William I de Cantilupe

William de Cantilupe (died 7 April 1239) (anciently Cantelow, Cantelou, Canteloupe, etc, Latinised to de Cantilupo) was an Anglo-Norman baron and royal administrator.

Cantilupe was born c. 1159 in Buckinghamshire, the son of Walter de Cantilupe, recorded in 1166 as a minor landowner in Essex and Lincolnshire, who was a younger brother of Fulk de Cantilupe (died 1217/18), Sheriff of Berkshire in 1200/1. The family probably originated from the Norman manor which is now the small hamlet of Canteloup, in Normandy, 11 miles east of Caen.

He had married Mazilia (or Marcelin) Braci, who had brought him lands in Kent, and was succeeded by his eldest son William de Cantilupe (died 1251). His younger son Walter de Cantilupe (died 1266) became Bishop of Worcester, of which see William had had custody in 1208. A daughter, Isabel, married Stephen Devereux

He died on 7 April 1239 and was buried at Studley Priory, Warwickshire.

In 1198 he was Steward to John, Count of Mortain, the future King John(1199–1216), in which year his uncle Fulk de Cantilupe was also a member of the Count's household. From 1200 to 1204 he served as Sheriff of Worcestershire and in 1204 as Under-Sheriff of Herefordshire. In 1205 he took part in the ineffectual expedition to Poitou. In 1207, he was Sheriff of Worcestershire, serving until the end of the reign of King John in 1216. In 1209, following his appointment as Sheriff of Warwickshire and Sheriff of Leicestershire, his main residence became Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire.

Cantilupe was granted several manors formerly held by rebel barons during 1215-16, at the time of the signing of Magna Carta (1215). He was commissioned by King John to negotiate the return of such rebels to peaceable relations. He served as gaoler of baronial hostages, which action probably gained him the description by the contemporary chronicler Roger of Wendover (died 1236) as one of John's "evil counsellors".

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