Baron Of Curry Malet William II MALET

  General Notes:

Magna Charta Surety, 1215, descendant of William Malet, Lord Malet, general and companion of William the Conqueror, Baron of Curry, and High Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset.

William II Malet, the Surety of the Magna Charta, was mentioned in 1194 as a minor, in connection with an expedition made that year into Normandy. His principal estate was Curry-Malet. From 1210 to 1214 he was Sheriff of the counties of Somerset and Dorset. When he joined with the barons against King John and became one of the twenty-five Sureties his lands in four counties were confiscated and given to his son-in-law, Hugh de Vivonia, and to his father-in-law, Thomas Basset, and Malet was excommunicated by the Pope in 1216. He was also fined 2,000 marks, but this remained unpaid until after his death, and at that time 1,000 marks were remitted, being found due him for military service to King John at Poitou. It is interesting to note that there were five contemporary relatives named William Malet, and they all held lands in England or in Jersey. He died about 1217, having married Mabel (Alice) (Alicia) Basset, daughter of Thomas Basset, of Headington. She survived him and married (2) John Biset. William and his wife had two sons who died in their father's lifetime and three daughters.

William married Alice BASSET, daughter of Lord Of Headington Thomas BASSET and Phillipa MALBANK. (Alice BASSET was born in 1188 in Bolington, Oxfordshire, England and died about 1263.)