Ireland
It is evident from the latter charter that he accompanied King Henry II in his expedition to Ireland in October 1171. He was sent with Hugh de Lacy to receive the allegiance of Rory, King of Connaught, and on the King's return to England in the next year the city of Wexford was committed to his charge, with two lieutenants under him. In 1173 Pope Adrian's bull granting the kingdom of Ireland to Henry, Laudabiliter, was entrusted to the prior of Wallingford and him to exhibit before the synod of bishops at Waterford. On the death of Strongbow, Lord of Leinster, in 1176, the king appointed him deputy over the whole of that kingdom and granted him the wardship of Isabel, the earl's daughter and heir.
His government, which is represented as having been weak and negligent, did not last above a year, Prince John receiving a grant of the Lordship of Ireland at the parliament held at Oxford in May 1177, Fitz-Aldelm himself being present there. The city of Wexford, however, was restored to his charge, together with the province of Leinster.
Once again in 1181 the government of Ireland was again entrusted to him. During his residence in Ireland, he founded the priory of Saint Thomas the Martyr at Dublin; and in Henry's charter of confirmation he is called the king's "dapifer" (steward). He was also Seneschal of Normandy, Ponthieu, and some other of the king's dominions in France. In 1185 the manor of Maplederwell was held by William Fitz Audelin as a gift from the King. After the Henry's death he held the office of sheriff of Cumberland, during the first nine years of Richard's reign, in the first year of which he was amerced in sum of 60L. (£60) for not coming into the Exchequer to account for twelve days after he was summonsed. In the same year he was one of the justices itinerant in that county and in Yorkshire; and in the former again in 1197 (8th year of Richard I).
He is sometimes confused, genealogically, with William de Burgh, but this has long been known to be an error.
Read more about this topic: William Fitz Aldelm
Famous quotes containing the word ireland:
“There is no topic ... more soporific and generally boring than the topic of Ireland as Ireland, as a nation.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Come, fix upon me that accusing eye.
I thirst for accusation. All that was sung.
All that was said in Ireland is a lie
Breed out of the contagion of the throng,
Saving the rhyme rats hear before they die.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living.”
—Jack Holland (b. 1947)