Alan Fitz Flaald Sheriff of Shropshire

  General Notes:

~Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. VII, Robert William Eyton ⁷³³

~The Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell, p. 109, living in 1045, was the hereditary steward of the Duc de Bretagne. ⁷²¹

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
The castle of Oswestry, so. Salop, was obtained along with an extensive fief in shropshire, early in the reign of Henry I by Alan Fitz Fleald, a Brenton, whose son and heir was William Fitz Alan, of Oswestry. This William died in 1169 and was succeeded by his son of the same name.

~ Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vol. , (Fitz Alan), pp. 391-392

• Background Information. ⁷³³
Robert William Eyton dedicates a large portion of his Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume VII, published in 1858, exploring the early Fitz Alan family of England. The progenitor of the Fitz Alan House was a man named Alan Fitz Flaald. He was not a son or a Norman, but rather the son of a Brenton.

In 1121, there is a reciatory charter of King Henry I with an additional clause about Alan Fitz Flaald receiving the Honor of Warin. Because Alan Fitz Flaald held this honor, it had been mistakenly believed that Alan's wife was a Warrene. Alan Fitz Flaald held land in Norfolk and Shropshire, and he was living in 1109.

Alan's "widow" was named Avelina, and she seems to have had Sussex estates as part of her dower. She was also named as the mother ot William Fitz Alan, their oldest son. William granted the land of "Piperinges" to Haughmond Abbey in 1155-1158. Added to this grant were right of common-pasture in the neighboring villa of Stokes which had previous belonged to "his mother Avelina."[Haughmond Chartulary, fo. 166]

Avelina was Avelina de Hesding. The various fees in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and elsewhere the found in Domesday which made up the Barony of Ernulf de Hesding were divided among his descendents after Ernulf de Hesding was executed by King Stephen. A third of this fief was vested in the family of Alan Fitz Flaald.

The children of Alan and Avelina were:

William, the heir of both
Walter, the ancestor of the Royal House of Stewart.
Jordan
Sibil, married to Roger de Freviller, in or before 1132.

~Antiquities of Shropshire, Volume VII, Pages 211 - 221

• Background Information. ^{733,736,742,871}
Dr. Round in his famous paper* proved that the Scottish Stuarts or Stewarts and the England FitzAlans were descended from a certain Alan Dapifer of Dol in Brittany circ 1080, who was subsequently identified by Dr. Round in 1902 as being the son of Flaald [Genealogist, New Series, Vol. 18 1902, pgs. 1-16]. Alan of Dol in turn had three sons: (1) Alan Jr., Dapifer of Dol, who occurs in Brittany circa 1095, and in 1097, was a leader in the First Crusade. (2) Flaald, called son of Alan, who appears in Mommouth in 1101/02 as a follower of its lord, William son of Baderon, another Breton, and was the male ancestor of the Stuarts and FitzAlans. (3) Rhiwallon, who was a monk of the abbey of St. Florent de Saumur, near Dol.

Flaald, who became heir to his elder brother Alan, was father of Alan FitzFlaald, Sheriff of Shiropshire, whose rise under Henry I is linked by Dr. Round with the support given to Henry by the Bretons before his accession, when he was lord of Cotentin. Alan founded Sporle abbey, Norfolk, as a cell of Stl Florent, and had three sons by his wife Aveline de Hesdin: (1) Jordan FitzAlan, Dapifer of Dol in Brittany. (2) William FitzAlan, Lord of Oswestry in Shropshire, who died in 1160 and was the ancestor of the FitzAlans, Earls of Arundel from about 1290 to 1580. (3) Walter the Steward, or FitzAlan, who went northwards to Scotland and became Dapifer Regis under the Scots King David. From Walter the Steward, the Royal House of Stuart, as well various still existing familes of Stuart or Stewart. In the year 1335, the office of Steward of Scotland was claimed by Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, as his hereditary right; the real holder, Sir Robert Stewart (later King Robert II) the representative of Walter the Steward (FitzAlan) the first grantee, having been temporarily dispossessed by invading English. [The Scots Perrage, vol. I, pg. 11]

~"The Origin of the Stuarts and the Fitzalans." The New England Genealogical Register. Vol. 116, January 1962, pgs. 21-23

*Reverand Robert William Eyton had discussed this subject years (1858) before, (and is quoted later by, Dr. Round) in his Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. VII

From Dr. J. H. Round, Studies in Peerage and Family History, "The Origin of the Stewarts," "Alan the son of Flaald, a Norman, acquired the manor of Oswestrie, in Shropshire, son after the Conquest." He also says, "Alan Fitz Flaald married, not (as alleged) a daughter of Warine, the sheriff, but Aveline daughter of Ernulf de Hesind, a great Domesday tenant."

• Background Information: Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Dukes of Brittany 831-1213 . ⁷⁰⁹
Alan Fitz Flaald was recruited by Henry I of England eary in Henry's reign. "Alan son of Flaald" granted Sporle Priory, Norfolk to Saumur Saint-Florent by charter dated before 1122. [Taken from Dr. Round's paper on the Fitz Alans] Alan Fitz Flaald married Aveline de Hesdin, daughter of Arnould de Hesdin & wife Emmeline.

~Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands: The Dukes of Brittany

Alan married Avelina de Hesdin, daughter of Ernulph de Hesding and Unknown.⁷³³ (Avelina de Hesdin was born in 1080 in Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais, France.)

  Marriage Notes:

~Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. VII, Robert William Eyton, Pedigree, pp. 228-229 ⁷³³