Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cantelupe, William de (d.1239)
CANTELUPE, WILLIAM de, first Baron Cantelupe (d. 1239), was the son of Walter de Cantelupe, and had the office of seneschal, or steward of the household, under John. He executed the office of sheriff for the counties of Warwick, Leicester, Worcester, and Hereford during part of John's reign. He is especially mentioned by Wendover as one of John's evil counsellors, and was not one of the confederate barons in 1215. In the earlier portion of John's reign he was one of the justiciars before whom fines were acknowledged; his name is among those who witnessed John's charter of freedom of election to sees and abbeys. He was in continual attendance on John, taking his side through the interdict and the civil war. After the entrance of the barons into London and their threats against those who had not joined them he seems to have wavered (Wendover; Matt. Paris, ii. 588). On John's death, however, he took the side of the young Henry, was at the siege of Mountsorrel Castle, of the custody of which he had a grant, and at the relief of Lincoln. He was again made sheriff for the counties of Warwick and Leicester, and was justice itinerant in Bedfordshire in 1218. He had the custody of Kenilworth Castle, where he usually resided. In 1224 he joined Ranulf Blundevil, the earl of Chester, in his rising against Hubert de Burgh; but he submitted at Northampton and surrendered his castles with the other barons in opposition. He was with the king at the siege of Bedford Castle in 1224, and was one of those who signed the confirmation of Magna Charta in 1236. He died at Reading in April 1239, and was buried at Studley, where he had built a hospital.
[Annales Monast. i. 104, 112, iii. 31, 87, 100, 122, iv. 430; Matt. Paris, ii. 533, 588, 610, iii. 15, 18, 83; Dugdale's Baronage; Foss's Judges.]