Ln M M I T E

f h " " Ln m m I t e. Cams um ov m o x g h )

C O N Q U E

EN C O MP A N I S O N S .

9 Q q 3 6 8 W m ] c 3 0 x 9 “ J Rs? LAN O . HE , pl s mn lg' H A o ne r ER LD .

W e ﬁnd but few historians of all ag es wh o hav e been dilig ent in their ea c for t u It is t ei c ommon m et s r h r th. h r hod to tak e on tru st e dls tu b ute to th e P u blic b w ic mea a fal e oo o c e ec eiv e f om m od , y h h ns s h d n r d r a ” — t a itio al to o te it . DR YDEN C h a racter P ol bius. r d n p s r y , Qf y

IN T W O VO L ME U S .

VOL . II . g V

<1;

TINSLEY BROTHERS 8 CATHERINE S S ND , , TREET, TRA .

C ONTENTS .

CH AP TE R I.

PAGE ’ ou de e of o o — u d Av ranch es E of Ra l Ga l , Earl N rf lk H gh , arl — e te eof e de Mowbra o of ou ce —Ro e Ch s r G fr y _ y, Bish p C tan s g r de Mowbray (his brother)

CH A PT E R II.

— — Richard de Bienfaite Baldwi n de Meu les Richard de Redv ers — — Gilbert de Montﬁch et Roger lo Bigod

H A T C P E R III .

— ' H umphrey de B ohun Henry de Ferret s - Geoffrey de Mande — — vﬂle H ugh do Grentm esnil Richard de C onr ci

C H AP T E R IV. — — \Villiam de Albini William Mal et William de Vieuxp ont — — Raoul Taisson William de Mou lins H ugh de Gou rnay

C H A PT E R V. v i CONTE NTS .

CH APTE R VII.

— R obert Fitz E rn eis William Patr y de la L an dc

H A E R VIII C PT .

— — ’ — William Crispin Av enel de Biarz Fu lk d A ulnay B ern ard de ’ ’ t e —R o e t d Oile —J e d Iv ri S . Val ri b r y an

E I C H AP T R X . — — Raou l de Fou geres Errand de Harcou rt William Pain 9 1 ’ — ’ — Walter d Ain c ou rt Sam son (l A n sn ev ille Ham o de Orev o — coeu r Picot (16 Say

CH APT E R X . — R obert Bertram u g h de Port VVilliam de Colombieres ’ ' — Robert d E stou ten lle William Pev erel

H C APTE R XI.

om n o of th e o u e o u e t ﬁe or of W o e e o C pa i ns C nq r r nid n i d , h s p rs nal history nothing has hitherto b een discov ered

IN D E X THE C ONQUEROR AND HIS A I C OMP N ONS .

HAPTE C R I .

RAO U L D E GAE L E ARL O F NORFOLK , . ’ HUGH D A R A H E S E ARL E CHE STE R V N O O . ,

G E O FFRE D E B AY BISHO P CO TA C E S Y MOW R O F U N . , ROGE R D E MOW BRAY H IS BROTHE R ( ).

E E RAOU L D GA L , E ARL OF NORF OLK .

J o e 1a om e de ee st C pagni N l , ” C h al h ev c a Raou l de Gael . R oman d ow e R , 1.

H E RE is another mysterious companion , respecting whom much labour and speculation have been

our expended in vain . All historians are agreed upon THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

ferentl Guader W ah er Gw der y designated , , y , Gael ,

' W Vaca et aite , Ware , and even j , so that it is almost diﬂicult to believe the writers are all Of them really speaking Of the same individual .

one Of This Raoul , however, who was the principal leaders of the Bretons in the great expedition of

m w e h is Willia , and received , as are told , in reward of f ff d services the earldoms of Nor olk and Su olk, marrie , some say with the consent, others in positive deﬁance

z Of, his sovereign , Emma, daughter Of William Fit

O sbern h is , the great Earl Of Hereford , and sister Of

s on son and succes or , Roger de Breteuil , and his very wedding- day joined with his brother -in- law and

W alth eof , Earl Of Northumberland , in a plot against w King William , hich might speedily have terminated

not W alth eof the reignOf the Conqueror had , repent

th e c on ing almost in the same breath , denounced s irators to of p , ﬁrst Lanfranc , Archbishop Canterbury , and then , by his advice , to the King himself, who was

of at that time in Normandy . Roger, Earl Hereford , w as w out seized and thro n into prison , Of which he

O f never came alive ;but Raoul , Earl Norfolk , for tunatel to o y escaped Denmark . His wife her ically defended the Castle Of Norwich until she could make RAO L DE GAE L U . 0

inroad with some forces hastily raised in Denmark ,

w rotec retired to Brittany , here he found refuge and p f V. O 107 5 tion with Hoel , Count Brittany, and in , ’ ] on King William s laying siege to Do , threw himself

w Fer ant a m into the place ith Alain g , th so and suc cessor Of Hoel , and defended it valiantly against the

R w v royal forces . Eventually aoul , ith his bra e and m m faithful Countess , ade a pilgri age to the Holy

m bOth to Land , in which the ortal career Of is said m have ter inated .

These few facts , stated in as few words , are to be

w in our found ith little variation all English annalists,

s or s occa ionally accompanied by a note a parenthesi , containing an assertion or a suggestion respecting the parentage Of this traitorous and ungrateful nobleman . Th e w Saxon Chronicle , hich has been followed by 107 5 some Of the early historians , says , under date ,

av e E R u This, year King William g arl alph the da ghter

rn h Of William Fitz O sbe to wife . The said Ralp

’ w as Br ttisc on y (British) his mother s side , and his

an a father was Englishman named R lph , and born in

rf h is son No olk . The King, therefore , g ave the earl d of and ff wh o W e oms Norfolk Su olk , then brought his if a THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

It was Earl Roger and Earl Ralph who w ere

wh o authors Of that plot, and enticed the Britons

Br ttens ( y ) to them , and sent each to Denmark after a ” f &c leet to assist them , . h In contradiction to the above statement, t at the King g av e to Earl Ralph the daughter of Fitz O sbern w to ife , the majority Of the Norman historians contend that the match was for unknown reasons strictly pro h ibited by the King ;and in as positive Opposition to the assertion that Earl Ralph was British on his

’ m oth er s lVilliam O f h im side , Malmesbury , who calls

’ VVah er on ath er s Ralph de , says he was a Briton his f side Brito ex-patre and Of a disposition foreign to anything good . Matthew Paris and Matthew Of VVest

h im not minster both call , and his father, an English

’ and moth er s of man born in Norfolk, by his side

“ s British parentage , which , ays Dugdale , they understand -to be Welsh ;but others say he was of

Brittany in France , which is the more likely in regard

was th e of e he owner Of the Castle Gu der , in that

’ 7 province . Here we begin to approximate the truth ,

u J umié es in for G illaume de g , describing the issue Of

O sbern one of William Fitz , says that his daughters

Radulf lVaiet named Emma is married to de , g enere AO L DE GAE L R U .

Raol w as Neel rode de Gael . He himself a Breton and led Bretons . He served for the land he had , but

r he had it a short time enough , for he fo feited it as ” they say . In the paper I read at the Norwich Congress of the

a 1 8 5 7 I British Arch eological Association in , gave my reasons for believing Raoul de Gael to be a son of w Ralf, Earl Of Hereford , in the reign Of Ed ard the

I O f w Confessor , who is , think , unfairly accused co ardice in of of consequence the ﬂight his troops , raw levies ,

to on to hastily raised , and compelled ﬁght horseback , w w hich they ere unaccustomed , against the combined

' W son of Irish and elsh forces under Algar , Leofric ,

105 5 I to in . have seen nothing since to induce me m alter y opinion .

was son of a w This Ralph a God , sister Of Ed ard the

of Confessor, by her ﬁrst husband , Dreux , Count the

Vexin , Of Pontoise , Chaumont , and Amiens , and

nephew, consequently, Of the English King. Sir u Henry Ellis , in his Introd ction to Domesday , has shown that the wife of Ralph is named in the survey

Geth a as and Gueth , who held lands in Buckingham shire ;but though identifying her as the mother Of 6 THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

n h Harold , tendi g to show t at she was Of Saxon origin , which view is supported by entries in Domesday Of a ” n AlsiO Godwi , uncle Of Earl Ralph , and an (Alsy), ” w r R nephe Of Ea l , holding land in the time of

King Edward .

