1265-1346?
Actor: Mark Rowley
- MAIN CHARACTER Attorney. William is a frequent petitioner to King Edward I and II. He is hero Arnald’s cousin. Family land in Sault-de-Navailles was taken. After his parents and sister are murdered by the French William becomes a sniper/assassin. He frequently petitions King Edward on behalf of himself and other displaced Gascons . After S1E1 he petitions Edward, wanting Garcie Arnaud de Navailles arrested as a traitor for his role in the attacks on Saint-Sever and Bayonne. King Edward refyuses to punish GADN and forbids William from doing it either. This leads William to start picking of GADN’s men one by one, with the help of fellow soldier Jacques.
William Arnald de Brocas’s name occurs among twelve of these who were stopping in England to receive their pay. His name is not in another list of twelve who are reported as willing to serve in the * Army of Scotland.’ This was natural on the part of the head of the clan, bound to see himself and his friends righted in Gascony. He now took up his residence amongst his kin at St. Sever, where we soon find him a person of importance, as we shall proceed to show
1315 placed in the office of ‘ Scribanius,’ or Registrar of Port St. Mary at Bordeaux (So in season 2 he’s in Bordeaux?)
Gascon rolls:
1299 0-[In French] Brocas requests that Sandale change the letter under the seal of the Earl of Lincoln, then the King’s lieutenant in Gascony, to the petitioner’s father of a grant for losses incurred by him and his friends of Sault during the Gascon war when they surrendered the town of Sault to the Earl in the King’s name, so that they can be paid in the money of Bordeaux.2) [In Latin] Letter of the Earl of Lincoln dated 20 March 1298 that after Menald, lord of Brocas, and his friends surrendered the town of Sault, he granted them for their losses during the war between England and France 20000 s. of money of Morlaix so that 8000 s. of the said money goes to Menald and his heirs, and the residue to his friends.::A writ should be made to Sandale so that he can change this letter as he has changed others.
1-William Arnold has requested the grant of one of a number of bailiwicks in satisfaction of the debt due to him for his service in the war. He has not been able to have any of these bailiwicks, and requests that he can have the bailiwick of Bonnegarde to provide for him in his remaining years.:Let it be ordered to the seneschal and constable that they are to provide him with a bailiwick that is suitable for him until it is otherwise ordained for him.
2-William Arnold requests that it is ordained that amends are made of the damages and losses made to him and his fellows by the lord of Navailles according to the form of the peace made between the king and the king of France, or that the king will make amends or restoration. By the peace the lord of Navailles was ordered to restore to Arnaud and his fellows of Saintes all their houses, goods and inheritances in the vill, but instead he destroyed them all.: Let it be ordered to the seneschal that he speak with the lord of Navailles that he suffer Arnaud and his fellows to return to their lands and possessions in the town of Saintes as they were before the war, and if does not wish to do this then the king is to be certified quickly so that he is able to ordain of his estate.
3-1) Brocas requests that the king will assign him and his companions land in the prevotes of Dax or St Sever for lands in Sault which they lost because they adhered to the king in the war, and which the lord of Navailles withholds from them despite the terms of the peace.2) Brocas requests that the king will assign him and his companions the issues of the baillie of Saujon and the rents of the forest of Bacones as the king’s father assigned them Sort and Pouillon for money owed to them, but they have been subsequently granted to Borzeys and Clavarie.1) ::The second petition is granted and is to be done.2) Concerning the first let the seneschal be commanded to make letters to them of their lands and possessions according to […].
4-William Arnold de Brocas, burgess of Sault-de-Navailles, states that John de Sescaus, his colleague and uncle, has lived in Bonnegarde, with his wife, children and household, since the day when the Lord of Navailles took Sault-de-Navailles, in great poverty and hardship; and that because of his poverty, he borrowed corn and money to the sum of £10 sterling from Peter de Caseltz, chaplain of Nassiet, John de Casterra, Peter de la Shyte, notary of Bonnegarde, and from Arnold de Costerre, who were keepers of the king’s goods in Bonnegarde. He requests a letter for John to the said keepers, for them to release and quitclaim this sum to him, and to give him his full £10 worth, and that this sum might be allowed in the letters for debts and wages that the king owes William Arnold.::The Constable of Bordeaux is to be ordered to allow him this money to the keepers of the victuals at Bonnegarde, and that this money is to be endorsed on the letters of the said William Arnold de Brocas, which he has under the seal of the Earl of Lincoln; and the said William is to issue a letter to the said Constable that he has received this sum.Entered.
5-William Arnold de Brocas, burgess of Sault-de-Navailles, states that John de Haveringg, Seneschal of Gascony, has delivered to him the bailiwick of Pouillon and Sorde-l’Abbaye, to hold at the king’s pleasure and by his letters, and asks that he might hold them until he has levied £700 of good coin of Bigorre which the king has given him.::Gascony.Coram rege.The king wills that he [hold] the bailiwick until [he has levied] the sum contained in the petition.Enrolled.
6-Petition in four parts:] 1) Arnaud for him and his other friends of the town of Sault for the service that they did for the king and for this that they rendered the town of Sault to the king in the time of the war, and they did not reside in the town as the king did not hold the town in the war. Arnaud requests, that as they lost their rents and lands, and they did not have provision as the other good people had, that their purveyance be made as was granted to them at the parliament at York and at Burstwick. 2) Arnaud states that he requested the bailles of Nancras and Saintonge at the parliament at York and at Burstwick paying as much as any other will wish to give in payment of his wages and debts, and it was granted to him, and he has had nothing. He requests that they be granted to him in the manner requested. 3) Arnaud states that he has the keeping of the bailles of Pouillon and of Sorde, namely by increase, and he requests that the bailles of Nancras or Pouillon and of Sorde be given to him in payment of part of his debts. 4) Arnaud requests that the arrears of rent that he owes for the bailles of Pouillon and Sorde be rebated upon his wages and debts.::Concerning to the first request, he should hold himself content of the grace made to him by the king. Concerning to the second, he should hold himself content of the baille which he holds in Gascony by grant of the king. Concerning the other contents in the petition, this is answered by another petition, and upon this he should hold himself content.
7-Roles Gascons 4785 Translated using Google translate from Latin:
King dear and faithful steward of Gascony, which is now either for the time being, or his deputy, greeting. I understand that, at the village of Saut in our hand the time sufferencie between us and the king of France, mother, brother and sorer G. Arnaud de Broke (See more top # 4745) citizen of the town of Saute, with some countries opposed to us are killed they were, for the fact that the said William of Arnaud there in the service of our morobatur, which is indeed the nations of the fully heard of the death of the aforesaid, and cry; and forbannizate that time, we order you, so the nations of the aforesaid we knew and forms forbannitas, wherever found, they shall be in the whole of our authority, contained in the aforesaid the duchy of Aquitaine, he has them like the murder aforesaid marks (Ms, murder aforesaid) justice to explain, without prolongacione over this way. And this is the same command you want to give to all of our officers in proportion to Gascony. In testimony, etc. Given Westminster,. twelve. April. (1305)
However, I read this not as a petition to the king, but an order from him to his seneschal(?) in Gascony. It does say that the mother, father and sister of Guillelmus were killed by people hostile to the king.. Since Guillelmus himself also was killed in the king’s service and the killers are known, he orders the killers of his family to be outlawed/banished from the duchy of Aquitaine (and brought to justice if found within the area under the king’s rule in Gascony?)
In 1330 he was addressed by Edward III. as ‘ William Arnald de Saut,’ but in 1337 as ‘ William Arnald de Brocas,’ and classed with the five other magnates of St. Sever, from whom the king claims assistance. 1 As this William Arnald’s son was some years previously a Household officer at Edward’s Court, the age of the father would correspond with that of the representative of the House in Edward II.’s reign ; and doubtless it is the same person. These indications of the now settled position of the clan are found at the opening of the Hundred Years’ War. Edward III., well acquainted with all that had passed, and setting Gascony in order preparatory to using it as his main line of attack upon France, finds the veteran, who was bound by so many personal and ancestral ties to England, exactly suited for his purpose. We do not observe that he is placed in any high command, for which he was probably no longer, perhaps was never, fit ; but he is one of those to whom the king entrusts the guardianship of his rights against the King of France, and is at once employed in the fortification and defence of St. Sever, a place of great importance in the future campaigns.
The family were of sufficient position in 1268 to be considerable benefactors of the Monastery of St. Sever, which marks their connection with that city very soon after we first hear of them at Saut, and before they are expelled from the latter place by the lord of Navailles.
At the above date we have the following names : Arnald William de Brocas, and his mother, Guiraut de Brocas ; they are of gentle birth, and their gift is publicly recognised by the sons and heirs- -William Arnald and Arnald William. On the whole, we may fairly pronounce that we are in presence, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, of a large branch of the clan settled at three neighbouring places St. Sever, Brocas, and Saut; and they are people of importance. One of them, Peter Arnald, was a knight.
But in the year 1314 both Philip and Clement died ; and next year William Arnald de Brocas, speaking as the representative of more than eighty of his expelled friends, at last obtains a hearing, By this time death and privation must have also been at work on the ruined House, and considerably thinned the ranks of the supplicants. Kendered well nigh desperate, the outraged Gascon shows that he has carefully studied the parable of the importunate widow. In this one year no less than six royal mandates are issued in answer to as many petitions, and all are in favour of himself and his clan. Arnald de Brocas, who had by this time become the king’s ‘ valettus,’ or officer of the Household, is to be restored to the bailiwick of Agen, but, even now, for a * reasonable price ; ‘ William Arnald is to be placed in the office of ‘ Scribanius,’ or Registrar of Port St. Mary at Bordeaux, a situation which the Earl of Richmond and Guy de Ferrars, commissioned for the purpose, had reported that he ought to have by way of compensation ; and the bailiwick of Talamont is granted by way of special compensation for the rents of the Forestry of Baconeys, assigned by Edward I.’s letters patent, but granted away by Edward II. The full sum due to the claimants is ordered to be paid, and the seneschal is once more ordered to reinstate the petitioners in their lands at Saut. This last order had now become a mere matter of form; but, perhaps, some sort of arrangement was eventually made, for in 1330 both William Arnald de Brocas and Garcias Arnald de Navailles are advertised that a royal commission appointed to settle the affairs of Gascony. 2
(from Beaurepaire book) The career of this William Arnald affords one more illustration of the times. Long after he had lost his patrimony at Saut, and had become at last, with the two offices he had wrung from Edward II., a prosperous man at St. Sever