Wilhelm de Varennes, 3rd Earl of Surrey

Wilhelm was the eldest son of Wilhelm de Varenna , 2nd Earl of Surrey, and Elizabeth de Vermandois , daughter of Hugo the Great , Earl of Vermandois . On the maternal side, William was the great-grandson of the French king Henry I.

After the death of his father in 1138 , William inherited the title of Earl of Surrey and extensive possessions in Yorkshire , Norfolk , Sussex and some other counties of England . In the civil war in England that began in 1135 between supporters of Stephen of Blois and Empress Matilda , claiming the royal throne, Varennes supported Stephen. In 1141 , he participated in the Battle of Lincoln , during which Stephen's troops suffered a severe defeat, and the king himself was captured. Varenn, however, escaped from the battlefield and continued the fight with Matilda. In September 1141, the Empress’s army was defeated at Winchester . Units of William de Varenna also took part in this battle, and then captured Robert of Gloucester , leader of the party of Matilda in England.

In 1147 , William de Varennes joined the Second Crusade in Palestine , organized by the French King Louis VII . On a march through Anatolia, Varenn was killed during an unexpected Seljuk attack.

Wilhelm de Varenne was married to Adele de Montgomery (c. 1119 - 14 October 1174), daughter of William III , Count of Pontier . Their only child and heiress of the possessions of the house de Varennes in England was the daughter of Isabella de Varennes (1137 - July 12, 1203 ). She married in 1153 the first marriage to William de Blois , the youngest son of the English king Stephen , after whose death she married in 1164 a second marriage with Gamelin , half-brother of King Henry II Plantagenet . The descendants of Isabella and Gamelin inherited the title of Count Surrey and the possessions of de Warennes in England and also adopted the name de Varennes.

• Genealogy of the Counts of Surrey