Sir William de Tracy, Knt., (died c. 1189) was Lord of the Manor

Lord of the Manor

The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...

 of Toddington, Gloucestershire

Toddington, Gloucestershire

Toddington is a village and civil parish in north Gloucestershire in Tewkesbury Borough, located approx. 20 km north-east of Cheltenham with a population of around 300 people....

, feudal Baron of Bradninch

Bradninch

Bradninch is a small town in Devon, England, lying about three miles south of Cullompton. Bradninch dates back to before the 7th century and at this time there was a Saxon fortress on Castle hill. The feudal Baron of Bradninch in the 12th century was Sir William de Tracy, one of the assassins of...

, near Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

, and Lord of Moretonhampstead

Moretonhampstead

Moretonhampstead lies on the edge of Dartmoor and is notable for having the longest one-word name of any place in England. The parish church is dedicated to St. Andrew. George Oliver and John Pike Jones , 1828, Exeter: E. Woolmer. Moretonhampstead is twinned with Betton in France.-History:The...

, Devon. He is notorious as one of the four knights who assassinated the Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

 Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

 in December 1170.

Family

John de Sudeley, son of Harold de Mantes, married Grace de Tracey, daughter and heiress of Henri de Tracey, feudal lord of Barnstaple in Devonshire. They had two children: Ralph, who became the heir of his father, and William. Sir William de Tracey inherited the lands of his mother and assumed her family name, becoming a knight of Gloucestershire, Sir William de Tracey, and holding the lands of his brother by one knight's fee. He married Hawise de Born and had one son, Sir Henry de Tracey (Henry the Hunchback), and two daughters

He also appears in a charter of his older brother Ralph de Sudeley (d. 1192) assigning the manor of Yanworth, near Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

, to the monks of Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

 Abbey. Two of the witnesses to that charter lived on property owned by the Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

 branch of the de Tracys, and two of the English witnesses witnessed a previous charter for Henry de Tracy to Barnstaple

Barnstaple

Barnstaple is a town and civil parish in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England, UK. It lies west southwest of Bristol, north of Plymouth and northwest of the county town of Exeter. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete.It is the main town of the...

 Priory in 1146. In 1166 William held one feu of his brother, Ralph.

William de Tracy made charitable benefactions in France, building and endowing a house for lepers

Leprosy

Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

 at a place called Coismas (Commeaux

Commeaux

Commeaux is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France....

 ?). In addition he made gifts to the Priory of St. Stephen, Le Plessis-Grimoult

Le Plessis-Grimoult

Le Plessis-Grimoult is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.-Population:-References:*...

, lands possessed by the family before all finally came to England.

Becket

Tracy was one of the four knights, along with Reginald Fitzurse

Reginald Fitzurse

Sir Reginald FitzUrse was one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket in 1170.His name is derived from Fitz which is a contracted form of the Norman-French fils de, meaning "son of" and Urse from the Latin ursus, meaning a bear, probable nom de guerre of his ancestor...

, Hugh de Morville

Hugh de Morville

Hugh de Morville may refer to:* Hugh de Morville, or Richard de Morville , Norman noble* Hugh de Morville, Lord of Cunningham and Lauderdale * Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland...

, and Richard le Breton

Richard le Breton

Sir Richard le Breton was one of the four knights who murdered Saint Thomas Becket.He was the son of Simon le Bret or Simon Brito of Sampford Brett in Somerset and a near neighbour of the FitzUrses of Williton...

 (or de Brito) who, at the behest of King Henry II

Henry II of England

Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

 murdered Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

, Archbishop of Canterbury and who afterwards invaded the Archbishop's Palace plundering Papal Bulls and Charters, gold, silver, vestments, books, and utensils employed for the services of the church.

The following is a late 19th century account of the murder of Thomas Beckett:

Sir William de Tracy was one of four knights who at the instigation of Henry II assassinated Thomas a Becket....[T]he four conspirators, Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Brey, entered the cathedral....The three knights...struggled violently to put him on Tracy’s shoulders.....In the scuffle Becket fastened upon Tracy’s shoulders, shook him by his coat of mail, and, exerting his strength, flung him down on the pavement....Fitzurse, glowing with rage...wav[ed] the sword over his head, cried, “Strike! strike!” but merely dashed off his cap....Meanwhile Tracy, who since his fall had thrown of[f] his haubeck to move more easily, sprang forward and struck a more decided blow. Grim, the monk, who up to this moment, had his arm around Becket, threw it up, wrapped in a cloak, to intercept the blade, Becket exclaiming, “Spare the defence !” The sword lighted on the arm of the monk, which fell wounded or broken, and he fled, disabled....The next blow, whether struck by Tracy or Fitzurse, was only with the flat of the sword, and again on the bleeding head, which Becket drew back as if stunned, and then raised his clasped hands above it....[H]e said, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” At the third blow, which was also from Tracy, he sank on his knees, his arms falling, but his hands still joined as if in prayer.In this posture, he received from Richard Breton, a tremendous blow...aimed with such violence that the scalp or crown of the head, which it was remarked was of unusual size, was severed from the skull, and the sword snapped in two on the marble pavement....This story differs from those of the several writers of English history, insomuch, that Tracy simply put his hand on him, and arrested him in the name of the king, but did not strike him; but he was killed by Fitzurse. Before Becket died he put a curse on Tracey's family, a water curse. His family will always have too little or too much water. And believe it or not this has always happened to his family, now the Garnetts, Tracys, and Coogans.