Ralph , who is called Earl of Hereford by the

of majority the historians , is expressly described by the old Norman poet Gaimar as Earl Of the East

L euric Angles . He tells us that Count (Leofric) held

Norfolk , and that on his death Raoul (Ralph) was seised of his honour , but held it for a very short time, and w as buried at Peterborough , then called Burgh , Count

Leofric being buried at Coventry .

’ In Duchesne s list O f the names O f Normans wh o

ﬂo urished in England before the Conquest, occurs

“ R C omes E st A n lia H eraldi alph , g , pater dominus de ” S udel of w h y, and in that nobles living in the t entiet

Radulfus year Of King William the Conqueror, , Comes ” ” a u Est Angli e , is marked as mortu s antea . I With all due deference , therefore , cannot accept

’ Mr . Taylor s suggestion , strongly enforced though it be

. R n of by Mr Freeman , that aoul de Gael was the so

R ‘Stalra or nor I n alph , the Staller, can co sent to hear him branded as the only English traitor in that motley RAO L DE GAE L U .

this groundless accusati on Of a loyal and gallant soldier, 1069 D who , in , had repulsed an invasion Of the anes at Norwich while his sovereign was amusing himself

of with chasing the deer in the Forest Dean . What

“ are the words Of VVac e ? He served for the land m h he had . Does this i ply t at he had previously forfeited it by treason ? I think I can prove that he

“ ” was a man more sinned against than sinning .

’ Walter de Mantes , Ralph Earl Of Hereford s eldest

' ac c ordin to t brother ( g my theory), was , toge her with his wife , Biota , basely poisoned at Falaise by William

1065 to the Conq ueror in , in order secure possession

O f C omte O f the Maine , the reversion Of which was , it

’ to is said , bequeathed him by Biota s father after the

or decease Of Hugh Herbert, Walter claiming it in w of . right his ife , and being the popular candidate This infamous ac t is passed over in silence by most of O rderic the Norman historians , but Vital , in his a of - Ixin h am ccount the fatal bride ale Of g , where the conspiracy against William was formed by Roger R de Breteuil and aoul de Gael , represents the latter as making this double murder one Of th e charges a ' gainst the Norman King Of England , whom he

e accuses , and with good reason , Of having also caus d

of the poisoning Conan , Duke Of Brittany, and Of other 8 THE CONQUE ROR AN D HIS COMP ANIONS .

“ of d title King, the Earl is reported to have sai , is

unworthy Of it, being a bastard , and it is evident that it is unpleasing to God that such a monster should govern the kingdom .

“ He disinherited and drove out Of No rmandy \Villiam “f W erlenc s . , Count Of Mortain , for a ingle word alter , w Count Of Pontoise , nephew Of King Ed ard and Biota , w his wife , being his guests at Falaise , ere both his victims by poison in one and the same night . Conan

l ’ also was taken Off by poison at “ illiam s instigation — that valiant Count whose death was mourned through the whole Of Brittany with unutterable grief on of account his great virtues . These and other such crimes have been perpetrated by William in th e case

own n and Of his kinsfolk and relatio s , he is ever ready to act the same part towards us and our peers . There is tolerable evidence that all these charges

an are well founded , at y rate they are not contra

O rderic and e dicted by , who recites them , they hav I never been disproved , and if am correct in my deductions , we have here a very strong justiﬁcation Of R ’ w aoul de Gael s rebellion , hich has been represented RAO UL DE GAE L .

to Opinion , the uncle and aunt Of Raoul de Gael , and

’ of Conan , Duke Brittany, the Conqueror s other victim ,

ow e for t Raoul would fealty his possessions , Montfor andGuader , in that province ;while to those in England

a on he had natur lly succeeded the death Of his father,

re the Old Earl Ralph , and had consequently been warded by William for his assistance at the Conquest by conﬁrmation only in his hereditary rights and

“ “ ” dignity , the land , in fact, which he had , and for which he did service .

Place this unavoidable act Of justice , more than

one favour, in scale , and the base assassination Of his nearest relations and Of his native feudal lord in th e

other , added to the imperious prohibition Of his

w a ra marriage ith Emma , under perhaps the most g g v atin g circumstances , for no reasons were ever given ,

w e and are justiﬁed in believing that William , a

- notorious promise breaker, may have acted towards the

O f Earl Norfolk , as he had previously done towards w w Earl Ed in , to hom he had ﬁrst promised his w daughter, and then broke faith ith him and drove

n I him into rebellio . Weigh , repeat, these injuries I w against a questionable boon , and think you ill agree w ith me , that the Obligations Of the Breton noble to the Norman sovereign dwindle down to a burden not 10 THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . murder and tyranny could not legally as w ell as morally a bsolve him . Who shall say that the very Object O f the astute — tyrant in forbidding the match evidently one of — affection was not to exasperate his too powerful m vassals and drive the into rebellion , as he had

w Morkar previously done Ed in and , so that he might w have a legal pretence , and Of hich he was always so c on unningly careful , for seizing their large domains

— O f 7 in England, course the ﬁrst thing he did do The assertion that the elder Ralph w as an English man for , born in Norfolk, may not be untrue , his m w other , sister Of Ed ard the Confessor , might have

of been in this country , and in that county , at the time h C his birth ;w ile on the other hand , the Countess etha, or w as w was Gueth , probably in Bretagne hen Raoul

i born , from which circumstance he m ght take the name

. Of Gael , as having ﬁrst seen the light in that castle .

Gael , spelt and pronounced Wael , on the same principle that Guillaume and Gulielmus became

and W illielmus Guadel William , was anciently called ,

IVadel similarly softened into . The relics Of St . w A Un in were deposited in a monastery there .

t 1 for e further commu ation Of the ﬁnal r , either by th RAO L GA L 1 1 U DE E .

Guaer VVah er a The other varieties, Gader , , , W re , and lVaiet are evidently errors either Of the scribe or th e

Gw der printer, and y is Obviously a guess originating w in the tradition Of a Welsh mother , hich if Gueth be

a of to corruption Gwyneth is not be hastily discarded ,

particularly when w e remember her husband was Earl

a t w . Vac e Of Hereford j , hich occurs in Neustria ’ “ H ” Pia , and once in Maurice s istoire de Bretagne , may be the name Of some other lordship by which

Raoul was occasionally called , as he appears as Ralph

de de Montfort and Ralph Dol , both castles in Brittany

or t belonging to himself his family , and in the lat er Of which he was besieged by King \Villiam after his w escape from Nor ich . That he has not been mentioned

‘= S udele a s the brother Of Harold , Lord Of yﬁ need surprise no one wh o has any experience of the laxity

of on the Old chroniclers such matters . In the pre ceding volume many instances have been pointed out

of or of their silence , either through ignorance neglect l not . genealogical points , Of equa , if more importance

Few English antiquaries besides the late Mr . Stapleton have turned their serious attention to the investigation

Of the descents Of the followers Of the Conqueror, proud as thousands are of tracing up their pedigrees 1 2 THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

e to them and through them to Charlemag ne , whil others delight in denouncing them as Richard III . ,

Sh akes ere r according to p , does the followers Of anothe ” n fortunate invader, a scum Of Breto s , and

ov e wee of e r ning rags Franc , W h o bu t for e mi on t o ex o t , dr a ng his f nd pl i ,

F or w t of m e oo t e t em e v e . an ans , p r ra s , had hang d h s l s

A Of mere horde , in fact, military adventurers attracted by the prospect Of plunder and power . In the latter class w e have hitherto been led to place I h im Raoul de Gael , but if have correctly afﬁliated , did the blood Of Charlemagne run in his veins , for his

or d grandfather was the son Of Alice , Adele , aughter

- a Of Herbert, Count Of Senlis , scion Of a younger branch Of the Counts Of Vermandois , and with their blood was mingled that of the Saxon sovereigns of

w as - d England , for he the great gran son Of Ethelred , “ Ki ng Of England .

