Audley

The Audleys were a marcher family named after Audley in Staffordshire, where their ancestor Adam de Alditheley held land in the twelfth century. Henry de Audley founded the Cistercian abbey at Hulton in 1223 and made Heleigh Castle the family seat while commanding royal castles on the Welsh border.

His descendants acquired the lordship of Kemes by marriage, and Nicholas Audley of Heleigh became the first Baron Audley in 1313. His son James married a daughter of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, and died in 1386. When James's son Nicholas died without issue in 1391, the title fell into abeyance and passed to the Tuchet family in 1408.

A younger branch rose with Hugh Audley of Stratton Audley, created Earl of Gloucester in 1337. The earldom died with him in 1347 and his heiress married into the Staffords.