By John Watson-Taylor. 45 



Augustinian and strongly opposed to the Court party, that he was 

 decidedly of noble birth.^ The fortunes of William varied according 

 to the leanings of the Popes, who succeeded each other rapidly at 

 this time, towards the two Clmrch parties and the two claimants 

 to the English tlirone. Under Innocent II. he was consecrated by 

 Henry of Winchester in 1143; under Celestine II. he was under 

 a cloud; under Lucius II. his pall was sent to England in 1144, 

 but was withheld by the Cardinal Legate Hicmar until proof was 

 forthcoming that his election was free from court or money influence; 

 under Eugene ILL he was suspended and retired to the court of 

 King Koger of Sicily (his kinsman according to John of Hexham) ; 

 and in 1147 he was deposed and tlie Cistercian reformer, Henry 

 Murdac, appointed in his place ; under Anastasius III. he was 

 restored to his see on the death of Murdac in 1154, and, having 

 entered York on the 9th May, on the Trinity Sunday following 

 (May 30th) he was suddenly taken ill during mass and died a few 

 days later, owing — it was suspected — to poison in the chalice 

 administered by the archdeacon. He was canonized in 1227 under 

 Honorius III., and a long list of posthumous miracles is given by 

 Stubbs, but the chief reason for his canonization is said to have 

 been the desire of the canons of York to outshine Eipon and 

 Beverley.- 



The elder brother, Herbert Fitz-Herbert (I.) married Sybil, 

 daughter of Robert Corbet, a baron of Shropshire, and sister of 

 Alice Corbet, who was at a later date married to William de 

 Boterell. Before her marriage Sybil had been the mother by 

 Henry I. of two sons and a daughter, Reginald and Gundreda de 

 Dunstanville,^ and William, "^of whom the elder son has already been 

 referred to in these pages as the Raymond with whom Stephen de 

 Mandeville was associated in the raid on the Cotentin in 1138 and 

 as the Earl of Cornwall, over-lord of Roger de Mandeville in 1166. 



' "Vir plane et secundum carnem nobilis." Ed, Hearne, i., 57; Vid. et. 

 Hugh the Chantor in Historians of the Church of York, Chron. and Mem., 

 vol. ii., p. 223. 



- Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, i., 354 et seq. ; D. N. B. 



3 Pipe Roll, Wilts, 31 Hen. I. 



* Carta Antiquce, B. 2 ; vide the testing clause. 



