William Giffard, second duke of Northumberland
| William Giffard | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Northumberland Earl of Essex | |
| Predecessor | William |
| Successor | William |
| Born | 1095 |
| Died | 12 April 1129 (aged 34) Colchester, Essex, England |
| Buried | Waltham Abbey |
| Noble family | Giffard |
| Spouse(s) | Seva de Gael (m. 1114) |
| Issue | |
| Father | William, duke of Northumberland |
| Mother | Æthelflæed of Godwin |
William Giffard (1095 - 12 April 1129) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, second duke of Northumberland and third earl of Essex. A shrewd politician and warlord, Giffard rebelled multiple times against King William II and was executed for treason in 1129.
Life and career
Born in 1095, the only child of William, duke of Northumberland, William Giffard (III) succeeded to his father's titles when the latter died at Maldon on 22 December 1104. There are few mentions of him in his youth. In 1106 the peasants of Essex revolted under a former soldier, Æthelræd, forcing the eleven year-old duke to flee to William II's court at Westminster. The king marched into Essex and defeated the rebellion at Langford on 1 August 1106, killing Æthelræd and routing the peasants.
Giffard was a prominent figure in the outbreak of war on the Anglo-Scottish border during the winter of 1112-13. He rode north with a force of Essex knights, becoming the first member of his family to visit Northumberland, and called the Northumbrian levies to his side. In August 1113 Giffard crossed the border with this army and laid siege to Dunbar Castle, which he seems to have starved out after a few months. The duke also took part in the English siege of Stirling alongside other noblemen and their private armies in the summer of 1114.
In 1117-18 Giffard feuded with his vassal Ælle, earl of Lindisfarne, in a violent dispute over Giffard's lordship that was arbitrated by William II at Leicester on 14 August 1118. In 1119 the duke led an English army to occupy Somerset during the Taunton War. Under Giffard's leadership, English troops captured Glastonbury on 24 November 1119, burning the French defenders alive in the bishop's manor house. In August 1120 the duke led the king's forces to destroy a rebellion of Middlesex peasantry at Southwark, while William II was in France.
Giffard was loyal to William II during the Great Rebellion of 1121-23; on 29 March 1122 he was one of the noblemen who swore an oath to support the king's second son William, duke of Cumbria, as heir to the throne. In August 1123 Giffard sat as a justiciar at Westminster Palace to pass the death sentence against Roger, duke of York.
Treason and downfall
In 1117 Giffard was rebuked by the king for mentioning the name of the latter's uncle Robert, in an early sign of tensions between the two men. The duke did not attend the second, much grander oath-taking ceremony for the duke of Cumbria, held at Westminster on 29 November 1124. The later Waltham chronicler claimed that this was due to his displeasure at not being awarded any of Roger of York's lands after the latter's execution for open rebellion. In June 1125 the duke of Warwick and the chancellor, Bernard of Forges, came before William II at Richmond and openly accused Giffard of treason. When summoned before the king for questioning, Giffard fled to Colchester Castle, confirming his guilt.
The true extent of Giffard's treasonous conspiracies remains unknown, but in August he was accused by William II of attempted regicide and blatantly parading his own claim to the English throne as a great-grandson of Harold II. Whatever his true guilt, Giffard raised the levies of Essex in his own defense. On 14 September 1125 William II routed the Essex men at Pleshey, near Waltham Abbey, in a humiliating defeat for the duke. The king then advanced to Colchester and besieged the castle until its surrender in February 1126. Giffard attempted to flee to Wales, but was captured at Wenlock on the Welsh border in June 1126 and handed over into William II's custody.
Giffard was tried for treason at Westminster and sentenced to death on 27 December 1126, but received a commutation from the king. According to the Waltham chronicler, and the near-contemporary Crowland chronicler, the duke was taken to Bedford Castle and tortured to the point of insanity; at his release in 1127, he was a broken man, crippled and unable to walk. Whatever the truth of these statements, Giffard's harrowing experience did not dim his now-burning hatred for the king. In May 1128 William II summoned Giffard to London, but the duke refused, prompting another brief conflict. In January 1129 Giffard's castles of Colchester and Bamburgh surrendered to the king.
By the beginning of 1129 Giffard was in a desperate position, and decided to flee to France. He was captured in the "greenwood" of Essex while attempting to reach the coast, and taken in chains to Colchester. On the king's order Giffard was brutally put to death in the castle courtyard on 12 April 1129, flayed with a knife and beheaded; his body was flung in a ditch outside the castle. William II allowed his infant son and namesake to inherit the Giffard patrimony, but refused to permit the dead duke's burial at Waltham Abbey until 1133.