Royal lineage , however , would not advance him in the reader ’ s estimation were he still stained with treason d and branded with ingratitu e . His rank would rather give a deeper dye to his delinquency . But in estab lish in m g his parentage according to y theory, a clear A light is thrown upon his conduct . rebel he

Hav e we here by accident lighted on th e unrev ealed reason of th e ’ Conq u eror s O pposition to th e marriage

E 14 TH E CONQU ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Henry L , King Of England , to whose illegitimate son

afﬁanc edh is Richard he daughter Ita or Avicia, with the

on full consent Ofthe King , who settled her, as a marriage

ortion th e p , barony of Breteuil and the lands of Lire and

’

h er . Glos , which had belonged to grandmother s family

Richard was , however , drowned in the wreck Of the

‘ e and Av icia R Whit Ship , afterwards espoused obert de

Beaumont , Le Bossu Earl Of Leicester . Is it likely that the granddaugh ter of Ralph the Staller ~ would have been proposed as a wife for the son of ? I a king, even though illegitimate Descended as

n co sider her to be , she was a match for the King him I self. will place this simple fact against a supposition

on n h founded a si gle entry in Domesday, w erein Ralph the Staller is given the title of He was no two doubt Comes Stabuli , and so were other

t ll r E s r S a e s a . at the same period , g and Bondy But

‘ R I son Radulfus aoul de Gael was contend , of ,

a of o th e Comes Est Angli e , and not an fﬁcer Of

h e Royal Household , who cannot for a moment placed

“ ” in the rank of th e Master of the Horse of the present RAO L GAE L 15 U DE .

“ Of day, and whose title Comes no more signiﬁed Earl than that of constable does the dignity of that great

“ f L of O ﬁcer Of state , the ord High Constable Eng

” “ land , though derived from the same root, the Count

Of the Stable . Raoul de Gael was a powerful baron

O f Guader Of Brittany, lord the Castles Of and Mont

i “ in fort and large domains , which we are distinctly

w not formed ere his patrimonial estates , and could be

ff to h is a ected: by his attainder in England , and which sons succeeded by hereditary right . Is there the slightest evidence th atR alph the Staller was ev erL ord Of

Guader or m od and Montfort, Of a Of land in Brittany The confusion has been caused by Ralph the Earl and

but e Ralph the Staller having each a son Ralph , ther t is this remarkable dis inction , the son Of the Earl is

C omes w of invariably styled , hereas the son the ” Staller, called Comes , is simply named Ralph . Ita or Avicia Countess Of Leicester is incorrectly set down by our modern genealogists as the daughter

of Ra a for and heir oul E rl Of Norfolk , whom an arbi trary coat Of arms has been invented which is quartered

our ‘ I by many Of nobility. She was , as have shown , his

nor granddaughter, and not his heir ; and neither he

so c his n could ever have borne oat armour , which made 1 6 CON EROR COMPANIONS THE QU AND HIS .

’

H GH D AVRAN C HE S E AR L OF CHE STE R . U ,

Here is a personage who , under the more popular

O f w name Hugh Lupus , is perhaps almost as ell known as the Conqueror himself.

“ lVac e in his Roman de Rou , speaks only of his father Richard

’ D A ran in z v c i fu Rich ar . But it is generally contended that Richard was not in th e wh o battle , and that it was Hugh , his son , aecom

“ anied p William to Hastings . The authors Of Les

le to Recherches sur Domesday, whom we are so d on eeply indebted for information these points , hesi

th e le e tate to endorse Opinion of Mons . Pr vost upon t — hese grounds , that Richard was living as late as 108 2 w , when he appears as a itness to a charter Of

’ Mont omeri Roger de g , in favour Of St . Steph en s at

n son Cae , to which also his , Earl Hugh , is a subscriber .

Their Observations only point, however, to the proba bilit O f 1066 n or y Richard , who in was Seig eur Vicomte of r O f i Av anches , having been in the Norman army n v asion , as he survived the event some sixteen years ; at the same time they deny that there is any proof H ’ H UG D AVR AN C H ES . 17 when be rendered the new King most important ser vices by his valour and ability in the establishment of

m on Willia the throne , and contributed greatly towards

u n the red ction Of the Welsh to Obedie ce . That there is authority for their assertion appears from the cartu

O f t e lary the Abbey Of Whi by , quoted by Dugdal in ” Monastic on w e his , where read distinctly that Hug h Earl Of Chester and William de Percy came into

“ England with IVilliam the Conqueror in 1067 Ann o ” D sexa esimo se tzmo omini millesimo g p , and that the

to w King gave Whitby Hugo , which Hugo after ards

Of gave to William de Percy, the founder the abbey there .

W e O f have here , therefore , a parallel case to that

Mont 01n eri it Roger de g ,Tand must similarly treat as an open question .

R Goz or The descent Of ichard , surnamed , Le Gotz ,

Ansfrid Le Gois , from the Dane , the ﬁrst who bore h 01' t at surname , has been more less correctly recorded ,

“ ” but in Les Recherches it will be found critically

Ron wald R aun waldar examined and carried up to g , or g , Earl Of Maere and the Oreades in the days Of Harold

Harfa er or - s Ron wald g , the Fair haired ; which aid g w as or th e the father Of Hrolf, Rollo , ﬁrst Duke Of

A u i 2 . Mon . . ol . v . . 7 g , p

VO L II . . 18 THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

R on wald of Normandy . g , like the majority his country men and kinsmen , had several children by a favourite slave , whom he had married and Hrolf

Turstain , the son Of one Of them , having followed his

s uncle Rollo into Normandy , managed to ecure the

Gerlotte hand Of de Blois , daughter Of Thibaut Count w Of Blois and Chartres , hich seems to have been the foundation of this branch of the great Norse family in

Normandy , and the stock from which descended the

Bri uebec - C ris in of Montfort- - R Lords Of q , OfBec p , sur isle , and others who ﬁgure as companions Of the Conqueror .

Gerlotte Ansfrid D The third son Of was the ane , the

ﬁ O f Hiemois Ansfrid rst Vicomte the , and father Of the

Goz e son second , surnamed , above mention d , whose

Turstain or Goz was (Thurstan , Toustain) the great

D of m favourite Of Robert uke Nor andy, the father Of the Conqueror , and accompanied him to the Holy

to . s Land , and was intrusted bring back the relic the

Duke had Obtained from the Patriarch Of Jerusalem to

of h ad present to the Abbey Cerisi , which he founded . Revolting against the young Duke William in

Turstain was exiled, and his lands conﬁscated and given

D Herlev e Herluin by the uke to his mother, , wife Of de Conteville .

’ Goz d Av ranch es or ro Richard , Vicomte , more p H GH ’ E S 19 U D AVRAN C H .

one s O f - perly Of the Avranchin , was Of the son the a Turstain Mon foresaid , by his wife Judith de tanolier not e , and appears only to have avoid d being implicated in the rebellion Of his father, but obtained his pardon and restoration to th e

e Hiemois wh at Vicomt Of the , to ich his death he succeeded , and to have strengthened his position at c ourt by securing the hand of Emma de Conteville , one of dau h ters of Herluin Herlev e the g and , and half sister Of his sovereign . By this fortunate marriage he naturally recovered the lands forfeited by his father and on - in- bestowed his mother law, and acquired also

Of much property in the Avranchin , which he Obtained

e Hiemois the Vicomt , in addition to that Of the .

