William of Wrotham

Naval administration

William's main administrative work concerned the navy. (His fellow supervisors of the ships in 1204 were Reginald de Cornhill, William Marsh, and John la Warr.) In 1205 he was again one of the keepers of the royal fleet along the south coast. (The ships under Cornhill numbered 10 and were based in London, Newhaven, and Sandwich.)

In 1206 William was in charge of the naval forces in the Cinque Ports and commanded the fleet that invaded Poitou. From 1206 until 1215 he was effectively commander of King John's navy, and helped to develop Portsmouth as a royal dockyard. During May 1208 a royal order was issued that William's deputies in all the seaports should seize any ships in the ports that were from foreign countries, excluding Denmark, Norway and other countries that did not oppose John's diplomatic efforts. A gap in the governmental records does not allow a detailed view of William's activities for the next years, until 1212, when William is shown performing many of the same duties as earlier. He was in charge of repair of some ships and the construction of a large new ship, named the Deulabenit, owned by the king. William was also responsible for impressing privately owned merchant ships into royal service. These ships were used in the naval action of the Battle of Damme at Zwyn in 1213, when a fleet under William Longespee, the Earl of Salisbury, destroyed a substantial French naval force and sacked the town of Damme.

In late 1213 William was directing the efforts of the seaports of south-western England and the Cinque Ports in naval affairs. In 1214 William had custody of some royal prisoners. The same year, the king ordered him to return a merchant ship if he had indeed seized it from its owner, Joscelin de Hampton. Also in 1214, William co-founded the hospital of Domus Dei in Portsmouth with Peter des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester. The foundation was confirmed by the king in October 1214.

John rewarded William for his service with churches in Sheppey and East Malling, which were granted in 1207, and the right to oversee the royal forests in Cornwall and Devon. Other grants included lands in Dartford and Sutton-at-Hone that had escheated to the crown, lands in Westminster and a prebend in the royal ecclesiastical foundation at Hastings. According to Nicholas Vincent, while Roger's account of the exactions and crimes of the members of his list of evil advisers certainly had a strong basis of truth, it was also greatly exaggerated.

In 1215 William joined the baronial rebellion against John, and lost his naval offices, the royal forester's office for Somerset, and custody of Lydford Castle. In mid-1217, William rejoined the royalist cause, returning to the side of Henry III. He is usually given the title of "keeper of ports" or "keeper of galleys", which Ralph Turner equates with being First Lord of the Admiralty in later history. Sometimes this would be given as "custos portum maris" in Latin, or "keeper of the seaports". At other times he was titled "keeper of the king's ships". Bartlett also called William "one of the king's most important administrators". and J. E. A. Joliffe called William one of the "greatest of the king's clerks".