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Walter de Cantelowe

Male - 1266


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  • Name Walter de Cantelowe 
    Gender Male 
    Died 12 Feb 1266  Blockley, Gloucestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried Worcester Cathedral, Worcester, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I6555  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father William de Cantelowe,   b. of Chilton Cantelo, Somerset, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 7 Apr 1239, Reading, Berkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Masceline de Bracy 
    Family ID F2863  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. “Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families,” Douglas Richardson (2013):
      “WILLIAM DE CANTELOWE, Knt., of Leigh, Dorset, Ellesborough and Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, Meole Brace, Shropshire, Barcheston and Studley, Warwickshire, Caine, Wiltshire, etc., Steward of the Household of John, Count of Mortain, 1198, Sheriff of Worcestershire, 1200-15, Sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire, 1201-4, 1209-23, itinerant Justice in Staffordshire, 1203, Sheriff of Herefordshire, 1204-5, Steward of the King's Household, 1204-22, a Norman by birth. He married MASCELINE (or MAZRA) DE BRACY (or BRASCY, BRACI), daughter of Audulf de Bracy, of Meole Brace, Shropshire, Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, etc. They had four sons, William, Knt., Robert, Walter [Bishop of Worcester], and Matthew [Rector of Ribston, Yorkshire and Alvechurch, Worcestershire], and one daughter, (wife of Thurstan de Montfort). He witnessed two acts of King John while John was still an earl in 1198. The first was dated 12 July 1198 when William was styled 'tune senescallus;' the second was dated 4 Dec. 1198, just a few months before King Richard's death. William became one of the king's stewards of the household with Peter de Stokes and Robert de Thornham. In 1203 the king granted him lands in Great Bowden and Market Harborough, Leicestershire to hold during pleasure; William in turn entrusted the manors to his brother, Roger Orget. He took part in the ineffectual expedition to Poitou in 1205. The same year he was granted the manor of Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, in exchange for 300 marks and the manor of Cockeswall; Eaton Bray subsequently became the head of the Cantelowe barony. In 1208 he was granted custody of the see of Worcester, and was a justice in Nottinghamshire. In 1209 he settled a dispute which he had with the Prior of Dunstaple regarding 50 acres in Shortgrave, Bedfordshire; he quitclaimed the said 50 acres to the Prior, as well as 20 acres in Eaton, Bedfordshire, which was part of the land which the Prior claimed by virtue of a grant made by Audulf de Bracy, father of Masceline, wife of William. He and William Briwerre supervised elections to the vacant sees of York and Carlisle in 1214. Wendover's description of him as one of John's "evil counselors" probably owes much to his role as a gaoler of baronial hostages. Wendover also suggests that Cantelowe may have wavered in his loyalty after the rebel seizure of London in 1215, but this is belied by the stream of royal writs sent to him in 1215-16. In 1215 he also witnessed the royal declaration of free election to sees and abbeys. He took the side of the king in his war with the barons. In 1215-16 he was granted a number of manors belonging to rebels, and was commissioned to treat with those who might return into the king's peace. In 1216 he was granted letters of presentation to the advowson of the church of Preston, Warwickshire, the gift belonging to the king because the land of Thurstan de Montfort was in his hand. In 1217 he was at the Siege of Mountsorrel and at the Battle of Lincoln. He presented to the churches of Ridlington, Rutland, 1217, 1218, 1221, and Hinxworth, Hertfordshire, 1218. In 1218 he witnessed the treaty of Worcester with Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, and was an itinerant justice in Bedfordshire. The same year the Sheriff was ordered to inform the king why he had disseised William of seven hides of land in Eaton. In 1219 he was a commissioner investigating encroachments on the royal forests in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Herefordshire. His wife, Masceline, seems to have been living in 1220. Sometime before 1223, he appears to have acquired some of William Mattel's lands at Totternhoe, Bedfordshire. In 1223 he joined the armed demonstration of Ranulph, Earl of Chester at the Tower against the government of Hubert de Burgh; he submitted at Northampton on 30 December. He joined the royal Siege of Bedford in the summer of 1224. In 1225 he was allowed £1084 at the exchequer for war expenses under King John; this cancelled a list of debts that included increments due on