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Fulk I FitzWarin

English marcher lord in Shropshire

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ16837945 ↗
Source-derived summary

Fulk I FitzWarin (born c. 1115, died 1170/1) (alias Fulke, Fouke, FitzWaryn, FitzWarren, Fitz Warine, etc., Latinised to Fulco Filius Warini, "Fulk son of Warin") was a powerful marcher lord seated at Whittington Castle in Shropshire in England on the border with Wales, and also at Alveston in Gloucestershire. His grandson was Fulk III FitzWarin (c. 1160–1258) the subject of the famous mediaeval legend or "ancestral romance" entitled Fouke le Fitz Waryn, himself the grandfather of Fulk V FitzWarin, 1st Baron FitzWarin (1251–1315).

Origins

A later medieval romance, Fouke le Fitz Waryn, claims that Fulk Fitzwarin was the son of a man named Warin de Meer (Modern French: Guarine de Meer), from Metz, in Lorraine. (The Norman French patronymic fitz, is the equivalent of the modern French fils de "son of".) Warin – who appears in Fouke le Fitz Waryn as "Warin de Meer" – is, however, a "shadowy or mythical figure" about whom little is known.

It has sometimes been claimed that Warin de Meer came to England during the reign of William the Conqueror (1066–1087). However, he was not recorded as a tenant-in-chief – a feudal baron who was a direct vassal of the king – during William's reign. Instead, the Fitzwarin family's lands were obtained from later kings.

Career

Fulk was rewarded by King Henry II (1154–1189) for his support of Henry's mother Empress Matilda in her civil war with King Stephen (1135–1154) and conferred to him the royal manor of Alveston in Gloucestershire and the manor of Blewbury in Berkshire.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Fulk I FitzWarin” as english marcher lord in Shropshire. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fulk, FitzWarin and English.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1115, 1170, 1160, 1258—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1115-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Fulk, FitzWarin and English providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Fulk I FitzWarin”, the useful work is to connect “english marcher lord in Shropshire” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16837945. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1115, 1170, 1160 and 1258.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Fulk I FitzWarin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.