William fitz Audelin, I may add, has been peculiarly the sport of genealogists. Having been selected by them as ancestor to the great Irish house of Burke ('De Burgo') he was further transformed, by a flight of fancy even wilder than usual, into a lineal descendant of Charlemagne. Who he really was seems to have remained unknown, for his life in the Dictionary of National Biography treats with suspicion, though duly mentioning, his alleged descent from Charlemagne. Moreover, his very name would seem to have been left in doubt. It would, of course, be difficult to distinguish 'Aldelinus' from 'Aldelmus' in MS., and I confess to having looked on the latter—which is the form adopted by Professor Tout in the Dictionary of National Biography, as by Miss Norgate and others—as probable enough from its likeness to the English 'Aldhelm'. But the 'fitz Audeline' of the Anglo-Norman poem on the Conquest of Ireland seems decisive. 'Willelmus filius Audelini, domini regis dapifer' was the style he used in his own charters.[19]
Having always kept a look-out for him in Yorkshire, I recognized William at once in a charter which is among those abstracted in the Report on the Portland MSS.[20] This is a confirmation by Roger de Mowbray of a grant to Fountains by 'Aldelin de Aldefeld and Ralph his son and his other sons'. Among the witnesses are 'Ralph son of Aldelin, William his brother', and at the close, 'Amelin son of Aldel'. Now, if we turn to the cartæ of 1166, we find, under Yorkshire, that Ralph 'filius Aldelin' held half a knight's fee of Roger de Mowbray, and William filius Aldelin one fee of Henry de Lacy. Here we recognize the two brothers mentioned in the charters above.[21] The small fief of William 'filius Aldelin' himself is entered under Hampshire, where it is described as 'terra quam dominus Rex dedit Willelmo filio Aldelin, Marscallo suo, cum Juliana filia Roberti Dorsnelli'.
It is through this Juliana that we obtain the coping-stone of proof. Her charter granting Little Maplestead, Essex, to the Hospitallers, has for its first witness 'Radulfo filio Adelini', who, as we have seen above, was her husband's brother.[22] And he is also the first witness to William's confirmation of her gift.[23]
The parentage and the true name of William fitz Audelin are thus, at length, clearly established.
[1] Vol. i. (Selden Society).
[2] 'Reg.' MS. The earl died July 1, 1175. This fine further confirms the accuracy of the Gesta Henrici (see Eyton, p. 192)]
[3] Maitland's Select Pleas of the Crown, I. xv.
[4] History of the Exchequer (Ed. 1711), pp. 64, 65.
[5] Eyton's Itinerary p. 191.
[6] Prof Maitland has explained that this presence was formal (Select Pleas of the Crown, I. xiv).