Le Belward de Malpas

The Demolition of the “Belward of Malpas” Myth

The long‑repeated story that a man named William Belward, lord of Malpas in the early twelfth century, married into Welsh princely blood and founded great northern families has circulated for centuries. It appears in Camden, in Ormerod’s History of Cheshire, and in nineteenth‑century surname dictionaries. It is neat, dramatic, and appealing — but it does not survive contact with the medieval evidence.

The long‑standing claim that a man called William Belward, lord of Malpas in the early twelfth century, married into Welsh princely blood and founded great northern families has been repeated for generations, but it collapses completely when set against the medieval evidence. The genuine baronial line of Malpas is well documented from Domesday onward and runs through William fitzWilliam, Robert fitzHugh, and David de Malpas (David the Clerk), whose daughter married Ralph ap Einion; their descendant Einion ap Iago ap Llyw became lord of Bromfield, and the barony later fragmented through heiresses such as Constans, Catherine, and Margaret. This is a coherent Anglo‑Welsh succession recognised in Chester records, Welsh genealogies, and scholarly analysis, and no individual named Belward appears anywhere in it. By contrast, Beluard or Belward is a genuine medieval surname of Norman period origin, found in Domesday Gloucestershire, in the Marches with Beluard de Caerwent, in Herefordshire subsidy rolls, in royal records naming William, Reyner, and Robert Belleward, in the Ipswich visitation, in Whitchurch (Salop) in 1327, and even in Nottingham as Bellewardgate by 1408. This shows a real, hereditary surname widely distributed across England, but crucially never in Malpas or Cheshire during the medieval period. A baron of Malpas would leave a dense documentary footprint, and the complete absence of any Belward in the baronial succession, in Chester Plea Rolls, in Feudal Aids, in Inquisitions Post Mortem, or in Welsh princely genealogies is decisive. The myth arose in the Tudor period, when antiquaries such as Camden blended three unrelated facts — the ancient Malpas barony, the real and prestigious‑sounding surname Belward, and the presence of genuine Belwards in the wider frontier region — into a single invented ancestor, “William Belward, lord of Malpas,” which later writers repeated without re‑examining the sources. The academically defensible conclusion is clear: the surname Beluard/Belward is authentic and medieval, the Malpas barony is authentic and well attested, but the specific figure “William Belward of Malpas” is a post‑medieval invention created by retrojecting a real surname into a prestigious barony and attaching it to a genuine Welsh princely line. 

The real Malpas baronial line

The genuine barony of Malpas is well documented from Domesday onward. Its succession runs through:

• William fitzWilliam, Domesday tenant of Malpas

• Robert fitzHugh, his successor

• David de Malpas (David the Clerk), an Anglo‑Welsh baron

• David’s daughter, who married Ralph ap Einion

• Einion ap Iago ap Llyw, their descendant and lord of Bromfield

• A later division of the barony among heiresses such as Constans, Catherine, and Margaret

Hey, never say never - there are real Belwards in that area later on but this man is a fiction until proven otherwise. AJB.

see Cotgrave & 

THE "MALPAS" FAMILY IN CHESHIRE (BELWARD)

By Darrell Wolcott

      A number of 11th to 13th century men are cited as Lord or Baron of Malpas in Cheshire, beginning with a Sir William de Malpas born c. 1030.  In the 1086 Domesday Book, the lands are described as "2 leagues long and 1 league wide", about 18 square miles.  This tract lies near the northern border of Shropshire and about 6 miles southeast of Holt in Maelor.  Several citations[1] deduce the pre-1066 family there from a "Miles" ap Gruffudd ap Owain and call that Owain "Lord of Holt".  The latest of those manuscripts (17th and 18th century) identify this Owain as a son of Iago ap Idwal Foel.

       Our analysis of the subsequent family suggests the man called "Miles" in those pedigrees was probably the same "Sir William le Belward" found at Malpas.  When the Welsh citations are correlated with those found in the 1580 Visitation of Cheshire[2] (the latter admittedly internally contradictory), and when we learn that in 1086 the lands of Malpas were held by Robert, base son of Earl Hugh the Fat....having formerly been held by Earl Edwin of Mercia[3], a likely scenerio can be put forward to explain how a Gwynedd family ended up in Chester.