There was every reason , therefore , that he should follow his three brothers - in- law in the expedition to

or England , if not prevented by illness imperative c ircumstances . He must have been their senior by s ome twenty years , but still scarcely past the prime

son Of life , and his Hugh a stripling under age , as O his mother, if even Older than her brothers do and

R not 103 0 obert , could have been born before , and if

son 1066 married at sixteen , her in would not be m nt ore than ni e een at the utmost . Mr . Freeman, who places the marriag e Of Herlev e with Herluin after the 20 TH E CONQUE ROR AND H IS COMPANIONS .

n calculation by at least six years , renderi g the pre sence of her grandson Hugh at Senlac more than l t problematica . It is at any rate clear that he mus have been a very young man at the time Of th e

Conquest . That “ he came into England w ith William the ” Conqueror , as stated by Dugdale , does not prove that he was in the army at Hastings , and is recon

“ ” c ilable R with the assertion in the echerches , that h e joined him after the Conquest, corroborated by the

O f v cartulary Whitby , before mentioned ; ery pro bablv w 1067 coming ith him in the winter Of , and

Mont omeri in company with Roger de g , respecting whose ﬁrst appearance in England the same diversity

O f Opinion exists, and it might be his assistance in suppressing the rebellion in the \Vest and other parts of the kingdom that gained him the favour Of the King,

e and ultimately the Earldom Of Chester, at that tim

Gh erbod Gundrada enjoyed by the Fleming, brother Of .

of IVh itb The gift y, in Yorkshire , to Hugh , which

v he soon afterwards ga e to William de Percy, would seem to show that he had been employed against th e 1068 rebels beyond the Humber in .

2 2 THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

w barbarousl reign ;he is charged , ho ever , with having y

d - in- blinde and mutilated his brother law, William

’ d E u " Comte , who had been made prisoner in that abor

In s of tive uprising . the same year he is al o accused committing great cruelties upon the Welsh in the Isle

Of Anglesea , which he ravaged in conjunction with

Mont om eri r wh o t Hugh de g , Earl Of Sh ewsbury , los his life at that period in resisting the landing of th e

w III O f w Nor egians under Magnus . , King Nor ay .

‘ The Norse poet tells us the Earl O f Shrewsbury w as so completely enveloped in armour that nothing could

“ of let be seen his person but one eye . King Magnus r ﬂy an a row at him , as also did a Heligoland man

stoodb eside who the King . They both shot at once .

one - The shaft struck the nose guard Of the helmet ,

on one and bent it side , the other arrow hit the Earl

in the eye and passed through his head , and this arrow

’ ” was found to be the King s .

Giraldus C ambrensis d gives a similar account , ad ing s m few o e details , such as the derisive exclamation Of

” ' “ " Magnus , Leit loupe Let him leap " as the Earl

‘ s ﬁ Om th e saddleu wh en S prang truck , and fell dead into the sea . H GH D’ A RA N C H E 23 U V S .

“ . . u or the Fat His popular name Of L pus , the Wolf,

not to to own oh is be traced his times , and Dugdale serves that it was an addition in after ages for the I sake Of distinction ;about the same time , presume , that the heralds invented the coat Of arms for him —“ ’ — Azure , a wolf s head , erased , argent suggested , probably, by the name , which , if indeed Of contempo rary antiquity, might have been given him for his

to O rderic gluttony, a vice which says he was greatly

“ “ not addicted . This Hugh , he tells us , was merely

not i liberal , but prodigal ; satisﬁed with be ng sur

d on rounde by his Own retainers , he kept an army

or foot . He set no bounds either to his generosity

own his rapacity . He continually wasted even his

m o wh o do ains , and gave more encouragement to th se attended him in hawking and hunting than to the cul tiv ators th e or Of soil the votaries Of Heaven . He indulged in gluttony to such a degree that he could s carcely walk . He abandoned himself immoderately to carnal pleasures , and had a numerous progeny

of of . illegitimate children both sexes , but they have been almost all carried Off by one misfortune or ” another . With all this he displayed that curious veneration

so for the Church common to his age , which ill accorded with the constant violation Of its most divine precepts . 24 THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

He founded the Abbey Of St. Sever in Normandy, and was a great benefactor to those Of Bee and O uche

(St . Evroult) in that duchy, and also to the Abbey Of 1092 Whitby in Yorkshire , and in restored the ancient

lVerbur h w Abbey Of St . g at Chester , and endo ed it

n with ample possessions , substituting Be edictine monks in lieu of the secular canons wh o had previously

o occupied it ; Richard , a monk Of Bec , being br ught

’ over by Abbot Anselm , the Earl s confessor and w after ards the great Archbishop of Canterbury , to be the ﬁrst abbot Of the new community .

roﬂi ate Being seized with a fatal illness , this pious p g

of assumed the monastic habit in the Abbey St . t m Werburgh , and three days af er being shorn a onk d 6th of 1 101 ied therein , kalends August (July .

By his Countess Ermentrude , daughter Of Hugh

m Beauv oisis Co te de Clermont, in , and Margaret de

B w one son a ouci , his ife , he had , Rich rd , seven years

’ of th e O f age at time his father s death , who succeeded h im in the earldom , married Matilda de Blois , daughter

Of Of Stephen , Count Of Blois , by Adela , daughter lVilliam w the Conqueror, and perished ith his young wife in the fatal wreck Of the White Ship in leaving no issue . F E BISHOP CO TANCE S . 25 GEO FR Y , OF U

E BISHOP CO TANCE S . G OFFREY DE MOWBRAY , OF U

O f this unquestioned companion Of th e Conqueror w we have already heard , in conjunction ith his eccle

siastic al - in— O brother arms , do , Bishop Of Bayeux , by

w on hose side he fought, if not at Senlac , at least

o w ther occasions , and at hose trial he presided when that rapacious primate was impleaded by Lanfranc for despoil’ing the see Of Canterbury Of much Of its

property .

u O rderic D gdale , apparently quoting Vital , says ff that Geo rey , being Of a noble Norman extraction , and m ore skilful in arms than divinity , knowing better how

n to train up soldiers than to i struct his clergy, was an

eminent commander in that signal battle near Hastings ,

in Sussex .

The words O f Orderic are not quite so precise as

respects the battle ;he says that the Bish op rendered

essential service and support at it, but neither by him nor by any other writer is it indicated that he was intrusted w r ith a command in it . Wace describes him as e c eiv in g confessions , giving benedictions , and imposing

n on but not as pe alties the night before the battle , 2 6 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

possible to belie v e he could withstand the temptation .

Moubrai The Sire de , however, mentioned as a

w as Moubrai combatant by the Norman poet, Roger de , brother Of the Bishop , and father Of Robert de Mowbray,

Earl Of Northumberland. Montbrai (Moubrai) is a commune in the canton Of

d LO. c or Percy, arron issement of St . Its name was ru ted ft p in England into Mowbray , which , a er its

a assumption by the f mily Of Albini , I need scarcely

of Observe , became one the noblest in England Bishop Geoffrey appears to have preferred th e

of LO f Mon brai . O t name St to that , and we ﬁnd him therefore described as De S ancto Laudo and St .

Loth .

The ﬁrst time we hear of him after th e battle is at the coronation Of William in Westminster Abbey, w “ ” hen , at the instigation Of the Devil , says the pious

O rderic , an unforeseen occurrence , pregnant with mis

of a chief to both nations and an omen future cal mities,

For th e suddenly occurred . when Aldred , Archbishop ,

h G ff Of demanded Of the Englis , and eo rey, Bishop

Coutances , Of the Normans , whether they consented to have William for their King, and the whole assembly

one one n with voice , though not in la guage , shouted BISHOP CO TANCE S . 27 GEOFFREY , OF U

not a lang uage they did understand , suspected some

to treachery, and rashly set ﬁre the neighbouring houses .

T h e w ﬂames spreading , the congregation , seized ith

to a panic , rushed to the doors in order make their

of u escape , and a scene the utmost conf sion ensued , during which the ceremony Of the coronation was with

ffi di culty completed by the trembling clergy, the mighty

not Conqueror himself being seriously alarmed , so much for his life as for the evil effects O f this untoward

n w event upon his e subjects .

