WURTS’ MAGNA CHARTA provided a brief accounting of the feudal headquarters of some of the Magna Charta Barons. Some of the castles have been badly damaged. Some have disappeared entirely. Often we can learn of them through Medieval and Renaissance accounts, and some of them require the discerning eye of the archeologist. Others await the evidence brought out with a shovel and pick, by the trained archeological historian.

A portion of the information concerning Surety Baron WILLIAM de LANVALLEI is as follows:

WILLIAM de LANVALLEI, the Surety, died 1217. He was governor of Colchester Castle (see later under Quincey) in 1215, when he joined the insurgent Barons. He also had Stanway Castle, which has since crumbled to dust. In 1212 Alan Basset of Wycombe, co. Bucks (father of Philip Basset, Chief Justice of England, who is named in Magna Charta as one of the King's liegemen) gave the King two hundred marks and "an excellent palfrey," so that his daughter Hawise might be married to William de Lanvallei.