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Name:
Waleran de Meulan
 Relationship to Catherine Rachel Carter Menist
Birth:
1104 Leicester, Leicestershire, England
Father:
Robert de Beaumont
Mother:
Isabel de Crepy de Vermandois
Married:
Agnes de Montfort ABT 1141
Children:
Death:
9 or 10 Apr 1166 Abbey of Saint Pierre, Preaux, Normandy aged 62
Remarks:

1st Earl of Worcester, Count of Meulan. When he and his twin brother, Robert, were only three or four years old, their father obtained the KingÕs confirmation of his plan to divide his vast estates in England and Normandy between them after his death. Waleran was the elder twin brother. The two boys were brought up in the court of Henry I out of gratitude to their father. Waleran inherited the county of Meulan, in the Vexin, with the castle and town of Meulan on the Seine. He also held other Norman baronies, as well as the lands in Dorsetshire and Gloucestershire that had been held by his grandfather, Roger de Beaumont. He was faithful to Henry I in the rebellion of September, 1118. In November, 1119, he and Robert were with the King when he met Pope Calixtus at Gisors. In 1123 he was drawn into a conspiracy on behalf of William Clito, the son of Robert Curthose. Henry captured his castles of Montfort and Pontaudemer, and besieged the castle of Vatteville. Waleran succeeded in getting supplies through to the castle, but on his way back to Beaumont he was intercepted by a royal force on March 26, 1124. He charged at the head of 40 men-at-arms, but his horse was riddled with arrows and he was captured. He was imprisoned until 1129, when the King freed him and gave him back his lands and castles. He was thereafter usually with the King in Normandy or England. He was with Henry when he died on December 1, 1135.

Stephen hastened to secure his support, and betrothed his two-year-old daughter to him. In 1136 he joined his brother in Normandy to fight their hereditary enemy, Roger de Toeni, whem he captured on October 3 near Vaudreuil. In 1138 he drove the king of Scots from the siege of Wark Castle. In May, 1138, he returned to Normandy, and in July he marched against the invading Angevins, who retreated without a fight. He was probably created earl of Worcester in the latter part of 1138 as a reward. At the battle of Lincoln, February 2, 1140/41, he was one of the commanders of the royal army who fled when the front was broken by the opening charge, leaving Stephen to be captured. By the end of 1141 he had abandoned Stephen and come to terms with Geoffrey Plantagenet. In 1146 he took the cross and set forth on crusade in June, 1147. On his way home in 1149 he ship was wrecked in a storm off the coast of France. He and his companions reached shore by clinging to pieces of wood and wreckage. In 1150 he was one of the young duke HenryÕs justiciars. There is no evidence that Henry II recognized his title of earl of Worcester, since it had been granted by Stephen. However, he remained on good terms with Henry until he sided with the King of France in a dispute over the marriage of their children. Probably the breach was only temporary. In 1166, as his end was approaching, he became a monk at Preaux, where he died and was buried Òby the tombs of his ancestors, where burnt the lamp which he had endowed.Ó

Database: stanwardine   Bridge Family Tree
Contact: William Bridge   williambridge@stanwardine.com   www.stanwardine.com