William de Taillebois - Descendants and Relatives

Descendants and Relatives

William married Gundreda, perhaps his second wife, who was said to be the daughter of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey and Elizabeth of Vermandois. She was the widow of Roger, the Earl of Warwick. Note that King Stephen's son, William, married Gundred's niece, Isabel de Warenne. This implies a very close relationship with the King's party.

William had issue:

• Avicia, who married first to William de Peveral, and secondly to Richard de Morville, constable of Scotland.
• William, who became William de Lancaster II, and whose legitimate heir Helewise de Lancaster married Gilbert son of Roger Fitz Reinfrid. Many modern Lancasters, especially in Cumbria, appear to descend from his two illegitimate sons, Gilbert and Jordan.
• Jordan, who died young, and is mentioned in a benefaction to St Mary de Pré in Leicester. In the same benefaction, William II is also mentioned, apparently an adult.
• Agnes who married Alexander de Windsore
• Sigrid, married to William the clerk of Garstang.
• Perhaps Warine de Lancaster, royal falconer, and ancestor of a family known as "de Lea". The charters concerning Forton in the Cockersand Chartulary say, firstly that William de Lancaster II confirmed a grant made by his father to Warine, father of Henry de Lea, and secondly, in Hugh de Morville's confirmation that this William de Lancaster I was "his uncle" (awnculi sui). The record appears to allow that William might have been either Henry's uncle or Warine's. If he was Warine's uncle then the theory is that Warine was the son of an otherwise unknown brother of William de Lancaster I named Gilbert.

Gilbert fitz Reinfrid and Helewise's son William also took up the name de Lancaster, becoming William de Lancaster III. He died without male heirs, heavily indebted, apparently due to payments demanded after he was captured at Rochester during the First Barons' War, and ransomed off by his father.

William de Lancaster III's half brother Roger de Lancaster of Rydal inherited some of the Lancaster importance. It is thought that Roger was a son of Gilbert Fitz Reinfrid, but not of Helewise de Lancaster. Roger is widely thought to be the ancestor of the Lancasters of Howgill and Rydal in Westmorland. (In fact the line starts with one John de Lancaster of Howgill, whose connection to Roger de Lancaster and his son, John de Lancaster of Grisedale and Stanstead, is unclear except for the fact that he took over Rydal and Grasmere from the latter John.)

The Lancasters of Sockbridge, Crake Trees, Brampton, Dacre, and several other manors in Westmorland and Cumberland, were apparently descended from William de Lancaster II's illegitimate son Gilbert de Lancaster. Many or perhaps all of the old Lancaster families found throughout Cumbria seem to descend from Gilbert and his brother Jordan.

The de Lea family eventually lost power in the time of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, a member of the Plantagenet royal family, with whom they had become allied during his rebellion.

Another Lancaster family, in Rainhill in Lancashire, also seems to have claimed descent, given that they used the same coat of arms as Gilbert Fitz Reinfrid and his sons (argent, two bars gules, with a canton of the second, and a "lion of England", either white or gold, in the canton). However the exact nature of the link, if any, is unknown.