew blood from a vein near the heart, and poured it into a large cup, they then stirred and mixed it up, and afterwards, drinking to one another, quaffed it off, as a token that they were from that time forth allied by an indissoluble and, as it were, kindred treaty, and indivisible both in prosperity and adversity, even at the risk of their heads. They therefore provoked the king and the kingdom to war, burning their own houses and those of their neighbours, that the king, when he arrived, might not find either shelter or food for his army, and indulged in rapine and incendiarism, heaping injury on injury. On hearing of this, the king of Scotland collected his forces from all quarters, and, marching to meet them, drew up his forces in order and engaged them in open battle; and the fortune of war turning against the Galwegians, they were put to flight, and the royal troops, pursuing them at the sword's point, slew many thousands of them, and those who were taken alive by the king and his soldiers were put to an ignominious death without any chance of ransoming themselves. Some threw themselves on the king's mercy, and were consigned to close imprisonment by him till he could consult as to what should be done with them, and all of them, together with their descendants, he, not without good reason, disinherited. Having gained this victory the king glorified God, the lord of armies, and listening to good counsel, he sent word to Roger de Quincy (age 41), earl of Winchester, John Baliol, and [his son] William, the son of the earl of Albemarle, that, as they had married the three sisters, the daughters of Alan of Galloway, they might now, as the disturbances were quelled, hold peaceable possession of the rights pertaining to them. This battle took place in the month of April, the fortune of war favouring the king of Scots.