William Malet I

• Preferred Name: William Malet I^{[1] [2] [3]}
  
• Gender: M
  
• FSID: L1F6-563
  
• Death: 1169 in Curry Mallet, Somerset, England at LATI: N0.9891 LONG: E2.9583 with note: standard form
  
• Birth: 1120 in Curry Mallet, Somerset, England at LATI: N0.9891 LONG: E2.9583 with note: standard form
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: Baron
  
• Notes:

  === Benefactor of Glastonbury ===
  ( Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith ) William Malet, succeeded his father and is mentioned as a great benefactor to the Abbey of Glastonbury.
  
  === Information on possible brother to William Malet... ===
  
  According to "The Peytons of Virginia" (1976), Reginald de Peyton, a younger son of Walter de Malet, was Lord of Peyton Hall in Ramshold and of Peyton Hall in Boxford and Stoke-by-Neyland, and took the name "de Peyton". In the year of his death, A.D. 1136, King Stephen confirmed to Reginald's son and heir, John de Peyton, the lands of his ancestors. Walter de Malet was the son or brother of William de Malet, companion of William the Conqueror. -- Harold Davey [hdavey@home.com]
  
  === Weis. 234A-26. William I Malet info... ===
  !Weis. 234A-26. William I Malet was steward and favorite of King Henry II. He held the barony of Curry Malet, Somerset, and other lands in Kent, Cambridge and Sussex. He was one of the recognitors of the Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164.
  
  === !Brown book 5, P C 671. He held estates ===
  !Brown book 5, P C 671. He held estates in Sussex, Surrey, Kent, and Suffolk. The Genealogist's Magazine, Jun 1939. Turton's Pedigree, 1928. Crippens; Hist of Somerset, 1938.
  
  === Lord, Norman Baron, Governor of York Cas ===
  Lord, Norman Baron, Governor of York Castle and slain in its defense,
  
  === He was a favorite of King Henry II. He w ===
  He was a favorite of King Henry II. He was Steward.
  
  === Held the Estates Of Sussex, Surrey, Kent ===
  Held the Estates Of Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Suffolk 1164 SignerofConstituions of Clarendon
  
  === William accompanied Wm. the Conqueror to ===
  William accompanied Wm. the Conqueror to England in the invasion of 1066. Following the Battle of Hastings he was entrusted with burying the body of King Harold. Following the capture of York in 1068 he was appointed sheriff and with two other captains was in command of the garrison and castle of York. He was present in the defeat of 1069 when a strong force of Danes and English attacked and captured the city, William himself being taken prisoner. Continuing in the service of King William, he had lost some of his lands. He died in the campaign against Hereward in 1071.
  
  === Source: A. Roots 234A. Roots: William I ===
  Source: A. Roots 234A. Roots: William I Malet, Steward, favorite of Henry II; held barony ofCurry Malet, Somerset, and other lands in Kent, Cambridge, and Sussex; signerof the Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164.
  
  === B-47, p. 95: General and companion of Wi ===
  B-47, p. 95: General and companion of William the Conqueror. Said to have been the brother of King Harold's wife, Ealgith (or Agatha). After the conquest, William was made governor of York Castle and was slain in its defense. M-06, #4: William was the son of Algarus (or Aelfgar of Alfgar), son of Leofric and Lady Godiva, and Elgifu. He was the brother of Agatha (or Ealgith), daughter of Leofric and Godiva. William was Governor of York Castle and a General and a Companion of William the Conqueror. B-47, p. 95: General and companion of William the Conqueror. Said to have been the brother of King Harold's wife, Ealgith (or Agatha). After the conquest, William was made governor of York Castle and was slain in its defense. M-06, #4: William was the son of Algarus (or Aelfgar of Alfgar), son of Leofric and Lady Godiva, and Elgifu. He was the brother of Agatha (or Ealgith), daughter of Leofric and Godiva. William was Governor of York Castle and a General and a Companion of William the Conqueror.
  
