408 MedicBval Military Architecture. as Robert de Say, with Adeloya his wife, and Robert and Henry, his sons, is named in a charter relating to St. Martin of Seez, of the probable date of 1060, and is there described as " Robertus de Sai qui cognominabatur Picot." Sai was a vill near Exmes, the chief seat of the Norman viscounty of Earl Roger, who was the patron of the house of Seez. That which in 1060 was a cognomen, in 1086 had become a nomen. In 1074 Odericus refers to him simply as Picod, one of the five whom Earl Roger placed over his new earldom of Shrews- bury, and again as Picot de Sai, when, in 1083, the Earl vowed to found Shrewsbury Abbey. Edric, Picot's predecessor at Clun, was, without doubt, the Edric Silvaticus, or the Wild, so well known on the Welsh marches. Picot lived till about 1098, and was succeeded by his son, Henry de Say, who flourished in the reign of Henry I., and seems to have been alive as late as 1129-30. In his time, or that of his successor, and probably son, Helias de Say, Clun and Obley were eliminated from Ringau, and erected into an independent Hundred and Honour ; becoming, in fact, a marcher lordship, such as Oswestry. Helias left a sole child, Isabel de Say, Lady of Clun, who married — first, William Fitz Alan ; second, Geoffrey de Vere, when the barony contained iif knights' fees; and third, William Boterell, in whose time it seems to have been that the castle was stormed and burned by Llewellyn and his Welshmen. William Fitz Alan was the son of Alan, son of Flaald, who obtained from the Conqueror the manor of Oswaldestre or Blancminster, which in 11 48 had belonged to Meredith ap Blethyn, a somewhat singular instance of a Welsh landholder so far to the east of Offa's Dyke. Meredith built a castle there, which, on Fitz Alan's death in 1 160, was in the custody of the sheriff, who sank a well there, and provided it with stores and palisades for defence. William Fitz Alan's next brother, Walter, was ancestor of the House of Stewart. William's first wife was a niece of Robert Earl of Gloucester. His second was Isabel de Say, by whom he left — William Fitz Alan, who inherited Clun and Oswestry. He obtained an annual fair from King John for Clun. It seems probable that the Castle of Clun burned by the Welsh was the timber structure inhabited by Edric, and that it was replaced by works in masonry, including the existing keep, by this William, who, dying, 12 10, left William Fitz Alan, who died at Clun about 12 15, and was suc- ceeded by his brother, John Fitz Alan, Lord of Clun and Oswestry, who held the barony but not the castle of Clun, and who died about 1243, leaving a son, John Fitz Alan, who acquired Arundel Castle from his mother, and died 1267, leaving — John Fitz Alan, Lord of Clun and Oswestry, and Earl of Arundel, who died 1272. It was upon his death that an inquisition was ordered into the condition of Clun Castle, which was reported to be small, but pretty well built. The roof of the tower wanted lead, and the bridge to be
