William III 5Th Baron de BRAOSE, LORD BRAMBER

                   Name Suffix: Lord Bramber
Ancestral File Number: 84ZZ-P5
Seal to Parents:  28 SEP 1937

At his peak Lord of Bramber, Gower, Abergavenny, Brecknock, Builth, Radnor, Kington, Limerick, and the three castles of Skenfrith, Grosmont, and Whitecastle.William inherited Bramber, Builth, and Radnor from his father, Brecknock and Abergavenny through his mother.  He was the strongest of the Marcher Lords involved in constant war with the Welsh and other lords.  He was particularly hated by the Welsh for the massacre of three Welsh princes, their families and their men which took place during a feast at his castle of Abergavenny in 1175.  He was sometimes known as the "Ogre of Abergavenny".  One of the Normans' foremost warriors, he fought alongside King Richard at Chalus in 1199 (where Richard was killed).William received Limerick in 1201 from King John.  He was also given custody of Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Gwynllwg in return forlarge payments.William captured Arthur, Count of Brittany at Mirebeau in 1202 and was in charge of his imprisonment for King John.  He was rewarded in February 1203 with the grant of Gower.  He may have had knowledge of the murder Prince Arthur and been bribed to silence by John with the city of Limerick in July. His honors reached their peak when he was made Sheriff of Herefordshire by John in 1206-7.  He had held this office under Richard from 1192-1199.His fall began almost immediately. William was stripped of his office as bailiff of Glamorgan and other custodies in 1206-7.  Later he was deprived of all his lands and,sought by John in Ireland, he returned to Wales and joined the Welsh Prince Llewelyn in rebellion.  He fled to France in 1210 via Shoreham "in the habit of abeggar" and died in exile near Paris.  Despite intending to be interred at St John's, Brecon, he was buried in the Abbey of St Victorie, Paris by Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, another of John's chief opponents who was also taking refuge there.

His wife and son were murdered by King John-starvedto death at Windsor Castle.

See Castle of Grosmont

William de Braose inherited the large estates of his grandmother, Berta de Gloucester, and besides possessed the Honour of Braose, in Normandy. This feudal lord was a personage ofgreat power and influence during the reigns of Henry II and Richard I, from the former of whom he obtained a grant of the "whole kingdom of Limeric, in Ireland," for the service of sixty knight's fees, to be held of the king and his younger son, John. For several years after this period, he appears to have enjoyedthe favour of King John and his power and possessions were augmented by diversgrants from the crown. In the 10th of the king's reign [1209], when the kingdom laboured under an interdiction and John deemed it expedient to demand hostages from his barons to ensure their allegiance should the Pope proceed to the length of absolving them from obedience to the crown, his officers who came upon the mission to the Baron de Braose were met by Maud, his wife, and peremptorily informed that she would not entrust any of her children to the king, who had sobasely murdered his own nephew, Prince Arthur. de Braose rebuked her for speaking thus, however, and said that if he had in anything offended the king, he was ready to make satisfaction according to the judgment of the court and the barons, his peers, upon an appointed day and at any fixed place without, however, giving hostages. This answer being communicated to the king, an order was immediately transmitted to seize upon the baron's person, but Braose having notice thereof fled with his family into Ireland.This quarrel between de Braose and King John is, however, differently related by other authorities. The monk of Llanthony stated that King John disinherited and banished him for his cruelty to theWelsh in his war with Gwenwynwyn, and that his wife Maud and William, his son and heir, died prisoners in Corfe Castle. Another