  === Banished from England with Robert Malet, ===
  Banished from England with Robert Malet, his..uncle.... for practices against Hen I. He was benefactor to the abbey of Glastonbury
  
  === -Baron of Curry Malet, as well as estate ===
  -Baron of Curry Malet, as well as estates in Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Suffolk. -Steward to King Henry II. ---------------------- Relationship: Blue 43(a), page 96
  
  === Sherrif of York ===
  Sherrif of York
  
  === WILLIAM, LORD MALET, a Norman Baron, on ===
  WILLIAM, LORD MALET, a Norman Baron, one of the generals an d companions of William the Conqueror, said to have been th e brother of King Harold's wife, and to have been entruste d with the guard of Harold's body after he had been slain o n the battlefield. After the conquest he was made governo r of York Castle and was slain in its defense about 1071.
  
  === William Malet, of Granville, Normandy; ===
  William Malet, of Granville, Normandy; also held lands i n Lincs before 1066 (possibly by virtue of his mother's put ative status of Englishwoman); granted the feudal Barony o f Eye, Suffolk, following the Conquest, in which he was on e of William I's chief lieutenants, being allegedly given t he task by William of burying Harold's body after Hastings ; Sheriff of Yorks 1068; married Hesilia Crispin (living 10 86), gggdau of Rollo The Dane, Duke of Normandy, and died c 1071. [Burke's Peerage] --------------------------------------------------- William, according to some, was grandson of Lady Godiva & b rother of Harold Godwyn's wife, while not necessarily entir ely true, probably there was some relationship. I have Wil liam's mother as a daughter of Godiva's husband Leofric Ear l of Mercia, by an earlier wife or mistress. There is conj ecture that William's father one of the men who accompanie d Emma of Normandy to England in 1002 for her marriage wit h Aethelred. --------------------------------------------------- According to Crispin and Macary, "William (Guillaume) Male t de Graville stands out as one of the most imposing figure s at the Conquest. There can be no doubt about his presenc e there, which is subscribed to by William of Poitiers, Gu y of Amiens, Orderic Vital, and all the historians of thi s epoch. So much has been placed on record concerning him t hat just a few facts of his life will be recited here. He w as probably descended from Gerard, a Scandinavian prince an d companion of Duke Rollo, which gave the name of the fie f of Gerardville or Graville, near Havre. Robert, the eldes t son, occurs in a document of about 990 in Normandy. On hi s mother's side William Malet was of Anglo-Saxon origin, fo r she was probably the daughter of Leofric, Earl of Mercia , and Godwa or Godgifu, the supposed sister of Thorold th e Sheriff in the time of Edward the Confessor, and therefor e the aunt of Edwin and Morcar, Earls of Northumberland. H e was nearly kill ed in the battle of Hastings but was rescu ed by the sire de Montfort and William of Vieuxpont, and wa s appointed by William the Conqueror to take charge of th e body of Harold, a statement that has been disputed. The c onsensus of opinion favors it, and it is most logical if Wi lliam Malet's mother was as stated the sister of Algar II. , 7th Earl of Mercia, who was the father of Alditha, wife o f Harold. He accompanied King William at the reduction of N ottingham and York in 1068, for which he was rewarded wit h the shreivalty of land in that county. Gilbert de Gand an d Robert Fitz Richard were also commanders in this expediti on. The following year he was besieged in the castle of Yor k by Edgar, the Saxon prince, and was only saved from surre nder by the timely arrival of the Conqueror. In the same ye ar he was attacked by the Danes, who captured the city of Y ork with great slaughter and took William Malet, his wife a nd children, prisoners, but their lives were spared, as wa s that of Gilbert de Gand, for the sake of their ransoms. T here is evidence that he was slain in this year, but it i s uncertain and the date of his death is unknown. An entr y in Domesday that "William Malet was seized of this plac e (Cidestan, Co. Suffolk), where he proceeded on the King' s service where he died," would indicate that his death occ urred during the compilation of that book. He was witness t o a charter of King William to the church of St. Martin-le- Grand, in London, and is there styled "princeps," which tit le, however, was honorary and not hereditary, having cease d with his death." ---------------------------------- -------- William Malet, or Guillaume, as he may have been called, "S ire de Graville", came from Graville Sainte Honorine betwee n Le Havre and Harfleur, in what is today the French provin ce of Normandy. He is said to have had a Norman father an d a Saxon (read English) mother, and had some sort of assoc iation with King Harold of England before the conq uest. Wil liam, through his Saxon mother, may actually have been rela ted to King Harold, and also to the well known Lady Godiva . It is also possible that William and Harold were both Go d fathers of Duke William of Normandy's daughter, Abela. The Malet Castle at Graville Sainte Honorine had an importa nt strategic location, at the mouth of the Seine. It has no w fallen into the sea, though some remnants of it may stil l be visible. A large section of wall with large iron ring s attached was still there just over 100 years ago. The Abb ey church, in which