MANDEVILLE or MAGNA VILLA, WILLIAM de, third Earl of Essex and Earl or Count of Aumale (d. 1189), third son of Geoffrey de Mandeville, earl of Essex [q. v.], by his wife Rohese, daughter of Aubrey de Vere (d. 1141), great chamberlain (Round), spent his youth at the court of the Count of Flanders, and received knighthood from Philip, afterwards count (d. 1191). On the death of his brother, Earl Geoffrey, in 1166, he came over to England, was well received by Henry II, and succeeded his brother as Earl of Essex and in his estates. After visiting his mother, who was incensed against the monks of Walden Abbey, Essex, her husband's foundation, because they had succeeded against her will in obtaining the body of her son, Earl I Geoffrey, and had buried it in their church, William went to Walden to pray at his brother's tomb. He showed himself highly displeased with the monks, made them give up his brother's best charger and arms, which they had received as a mortuary offering, and complained bitterly that his father had given them the patronage of the churches on his fiefs, so that he had not a single benefice wherewith to reward one of his clerks. The convent gave him gifts in order to pacify him (Monasticon, iv. 143). He was constantly in attendance on the king, and was therefore much out of England. He was with Henry, at Limoges and elsewhere, in the spring of 1173, and swore to the agreement between the king and the Count of Maurienne. Later in the year he was still with Henry, and remaining faithful to him when the rebellion broke out, was one of the leaders of the royal army when in August Louis VII was invading Normandy. In a skirmish between the English and French knights between Gisors and Trie, he took Ingelram of Trie prisoner. He attested the agreement between Henry and the king of Scots at Falaise in October 1174, was present at the submission of the younger Henry to his father at Bur on 1 April 1175, and returning to England, probably with the king, was at the court at Windsor in October, and attested the treaty with the king of Connaught (Benedict, i. 60, 82, 99, 103). In March 1177 he attended the court at Westminster, and was one of the witnesses to the king's 'Spanish award.' Later in the year he took the cross, joined his old companion, Philip, count of Flanders, who had paid a visit to England, and set out with him on a crusade, taking with him the prior of Walden as his chaplain. Having joined forces at Jerusalem with the Knights Templars and Hospitallers and Reginald of Chatillon, Philip and the earl laid siege to the castle of Harenc, and at the end of a month, on the approach of Saladin, allowed the garrison to ransom themselves. On 25 Nov. the Christians gained the great victory of Ramlah. The ransom paid to Philip and the earl was found to consist of base metals. They left Jerusalem after Easter 1178, and on 8 Oct. the earl returned to England, bringing with him a large number of silken hangings, which he distributed among the churches on his fiefs. He visited Walden, and was received with honour, having given the house some of the finest of his silk (Monasticon, iv. 144).
The earl was again in company with Philip, of Flanders in 1179, and joined him in attending Louis VII when he came to England to visit the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. On 14 Jan. 1180 he married, at his castle of Pleshey, Essex, Havice, daughter and heiress of William, count or earl of Aumale (d. 1179), and received from the king the county of Aumale and all that pertained to it on both sides of the Channel, with the title of Aumale (Diceto, i. 3). From this date he is described sometimes by the title of Aumale and sometimes by that of Essex. In 1182 he was sent by Henry on an embassy to the Emperor Frederic I, to intercede for Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony. When war broke out between Hainault, supported by Philip of France and Flanders, Earl William was called upon by the Count of Flanders to go to his aid, and he obeyed the call (ib. ii. 32, where the count is described as the 'dominus' of Earl William, which makes it certain that the earl must have held some fief of the count). In October 1186 he was twice sent as ambassador to Philip with reference to a truce between the two kings. Finding that Philip was threatening Gisors, Henry sent Earl William from England to defend it, and, coming over to Normandy shortly afterwards, was met by the earl at Aumale about the end of February 1187, and gave him the command of a division of his army. In common with the king and many other lords, he took the cross in January 1188 (Ralph of Coggeshall, p. 23). In the late summer a French army, that was ravaging the Norman border, under the command of the Bishop of Beauvais, burned his castle of Aumale. He marched with the king across the border, took part with Richard of
