He is closely associated to the royal family through his brother-in-law, Henry Lovel, whose wife, Elizabeth de la Pole, was a niece of Edward IV and Richard III.

Sir William's devotion to Richard III naturally earned him Henry VII's disfavor and, according to family legend, he "lived the king's prisoner "[6] after the War of the Roses.

[7] He was buried in the parish of St Gilles,[8] in the village of Great Hallingbury, in the company of his wife Alice, his son Henry, his daughter-in-law Alice St John, his mother Agnes and his sister-in-law Elisabeth de la Pole, niece of Edward IV and Richard III.

[7] After his death, his widow, Alice Lovel, quickly remarried Edward Howard, a British naval officer and the youngest son of the Earl of Surrey.

[6] To be sure that Henry Parker, Alice's son, would not be totally dispossessed of his inheritance, Margaret Beaufort paid Edward Howard 500 marks.