some of the Malets are buried, is now i n the town of Le Havre. Though William Malet had connection s to both sides in the conflict to come, his main allegianc e was to Duke William of Normandy. William fought with distinction at Hastings, as the followi ng Excerpt from Wace's "Roman de Rou" attests: William whom they call Mallet, Boldly throws himself among them; With his flashing sword Against the English he makes furious onset; But his shield they clove, And his horse beneath him killed, And himself they would have slain, When came the Sire de Montfort And Lord William de Vez-Pont With the great force which they had, Him they bravely rescued. There many of their men they lost; Mallet they remounted on the field On a fresh war-horse. When the battle was over, Duke William entrusted William Ma let to attend to the burial of the dead English king. The b ody was buried under a heap of stones on top of a cliff a t Hastings overlooking the shore that Harold had so bravel y defended. William placed a stone on the grave with the ep itaph: "By command of the Duke, you rest here a King, O Harold, th at you may be guardian still of the shore and sea". This burial of Harold was only temporary and the body was l ater re-buried at Harold's Abbey at Waltham. William and his brother Durand held lands in Lincolnshire , England, during the reign of Edward the Confessor, and th rough the reign of Harold right up to the conquest, in addi tion to those in Normandy. These Lincolnshire holdings, al l in the Danelaw, probably came from William and Durand's m other. After the conquest William's English holdings were g reatly increased, again, principally in the Danelaw, as Eng lish lands were taken from their Saxon owners and handed ov er to Norman Barons. It is likely that Duke William conferr ed these estates on William, partly because of his loyalt y and skill in battle, but also because of his prior connec tions with his Danish "cousins" there. Perhaps the Duke fel t that William was the best man to bring these proud, warli ke and independent settlers under the control of their ne w King. William was dead at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086 , but the holdings at that time of his son Robert, and of h is wife, give a good indication of the extent of his estate s. He held large parts of what are today Suffolk and Norfol k, with smaller amounts of land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshi re. Eye, in Suffolk appears to have been William's strongho ld. Here he built a Motte and Bailey castle, after the Norm an fashion. Nothing remains of the Norman fortifications, b ut the outline of the baileys and "Castle Mound", are stil l evident. There is even a slight indication of where the M arket, founded by William Malet under Royal License would h ave been held. William married Hesilia Crispin, by whom he had two sons, R obert and Gilbert, and one daughter, Beatrice. Robert and p ossibly Gilbert, along with their uncle Durand, accompanie d their father at the battle of Hastings. The arms shown a t the top of the page, likely carried by the Malets at Hast ings, were used by many generations of the Malet family, bo th in England and in France, and can be seen on the Bayeu x tapestry. William was made Sheriff of York and granted considerable l ands in Yorkshire following the building of the first Norma n castle there (the mound now supports 'Clifford's Tower' ) in 1068. He and his fellow captains, Robert Fit z-Richar d and William of Ghent, with 500 picked knights had to figh t off a local revolt, headed by Edgar the Atheling; this i n or shortly after January 1069. Robert Fitz-Richard and ma ny of his men were killed and it was only by the timely arr ival of King William that the City was saved. The natives r emained restless and had another, token go, as soon as Kin g William left but were quickly put down. The troops were s trengthened and another castle built on the other side of t he river from the original but, notwithstanding, in Septemb er 1069, William, his wife and two of his children were cap tured by a combined force of Danes and English under Swey n of Denmark supported by Earls Waltheof and Gospatric an d the Northumbrians, when York fell to them after a terribl e fight. This led to King William ordering the burning an d killing of everything in the north and Domesday, even 1 6 years later, records most of northern England as still be ing waste and uninhabited. William, his wife and two children must have been release d some time later and William retained most of his lands ap art from those in Yorkshire, which will have come with th e office of Sheriff, which had been taken from him. At som e point the King awarded William the appellation of "Prince p", and in the Chart granted by the King to the church of S t. Martin le Grand, his signature appears as "Wilielmus Mal et Princep". In the context of the times, Princep would lik ely have been interpreted as "leader, or chief". William i s believed to have died fighting "Hereward the Wake" in th e Fens near Ely Cathedral, which lies between South Lincoln shire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk (and in the middle of th e Malet holdings), in 1071. The Domesday book records tha t "...He went into the marsh", and that "...he went on th e King's service, where he died". William is generally accepted to be the progenitor of man y of the various branches of the Malet family (those that c an trace their lines back that
  
  === Reportedly the son of a Norman father an ===
  Reportedly the son of a Norman father and a Saxon mother, William fought with distinction and was nearly killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Allegedly it was his task to bury the body of KING Harold after the battle. He may, in fact, have been related to KING Harold.
  
  William whom they call Mallet,
  Boldly throws himself among them;
  With his flashing sword
  Against the English he makes furious onset;
  But his shield they clove,
  And his horse beneath him killed,
  And himself they would have slain,
  When came the Sire de Montfort
  And Lord William de Vez-Pont
  With the great force which they had,
  Him they bravely rescued.
  There many of their men they lost;
  Mallet they remounted on the field
  On a fresh war-horse.
  --Excerpt from Wace's "Roman de Rou"
  
  The arms of the Malet family appear on the Bayeux tapestry.
  
  THE NORMAN SHERIFFS
  After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror needed to secure his territory. He appointed sheriffs to control various regions, giving them the title "Vicomte" and permitting them to build castles. They were tough, ambitious, and often ruthless men. The sheriffs became an extremely powerful administrative force in the 13th century. KING John relied on them to raise the money to finance his wars. Most were his friends and allies, trusted men with strong military backgrounds to maintain control over the realm.
  
  NEW NOTE
  
  William Malet Title: Lord Sex: M Birth: 1023 in Graville St Honorine, Normandy, France Death: 1071 in Slain in Battle York Castle,Yorkshire, England Occupation: General under William the Conqueror
  1.William Malet, of Granville, Normandy; also held lands in Lincs before 1066 (possibly by virtue of his mother's putative status of Englishwoman); granted the feudal Barony of Eye, Suffolk, following the Conquest, in which he was one of William
  I's chief lieutenants, being allegedly given the task by William of burying Harold's body after Hastings; Sheriff of Yorks 1068; married Hesilia Crispin (living 1086), gggdau of Rollo The Dane, Duke of Normandy, and died c1071. [Burke's
  Peerage]
  
  William, according to some, was grandson of Lady Godiva & brother of Harold Godwyn's wife, while not necessarily entirely true, probably there was some relationship. I have William's mother as a daughter of Godiva's husband Leofric Earl of
  Mercia, by an earlier wife or mistress. There is conjecture that William's father one of the men who accompanied Emma of Normandy to England in 1002 for her marriage with Aethelred.
  