1069 “f Of In , when the est Saxons Dorset and

on Somerset made an attack Montacute , Bishop

in Geoffrey, at the head Of the men Of London , W chester , and Salisbury , fell upon them by surprise and

to w routed them , putting many the s ord and miserably mutilating the prisoners . In 107 1 he was appointed to represent the King at

Odo on the trial Of Bishop , the complaint Of the Arch

O f l bishop Canterbury, as a ready mentioned ; and three years later we ﬁnd him again in arms beside that same

O to of do , marching suppress the rebellion the Earls of for Hereford and Norfolk, and these and other ser

“ vices he wasﬁ rewarded by the Conqueror with tw o v hundred and eighty ills , which are commonly called

7 2 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Of An assistant at the coronation the Conqueror, he

on 2 nd w as an attendant at his funeral, and died the

1093 - 4 v d Of February , , lea ing his large omains in w t England to his nephe , Rober , Earl Of Northumberland ,

O f Moubrai son his brother , Roger de , who fought at

of w Senlac , but hom , strange to say , there appears no trace whatever Of any beneﬁt accruing to him for his services in that important action . His son ,

Mow brav O f n Robert de , Earl Northumberla d , having joined in the conspiracy against W ’ illiam Rufus in

1095 was , taken prisoner, and languished , we are

' W O rderic told , thirty years in a dungeon at indsor . describes h im as distinguished for his great power and wealth , his bold spirit and military daring causing m him to hold his fellow nobles in conte pt, and being w inﬂated ith empty pride , he disdained Obedience to

w as his superiors . In person he Of great stature ,

Of size , and strength , a dark complexion , and covered w was ith hair . He bold , but at the same time

. crafty His features were melancholy and harsh . k He reﬂected more than he tal ed , and scarcely ever wh smiled en he was speaking .

3 0 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

f w t o . Coutances , i nesses the charter foundation Of St

’ “ Mary s at York as Governor Of the earldom : E 0 — temp ore N ortﬁymbroru m C onsulatam reg ebat, an ofﬁce which we have seen stated to have been held by tValch er O f , Bishop Durham , after the judicial murder

' of W alth eof , and previous to the gift of the earldom

or to Alberic . The latter may have either resigned forfeited the earldom when he left England on his

Grecian expedition , and Bishop Geoffrey held the

of 1093 government the county until his death in , w hen his nephew Robert, succeeding to all his vast

w as estates , probably advanced to the dignity Of Earl of orth umberland u N by R fus . At any rate , I have n ot been able to arrive at any nearer approach to the fact .

was The wife Of this Robert Matilda , daughter Of

’ l Ai le u Richer de g , by his wife Judith , sister Of H gh ,

Orderic Earl Of Chester . informs us that their union t ook place only three months before his insurrection , and that she w as therefore early deprived Of her

' to dee ff husband , and long exposed p su ering, as during

not th e law God his life she could , according to , Of ,

n . marry agai At length by licence Of Pope Paschal , BISHOP CO ANCE S 3 1 T . GEOFFREY , OF U

I have only mentioned the fact here as affecting the

l ; date Of the dissolution Of the marriage , Pascha II

15 . having succeeded to the chair Of St . Peter , th June

1099 2 1 s 1 t 1 18 . , and dying June ,

O rderic h is 7th R Vital says in Book , that obert de Mowbray was detained in captivity by Rufus and

- his brother Henry for nearly thirty four years , living

to . an advanced age, without having any children In

8 th s his Book , he reduce the term to thirty years ,

“ adding that he grew Old while paying the penalty Of h is crimes . Admitting the shortest period , his death

n 12 w ot 1 5 . h o could have occurred before Dugdale ,

1 106 w n gives the earlier date Of , ith the additio of of the statement his being shorn a monk at St .

not Albans , takes the slightest notice Of these contra

’ to i dictions . His reference is Vincent s Disc ov er e Of

’ ” wh o Brooke s Errors ; but if it be an error Of Brooke ,

no for not quotes authority his statement, Vincent has

too corrected him , which he would have been happy ff to do had it been in his power . The di erence

or - - between eleven years and thirty , four and thirty, is rather an important one ;but I have been unable as yet

s n to light upon any fact which would decide the que tio , which is only important in this inquiry as bearing upon another—was he Old enough in 1066 to be

“ present at Hastings with his father Roger , the Sire COMPANIONS 3 2 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS .

Molbrai IV be de of ace, and therefore entitled to included amongst the companions Of the Conqueror ? If so , he must have been close upon ﬁfty at the time

O rderic Of his marriage , and , according to , an narian at that Of his death . C HAPTE R II .

C D BIEN AI TE G E DE MO NT FIC H ET . RI HAR DE F . ILB RT

E L E O D . BALDW IN DE MEU LE S . RO G R BIG

RI CHARD DE RE DVERS .

RICHARD DE BIE NFAITE

THIS great progenitor Of the illustrious house of

of Clare , Of the Barons Fitzwalter, and the Earls

son Gloucester and Hertford was the Of Gilbert, sur

of named Crispin , Comte d Eu and Brionne , grandson

R I D of ichard . , uke Normandy . Count Gilbert was one D Of the guardians Of the young uke William , and was murdered by assassins employed by Raoul de e Gac , as already related in the memoir Of the Con

r r v l i i u u o o . . rd r e . O e c s q ( , p gives the name — of one of the assassins Robert de Vitot ; and Guil laume de Jumiég es tells us that two Of the family of Giroie fell upon and murdered him when he was

E h f n r sc a our o . peaceably iding near , expecting evil This appears to have been an act Of vengeance for wrongs inﬂicted upon the orphan children Of Giroie 3 4 THE CONQUE ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Gacé by Gilbert, and it is not clear what Raoul de had to do in the business .

’ m ‘ Fearing they might eet their father s fate , Richard and his brother Baldwin were conveyed by their

f . riends to the court Of Baldwin , Count Of Flanders On the marriage Of Matilda Of Flanders to Duke 105 3 William in , the latter, at the request Of the

ﬁefs Count, restored to the two sons Of Gilbert the which in their absence he had seized and appro

riated n p , Richard receivi g those Of Bienfaite and

O th e Benefacta rbec , from ﬁrst Of which , latinized , he derived one Of the various names whereby he is de signated and the reader Of history mystiﬁed .

By Wace , who includes him among the combatants in the great battle , he is called

Dam Richart ki tient Orbec

of and the exchange Brionne for Tunbridge , in the c ounty Of Kent, obtained for him the appellation of

of Richard Tunbridge . At the same time the g ift of the honour Of Clare in Suffolk added a fourth i name to the list, which is swelled by a ﬁfth , descript ve of . his parentage , viz , Richard Fitz Gilbert . RIC D E BIE NF AITE 3 5 HAR D .

In the exchange Of the properties above mentioned a most primitive mode Of insuring their equal value was resorted to . A league was measured with a rope round the Castle Of Brionne , and the same rope being

to brought over England , was employed in meting out a league round Tunbridge ; so that exactly the same number of miles was allotted to the latter estate

"6 to as the former had been found contain . Besides d Tunbri ge , Richard possessed at the time Of the com p ilation Of Domesday one hundred and eighty- eight

-ﬁv e manors and burgages , thirty being in Essex and

- ﬁv e f ninety in Suf olk . He was associated with William de Warren as

’ High J usticiaries Of England durin g the King s visit

1067 a to Normandy in , and ctively assisted in the suppression Of the revolt Of the Earls Of Hereford and

Norfolk . Dugdale and others have confounded this Richard Fitz Gilbert or de - Clare with his grandson of the same n ame , who was waylaid and killed by the Welsh

ow orth - a - O w chieftains , J and his brother Morgan p en ,

“ ” w -w a of in a oody tract called the ill y Coed Grano ,

a th e Of Lanth on R ne r Abbey y, in ichard , the t son Of Gilbert Crispin, would at that da e have been 3 6 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

nearly, if not quite , a hundred years Old and the

“ in Richard slain the Wood Of Revenge , as it is. still called to this day , was the second son Of the

Gilbert wh o was lord Of Tunbridge at the beginning

Of of Of the reign Rufus , and joined in the rebellion O 108 8 O f . do , Bishop Bayeux , against that monarch in i Vide . . ( vol , page The pedigree Of this family is one of the most c on

’ “ ” in Du dale s fused g Baronage , and has been the subject Of some very severe comments by Mr. Hornby ,

who , while conferring great Obligations upon us by his

of correction the errors into which Dugdale has fallen , forgot those we are under to the learned and laborious herald for the mass of information collected and ren dered accessible to us by his research and industry, and which he made doubly valuable by faithfully indicating the innumerable sources whence it was derived , enabling us to test the accuracy Of his quotations and the credibility Of the evidence . For tunatel Of y, my present task is limited to the life

Richard de Bienfaite , which must have terminated

or either before very early in the reign Of Rufus , as

Th i s later Richard Fitz Gilbert is th e one wh o was taken prisoner o e t de Belesme at th e e e O f C ou rci 109 1 d to v e by R b r si g in , and sai ha e e tu f om e v th e effe t of h is in ca1 ceratio11 Q i d Vit . di d n ally r c s ( , lib i v . . w it 1 3 e h e di no ii , cap hich cl ar d t.

