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- BIOGRAPHY
William was the son and heir of Robert de Caen, 1st earl of Gloucester, and Mabel FitzHamon of Gloucester. As his father was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England, William was a nephew of the Empress Matilda and a cousin of King Stephen, the principal combatants of the English Anarchy period.
In October 1141 William looked after the baronial estates when his father fell into the hands of partisans at Winchester. His father was exchanged for King Stephen, and during his father's absence in Normandy in 1144 he served as governor of Warcham. In 1147 he overthrew Henry de Tracy at Castle Cary.
About 1150 William married Hawise de Beaumont, daughter of Robert II 'Le Bossu' de Beaumont, 2nd earl of Leicester, and Amicie de Gael, dame de Breteuil et de Pacy-sur-Eure. Of their four children, their daughters Mabel and Amicia would have progeny.
In 1154 William made an alliance with Roger 'the Good' de Clare, 3rd earl of Hertford, by which they agreed to aid each other against all men except Henry II of England.
William granted a charter to Neath, a town in Glamorgan. He was lord of the manor of Glamorgan, as well as Caerleon, residing chiefly at Cardiff Castle. It was there that in 1158 he and his wife and son were captured by the Welsh lord of Senghenydd, Ivor Bach ('Ivor the Little') and carried away into the woods, where they were held as prisoners until William redressed Ivor's grievances.
In 1173 William sided with King Henry II against his sons, but thereafter he appears to have fallen under suspicion, for the following year he submitted to the king, and in 1175 he surrendered to him Bristol Castle. Because his only son and heir Robert died in 1166, William made John, the younger son of Henry II, heir to his earldom, in conformity with the king's promise that John should marry one of William's daughters if the Church would allow it, as they were related in the third degree. In the event, Mabel married Amaury V de Montfort, comte d'Evreux, and Amicie married Richard de Clare, 4th earl of Hertford, earl of Clare.
William was present in March 1177 when the king arbitrated between the kings of Castile and Navarre, and in 1178 he witnessed Henry's charter to Waltham Abbey. But during the king's struggles with his sons, when he imprisoned a number of magnates of whose loyalty he was doubtful, William was among them.
William died on his birthday, 23 November 1183; his wife Hawise survived him. Since their only son, Robert, predeceased his father, their daughters became co-heirs to the Gloucester inheritance.
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