  According to Crispin and Macary, "William (Guillaume) Malet de Graville stands out as one of the most imposing figures at the Conquest. There can be no doubt about his presence there, which is subscribed to by William of Poitiers, Guy of
  Amiens, Orderic Vital, and all the historians of this epoch. So much has been placed on record concerning him that just a few facts of his life will be recited here. He was probably descended from Gerard, a Scandinavian PRINCE and companion of
  Duke Rollo, which gave the name of the fief of Gerardville or Graville, near Havre. Robert, the eldest son, occurs in a document of about 990 in Normandy. On his mother's side William Malet was of Anglo-Saxon origin, for she was probably the
  daughter of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and Godwa or Godgifu, the supposed sister of Thorold the Sheriff in the time of Edward the Confessor, and therefore the aunt of Edwin and Morcar, Earls of Northumbria. He was nearly killed in the battle
  of Hastings but was rescued by the sire de Montfort and William of Vieuxpont, and was appointed by William the Conqueror to take charge of the body of Harold, a statement that has been disputed. The consensus of opinion favors it, and it is
  most logical if William Malet's mother was as stated the sister of Algar II., 7th Earl of Mercia, who was the father of Alditha, wife of Harold. He accompanied KING William at the reduction of Nottingham and York in 1068, for which he was
  rewarded with the shreivalty of land in that county. Gilbert de Gand and Robert Fitz Richard were also commanders in this expedition. The following year he was besieged in the castle of York by Edgar, the Saxon PRINCE, and was only saved from
  surrender by the timely arrival of the Conqueror. In the same year he was attacked by the Danes, who captured the city of York with great slaughter and took William Malet, his wife and children, prisoners, but their lives were spared, as was
  that of Gilbert de Gand, for the sake of their ransoms. There is evidence that he was slain in this year, but it is uncertain and the date of his death is unknown. An entry in Domesday that "William Malet was seized of this place (Cidestan, Co.
  Suffolk), where he proceeded on the KING's service where he died," would indicate that his death occurred during the compilation of that book. He was witness to a charter of KING William to the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, in London, and is
  there styled "princeps," which title, however, was honorary and not hereditary, having
  William Malet, or Guillaume, as he may have been called, "Sire de Graville", came from Graville Sainte Honorine between Le Havre and Harfleur, in what is today the French province of Normandy. He is said to have had a Norman father and a Saxon
  (read English) mother, and had some sort of association with KING Harold of England before the conquest. William, through his Saxon mother, may actually have been related to KING Harold, and also to the well known Lady Godiva. It is also
  possible that William and Harold were both God fathers of Duke William of Normandy's daughter, Abela.
  
  The Malet Castle at Graville Sainte Honorine had an important strategic location, at the mouth of the Seine. It has now fallen into the sea, though some remnants of it may still be visible. A large section of wall with large iron rings attached
  was still there just over 100 years ago. The Abbey church, in which some of the Malets are buried, is now in the town of Le Havre. Though William Malet had connections to both sides in the conflict to come, his main allegiance was to Duke
  William of Normandy.
  William fought with distinction at Hastings, as the following Excerpt from Wace's "Roman de Rou" attests: Note: Note: Note: Note: William whom they call Mallet, Note: Boldly throws himself among them; Note: With his flashing sword Note: Against the English he makes furious onset; Note: But his shield they clove, Note: And his horse beneath him killed, Note: And himself they would have slain, Note: When came the Sire de Montfort Note: And Lord William de Vez-Pont With the great force which they had, Note: Him they bravely rescued. Note: There many of their men they lost; Mallet they remounted on the field . On a fresh war-horse. Note: Note: Note:
  When the battle was over, Duke William entrusted William Malet to attend to the burial of the Deceased English KING. The body was buried under a heap of stones on top of a cliff at Hastings overlooking the shore that Harold had so bravely defended.
  William placed a stone on the grave with the epitaph:
  Note: Note: Note: "By command of the Duke, you rest here a KING, O Harold, that you may be guardian still of the shore and sea". Note: This burial of Harold was only temporary and the body was later re-buried at Harold's Abbey at Waltham.
  William and his brother Durand held lands in Lincolnshire, England, during the reign of Edward the Confessor, and through the reign of Harold right up to the conquest, in addition to those in Normandy. These Lincolnshire holdings, all in the
  Danelaw, probably came from William and Durand's mother. After the conquest William's English holdings were greatly increased, again, principally in the Danelaw, as English lands were taken from their Saxon owners and handed over to Norman
  Barons. It is likely that Duke William conferred these estates on William, partly because of his loyalty and skill in battle, but also because of his prior connections with his Danish "cousins" there. Perhaps the Duke felt that William was the
  best man to bring these proud, warlike and independent settlers under the control of their new KING.
  
