William Malet (companion of William the Conqueror)

William Malet (died 1071) is one of the very few proven Companions of William the Conqueror known to have been present at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, as recorded by the contemporary chronicler William of Poitiers (c. 1020-1090). He held substantial property in Normandy, chiefly in the Pays de Caux, with a castle at Graville-Ste-Honorine, at the mouth of the River Seine near Harfleur (nowadays a suburb of Le Havre).

Biography

Early life

According to apocryphal accounts, Malet's mother was English, and he was the brother of Aelgifu, who married Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia (the son of Lady Godiva).

If the above account is correct, Malet was the uncle of Ealdgyth (also known as Edith, a daughter of Aelgifu and Ælfgar), who became the second wife of King Harold II of England.

Battle of Hastings

Divided loyalties or not, there is strong evidence that Malet fought on the Norman side at Hastings.

William of Poitiers wrote:

His [King Harold's] corpse was brought into the Duke's camp and William gave it for burial to William, surnamed Malet, and not to Harold's mother, who offered for the body of her beloved son its weight in gold.^[1]

Therefore Malet was present in the duke's camp, immediately after the battle. This should however suffice to deem him one of the very few proven participants in the battle.

High Sheriff

Malet's activities during the first few years of the Norman conquest of England are not known. But after the Danish stronghold York was captured in 1068, he was appointed the first High Sheriff of Yorkshire and was one of the commanders of the garrisons in the new castles built in the city of York. His efforts at defending the shire from Danish raids were, in the end, a terrible failure, for the next year the city was burned and the garrison slaughtered. Malet, his wife, and two of their children were held as hostages, and finally released when the Danes were driven off.

Malet was relieved of his duties in the north, but seems to not have lost the king's favour, for he soon was appointed High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, and given the great honour of Eye, with lands in Suffolk and several other shires. It was in fact the largest lordship in East Anglia. He built a motte and bailey castle at Eye, and started a market there.

In Histories and the Media

The Domesday Book also mentions a Durand Malet, who held land in Lincolnshire^[2] and possibly some neighboring shires. This may be William Malet's brother, but this is not certain.

On screen, Malet has been portrayed by Peter Halliday in the two-part BBC TV play Conquest (1966), part of the series Theatre 625, and by Gawn Grainger in the TV drama Blood Royal: William the Conqueror (1990).

Family

He had married Hesilia (Helise or Elisee) Crispin de Brionne, a great great granddaughter of Rollo, 1st Duke of Normandy. He was succeeded by his son Robert as Lord of Eye and Sheriff of Suffolk. His other son Gilbert founded the Malets of Shepton Mallet.

Death

He died around 1071, probably during the rebellion of Hereward the Wake.

References

1. Wm. of Poitiers, Gesta Guillelmi II Ducis Normannorum, quoted in David C.Douglas & George W. Greenaway (Eds.), English Historical Documents 1042-1189, London, 1959, p.229.
2. Domesday Book

• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Line 234A-25
• Hollister, C. Warren (1973). "Henry I and Robert Malet". Viator. 4: 115–32.
• Hurt, Cyril. "William Malet and His Family". Anglo-Norman Studies XIX.
• Lewis, C. P. (1989). "The King and Eye: A Study in Anglo-Norman Politics". English Historical Review. 104: 569–87. doi:10.1093/ehr/CIV.CCCCXII.569.