Fulk I FitzWarin ( born c. 1115, died 1170/1) (''alias'' Fulke, Fouke, FitzWaryn, FitzWarren, Fitz Warine, etc., Latinised to ''Fulco Filius Warini'', "Fulk son of Warin") was a powerful

marcher lord A marcher lord () was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border (known as the Welsh Marches) between England and Wales. A marcher lord was the English equivalent of a margrave (in the Holy Roman Empire) or a marquis (in Fra ...

seated at Whittington Castle in

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

in England on the border with

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, and also at

Alveston Alveston is a village, civil parish and former royal manor in South Gloucestershire, England, inhabited in 2014 by about 3,000 people. The village lies south of Thornbury and north of Bristol. Alveston is twinned with Courville sur Eu ...

in Gloucestershire. His grandson was

Fulk III FitzWarin Fulk FitzWarin ( – c. 1258), variant spellings (List of Latinised names, Latinized ''Fulco filius Garini'', Welsh ''Syr ffwg ap Gwarin''), the third (Fulk III), was a prominent representative of a marcher lord, marcher family associated espe ...

(c. 1160–1258) the subject of the famous mediaeval legend or "ancestral romance" entitled ''

Fouke le Fitz Waryn ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'' is a chivalric romance about the English baron Fulk III FitzWarin, written during the later 13th century, when the actual events of Fulk's life were still in living memory or common report.T. Wright (ed. and transl.), ''The ...

'', himself the grandfather of Fulk V FitzWarin, 1st Baron FitzWarin (1251–1315).

Origins

A later medieval romance, ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'', claims that Fulk Fitzwarin was the son of a man named Warin de Meer (

Modern French French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

: Guarine de Meer), from

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, in

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

.G.E. Cokayne, ''The Complete Peerage'', V, p. 495, note (c) (The Norman French

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

''fitz'', is the equivalent of the modern French ''fils de'' "son of".) Warin – who appears in ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'' as "Warin de Meer" – is, however, a "shadowy or

myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

ical figure" about whom little is known. It has sometimes been claimed that Warin de Meer came to England during the reign of

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

(1066–1087). However, he was not recorded as a

tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them ...

– a

feudal baron A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely be ...

who was a direct

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

of the king – during William's reign. Instead, the Fitzwarin family's lands were obtained from later kings.

Career

Fulk was rewarded by King

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

(1154–1189) for his support of Henry's mother

Empress Matilda Empress Matilda (10 September 1167), also known as Empress Maud, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter and heir of Henry I, king of England and ruler of Normandy, she went to ...

in her civil war with King Stephen (1135–1154) and conferred to him the royal manor of

in Gloucestershire and the manor of Blewbury in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

Marriage and children

Fulk married Malet Peveral, daughter of Pagan Peveral, and they had children including the following: *Fulk II FitzWarin (fl. 1194), son and heir who

held Held may refer to: Places * Held Glacier People Arts and media * Adolph Held (1885–1969), U.S. newspaper editor, banker, labor activist *Al Held (1928–2005), U.S. abstract expressionist painter. *Alexander Held (born 1958), German television ...

his father's lands following his death in 1170/1. *William ''de Brightley'', younger son, who according to Sir William Pole (d.1635) was granted by his father "in King Henry 2 tyme" (i.e. between 1154 and 1189) the Devonshire manor of Brightley in the parish of

Chittlehampton Chittlehampton is a village and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England, about south-west of Barnstaple. At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 820. The parish originally had two exclaves; Chittlehamholt to th ...

, which he made his seat and where his descendants lived for many generations having adopted "de Brightley" as their surname in lieu of "FitzWarin". Pole, Sir William (d. 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, pp. 420–1

References

Sources

*{{cite book , title=Restoration and Reform, 1153–1165: Recovery from Civil War in England , first=Graeme J. , last=White , publisher=Cambridge University Press , year=2004 Year of birth unknown 1170s deaths 12th-century English nobility People from Shropshire 12th-century English landowners People from Alveston 1110s births