Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Audley, Henry de
AUDLEY, ALDITHEL, or ALDITHELEY, HENRY de (d. 1246), a royalist baron, was son of Adam de Alditheley, who held Alditheley (Staff.) from the Verdons in 1186 (Pipe Roll 32, 33 Hen. II.). He began his career as constable to Hugh de Lacy (whose first wife was a Verdon) when Earl of Ulster, and, on Hugh's disgrace (1214), attached himself to Ranulph, the great royalist Earl of Chester, and was rewarded by the crown with a forfeited estate (1216-16). He served as sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire 1216-1221, as deputy for the Earl of Chester, from whom he obtained large grants of lands (Cart. 11 Hen. III. p. 1, m. 6). On acquiring Heleigh Castle he made it his chief seat, but was entrusted by the crown, as a lord-marcher, with the constableship of several castles on the Welsh borders from 1223 to his death, which took place shortly before 11 Nov. 1246, when his son did homage (Fin. 31 Hen. III. m. 12).
[Dugdale's Baronage (1675), i. 746; Eyton's Shropshire (1858), vii. 183-5.]