county farms, scutages, and the fine for the custody of the lands and heir of Robert Chandos. As "William de Cantelowe, senior," he presented his son, [Master] Walter de Cantelowe, to the church of Bulwick, Northamptonshire in 1227. He obtained a confirmation of the manor of Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire in 1227 and 1231. In 1227 Richard Fitz William was called to warranty by William de Cantelowe for a third part of the manor of Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, which Geva Basset, widow of the said Richard's uncle, also named Richard Fitz William, claimed in dower. He served in Wales in 1228, Brittany in 1230, and Wales again in 1231. In 1229, following the death of his brother, Roger Orget, the king re-granted him the manors of Great Bowden and Market Harborough, Leicestershire. In 1230 he received confirmation from the crown of the vill, market, and manor of Bingley, Yorkshire which he had of the gift and feoffment of Ranulph, Earl of Chester and Lincoln. In 1232 he impleaded William son of William Corbicun to acquit him of service which Thomas, Earl of Warwick, demanded for lands in Barcheston and Studley, Warwickshire. He was heir c.1234 to his uncle, Fulk de Cantelowe, by which he inherited lands in Calstone Wellington, Wiltshire. He signed the confirmation of Magna Carta in 1236. On 23 October 1236 the king granted to him that he may render the 32 marks which were exacted from him by summons of the Exchequer, namely 30 marks for the prest of Hereford and 2 marks for the debts of Robert Barat his brother. At an unknown date, he granted the chapel in his court of Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire one messuage and 12 acres of land in Eaton Bray, six measures of wheat yearly, and 22 solidates of annual rent; with a further grant of 50s. yearly, to support a second chaplain, and of a croft to keep a lamp burning in the chapel. SIR WILLIAM DE CANTELOWE died at Reading, Berkshire 7 April 1239, and was buried at Studley Priory, Warwickshire.
      Clutterbuck Hist. & Antiqs. of Hertford 3 (1827): 528. Lipscomb Hist. & Antiqs. of Buckingham 1 (1847): 176 (Cantilupe ped.). Foss Judges of England 2 (1848): 291-292 (biog. of William de Cantilupe). Sackville-West Hist. Notices of the Parish of Withyham (1857): 40-46 (re. Cantelowe fam.). Eyton Antiqs. of Shropshire 6 (1858): 350-357; 11 (1860): 144-147. Luard Annales Monastici 1 (Rolls Ser. 36) (1864): 112 (Tewkesbury Annals sub A.D. 1239: "Obiit Willelmus de Cantilupo senior apud Radinges, in Martio, et delatus est apud Stodlegam."); 4 (Rolls Ser. 36) (1869): 430 (Annals of Worcestet sub A.D. 1239: "Dominus W[illelmus] de Cantilupo, pater domini episcopi, obiit."). Batten Hist. & Topog. Colls. Rel. to the early Hist. of Parts of South Somerset (1894): 1-7. List of Sheriffs for England & Wales (PRO Lists and Indexes 9) (1898): 59, 144, 157. Trans. Shropshire Arch. & Natural Hist. Soc. 3rd Ser. 1 (1901): 170-177. C.C.R. 1227-1231 (1902): 121, 426 (Roger Orget styled "brother" [fratri] of William de Cantelowe in 1230). C.C.R. 1231-1234 (1905): 220,405 (Fulk de Cantelowe styled "uncle" of William de Cantelowe in 1234). Rutland Mag. & County Hist. Rec. 2 (1906): 100. VCH Buckingham 2 (1908): 331-338; 3 (1925): 397-401. G.H. Fowler 'Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem. No. I' in Pubs. Bedfordshire Hist. Rec. Soc. 5 (1920): 210-215. VCH Bedford 3 (1912): 369-375 (Cantlowe arms: Gules a fesse vair between three fleurs de lis coming out of leopards' heads or). Phillimore Rotuli Hugonis de Welles Episcopi Lincolniensis 1209-1235 2 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. 6) (1913): 134-135. Fowler Cal. of Feet of Fines for Buckinghamshire (Pubs Bedfordshire Hist. Soc. 6 (1919): 39 (fine dated 1209 mentions Audulf de Brascy father of Mascelin, wife of William de Cantelowe), 57-58. Pubs. Bedfordshire Hist. Rec. Soc. 12 (1928): 79-81. Jenkins Cal. of the Rolls of the Justices on Eyre 1227 (Buckinghamshire Arch. Soc. 6) (1945): 8, 16-17, 23-24, 29, 31. VCH ranvick 3 (1945): 31-42 (Cantelupe arms: Gules three fleurs delis coming out of leopards' heads or), 167-172, 193-196; 5 (1949): 5-10. Sanders English Baronies (1960): 39-40. VCH Leicester 5 (1964): 133-153. Carpenter Minority of Henry III (1990). Hoskin English Episcopal Acta 13 (1997): xxvii-xxxiii (biog. of Walter de Cantelowe). Church Household Knights of King John (1999): 21. Hanna Christchurch Priory Cartulary (Hampshire Rec. Ser. 18) (2007): 169 (charter of Walter de Cantelowe). Dryburgh Cal. of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III (2008): 130 (Date: 1226-7. William de Cantilupe gives the king 15 marks for having his confirmation of the manor of Aston, which King John gave him and confirmed to him by charter, and for having a market each week on Mondays at the manor of Peter de Montfort of Beaudesert, and for having a fair there each year to last for three days).
