Earl of Albemarle

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The name Albemarle (or Albermarle), which now forms the title of the earldom held by the English family of Keppel, is an early variant of the French Aumale (Latin, Alba Marla, or English, White Marl, marl being a type of fertile soil), other forms being Aubemarle and Aumerle, and is described in the patent of nobility granted in 1696-1697 by William III to Arnold Joost van Keppel as "a town and territory in the Dukedom of Normandy."

The fief of Aumale was granted by the Archbishop of Rouen to Odo II of Champagne, brother-in-law of William the Conqueror, who erected it into a countship. On Odo's death his son Stephen succeeded not only to the Countship of Aumale, but to the Lordships of Holderness, of Bytham in Lincolnshire, etc., which were subsequently known as the "Fee and Honor of Albemarle."

Stephen, who as a crusader had fought valiantly at Antioch, died about 1127, leaving by his wife Hawise, daughter of Ranulph de Mortimer, a son —William, known as "le Gros" William, who distinguished himself at the Battle of the Standard (1138), and shared with King Stephen in the defeat of Lincoln (1141), married Cicely, daughter of William fitz Duncan, grandson of Malcolm III, King of Scots, who as "Lady of Harewood" brought him vast estates. He founded abbeys at Meaux in Holderness and at Thornton, and died in 1179.

His elder daughter and heiress Hawise married:

William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex (d. 1189),
William de Fortibus (de Fors, de Fortz or des Forts),
Baldwin de Betun or Bethune, all of whom bore the title of Earls of Albemarle.

Soon after the death of Baldwin (October 13, 1213), William de Fortibus, Hawise's son by her second husband, was established by King John in the territories of the Countship of Albemarle, and in 1215 the whole of his mother's estates were formally confirmed to him. He is described by Bishop Stubbs as "a feudal adventurer of the worst type," and for some time was actively engaged in the struggles of the Norman barons against both John and Henry III.

He was one of the twenty-five executors of the Great Charter; but in the war that followed sided with John, subsequently changing sides as often as it suited his policy. His object was to revive the independent power of the feudal barons, and he co-operated to this end with Falkes de Breaut and other foreign adventurers established in the country by John. This brought him into conflict with the great justiciar, Hubert de Burgh, and in 1219 he was declared a rebel and excommunicated for attending a forbidden tournament. In 1220 matters were brought to a crisis by his refusal to surrender the two royal castles of Rockingham and Sauvey of which he had been made constable in 1216. Henry III marched against them in person, the garrisons fled, and they fell without a blow. In the following year, however, Albemarle, in face of further efforts to reduce his power, rose in revolt.

He was now again excommunicated by the legate Pandulph at a solemn council held in St Paul's, and the whole force of the kingdom was set in motion against him, a special scutage—the scutagium de Bihan—being voted for this purpose by the Great Council. The capture of his Castle of Bytham broke his power; he sought sanctuary and, at Pandulph's intercession, was pardoned on condition of going for six years to the Holy Land. He remained in England, however, and in 1223 was once more in revolt with Falkes de Breaute, the Earl of Chester and other turbulent spirits. A reconciliation was once more patched up; but it was not until the fall of Falkes de Breaute that Albemarle finally settled down as an English noble.

In 1225 he witnessed Henry's third re-issue of the Great Charter; in 1227 he went as, ambassador, to Antwerp; and in 1230 he accompanied Henry on his expedition to Brittany. In 1241 he set out for the Holy Land, but died at sea, on his way there, on March 26 1242. By his wife Avelina of Montfichet, William left a son, also named William, who married (1) Christina (d. 1246), daughter and co-heiress of Alan, Laird of Galloway, (2) in 1248 Isabella de Redvers (1237-1202-3), daughter of Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon and Lord of the Isle of Wight. He played a conspicuous part in the reign of Henry III, notably in the Mad Parliament of 1258, and died at Amiens in 1260. His widow, Isabella, on the death of her brother Baldwin, 8th Earl of Devon, in 1261, called herself Countess of Devon. She had two children, Thomas, who died in 1269 unmarried, and Avelina, who married (1269) Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster, and died without issue in 1274.

The "Honour of Albemarle" was claimed, in 1278, by John de Eston, or Aston, as heir of Amicia, younger daughter of William le Gros,; but he released his right to the Earldom of Albemarle to the crown in exchange, for certain lands in Thornton.

The title of Albemarle, thus extinguished, was several times revived before in 1660 Charles II bestowed the title of Duke of Albemarle on General Monk. Monk's hereditary claim to this semi-royal peerage was a very shadowy one, being based—as was also his subordinate style of Baron Beauchamp—on his descent from the youngest of the three co-heiresses of Richard, Earl of Warwick, and, with yet more remote applicability, on that from Arthur Plantagenet, a natural son of Edward IV. The title became extinct in 1688, on the death of Christopher, 2nd Duke of Albemarle.

Finally, as mentioned above, the title of Earl of Albemarle was bestowed by William III, without any shadow of hereditary claim, on his Dutch favourite Arnold Joost van Keppel, by whose descendants it is still held. The motive for choosing this title was probably that, apart from its dignified traditions, it avoided the difficulty created by the fact that the Keppels had as yet no territorial possessions in the British Islands.

The current Earl of Albemarle holds as subsidiary titles: Viscount Bury, co. Lancaster (created 1697) and Baron Ashford, of Ashford, Kent (c. 1697), both - like the earldom - in the Peerage of England. The courtesy title of the Earl's eldest son is Viscount Bury.