N 3 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPA IONS. behind them till the troops had p assed ;but he was s uddenly confronted by a man of enormous stature ,

wh o " wielding a massive club , shouted to him , Stand

7 ) u ' t Take not a step f rther The pries , frozen with

on f terror , remained motionless , leaning his sta f. The

- h im gig antic club bearer stood close beside , and with out f Of ering to do him any injury, awaited silently the passage Of the troops . The moon , we are assured , shed a resplendent light, and speedily there appeared an apparently interminable procession of deceased persons

O f both sexes and all classes , amongst whom the priest recognised many Of his neigh bours wh o had lately died , and heard them bewailing the excruciating torments they w ere suffering for the evil they had w done in their time . There ere also ladies Of high

mirabile diam rank , and , , bishops , abbots , and monks ,

on h many of whom were considered saints eart , all w groaning and wailing, and these were follo ed by a

O f on war mighty host warriors , fully armed , great

n horses , and carryi g black banners . There were seen ,

tic h ard says the narrator, and Baldwin , sons Of Count

wh o were latel dead Gilbert, y , and amongst the rest

O f O Landri rbec , who was killed the same year ; W ’ m William de Glos , son of Barno , the steward Of illia

IVilliam de Breteuil and Of his father, , Earl Of Here

’ ; R le th e s ford and obert, son Of Ralph Blond , priest D BIE NF AITE 3 9 RIC IIAR DE .

own brother, with whom he had a long conversation

on family matters . I will spare the reader the more preposterous details Of this absurd story and the sermons with which it is

O rderic interlarded , merely Observing that , who relates

’ own it, assures us that he heard it from the priest s

saw on mouth , and the mark his face which was left

n \Ve by the ﬁery hand Of o e Of the terrible knights .

one have , therefore , incidental evidence Of fact recorded in it, the death Of Richard de Bienfaite

h is be ore 1091 or and brother Baldwin , f January, , ,

our 1090for O rderic according to present calculation , , sometimes begins his year at Christmas , and at others at Easter .

w Of The ife Richard de Bienfaite , Lord Of Tunbridge

Roh esia and Clare , was , the only daughter Of Walter

Giﬂard , the ﬁrst Earl Of Buckingham , and by her he R had six sons , Godfrey , obert (from whom the Barons W ’ Fitz alter), Richard , a monk at Bec , Walter and

wh o wh o Roger , both died without issue , and Gilbert, t h succeeded him , and became the dire c progenitor Of t e great Earl Of Hertford and Gloucester . He had also two Roh esia wi of D daughters , , fe Eudo apifer, and

wh o R Tel ers another unnamed , married alph de g . The fact that the ﬁrst Fitz Walter was the great grandson of Richard de Bienfaite is sufficient to prove 4 0 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

’ that his (Fitz IValter s) name was subsequently intro duced into the Roll of Battle Abbey.

BALDW IN DE ME ULE S .

This younger brother of Richard de Bienfaite is not

“ distinctly mentioned in the Roman de R ou in the

n le list of the Norman knights at Hasti gs ;but M . Prevost considers him to have been the personage spoken of as

ki fu i1 e d e e Cil S e R v i rs .

w h nd th e wh o Not ithstanding t at, he conte s ﬁrst R R assumed the name Of eviers was ichard , the son

w n wh o 1 08 2 h Of this Bald i , in witnessed a c arter to th e Ibeliev e to Abbaye aux Dames , in which him be mistaken .

Wace so constantly leaves 11s to discover who was

“ ” the sire of the ﬁef he mentions at the date of the

son Conquest, and confounds the with the father, that

le e M. Pr vost may be excused for his belief could he prove that Richard Fitz Baldwin was ever called

“ ” C reulli a De Reviers , a vill near , rrondissement Of

Caen , from which the family of Rivers derived their name .

not th e Richard , indeed, could have been in battle,

’ e as he was living seventy years aft rwards , and could r 1 66 scarcely have been bo n in 0 . BALD IN M LE S 4 1 W DE E U .

0 O f N special deeds are , however , recorded the Sire

R He de eviers in that memorable conﬂict . is only

' to manv wh o said have brought with him knights ,

t in were foremos the ﬁght, and trampled down the

w - English with their po erful war horses .

re Whatever were the services Of Baldwin , he was

warded by th e gift Of one hundred and sixty- four manors

w t O f one ﬁft - in the es England , hundred and y nine

being in the county OfD evon , besides nineteen houses in

t a on Exeter, and a site wi hin the w lls to build a castle

for own his residence , the government Of the city and

the shrievalty of the county being conﬁded to him .

w or He is therefore called Bald in the Viscount, the

r ff w of to She i , and Bald in Exeter, in addition his

w dc w Norman appellations , Bald in Sap , Bald in de

or de two Meules , , as it is latinised , Molis (the estates which were restored to h im by Duke lVilliam at the same time that his brother Richard received Bienfaite

O w n and rbec), and his patronymic Bald i Fitz Gilbert

or w de Brionne , sometimes simply Bald in de Brionne . Under each Of these names he will be met with in

ff h th e di erent c ronicles and histories , to bewilderment

Of the readers unversed in Norman genealogy .

ale h is Albreda wh o By wife , is said to have been a

u e O e ou e e h er ece to K am D gdal ddly n gh d scrib s as ni ing Willi , ” VlZ . u , te of u . c ev e sh e m be sh e ou n ot be da gh r his a nt Whi h r ight , c ld 42 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

O f e daughter an aunt Of the Conqueror , and by som

his niece , he had issue three sons , Richard , Robert,

of 1 090 was and William , the second whom in

w of intrusted ith the custody the Castle Of Brionne , and on being commanded by the Duke Of Normandy w to deliver it up to Roger de Beaumont , to hom for a great sum Of money Court- h euse had promised it , in his answer obliged us with the following pedigree :

“ ” If n , he is reported to have said , you will retai I it in your own hands , as your father did , will imme diatel w y render it to you , otherwise I ill keep it as

own my inheritance as long as I live . For it is very well kno wn to all the inhabitants O f this country that

Old Richard , Duke Of Normandy , gave it with the whole country to Godfrey , his son , and that he at his death

rb left it to Gilbert, his son , who , being ba arously

for murdered by wicked men , his sons refuge ﬂed to

of d w Baldwin , Count Flan ers ; hereupon your father

lVilliam own ( the Conqueror), taking it wholly into his h ands dis osed ra , p thereof to seve l persons as he thought good ;but after a while, having wedded the daughter Of

Of the said Count Of Flanders , at the request th at f Count, he rendered to Baldwin , my ather, Mola and M S 43 BALDVFIN DE E UL E .

