Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: unknown.
Place of Death: unknown.
Relationships
Father: Fulk (III) FitzWarin.
This relationship is recorded in the Romance of Fulk-Fitz-Warin and the Annales Cestrienses. It is given by Suppe.
Mother: Maud le Vavasour.
Chronology suggests that Eva was the daughter of Fulk’s first wife.
Spouse: Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. Married 1239.
This relationship is given in the Romance of Fulk Fitz-Warin (p. 411). It is recorded in the Annales Cestrienses (p. 60) (“mccxxxix Lewelinus princeps Wallie duxit uxorem filiam Fulconis filii Warini”). Llywelyn died in 1240.
Spouse: William de Blanchminster. Married about 1240.
See the Commentary section.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Eleanor de Blanchminster (died between 10 February 1301 and June 1306) married Robert le Strange.
Joan de Blanchminster married William de Barentyn.
Matilda de Blanchminster married William de Brascy.
Evidence
from the Romance of Fulk Fitz-Warin:
[The Gesta is a proto-romance, based on historical events, probably first written in French verse in the late 1200s. The version below is a prose French version from the early 1300s. The information about Eva’s marriages seems plausible, and the marriage with Llywelyn is also noted in the Annales Cestrienses.]
Quant dame Johane, la femme Lowis le prince de Walys, (que fust la file le roi Henre de Engleterre,) fust devyee, pur la grant renoun de prowesse e de bounte qui le sire Fouke aveit, yl maunda a ly pur Eve sa file; e il la graunta, e a grant honour e solempnete furent esposee. Mes Lowis ne vesqui que un an e demi apres; morust, e fust ensevely a Aberconewey, saunz heir engendre de Eve. E pus fust ele espose a ly sire de Blancmostiers, que fust chevaler de grant aprise, coragous, e hardy.
[When dame Joan, wife of Lowis prince of Wales (who was the daughter of king Henry of England), was dead, from the great renown for prowess and bounty which sir Fulk had, he sent to him for Eve his daughter; and he granted her to him, and with great honour and solemnity they were espoused. But Lowis lived only one year and a half after; he died and was buried at Aberconway, without heir begotten of Eve. And afterwards she was married to the lord of Blancmostiers, who was a knight of great skill, courageous and hardy. (Stevenson’s translation)]
Commentary
On Eva’s marriage:
The proto-romance Fouke le Fitz Waryn states that Eva first married Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and secondly “ly sire de Blancmostiers, que fust chevaler de grant aprise, coragous e hardy.” The marriage to Llywelyn seems a little surprising, as Llywelyn seems to have suffered a paralytic stroke in 1237, before the marriage to Eva is said to have taken place, but on the other hand the marriage is mentioned in the Annales Cestrienses. According to Suppe, Fouke le Fitz Waryn was probably composed during the period 1258-1265, or perhaps a little later, and shows detailed local knowledge of the Whittington and Ludlow districts of Shropshire. It is often confused about events in the 1100s, and probably reflects the pretensions of the Fitzwarins of the time (Suppe). Painter argues that the author makes some errors that show he did not have direct contact with the family. Even so, one would think that the Blancminster marriage at least, involving a prominent local figure, would be accurate.
William de Warren de Blancminster, the father of the William who is said to have married Eva, was forced to hand over his castle of Whitchurch to the justice of Chester in 1246 because “[t]he king has learned that there is a frequent passage of his Welsh enemies and those who favour them taking victuals and other necessaries into Wales…through his castle of Whitchurch.” (CPR 3, p. 490). Possibly, this suggests a relationship between the Blancminster family and the family of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth.
Eleanor, daughter of William de Blanchminster, had a son named “Fulk”.
There was a Roger de Albo Monasterio in the period who had a daughter named “Eva”. Chetwynd-Stapylton (p. 24) states that Eva “is described in several charters as a daughter of Roger de Albo Monasterio, Sire de Blancmostiers,” but the example he gives omits the “Sire de Blancmostiers”. I haven’t found Roger being described as the lord of Blancminster anywhere.
References
Annales Cestrienses (Richard Copley Christie ed.) (The Record Society, 1887).
Calendar of the Patent Rolls: Henry III A.D. 1232-1247 (London, 1906).
Chetwynd-Stapylton, H.E. The Chetwynds of Ingestre (London, 1892)
“Final Concords” and “Inquisitions” in Collections for the History of Staffordshire (1911).
“Gesta Fulconis Filii Warini” in Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores (Joseph Stevenson ed.) (London, 1879).
Painter, Sidney. “The Sources of Fouke Fitz Warin” in Modern Language Notes vol. 50, no. 1. (Jan., 1935) pp. 13-15.
Suppe, Frederick. “Fitzwarine family” in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography vol. 19 (2004).
Two Cartularies of the Benedictine Abbeys of Muchelney and Athelney in the County of Somerset. E.H. Bates, ed. (1899).