Name William Ferrers, | ||
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Died March 28, 1254, Evington, Leicester, United Kingdom Parents William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby Children Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby Grandchildren John de Ferrers, 1st Baron Ferrers of Chartley Grandparents William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby Similar People Richard III of England, Margaret of York, Anne of York - Duchess | ||
William III de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby (about 1193 – 28 March 1254) was an English nobleman and major landowner, unable through illness to take much part in national affairs. From his two marriages, he left numerous children who married into noble and royal families of England, France, Scotland and Wales.
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Life
The son of William de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby and Agnes, daughter of Hugh de Kevelioc, 3rd Earl of Chester and Bertrada de Montfort, he accompanied King Henry III to France in 1230 and attended Parliament in London in the same year. Like his father, he suffered from gout from youth and after the 1230s took little part in public affairs, travelling always in a litter. He was accidentally thrown from his litter into the water while crossing a bridge at St Neots in Huntingdonshire and, although he escaped immediate death, never recovered from the effects of the accident. Succeeding to the title of his father in 1247, he only lived another seven years and, dying on 28 March 1254, was buried in Merevale Abbey, Warwickshire.
He was succeeded by his son Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, who in 1249 had been married to the King's niece and knighted. Being too young to inherit at his father's death, wardship of the heir's estates was granted to the King's eldest son, Edward, the Black Prince.
Landholdings
Unable to play any part at court or at war, he followed his father in managing the family's landholdings. Their original lands were centred on Tutbury Castle, stretching beyond Staffordshire into the south of Derbyshire and the west of Nottinghamshire. The death in 1232 of his uncle Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, brought vast new areas: the estate of Chartley Castle, much of Lancashire between the rivers Ribble and Mersey and many manors in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. He continued the policy of encouraging the growth of towns and markets, exploiting the forests of Needwood and Duffield Frith, and taking advantage of rising prices in commodities and land values. By the time of his death his income placed him among the top six of English nobles, but he also left his son considerable debts.
With Sybil Marshal
He first married Sibyl, daughter of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare, having seven daughters:
With Margaret de Quincy
In 1238, he married Margaret (about 1218 - 12 March 1280), daughter of Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester and Helen of Galloway. (When her father married her husband's daughter Eleanor, she became both stepmother and stepdaughter of Eleanor.) With Margaret he had two sons and three daughters: