William of Warenne

William of Warenne was a nobleman of Normandy who entered the service of William of Normandy, later known as William the Conqueror. For his role in William the Conqueror’s conquest of England he was rewarded with numerous estates what made him Warenne one of the richest men in one of the richest kingdoms in Europe.

William of Warenne entered ducal service under the then William of Normandy in the early 1050s as a very young man. For his role in the Battle of Mortemer in 1054 he was granted estates in upper Normandy, but it was the invasion of England in 1066 that set him on the path to huge wealth. Twenty years after the Battle of Hastings his lands extended into thirteen counties, most notably strategically important estates in Sussex centered around Lewes.

After William the Conqueror died in 1087, Warenne supported William Rufus in his claim to the throne against Robert Curthouse and Odo of Bayeux. He was rewarded with the title Earl of Surrey in 1088, but in in the same year he was seriously wounded in the Siege of Pevensey by an arrow in his leg and died at Lewes Priory, which he had founded.

It is estimated that Warenne’s land holdings would have been worth around £10,000 of a £150,000 net national income figure of the day. In 2010 that would be nearly £74bn, a colossal fortune indeed.