Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey

Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey (c. 1130 – 7 May 1202) (alias Hamelin of Anjou and (anachronistically) Hamelin Plantagenet), was an Anglo-Angevin nobleman, a half-brother of King Henry II of England, and was prominent at the courts of the Plantagenet kings of England, Henry II and his sons Richard I and John.

Origins

He was an illegitimate son of Geoffrey of Anjou, the teenaged Count of Anjou and son-in-law to King Henry I, and thus an elder half-brother of King Henry II, and uncle to King Richard I and King John (sons of Henry II).

Marriage and children

King Henry II arranged for him to marry one of the wealthiest heiresses in England, Isabel de Warenne, 4th Countess of Surrey, the widow of William of Blois. Hamelin and Isabella married in April 1164, and after the marriage he was recognized as Comte de Warenne, that being the customary designation for what more technically should be Earl of Surrey. In consequence of the marriage Hamelin adopted the surname de Warenne, as did his descendants. By his wife he had one son and four daughters as follows:

• William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey, only son and heir, who married Maud Marshal.
• Clemence (aka Adela), mistress of her cousin King John, and by him the mother of Richard FitzRoy, feudal baron of Chilham, in Kent.
• Ela, who married firstly Robert de Newburgh and secondly William FitzWilliam of Sprotborough. She also had a son with King John of England named Richard FitzRoy
• Maud (alias Matilda), who married firstly Henry II, Count of Eu and Lord of Hastings, secondly Henry d'Estouteville, Seigneur de Valmont.
• Isabel, who married firstly Robert de Lacy of Pontefract, and secondly Gilbert de l'Aigle, Lord of Pevensey.

Career

Warenne's lands in England centered on Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire, which powerful castle he built. He also possessed the "third penny" (an entitlement to one third of the fines levied in the county courts) of his County of Surrey and held the castles of Mortemer and Bellencombre in Normandy.

Hamelin joined in the denunciations of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket in 1164, although after Becket's death he became a great believer in Becket's sainthood, having reportedly been cured of blindness by the saint's intervention. In 1176 he escorted his niece Joan to Sicily for her marriage.

He remained loyal to Henry II through all the problems of the later part of his reign when many nobles deserted him, and continued as a close supporter of that king's eldest son and his own nephew, Richard I. During Richard's absence on the Third Crusade, he took the side of the regent William Longchamp. Hamelin was present at the second coronation of King Richard in 1194 and at King John's coronation in 1199.

Death and succession

He died in 1202 and was buried in the Chapter House of Lewes Priory in Sussex. He was succeeded by his son, William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey.