William de Mandeville

William de Mandeville

earl of Essex

Essex

1177

William de Mandeville was 3rd earl of Essex. He was raised at the court of Flanders and became close friends with Philip of Flanders, with whom he would travel to Jerusalem as a crusader in 1177. William and Philip fought at the siege of Harim. He was back in England by the autumn of 1178, where he was ceremonially received at Waltham Abbey. He distributed relics and silks that he had collected on his journey.

Philip of Flanders

The Book of the Foundation of Walden Monastery. Edited and translated by Diana Greenway and Leslie Watkiss. Oxford, 1999, p. 59.

Nicholas Paul, To Follow in Their Footsteps: the Crusades and Family Memory in the High Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012), pp. 123-124.