      Children of William de Cantelowe, by Masreline (or Mazra) de Bracy:
      i. WILLIAM DE CANTELOWE, Knt. [see next].
      ii. ROBERT DE CANTELOWE, of Meole Brace, Shropshire and Bingley, Yorkshire. In 1254 the king granted him permission to use the liberties and quittances in his manor of Bingley, Yorkshire as his father, William de Cantelowe, used by the king's charter. The same year he was granted free warren in all his demesne lands in Bingley, Yorkshire and Meules, Shropshire. Francisque-Michel Rdles Garcons 1 (1885): 470, 497. C.P.R 1247-1258 (1908): 305, 323.
      iii. [MASTER] WALTER DE CANTELOWE, King's clerk, Archdeacon of Stafford, Bishop of Worcester. He was presented to a series of parish livings, i.e, Eyton in 1208, Burton and Worfield in 1215, Long Itchington, Rampisham, Preston, Priors Hardwick, and a moiety of Stokes in 1216, Hinxworth, Hertfordshire in 1219, Penrith, Cumberland in 1222, and Bulwick, Northamptonshire in 1227, and finally, on 22 July 1231, to a canonry and prebend in Lichfield Cathedral. He was evidently a pluralist, and as such was not wholly disinterested when, at the legatine council of 1237, he pleaded the cause of many noble pluralists, "who have until now lived honourably, giving what hospitality they could and dispensing alms with open doors," who were threatened with impoverishment by being reduced to a single benefice each. He served as king's proctor at the Roman court in 1227 and 1229. He acted as justice in eyre for several counties in 1232, and received a number of papal commissions to serve as a judge-delegate or to execute papal mandates. In January 1235 he was one of three envoys sent to France to bear truce proposals to King Louis IX and to swear on King Henry III's behalf to observe the conditions of the truce. He was elected as Bishop of Worcester 30 August 1236; his election received royal assent 9 September. In April 1237 he was ordained priest at Viterbo by Pope Gregory IX, who consecrated him 3 May. In October 1237 he was enthroned at Worcester in the presence of the papal legate, Cardinal Otto, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the King and Queen of Scots. In 1237, as bishop-elect of Worcester, he again attended the papal court on the king's behalf. He proved himself a zealous diocesan bishop, sharing with Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln a concern for the reform of abuses and the improvement of pastoral standards. The synodal statutes he promulgated for the Worcester diocese in 1240, frequently revised and updated, provided a model for the legislation of several of his episcopal colleagues. In 1240 he obtained papal sanction for a drive to remove married clergy from parishes and to deprive those who had succeeded their fathers in their benefices. He displayed the same energy in protecting and extending the temporal and spiritual rights of his see. He attended the Council of Lyons with other English prelates in 1245. In 1246 he stood with Robert Grosseteste in supporting the pope's right to receive financial aid from the clergy. In 1252 he supported Simon de Montfort against charges lodged by the king of extortion and mistreatment in Montfort's rule of Gascony. From 1255 onwards he was chief spokesman for the clerical opposition to King Henry's acceptance of the Sicilian crown for his second son, Edmund. In 1257 he was one of those sent to France to negotiate terms of a permanent peace. He played a leading role in the revolutionary events of the years 1258-65. At the Oxford parliament of June 1258 he was the only cleric chosen by the baronial side to serve on the committee of twenty-four which drafted the provisions of Oxford, and he was subsequently elected a member of the standing council imposed upon the king by the new constitution. In 1259 he was appointed one of the councillors to act as regents while the king was absent in France. Following King Henry's recovery of power in 1261, he remained a stalwart supporter of Montfort and an unyielding upholder of the provisions. He put his name to the baronial letters submitting the cause of the reformers to the arbitration of Louis IX, and his nephew, Thomas de Cantelowe, was entrusted with expounding the baronial case to Louis at Amiens. In March 1264, together with the bishops of Winchester, London, and Chichester, he held talks with the king's representatives at Brackley and Oxford, offering baronial acceptance of Louis' verdict on condition that King Henry expelled unacceptable aliens from court and allowed the council to nominate his ministers. In May, he and Henry de Sandwich, Bishop of London, accompanied Montfort's army on the march to Lewes, and on the eve of the battle made a last effort to mediate between Montfort and the king. But after this overture failed, Cantilupe exhorted Montfort's troops to confess their sins, gave them absolution, and blessed them. He was subsequently present at the Battles of Evesham, 1264, and Lewes, 1265. WALTER DE CANTELOWE, Bishop of Worcester, died at his manor of Blockley, Gloucestershire 12 Feb. 1266, and was buried by the monks beside the high altar in Worcester Cathedral. A zealous pastor, a scholar, and an idealist, as the spiritual mentor of one of the most radical political movements of the middle ages, he ranks among the greatest ecclesiastical leaders of his generation. Lipscomb Hist. & Antiqs. of Buckingham 1 (1847): 176 (Cantilupe ped.). Sackville-West Hist. Notices of the Parish of Withyham (1857): 40-46 (re. Cantelowe fam.). C.P.R. 1216-1225 (1901): 350, 377, 382 (Walter de Cantelowe styled "son of our beloved and faithful William de Cantelowe" by King Henry III in 1223), 413. Trans. Shropshire Arch. & Natural Hist. Soc. 3rd Ser. 1 (1901): 170-177. List of Ancient Corr. of the Chancery & Exchequer (PRO Lists and Indexes 15) (1902): 98 (letter of Peter de Montfort dated ?July 1261 requesting assistance for [Walter de Cantelowe], bishop of Worcester, his kinsman, and himself). D.N.B. 3 (1908): 904-906 (biog. of Walter de Cantelupe). Phillimore Rotuli Hugonis de Welles Episcopi Lincolniensis 1209-1235 1 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. 3) (1912): 155; 2 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. 6) (1913): 134-135. VCH Worcester 3 (1913): 501-510. G.H. Fowler 'Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem. No. I' in Pubs. Bedfordshire Hist. Rec. Soc. 5 (1920): 210-215 ("He was, except for Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln, the most distinguished cleric of his time."). C.P. 9 (1936): 123, footnote a (sub Montfort) ("Peter de Montfort wrote to Walter de Merton, Chancellor 1261-3, about the business of (Walter de Cauntelo) Lord (Bishop) of Worcester, our uncle [avunculi nostril (Anc. Corresp., PRO, vol. vii, no. 20)]. Powicke & Cheney Councils & Synods with other Docs. rel to the English Church, 1205-1313 1(1964). Greenway Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300 2 (1971): 101. Treharne & Sanders Docs. of the Baronial Movement of Reform & Rebellion, 1258-1267 (1973). Maddicott, Simon de Monffort (1994). Carpenter Reign of Henry III (1996): 293-307. Hoskin English Episcopal Acta 13 (1997): xxvii-xxxiii (biog. of Walter de Cantelowe).
      iv. MATTHEW DE CANTELOWE, clerk, Rector of Ribston, Yorkshire, 1231, Rector of Alvechurch, Worcestershire. Sometime in the period, 1216-17, William de Comhill, Bishop of Coventry, granted license for the appropriation of the church of West Bromwich subject to the rights of Matthew de Cantelowe. In 1239 Pope Gregory IX granted a dispensation to "Matthew de Cantelupe, clerk of the diocese of York, brother to the Bishop of Worcester, allowing him to hold more benefices than one." At an unknown date, he reached agreement with Philip, Abbot of Bordesley, relative to the fishery in the water called `Arewe' and common of pasture in the woods and fields in `Osmerleg' and in the wood called ‘Sortwode.' MATTHEW DE CANTELOWE was living in July 1253. Gray Reg, or Rolls, of Walter Gray, Lord Archbishop of York (Surtees Soc. 56) (1872): 99n., 158, 163-164, 239-240, 282-282, 287-288. Yorkshire Arch. & Top. Jour. 7 (1882): 442; 8 (1884): 295; 9 (1886): 77-78. Speight Nidderdale & the Garden of the Nidd (1894): 189. C.C.R. 1254-1256 (1931): 436 (Robert [no surname] styled "kinsman" [consanguineurn] of Matthew de Cantelowe in 1256). Darlington Cartulary of Worcester Cathedral Priory (Pipe Roll Soc. n.s. 38) (1968): 105. Hoskin English Episcopal Acta 13 (1997): 118-119. National Archives, E 326/2687 (available at http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search.asp).
      v. ___ DE CANTELOWE, married THURSTAN DE MONTFORT, of Beaudesert, Warwickshire [see MONTFORT 4].”