The benefactions failed to impress Pope Alexander III, and he excommunicated de Tracy and the other murderers on Maundy Thursday, March 25, 1171.
William de Tracy set out for Rome after the end of September, but before Henry II's expedition to Ireland in October, when he made appearances in the Shire Court of Oxford, attesting a quitclaim relating to land of Winchcombe Abbey at Gagingwell, near Enstone, north of Oxford.