        During the late 10th century wars for control of Gwynedd between the sons and grandsons of Idwal Foel, Iago ap Idwal Foel had been expelled from Gwynedd in 974 by his nephew Hywel ap Ieuaf.  Iago took his sons, Custinnen and Owain, and fled to Chester.  Iago was nearing age 60 and his sons were then about 22 and 14 respectively.  They were received by Leofwine I, Earl of Mercia, to whom Iago gave his oath of fealty, preferring that his sons grow up to fight real enemies rather than their own kin.  But in 980 after Iago died [4], young Custinnen had come of full age for Welsh kingship; he forsook the safety of Mercia and joined up with the viking Godfrey Haroldsson to ravage Llyn and Anglesey.  His cousin, Gwynedd king Hywel ap Ieuaf, met the raiders in battle and killed Custinnen. [5] Back in Chester, the young orphaned Owain ap Iago had become a ward of the Earl of Mercia. When Leofwine I died and was succeeded as Earl by Leofwine II, Owain was about 30 and serving as a captain in his army.  He was given a Saxon lady for his wife, together with a small manor in Holt.  These were probably rewards for being a such a loyal ward of the Earl, and indeed he and his descendants were long remembered as "le bel ward" (the nice ward).  His grandson, William, is often cited in pedigrees as William le Belward as though that were his surname.  

        Holt is usually thought of as being located on the west shore of the Dee in Welsh Maelor, but in those days this portion of the present Maelor was a part of Mercia, soon to become part of the Norman county of Chester.  It was not until the reign of Stephen that Welsh Maelor assumed its present boundries, expanding a bit north and east to encompass lands which had been granted to Welshmen.[6]

     About 995, Owain ap Iago ap Idwal Foel had a son he named Gruffudd.  Nothing is known of his career, but his son William born c. 1030 saw military service under Earl Aelfgar.  William likely fought beside Aelfgar and his Welsh ally, Gruffudd ap Llewelyn, in their battles with the Godwin clan.  He is remembered as a professional soldier who, in some pedigrees, appears simply as "Miles".  In others, he is called Sir William le Belward.  About 1060, he was granted a tract of land called Malpas located some 6 miles southeast of Holt.  Shortly afterwards, Earl Aelfgar died and left his realm to eldest son Edwin, a man scarcely 20 years old.    

         A few short years later, the Normans invaded England and set about replacing all the Saxon Earldoms with their own men.  We are told that after securing Chester about 1070, King William I installed a Flemish ally, Gerbod, as the new Earl of Chester. [7] This man was unable to maintain his position against assaults by the sons of Aelfgar and their Welsh allies, and found reasons why his presence was required in Flanders.  He never returned to England, so in 1071 Hugh the Fat, aka Hugh Lupus, was made the Earl of Chester.  Sir William of Malpas was then about 40 years old and had 3 sons yet minors; we suggest he continued to serve his new Norman lord just as he had served the Saxon Earls and now held Malpas as a tenant of Earl Hugh.

          About 1085, Earl Hugh settled the Lordship of Malpas (mostly a landlord's income stream, not actual possession of land) on his base son Robert-fitz-Hugh.  To mitigate this intrusion on the Baron of Malpas, Hugh gave one of his base daughters (Tanglust) as wife to William II, the eldest son of Sir William of Malpas.  The two families (Robert fitz Hugh and the son of Sir William) continued their cordial relationship into the next generation, when a daughter (Mabel) of Robert married William III of Malpas [8]:

                                         CHART 1

             1047  Earl Hugh Lupus      Sir William "le Belward"  1030

                 __________l__________                 l

              l                               l                l

  1072  Robert          1075  Tanglust====William II  1060

              l                                           l

  1100  Mabel================William III  1090

        These dates appear to be compatable with the pedigrees [9] which say that Ralph ap Einion ap Dafydd ap "Miles" married Beatrix, daughter of Earl Ranulf and sister of Earl Hugh Cyfeiliog, the 4th and 5th Earls of Chester. A daughter of that marriage married William le Belward, and had a son known both as "Dan David" and as "le clerc" who was High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1251/52:

