on that festival was seized with a sudden illness. He struggled through the service and even appeared afterwards among the guests assembled in his house. But he felt that his end was near. Poison was at once suspected, and antidotes were administered. But he died on 8 June, eight days after his seizure, and Bishop Hugh of Durham buried his body in York Minster.
Faction had risen to such a height at York that a circumstantial story soon gained credence among William's friends that Osbert the archdeacon had caused his death by poisoning the eucharistic chalice. A clerk of William's, named Symphorian, accused Osbert of the crime, in the presence of King Stephen, and long judicial proceedings ensued. Though the matter seems never to have been brought to a definite issue, so acute an observer as John of Salisbury was not satisfied of Osbert's innocence (Ep. i. 158, 170, ed. Giles). William of Newburgh (i. 80–1), the most critical historian of the time, was, however, convinced by the absence of positive testimony, and the witness of an old monk of Rievaulx, then a canon of York, that William died of a fever. Gilbert Foliot (Ep. i. 152, ed. Giles) was indignant at the baselessness of the accusations against Osbert, but the true issue became rather obscured by clerical opposition to the desire of Stephen, and of the accuser, that the case should be tried in the royal court. The two biographers of William omit all reference to the story, and the writers who mention it generally qualify it as a rumour or gossip. Yet before long the misfortunes and sufferings of William brought worshippers to his tomb. He began to be reputed a martyr, and miracles were worked by him. It was believed that when the old minster was almost burnt down and the tomb burst open by the falling beam the silken robe which enveloped the saint's incorruptible body was not consumed (Vita S. Will. in Raine, ii. 279). The canons of York, who envied the local saints of Ripon and Beverley, were anxious for a saint of their own, and a movement was started for the canonisation of William. In 1223 holy oil exuded from his tomb (Matt. Paris, Hist. Major, iii. 77, Rolls Ser.). A formal petition to Honorius III led to the usual investigations of his claims to sanctity (Walbran, i. 173–5, from Addit. MS. 15352). These, after some doubt, were so well established that in 1227 Honorius admitted him to the calendar of saints. On 9 Jan. 1283 his remains were translated into a shrine behind the high altar, through the exertions of Bishop Bek of Durham, and in the presence of Edward I and a distinguished company (details in Raine, pp. 228–9, from York Breviary). But all the efforts of the York chapter could not secure for St. William more than a local fame; and his shrine, though not unfrequented, was never among the great centres of popular pilgrimage and worship. His festival was on 8 June, while his translation was commemorated on Sunday after the Epiphany.
[The fullest contemporary sources for William's life are John of Hexham's Continuation of Symeon of Durham, printed in Twysdens's Decem Scriptores, and William of Newburgh's History, edited for the Rolls Series by Mr. Hewlett; his life in the Actus Pontificum Eboracensium, generally attributed to Thomas Stubbs, was published originally in Twysden's Decem Scriptores, cc. 1721–2, and is now reprinted by Canon Raine in his Historians of the Church of York, ii. 388–97. There is a manuscript life of Fitzherbert in Harl. MS. 2 ff. 76–88, written in a thirteenth-century hand, which contains little special information. It has been printed for the first time by Canon Raine in his Historians of the Church of York, ii. 270–91, and the Eight Miracles, pp. 531–50. This is abridged in the short life in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Angliæ, pp. 310–11. A few additional facts come from the Additions to Hugh the Chanter, in Raine's Hist. Church of York, ii. 220–7. A full life is in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, tome ii. Junii, pp. 136–46. The modern life in Canon Raine's Fasti Eboracenses, pp. 220–33, where two hymns, addressed to St. William, are printed, collects all the principal facts; Gervase of Canterbury, Hoveden, Annals of Winchester and Waverley in Annales Monastici, vol. ii., Chron. de Melsa (all in Rolls Series); Walbran's Memorials of Fountains, and Raine's Fabric Rolls of York Minster, both published by Surtees Society; Chron. of Melrose (Bannatyne Club); Epistles of St. Bernard, ed. Migne; John of Salisbury and Gilbert Foliot, ed. Migne or Giles.]
FITZHERBERT, Sir WILLIAM (1748–1791). [See under Fitzherbert, Alleyne.]
FITZHUBERT, ROBERT (fl. 1140) freebooter, is first mentioned in 1139. His origin is not known, but he is spoken of as a kinsman of William of Ypres [q. v.], and as one of those Flemish mercenaries who had flocked to England at Stephen's call. On 7 Oct. 1139 he surprised by night the castle of Malmesbury, which the king had seized from the Bishop of Salisbury a few months before, and burnt the village. The royal garrison of the castle fled for refuge to the abbey, but Robert soon pursued them thither, and, entering the chapter-house at the head of his followers, demanded that the fugitives should be handed over. The terrified monks with difficulty induced him to be content