Henry failed to arrest the knights, advising them to flee to Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, and it is clear also that whilst he had an escheat of their properties for a short while, they nevertheless retained them. They stayed only a short while in Scotland, returning to the castle of Knaresborough

Knaresborough

Knaresborough is an old and historic market town, spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located on the River Nidd, four miles east of the centre of Harrogate.-History:...

 in Yorkshire the possession of Hugh de Morville

Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland

Sir Hugh de Morville was an Anglo-Norman knight who served King Henry II of England in the late 12th century. He is chiefly famous as one of the assassins of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170...

 one of the assassins.

Benefactions

It is known that Hugh de Morville, Richard de Brito, and William de Tracy built a church at Alkborough, near Scunthorpe

Scunthorpe

Scunthorpe is a town within North Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 72,514 in 2010. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre,...

 in North Lincolnshire

North Lincolnshire

North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber in England. For ceremonial purposes it is part of Lincolnshire....

, where, until 1690, an inscribed stone on the chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 recorded the benefaction.

The name of the town of Bovey Tracey

Bovey Tracey

Bovey Tracey is a small town in Devon, England, on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the "slogan" used on the town's boundary signs, "The Gateway to the Moor". The locals just call the town "Bovey" ....

 is derived from the river Bovey which passes through the town, and from the 'de Tracey' family - from Traci

Tracy-sur-Mer

Tracy-sur-Mer is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.-History:The city was part of the west flank of the British 50th Infantry Division during the first days of the D-day invasion, in close proximity to the port of Arromanches-les-Bains, also...

 near Bayeux

Bayeux

Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.-Administration:Bayeux is a sub-prefecture of Calvados...

 - who settled in the area after the Norman Conquest of 1066. Sir William rebuilt the town's church of St Peter, Paul and Thomas after 1170 as part of his penance for his part in the Archbishop's murder. In addition he added a tower, chancel, and porch to the church of Lapford

Lapford

Lapford is a village and civil parish in Mid Devon in the English county of Devon. It has a population of 993.-Pubs:There is one pub in the village...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, which was dedicated to Becket, and, according to local tradition, founded a church nearby at Nymet Tracey in penance.

Excommunication and exile

The benefactions failed to impress Pope Alexander III

Pope Alexander III

Pope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181. He is noted in history for laying the foundation stone for the Notre Dame de Paris.-Church career:...

, and he excommunicated Tracy and the other murderers on Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great & Holy Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, is the Christian feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles as described in the Canonical gospels...

, March 25, 1171.

Tracy set out for Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 after the end of September (but before Henry II

Henry II of England

Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

's expedition to Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 in October) when he made appearances in the Shire Court

Shire Court

Shire Court or Shire Moot was an Anglo-Saxon institution dating back to the earliest days of English society. The Shire Court referred to the magnates, both lay and spiritual, who were entitled to sit in council for the shire and was a very early form of representative democracy. The practice of...

 of Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, attesting a quitclaim relating to land of Winchcombe Abbey

Winchcombe Abbey

Winchcombe Abbey is a now-vanished Benedictine abbey in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, this abbey was once the capital of Mercia, an Anglo Saxon kingdom at the time of the Heptarchy in England. The Abbey was founded c. 798 for three hundred Benedictine monks, by King Offa of Mercia or King Kenulf. In...

 at Gagingwell, near Enstone, north of Oxford. In addition, Tracy was present when the charter recording the transaction was offered up on the High Altar at Winchcombe Abbey. Scutage

Scutage

The form of taxation known as scutage, in the law of England under the feudal system, allowed a knight to "buy out" of the military service due to the Crown as a holder of a knight's fee held under the feudal land tenure of knight-service. Its name derived from shield...

 was paid on Tracy's lands that year.

The departure of the other knights to Rome was delayed until two of them, FitzUrse and de Morville, had taken part in the great rebellion against the King of 1173-4

Revolt of 1173-1174

The Revolt of 1173–1174 was a rebellion against Henry II of England by three of his sons, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and rebel supporters. It lasted 18 months and ended in the revolt's failure: Henry's rebellious family members had to resign themselves to his continuing rule and were reconciled...