                                      CHART 2

                1050  Margaret (a)          "Miles" (b) 1030

                                  l                       l

                   1070  Earl Ranulf I (c)           Dafydd (d)  1060

                                  l                       l

                   1099  Earl Ranulf II               Einion  1090

                                  l                          l

                     1135  Beatrix (e)=======Ralph of Malpas  1125

                                             l

                                   1160  Beannan====William (f)  1150

                                                     l

                                     Dan David the clerk  1185

                                            (lv 1251/52)

            (a) Sister of Hugh the Fat, 1st Earl of Chester

            (b) Sir William "le belward" son of Gruffudd ap Owain

            (c)  3rd Earl of Chester; the 2nd Earl was Richard son of Hugh the Fat

               (d) A younger brother of William II ap Sir William in CHART 1

            (e) sister of Earl Hugh Cyfeiliog, 5th Earl of Chester

            (f) William ap Richard ap William III ap William II ap Sir William

       Another marriage found in the Malpas pedigree material [10] says that David ap William le Belward married Margaret, daughter of Ralph of Malpas.  That this was an earlier Ralph of Malpas can be seen when we date the people in that pedigree:

                                         CHART 3

                            1030  Sir William le Belward

                       ______________l________

                       l                                  l

            1065 Ralph of Malpas           William II  1060

                       l                                  l

            1100  Margaret===========David  1090

                                          l

                             1120  William

        With this marriage, the line of Ralph became extinct and his one-third of Malpas passed to his son-in-law and nephew, David, and thence to his daughter's son, the earliest of the "William ap David ap William" men in the family.

        Yet another citation [11] has David ap Ralph ap Einion, the brother of Beannan in Chart 2, marrying Constance, daughter of Owain Cyfeiliog of Powys.  This link to a well-known Welsh king confirms the timeline of the Malpas family:

                                          CHART 4

                            1090  Einion

                                        l

                               1125  Ralph (a)              Owain Cyfeiliog  1125

                                        l                            l

                            1150  David=========Constance  1160

       (a) The Ralph of CHART 2 who married Beatrix, daughter of Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester                         

            When we assemble all branches of the Malpas/le Belward family into a single chart, the cited marriages all fit into a single timeline:

                             960  Owain of Holt

                                         l

                              995  Gruffudd

                                         l

                      1030  Sir William, miles aka le Belward

                __________________l___________________

             l                            l                                l

1065  Ralph           1060 William II          David  1060

             l         ____________l________                l

             l        l                          l               l

 1100  Marged==David 1090  1090  William III Einion  1090

                       l                                      l               l

      1120  William (a)                 1120  Richard    Ralph  1125

                                                               l           l

                                               1150  William===Beannan 1160

                                                                      l

                                                  1185  Dan David, the clerk

                                                          lv 1251/52

      (a) Pedigrees identify him as holding a moiety of Malpas, or one-half.  He would have inheirited 1/3 from his mother, being Ralph's part, and 1/6 from his father, being half of William II's part.  His uncle, William III held the other 1/6, which descended to Dan David.  The final 1/3 of Malpas was held by the line descended from David of 1060.  The daughter of Ralph shown in our chart, was not an heiress; she had a brother named David who inherited the final 1/3.

   The extant pedigrees all go awry following Dan David.  He actually had no sons, only daughters.  But he has been confused with an earlier "David ap William" in the family and assigned the family belonging to Dafydd of 1090 son of William II.  This family should appear as:

                  1030  Sir William, miles

                               l

                     1060  William II (a)

                      __________l______________

                      l                                      l

             1090  David (b)               1090  William III (c)

                  l                                     l

          1120  William                     1120  Richard

                 l                                      l

         1150  David                            William (d) 1150

                        l                                l

            1180  William                      Dan David (e) 1185

                 l                           l

         1210  David                    daughters

                     l

          1245  Beatrice (f)

                     l

           1260  Isabel (g)

   (a) married a base daughter of Earl Hugh the Fat of Chester

   (b) married his first-cousin, Margaret ferch Ralph ap Sir William

   (c) married Mabel daughter of Robert fitz Hugh

      (d) married Beannan, daughter of Ralph ap Einion ap David ap Sir William by Beatrix daughter of Earl Ranulf II of Chester, sister of Hugh Cyfeiliog