  William was Deceased at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, but the holdings at that time of his son Robert, and of his wife, give a good indication of the extent of his estates. He held large parts of what are today Suffolk and Norfolk, with
  smaller amounts of land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Eye, in Suffolk appears to have been William's stronghold. Here he built a Motte and Bailey castle, after the Norman fashion. Nothing remains of the Norman fortifications, but the outline
  of the baileys and "Castle Mound", are still evident. There is even a slight indication of where the Market, founded by William Malet under Royal License would have been held.
  
  William married Hesilia Crispin, by whom he had two sons, Robert and Gilbert, and one daughter, Beatrice. Robert and possibly Gilbert, along with their uncle Durand, accompanied their father at the battle of Hastings. The arms shown at the top
  of the page, likely carried by the Malets at Hastings, were used by many generations of the Malet family, both in England and in France, and can be seen on the Bayeux tapestry.
  
  William was made Sheriff of York and granted considerable lands in Yorkshire following the building of the first Norman castle there (the mound now supports 'Clifford's Tower') in 1068. He and his fellow captains, Robert Fitz-Richard and
  William of Ghent, with 500 picked knights had to fight off a local revolt, headed by Edgar the Atheling; this in or shortly after January 1069. Robert Fitz-Richard and many of his men were killed and it was only by the timely arrival of KING
  William that the City was saved. The natives remained restless and had another, token go, as soon as KING William left but were quickly put down. The troops were strengthened and another castle built on the other side of the river from the
  original but, notwithstanding, in September 1069, William, his wife
  
  === William Malet, of Granville, Normandy; a ===
  William Malet, of Granville, Normandy; also held lands in Lincs before 1066 (possibly by virtue of his mother's putative status of Englishwoman); granted the feudal Barony of Eye, Suffolk, following the Conquest, in which he was one of William I's chief lieutenants, being allegedly given the task by William of burying Harold's body after Hastings; Sheriff of Yorks 1068; married Hesilia Crispin (living 1086), gggdau of Rollo The Dane, Duke of Normandy, and died c1071. [Burke's Peerage]
  
  ___________________
  
  William, according to some, was grandson of Lady Godiva & brother of Harold Godwyn's wife, while not necessarily entirely true, probably there was some relationship. I have William's mother as a daughter of Godiva's husband Leofric Earl of Mercia, by an earlier wife or mistress. There is conjecture that William's father one of the men who accompanied Emma of Normandy to England in 1002 for her marriage with Aethelred.
  