. The Archbishop's murderers gained their audience with the Pope and who, despite their penitence, declared they should be exiled and fight for a number of years "in knightly arms in The Temple for 14 years" in Jerusalem, and after the given time return to Rome.

Death and burial

There is speculation as to what happened next. Herbert of Bosham

Herbert of Bosham

Herbert of Bosham was a twelfth century English biographer of Thomas Becket, dates of birth and death unknown.-Early life:He was probably born in Bosham, Sussex, from which he took his name.He studied theology in Paris as a pupil of Peter Lombard...

 says that de Tracy did not reach the Holy Land but died as early as 1174 of leprosy at Cosenza

Cosenza

Cosenza is a city in southern Italy, located at the confluence of two historic rivers: the Busento and the Crathis. The municipal population is of around 70,000; the urban area, however, counts over 260,000 inhabitants...

 in southern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. After much examination the present Lord Sudeley

Baron Sudeley

Baron Sudeley is a title that has been created thrice in British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1299 when John de Sudeley was summoned to Parliament as Lord Sudeley. On the death of the...

 dismissed this story as Herbert wishing to give Tracy a sensational end. Tracey's journey east is confirmed by Romwald, Archbishop of Salerno and Roger Hovenden, who says the Pope instructed the knights, once their duties were fulfilled, to visit the Holy Places barefoot and in hairshirts and then to live alone for the rest of their lives on the Black Mountain near Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

, spending all their time there in vigils, prayers, and lamentations. It is thought that de Tracy retired to a hermitage there. Roger Hovenden continues that after their death the bodies of the knights were buried at Jerusalem before the door of The Temple. But this does not conform to the tradition that the murderers were buried under the portico in front of the Aqsa mosque, which was the refectory

Refectory

A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...

 of the Knights Templars.

Another tradition is that the bodies of the knights were returned to the island of Brean Down, off the coast of Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...

 and buried there.

There is a tomb in Mortehoe Church

Mortehoe

thumb|right|250px|Mortehoe, Devon - the main street, looking southMortehoe is a village on the north coast of Devon near Woolacombe, sited on the hilly land behind Morte Point. A nearby village is Lee Bay....

, near Ilfracombe

Ilfracombe

Ilfracombe is a seaside resort and civil parish on the North Devon coast, England with a small harbour, surrounded by cliffs.The parish stretches along the coast from 'The Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay toward the east and 4 miles along The Torrs to Lee Bay toward the west...

 in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 which carries an inscription to Sir William de Tracy. The upper slab of black or dark grey marble, has incised in it the figure of a priest in full vestments, with a chalice on his breast. The inscription is much defaced, Risdon

Tristram Risdon

Tristram Risdon was an English antiquary and topographer, and the author of Survey of the County of Devon. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated around interested people in several manuscript copies for almost 80 years before...

 says:

"On whose mangled monument I found this fragment of a French inscription, in this ancient character 'Syree Williame de Trace-Il enat eeys-Meercy'."

On the north side of the tomb are three shields; the first, with three lions passant, in pale for Camvill; the second, two bars (FitzMartin

FitzMartin

FitzMartin was the surname of a Norman family based in England and Wales between 1085 and 1342.-Family origins:The first known member of the family was an obscure man called Martin, who appears to have died prior to 1100. Little is known for certain of him; he was husband to Geva de Burci, and by...

); and the third, a saltire, charged with three plates. On the same side, beneath plain canopies, are effigies representing St. Catherine

Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius...

 with her wheel, and St. Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

, with long flowing hair. The south side of the tomb is divided into seven compartments, filled with Early Decorated tracery; the Crucifixion forms the subject of the carving at the west end of the tomb. The use of such heraldic

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 shields did not start until 1200 at the earliest, as will be seen from the contemporary depictions of the murder of Becket which show blank shields or mere recognisances, and the well-developed forms seen here are likely to be considerably later. Lord Sudeley insists this is the tomb of William de Tracy who endowed a chantry at Mortehoe in 1307/8 and died in 1322. The priest is described as 'Sir' because this was an oft-used prefix for priests in mediævel times.

Descendants

In 1969 the Master of the Rolls

Master of the Rolls

The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the second most senior judge in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice. The Master of the Rolls is the presiding officer of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal...

 presented Lord Sudeley

Merlin Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley

Merlin Charles Sainthill Hanbury-Tracy, 7th Baron Sudeley, FSA is a British peer, author and veteran right-wing activist. In 1941, at the age of three, he succeeded his first cousin once removed, the 6th Lord Sudeley, to the Barony of Sudeley and until the House of Lords Act 1999 sat in that body...

 to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother as a descendant of de Tracy.

The Most Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold

Frank Tracy Griswold

Frank Tracy Griswold III is an American bishop. He was the 25th Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church....

, former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, is a direct descendant of Tracy.

External links