was at once equipped to bring about the rebel's defeat, and his old associate, the Earl of Chester, heartly co-operated with the king's forces. Pandulf himself accompanied the king on his expedition. Bytham was besieged for six days, and on 8 Feb. was captured with the help of the machines erected against it. The garrison was imprisoned, the whole structure burnt down, and William, now a fugitive, was forced to take sanctuary at Fountains Abbey (Dunstaple Ann. p. 64). He there surrendered to Walter de Grey [q. v.], archbishop of York, and the northern barons, on the condition that he should be restored to sanctuary if the king refused to admit him to mercy. Pandulf now interested himself in procuring easy terms for him (Flores Hist. ii. 173). He was pardoned on condition of his going into exile for six years to the Holy Land (Worcester Ann. p. 413; Rog. Wend. iv. 66–8, corrected by Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora, iii. 60–1).
Albemarle did not go on crusade, and was suffered to remain unmolested in England. The return of the Earl of Chester to his old policy of opposition doubtless made his position more secure, and late in 1223, when fresh attacks were made by the confederates on Hubert de Burgh, William was once more strong enough to join in open rebellion. He was associated with Falkes de Breauté, Chester, and others, in a sudden attack on the Tower of London. On the approach of the king the confederates, who had failed in their assault, fled to Waltham, where Langton persuaded them to attend the king (Rog. Wend. iv. 92–3). They protested that they sought for nothing but to remove Hubert de Burgh from the justiciarship. Henry went to Northampton to keep Christmas, while Albemarle and Chester assembled with their followers at Leicester. But they ascertained that the king's force was larger and accepted Langston's proposals to patch up peace. They surrendered their castles and honours to the king, and both parties ended the Christmas feast together at Northampton. Next year (1224), when Falkes was besieged at Bedford, Albemarle joined with Chester and Peter des Roches in professing to support the king, though their real attitude was very suspicious. They appeared before Bedford, but, finding themselves excluded from Henry's counsels, went home in disgust (Dunstaple Ann. p. 87).
After Falkes's fall, the hopes of the feudal party expired. Henceforth Albemarle accepted the inevitable, and lived as an Englishman and loyal subject. He became one of the king's council, in which capacity he strove to effect Falkes's reconciliation in 1226 (Shirley, Royal Letters, i. 547). On 6 Jan. 1225 he received a royal grant to maintain him in the king's service (Rot. Lit. Claus. p. 11). In 1227 he was granted all the liberties in Holderness exercised by his predecessors, and was acquitted on his share of the ‘scutage of Bytham’ which had hitherto been reckoned as due to the royal coffers (Rot. Lit. Claus. p. 172). On 11 Feb. 1225 he witnessed Henry's third reissue of Magna Charta (Select Charters, p. 354). In September 1227 he was sent as an ambassador to Antwerp (Fœdera, i. 187). In April 1230 he accompanied Henry III to Brittany, and in October, when the king went home, he was left behind with the Earl of Chester and William Marshal as joint commander of the small force that remained to assist the Count of Brittany (Rog. Wend. iv. 217). On 9 Aug. and 15 Oct. 1241 Albemarle was one of six English earls who were twice summoned to Gregory IX's projected council against Frederick II (Cal. Papal Letters, 1198–1304, p. 195).
In the autumn of 1241 Albemarle at last set out for the Holy Land. He was accompanied by his old associate Peter de Mauley [q. v.] and other English nobles. Albemarle and his friends took ship in the Mediterranean. On 26 March 1242 he died at sea, either on his going to, or on his return from, Jerusalem. He was unable to eat eight days before his death (Matt. Paris, iv. 174), but there is no reason to say that he was starved to death in prison. Paris calls him ‘miles strenuissimus,’ and he certainly had few merits save military ones. He was, however, a friend of the monks. He made grants to the Cistercians of Meaux (Chron. de Melsa, i. 362, ii. 27, 47), the most important being the ‘barony’ or close of Beeford, made before his departure on crusade. He also made grants to the nuns of Nun Keeling in Holderness (Poulson, Holderness, i. 32) and the monks of St. Bees, Cumberland.
Before 1215 William married Avelina, second daughter and coheiress of Richard de Montfichet. She died in 1239, and is described as ‘mulier admirabilis pulchritudinis’ (Matt. Paris, iii. 624). Their eldest son was William de Fors, last earl of Albemarle (d. 1260) [q. v.]
[Roger of Wendover's Flores Hist. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Matt. Paris's Chron. Majora, Flores Hist., Annals of Dunstaple and Worcester in Ann. Monastici, R. de Coggeshall, Rishanger, Oxenedes, Walter of Coventry, Red Book of Exchequer, Royal Letters, Chron. de Melsa (all in Rolls Ser.); Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i.; Stubbs's Select Charters; Rotuli Lit. Patentium; Rot. Lit. Claus.; Rot. Cartarum; Poulson's Hist. of