( fa and O be he restored Benefact Bien ite) r c , and lastly by your special favour I do now enjoy this ” w f r th e al . B ionne , princip to n Of Gilbert, my grand ather If any dependence is to be placed on this passag e in

O rderic . a R e s , it is clear th t ob rt de Meule must have

’ known that h is father s wife was the cousin of the

and was w Conqueror, that his father then dead, hich c a of \Valkelin orroborates the st tement the priest , that

R w of ichard and Bald in , sons Count Gilbert, were

or 1 w recently decea sed in 1090 109 . Bald in is said to

s one w m have had also three daughter , Of ho , named

z wi a su Adeli a , fe Of R lph Avenel , alone rvived him , and

son Gui er w h o was a k a natural named g , shorn mon in

wh h is w i a e Bee . o the Abb y Of But was fe Albred ,

s i of I . D aid to have been a n ece Richard I , uke Of

? wh o as E of Normandy and w mma, another wife

al in B dw , twice mentioned by William , both as

D u of r n 1066 n of ke No ma dy in , and as Ki g

g 1 08 2 in to n En land in , his charter the Holy Tri ity

n w i ? at Cae , and by h ch Of them was his issue

For h R d r to , be it remarked , t at obert, in his a d ess

- h euse Court , though h e speaks Of his father having 44 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

VVim le returned as the holder Of p , in Devon , but

Pbr unfortunately no Christian name is recorded . e

two — 1 2 Anselm gives Baldwin wives , Albreda , and ,

Emma ;and suggests that th e former was the child Of

lI D N or an illegitimate daughter Of Richard . , uke Of

Man er mandy, wife Of g , Vicomte Of the Cotentin , and

O f w of quotes a charter hers by which , ith the consent h er sons R ich ard and R obert , she gives to the Abbey Of Bec the land O f Bradeforde and the Church Of

’ ” d Ermentonne w St. Michael As the ﬁrst ife Of Baldwin this evidence is conclusive as regards Richard and Robert at any rate being the issue Of Albreda .

By his second wife Emma , with whose consent he gave th e Churches Of La Forest and two hundred acres Of land in the same place to the Abbey Of the

ma Holy Trinity at Caen , he y have had the two youngest daughters , as one appears to have been named Emma , and married Hugues de Wast .

And now to return to the question Of wh o was le

Sire de Reviers at Senlac , if Baldwin were not he .

That he had a son Richard is indisputable ;but that w son , known only as Richard Fitz Bald in and Richard

in the Viscount , having succeeded his father the shrievalty Of Devonshire and the barony Of Oke

’ . de Ma n s t e In M g y lis we hav e Badouin and R og er de Meu l s . W h o was Roger I"

I 46 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPAN ONS .

u Excheq er, appears to assert (for I confess I cannot clearly understand the passage) that he was the son Of a William de Redvers ; but unfortunately does not print the charter on which he seems to found his

L odres D Opinion . In the grant Of , in orsetshire , to the

Montebur h h Abbey of g , Ric ard de Redvers certainly gives “ also the land which William de Redvers had

Montebur h but in g (Gallia Christiana, vol . he

or does not call him his father, allude in any way to

n n h his relatio ship . In a other c arter printed by

a n O f Mr . St pleto , he speaks his father and mother, but w a ithout n ming them . In the cartulary of Carisbrook he is called the

Of O sbern of nephew William Fitz , and the grant the Isle Of Wight to him after the death of Roger de

Breteuil , Earl Of Hereford , certainly gives some sup

sb rn port to the assertion . William Fitz O e had at least one other daughter besides the unfortunate

Of m Countess Norfolk, Of whom we learn no ore than that she became the mother of Raynold de

racci C . Her da ughter may have been the wife Of

Richard de Redvers , which would justify the expres ” sion nepos , used indifferently for nephew or grand

S OD . RICHAR D RE D E RS 47 DE V .

n m ille i e nv ill d Ver non tu v . C ote e e C e . ( ), Vicomte , and had by h im Fulk de Aneio (a companion Of the \ Conqueror Of whom I shall have to speak) and several

one daughters , Of whom was the mother Of the ﬁrst

“ Bald win de Redvers : qua una mater fuit primi

w c on B l ini R . a d de evers (cap . xxxvii ) Some have sidered th is to apply to Baldwin de Brionne or de w Meules , and others to the ﬁrst Bald in de Redvers ,

D t to Earl of evon , but the foundation char er Monte burgh appears to me to solve th is riddle . Richard de Redvers (the founder) signs before Earl Simon and h Earl Eustace , and following t eir signatures were those

“ ” w son Of Bald in , Of Richard de Redvers , and Of

ill nni W e (William) brother Of the same Baldwin . Here we have a Baldwin de Redvers and a William

to his brother , giving credibility the assertion that their h grandfather mig t have been a William de Redvers , * according to Mr . Stapleton . At the same time it is probable that he w as the ﬁrst Baldwin de

“ of wh o th e Redvers , and father the Richard was 1 107 Sire de Reviers at Hastings , and died in , having been one Of the principal counsellors and champions of P rince Henry in his conﬂicts with his brother, Robert

- o wh o to Court h use , and shortly after his accession the 1 100 ’ throne in , rewarded his friend s service by the 48 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

f t gift O Tiver on and Plympton , and the third penny of the pleas of the county of Devon .

“ ” Mr . Stapleton in his Addenda , above mentioned , denies that this Richard de Redvers was ever Earl Of

Devon but if it be true that he had the third p ennv

denarium of the pleas , the gift Of tertium would carry with it the earldom , though the ceremony Of girding with the sword (generally supposed not to have been practised before the reign Of John) might not have been performed . The argument that we do not ﬁnd him styled Earl

Of in contemporary documents is no great value , as such omission is common in ancient charters ;but that his wife Adeliza thought him an earl is clear from her

Twinh am charter to , in which she gives to th e Church Of the Holy Trinity her Church Of Th orlei for

of L E arl of the health Of the souls her ord Richard ,

a nd E ar l Redvers , of her son , Baldwin ; the grant

E ar l being made with the consent Of Richard ,

’ u my grandson and heir . Here yo will Observe

that she styles her husband, her son , and her

two grandson all earls, but not of Devon , though the latter were so beyond question . Therefore the omis MON TFI HE GILBERT DE C T. 49

f R caster, and her amily by Richard de edvers consisted

of w three sons , Bald in , Earl Of Devon , William , sur

named De Vernon , and Robert Of St . Mary Church ,

one Hawisia Rou and daughter, , wife Of William de L t mare , Earl Of incoln . Baldwin and William mus both have been very young at the time they witnessed

to Montebur h die the charter g , as the former did not

1 1 5 5 h ow is till . His mother survived him , but long

not 1 165 if certain . She was dead before , and must,

on a these dates can be relied , have been nearly

for d centenarian . But the precise information containe

to Twinh am to in her charter , I should be inclined

D O n believe with r. liver that a generation had bee

omitted in the pedigree .

MONTFIC H ET GILBERT DE .

This Norman lord Of a commune situated on th e LO . to as road from St Bayeux, and where as late 1 8 2 7 might be seen a few ruins Of the castle which was of the original stronghold the family, is , according

“ to le P e one Monsieur r vost, Of the most authentic

wh o personages can be named as having assisted at.

“ ” . to L Rou the battle Of Hastings (Note e Roman de , v l o . . . But f ii , p we hear o him then for th e

“ ” m le de Monﬁch et ﬁrst ti e , and simply as Sire ,

e of without any exploit having been r corded him . 5 0 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

our on What is astonishment, then , consulting Dug d on of of ale , to learn , the authority an ancient history * Montﬁch et the family, that the said Gilbert de (Mont

ﬁ uet q ) was a Roman by birth , descended from an Old illustrious Roman family (De Monteﬁxio that he was in the habit Of dispensing palatial hospitality to all royal P visitors to the apal Court, and specially entertaining W illiam , Duke Of Normandy, whenever he set foot in th e sacred city ;and that he was a kinsman Of the

D to uke , and privy to all his councils , especially that design Of King Edward the Confessor to make him h is successor to the realm Of England . How is it that in no contemporary historian can

fi or D we nd a trace Of the Count, Marquis , uke Of the ff Normans, as William is indi erently styled, having

" or ever crossed the Alps , extended his travels further t ? han France , England , and Flanders As a boy he P P I . 105 1 was at aris ;as a man , at oissy n he was in

and 1066 England, it is believed in in Flanders ;but at I what other time had he a day, might almost say an of not hour, the occupation which is accounted for, r endering a journey to Rome in the interim an actual m i possibility ? What can have been the origin of this extraordinary story ? How could Dugdale have copied this account without a comment ? Is the whole

Mon Au . ol 23 6. g , v . ii . p . E T 5 1 GILB RT DE MON TFIC HE .