  ___________________
  
  According to Crispin and Macary, "William (Guillaume) Malet de Graville stands out as one of the most imposing figures at the Conquest. There can be no doubt about his presence there, which is subscribed to by William of Poitiers, Guy of Amiens, Orderic Vital, and all the historians of this epoch. So much has been placed on record concerning him that just a few facts of his life will be recited here. He was probably descended from Gerard, a Scandinavian prince and companion of Duke Rollo, which gave the name of the fief of Gerardville or Graville, near Havre. Robert, the eldest son, occurs in a document of about 990 in Normandy. On his mother's side William Malet was of Anglo-Saxon origin, for she was probably the daughter of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and Godwa or Godgifu, the supposed sister of Thorold the Sheriff in the time of Edward the Confessor, and therefore the aunt of Edwin and Morcar, Earls of Northumberland. He was nearly killed in the battle of Hastings but was rescued by the sire de Montfort and William of Vieuxpont, and was appointed by William the Conqueror to take charge of the body of Harold, a statement that has been disputed. The consensus of opinion favors it, and it is most logical if William Malet's mother was as stated the sister of Algar II., 7th Earl of Mercia, who was the father of Alditha, wife of Harold. He accompanied King William at the reduction of Nottingham and York in 1068, for which he was rewarded with the shreivalty of land in that county. Gilbert de Gand and Robert Fitz Richard were also commanders in this expedition. The following year he was besieged in the castle of York by Edgar, the Saxon prince, and was only saved from surrender by the timely arrival of the Conqueror. In the same year he was attacked by the Danes, who captured the city of York with great slaughter and took William Malet, his wife and children, prisoners, but their lives were spared, as was that of Gilbert de Gand, for the sake of their ransoms. There is evidence that he was slain in this year, but it is uncertain and the date of his death is unknown. An entry in Domesday that "William Malet was seized of this place (Cidestan, Co. Suffolk), where he proceeded on the King's service where he died," would indicate that his death occurred during the compilation of that book. He was witness to a charter of King William to the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, in London, and is there styled "princeps," which title, however, was honorary and not hereditary, having ceased with his death."
  
  _________________________
  
  William Malet, or Guillaume, as he may have been called, "Sire de Graville", came from Graville Sainte Honorine between Le Havre and Harfleur, in what is today the French province of Normandy. He is said to have had a Norman father and a Saxon (read English) mother, and had some sort of association with King Harold of England before the conquest. William, through his Saxon mother, may actually have been related to King Harold, and also to the well known Lady Godiva. It is also possible that William and Harold were both God fathers of Duke William of Normandy's daughter, Abela.
  
  The Malet Castle at Graville Sainte Honorine had an important strategic location, at the mouth of the Seine. It has now fallen into the sea, though some remnants of it may still be visible. A large section of wall with large iron rings attached was still there just over 100 years ago. The Abbey church, in which some of the Malets are buried, is now in the town of Le Havre. Though William Malet had connections to both sides in the conflict to come, his main allegiance was to Duke William of Normandy.
  
  William fought with distinction at Hastings, as the following Excerpt from Wace's "Roman de Rou" attests
  
  William whom they call Mallet,
  Boldly throws himself among them;
  With his flashing sword
  Against the English he makes furious onset;
  But his shield they clove,
  And his horse beneath him killed,
  And himself they would have slain,
  When came the Sire de Montfort
  And Lord William de Vez-Pont
  With the great force which they had,
  Him they bravely rescued.
  There many of their men they lost;
  Mallet they remounted on the field
  On a fresh war-horse.
  
  When the battle was over, Duke William entrusted William Malet to attend to the burial of the dead English king. The body was buried under a heap of stones on top of a cliff at Hastings overlooking the shore that Harold had so bravely defended. William placed a stone on the grave with the epitaph:
  
  "By command of the Duke, you rest here a King, O Harold, that you may be guardian still of the shore and sea".
  This burial of Harold was only temporary and the body was later re-buried at Harold's Abbey at Waltham.
  
  William and his brother Durand held lands in Lincolnshire, England, during the reign of Edward the Confessor, and through the reign of Harold right up to the conquest, in addition to those in Normandy. These Lincolnshire holdings, all in the Danelaw, probably came from William and Durand's mother. After the conquest William's English holdings were greatly increased, again, principally in the Danelaw, as English lands were taken from their Saxon owners and handed over to Norman Barons. It is likely that Duke William conferred these estates on William, partly because of his loyalty and skill in battle, but also because of his prior connections with his Danish "cousins" there. Perhaps the Duke felt that William was the best man to bring these proud, warlike and independent settlers under the control of their new King.
  