   (e) base son, called "the clerk", often misidentified as the 1150 David ap William

   (f) She held 1/4 of Malpas when she married William Petrie/Patric c. 1260.  He died c. 1275 and Beatrice remarried Rhodri ap Gruffudd, youngest brother of Llewelyn the Last of Gwynedd.  When she died in 1290, her lands went to her daughter by her first marriage.  Rhodri died landless before 1307

  (g) She married Richard de Sutton and her sons received her lands

      In the Appendix following the notes, we present and comment on various Malpas pedigree constructions assembled by others, who neither followed a chronological timeline nor correctly distinquished several same-named men from others found in the family.  The abundance of men named William and David does not make the chore easy.

       Most of our research into this family was done to identify the widowed Beatrix who married Rhodri ap Gruffudd, youngest brother of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd, the latter being Prince of Wales until 1282.  Refer to our paper "Thomas ap Rhodri - Father of Owain Lawgoch" at the link here:  http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id153.html

  (The Rhodri who married Beatrix was NOT the same Rhodri who fathered Thomas, but Welsh academia continues to claim he was.)   

NOTES:

[1] Harl Ms 1974, 32; Peniarth Ms 139(1), 192; Golden Grove Ms, 1259

[2] see the Appendix below for a copy of part of that pedigree

[3] Domesday Book for Cheshire, 2, 4

[4] The last mention of Iago in the Brut is the 979 entry which says he was "captured by the Saxons, and Hywel ap Ieuaf took possession of his territory", but the 974 entry earlier said Hywel ap Ieuaf had expelled Iago from his kingdom".  We doubt he returned when past age 60, but his son Custinnen did a year later, likely after his father died

[5] Brut entry for 980

[6] For a discussion of certain lands held by the Earl of Chester being granted to Welshmen and subsequently added to Welsh Maelor, see the paper "Sandde Hardd of Mortyn" at the link below:

http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id30.html

[7] The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, book iv of volume ii, 219.  In the translation by Marjorie Chibnall published in 1968, see Volume II, page 261

[8] Refer to the following Appendix for the citations from which we extracted the marriage of William II to a base daughter of Earl Hugh the Fat; the marriage of William III to Mabel, daughter of Robert fitz Hugh is cited in Ormerod's History of Cheshire, vol 2, p. 628

[9] Vis of Cheshire of 1580, 160 when combined with Harleian Ms 1977, 54 and Pen. 139(1), 192

[10] Vis of Cheshire of 1590, 160 but see full discussion in the following Appendix

[11] Pen. 139(1), 192 and Harl. 1977, 54

APPENDIX - MALPAS PEDIGREE PROBLEMS:

    1.  Visitation of Cheshire, 1580

     The William Belward (1) is a composite man.  When combined with David (4), William (6), Beatrix (7), David (8) and Beatrix (10), he was born c. 1120, the son of David ap William II ap Sir William of 1030.  But when combined with David (4) who married Margaret (5) daughter of Ralph (2) and Beatrix (3), he was born c. 1060 and is William II ap Sir William. 

     The Ralph of Malpas (2) is also a composite man.  When combined with David (4) and Margaret (5) and William (6), he was born c. 1065, a son of Sir William.  But when combined with Beatrix (3), David (8) and Constance (9), he was born c. 1125, the son of Einion ap David ap Sir William.

      David (4) who married Margaret (5) was not "le clerk" but the son of William II and father of William born c. 1120 whose son David of c. 1150 was the father of William (6) who married Beatrix (7).  They had a son David (8) who was the father of Beatrix (10).  The David (4) ap William (1) WAS "le clerk", born c. 1185.  His father was William ap Richard ap William III ap William II ap Sir William.  David le clerk's wife is not known and he had only daughters.