  William was dead at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, but the holdings at that time of his son Robert, and of his wife, give a good indication of the extent of his estates. He held large parts of what are today Suffolk and Norfolk, with smaller amounts of land in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Eye, in Suffolk appears to have been William's stronghold. Here he built a Motte and Bailey castle, after the Norman fashion. Nothing remains of the Norman fortifications, but the outline of the baileys and "Castle Mound", are still evident. There is even a slight indication of where the Market, founded by William Malet under Royal License would have been held.
  
  William married Hesilia Crispin, by whom he had two sons, Robert and Gilbert, and one daughter, Beatrice. Robert and possibly Gilbert, along with their uncle Durand, accompanied their father at the battle of Hastings. The arms shown at the top of the page, likely carried by the Malets at Hastings, were used by many generations of the Malet family, both in England and in France, and can be seen on the Bayeux tapestry.
  
  William was made Sheriff of York and granted considerable lands in Yorkshire following the building of the first Norman castle there (the mound now supports 'Clifford's Tower') in 1068. He and his fellow captains, Robert Fitz-Richard and William of Ghent, with 500 picked knights had to fight off a local revolt, headed by Edgar the Atheling; this in or shortly after January 1069. Robert Fitz-Richard and many of his men were killed and it was only by the timely arrival of King William that the City was saved. The natives remained restless and had another, token go, as soon as King William left but were quickly put down. The troops were strengthened and another castle built on the other side of the river from the original but, notwithstanding, in September 1069, William, his wife and two of his children were captured by a combined force of Danes and English under Sweyn of Denmark supported by Earls Waltheof and Gospatric and the Northumbrians, when York fell to them after a terrible fight. This led to King William ordering the burning and killing of everything in the north and Domesday, even 16 years later, records most of northern England as still being waste and uninhabited.
  
  William, his wife and two children must have been released some time later and William retained most of his lands apart from those in Yorkshire, which will have come with the office of Sheriff, which had been taken from him. At some point the King awarded William the appellation of "Princep", and in the Chart granted by the King to the church of St. Martin le Grand, his signature appears as "Wilielmus Malet Princep". In the context of the times, Princep would likely have been interpreted as "leader, or chief". William is believed to have died fighting "Hereward the Wake" in the Fens near Ely Cathedral, which lies between South Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk (and in the middle of the Malet holdings), in 1071. The Domesday book records that "...He went into the marsh", and that "...he went on the King's service, where he died".
  
  ______________________________
  
  NORMAN SHERIFFS
  By 1066, when William the Conqueror seized power, he replaced all of the existing sheriffs with his own loyal comrades in arms. When William conveyed the offices of sheriff to his Normans, he also bestowed to them the title "Vicomte," which added nobility to their positions. He allowed Vicomte sheriffs to build castle
  
  === Slain in defence of his castle Companio ===
  Slain in defence of his castle Companion of William theConqueror

• m. 1149 in Curry Mallet, Somerset, England, United Kingdom

1. Gilbert Malet Lord of Curry Malet, b. ABT 1150 in Somerset, England     d. 1194 in Curry Mallet, Somerset, England

1. Title: Good Information Page
   Publication: Name: https://www.geni.com/people/William-Malet-I/6000000025251944177;
   Page: Gives relations of individuals for better fitting and finding people with relation
   
2. Title: Notices of an English Branch of the Malet Family
   Author: page 73 discusses william I
   Publication: Name: https://books.google.com/books?id=qgIHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=Notices+of+an+English+Branch+of+the+Mallet+Family&source=bl&ots=jM0N-0aeqV&sig=y4QG8HvumPhXSMt4t0d69tDLxnM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UM_6VPL_H8P_yQSm7IKIAQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAw#v=snippet&q=gilbert&f=false;
   
3. Title: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
   Author: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
   Publication: Name: https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/enguntlo.htm#WilliamMaletdied1169B;