    2.  Pedigree from Ormerod's History of Cheshire, vol 2, 598:

      Neither David in this pedigree is the man called "le Clerk".  The man at the top is David of c. 1150 ap William ap David ap William II ap Sir William.  The first William in the chart was born c. 1180 and did marry Beatrix, daughter of Robert de Montalt.  This Robert de Montalt was descended from the family of seneschals who served the Earls of Chester, being born c. 1160 and the son of the elder Robert de Montalt, the latter being a son of Ralph fitz Norman.

      Their son David was neither "le clerk" nor "the Bastard", both of those being earlier men named David in the Malpas family.  Since his daughter Beatrix is known to have inherited one-fourth of Malpas, we may safely assume her father was a legitimate heir of his father.  One of the men named William in this David's ancestry had a brother named Phillip Goch, so the half-interest in Malpas originally held by this line of the family had been further halved by the time we reach Beatrix.  It was not the William in this chart who held a moiety (1/2) of the barony of Malpas, but the William ap David of c. 1120 who was also the father of the David at the top of the chart.

      Since there were 3 sons of the c. 1030 Sir William of Malpas, this chart shows how a great-grandson managed to hold 1/2:

                               1030  Sir William  (100% of Malpas)

                    ________________l____________________

                    l                        l                              l

      1060  William II (1/3) 1065  Ralph (1/3) 1060  David (1/3)

            _______l________              l                               l

         l                     l          l                              l

 1090 William III   1090 David==Margaret      1090  Einion (1/3)

           (1/6)        (1/6)   l     (1/3)   

                                        l

                           1120  William (1/2)

      William of c. 1120 had a son David (the man at the top of Ormerod's chart) who had sons William and and Phillip Goch, between whom his 1/2 of Malpas was divided.  Thus all the generations (after David at the top) in Ormerod's chart held 1/4 of Malpas.  The line "daughtered-out" with Beatrix; her 1/4 of Malpas went to her daughter Isabella, thence to that lady's son by Richard de Sutton.

      3.  Other pedigree citations:

           a.  Burke's Dictionary of the Peerage & Baronetage claims that "William le Belward, baron of Malpas, married Beatrix, illegitimate daughter of Hugh, Earl of Chester

           b.  County Families of Lancashire and Cheshire claims that "William le Belward married Tanglust a natural daughter of Hugh Cyfeiliog, Earl of Chester.

           c.  The 1580 Visitation of Cheshire claims that Ralph, Baron of Malpas, married Beatrix sister of Hugh Cyfeiliog.

              Only item (c) above is chronologocally possible as the citations read.  Hugh Cyfeiliog, 5th Earl of Chester, was born about 1147.  His sister, Beatrix, could have been born c. 1135/40 and married Ralph ap Einion of c. 1125.  Any daughter of Hugh Cyfeiliog would not have been born until c. 1175/80; the only William in the entire Malpas family who might have married such a lady is the one who married Beatrix Montalt, the seneschal of the Chester Earls. 

              The Beatrix of item (a) was actually the daughter of Robert de Montalt, while the Tanglust of item (b) was a base daughter of Hugh the Fat, Earl of Chester.  If item (a) had called the lady Tanglust instead of confusing her with Beatrix the sister of Hugh Cyfeiliog, then we'd have the very earliest marriage....that of the c. 1060 William II of Malpas. 

          When we correctly identify the people named in the 3 citations, we would have:

          a.  William II son of Sir William le Belward, born c. 1060, married Tanglust born c. 1075, a base daughter of Hugh the Fat, Earl of Chester

          b.  Ralph ap Einion ap Dafydd ap Sir William, born c. 1125, married Beatrix, born c. 1135, a daughter of Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester, and sister of Hugh Cyfeiliog.

          c.  William ap David ap William ap David ap William II ap Sir William, born c. 1180, married Beatrix, daughter of Robert de Montalt, seneschal to the Earl of Chester.

            d.  None of the Malpas men married a daughter of Hugh Cyfeiliog, but one did marry Hugh's sister.

copyright. Darrell Wolcott. Ancient Wales Studies.