of D P a romance the concoction avid the riest, Scot

so to by birth , whom Gilbert loved that he gave him

Tremh ale of a place called , in the county Essex ,

to m whereon build a church and other onastic ediﬁces ,

P f Tr mh ale . . o e viz , the riory , Of which this ancient MS would seem to have been one Of the muniments ;and

h ow to ? if so , much are we believe Of it Utterly incredulous Of the statement that he (Gilbert) entertained that Duke in his house wh en — ever he came to Rome which implies more than — one visit to the Eternal City what faith are we

’ to attach to th e description of Gilbert s Italian ? extraction , and Of his kinsmanship to the Conqueror

W as in R he named after his property the oman States , and did he impart it to or derive it from this land in Nor mandy acquired by gift or marriag e ? Nothing has yet been discovered to elucidate the subject . We are ignorant Of whom he married or when he died ;

the aforesaid history merely informing us that, after

t Tremh ale to D the gif Of the priest avid, he returned to Ro me, leaving what he had Obtained in England by his services to the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings

to h is son R wh o on and afterwards , ichard, , arriving at

’ to R man s estate , travelled ome , and being a person Of extraordinary strength Obtained much fame in

no do casting a stone , man being able to the like, in

E 2 C OMPAN 5 2 THE CONQ UE ROR AND HIS IONS . memory whereof certain pillars of brass were set up to mark the distance . What is nearly as singular as this story is the fact that the large possessions Gilbert is reported to have Obtained in reward for his services are not to be found

D not in omesday, and that it is till we come to a

Montﬁch et or William , apparently a grandson great

of nephew Gilbert the Roman , and the husband Of

of Margaret de Clare , daughter Gilbert Fitz Richard

of Of Tunbridge , that we find mention any possessions in England whatever . Monsieur le Prevost asserts so positively that there can be no question but that Gilbert was the Sire de Montfich et mentioned by Wace amongst the c om batants at Senlac , that he must doubtlessly have ffi I found authority su cient to justify his doing so . should otherwise be inclined to consider the companion of Montfich et the Conqueror was a William de , father or uncle Of the William above named , who had a wife

of named Rohais , and was certainly a contemporary the Conqueror, as in his reign he granted to the monks

’ Marculf Of Croisy in Normandy the Church Of St. ,

one with the tithes thereto belong ing, and plough

’ O f Fontenis land ;also the Church and its tithes , with

S otav ille two certain lands in ; likewise salt works , with two boats for great ﬁsh ;th e rig h t use of every

54 THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS .

ﬁfteen English counties . His name descends to us

-Montﬁch et of with the town Of Stansted , the seat his III barony in the reign Of Henry . Adelina, the second of his three sisters and coheirs , married William de

ortibus F (second Of that name), Earl Of Albemarle, whose granddaughter Adelina , having ﬁrst married

In leram sur g de Percy, became the wife Of Edmund ,

of L son of named Crouchback , Earl ancaster, second

King Henry III . , but died without adding to the royal family Of England .

E BIG ROGER L OD .

of accom The owner this great historical name , who

anied to p the Conqueror England , was apparently the

R le ﬁ n son Of obert Bigod , the rst Of the ame Of whom we have any notice , and who was a witness to the

- - l . P 1 066. “ foundation Of St hilibert sur Risle , in ace , in his enumeration Of the leaders in the host at

m of . Hastings , designates the me ber this family simply

e le L Maletot as the anc stor Of Hugh Bigot, ord Of , L oges, and Canon .

’ L Ancestre H ue le Bigot Ki av oit te e Maletot rr a , ” o e et Etais L g s a Chanon . 5 5 ROGER LE BIGO D .

dissement L r Of isieux, and Loges may have been eithe

L L r or c es oges , nea Aunay, another ommune Of the

"e n alaise same ame in the neighbourhood Of F . The possession Of these lands in Normandyby “ the ” le ancestor Of Hugh Bigot is a curious fact, taken into consideration with the account the monk Of

umi i le é es . J g g ves Of this ancestor Robert Bigod , he

s of W erlenc tells us , was a knight in the ervice William , or VVarlin t so the g , Com e de Mortain , and poor that he prayed his lord to permit him to g o and seek h is fortune in Apulia , where his countrymen were estab lish ing themselves and acquiring wealth and dignity

of R under the leadership obert Guiscard . The Count bade him remain, assuring him that within eighty days he (Robert) would be in a position to help himself to d whatever he esired in Normandy . W h ether the Count contemplated the deposition of

D or d n of uke William , was privy to the esig others ,

w but R r le may never be kno n , obe t Bigod, inferring from this advice that some rebellious movement was

to R Goz of th e projected , repaired ichard , Vicomte

Hiemois wh o , was at that moment highly in favour

D t to a with the uke , and reques ed him Obt in an audience

— was a kinsman of R obert it would be interesting to

Le P ré ost : ote to L e Rom . (19 Ron vol. . 256. v N s , p 5 6 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS C OMPAN IONS .

— n learn how readily complied , and Le Bigod havi g

of VVarlin repeated to the Duke the words the g , the

was latter instantly summoned to attend him , accused of n C omte of treaso , banished the country, and the

’ Mortain was bestowed upon the Duke s half-brother

l v H rluin of Her e e e . Robert , the son by That William jumped at this opportunity to rid himself of a possible competitor whose claim to the duchy was clearly

own stronger than his , and at the same time to advance one of his own family wh o w ould have no such pre

or tensions , there can be no doubt . The truth false hood of the story told to him by Robert le Bigod has

of never been established . The defence the accused , if he made any, has not been recorded ; and even

’ “ Mr. Freeman admits that the Duke s justice , if justice

to it was , fell so sharply and speedily as look very like ” lV interested oppression . e have seen in the previous notice of Raoul de Gael what opinion was held in his own of of days this suspicious act the Conqueror . From that moment Robert le Bigod became a conﬁdential s of was ervant his sovereign , and his son Roger the c of for ompanion the Conqueror, who his services at Senlac received large grants of land in the counties of

ff one Essex and Su olk , six lordships in the former and h and undred seventeen in the latter . E 5 7 ROGER L BIGOD .

le Pré v ost in . t Mons remarks tha Wace , always clined to treat the present as the past, has attributed to R fﬁ of oger the o ce seneschal , which was only

son enjoyed by his second William . With all de

I misunder ference , think the learned antiquary has

not of R le stood his author . Wace is speaking oger

“ of \Villiam but of Bigod , the father Hugh and , the ” of I wh o ancestor Hugh , Robert, as take it, served

D s one of the uke in his hou e as his seneschals , which fﬁ ” o ce he held in fee .

n o for Mr . Taylor remarks that there is authority

wh o one this statement, yet we ﬁnd that Roger, was of of D u the privy councillors and treasurer the ke ,

r I o to . was seneschal steward Henry , after the decease of his father, and that both William and Hugh , his f sons , succeeded each other in that high o ﬁce , which is a fair corroboration of the assertion that it was held in

I be I fee . f Wace in error it is in his intimation , as

’ understand him , that it was Hugh s grandfather

Ro not R wh o bert, and his father, oger, accompanied

D to uke William Hastings . As w e have no means at present of ascertaining the

of of age Robert when he accused his lord treason , it

not as son R is improbable that he , as well his oger, was at Senlac . The latter survived the Conquest man in 5 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

1066 not too old to war , and his father bestride a steed and lead his retainers into action . Whether

“ or w e father son , are told that he had a large troop ,

s of but and was a noble va sal . He was small body,

and h very brave and daring, assaulted the English wit ” R oman dc R ou his mace gallantly . ( , l . We hear nothing of him during the reign of the ﬁrst

of of th e William , but at the commencement that

le second, Roger Bigod is found amongst the adherents of - Robert Court hense , fortifying his castle at Norwich and laying waste the country round about : whether

u or eventually reconciled to Ruf s , what was the result of we the suppressed rebellion to him personally, are without information ;but in the ﬁrst year of the reign of I f . one o to Henry , being those who stood ﬁrm the

of h is King, he had Framlingham , in Suffolk , gift .

1 103 of In , by the advice King Henry, Maud the

of h is own W Queen , Hubert Bishop Norwich , and ife ,

L one of and c o- the ady Adeliza, the daughters heirs of Grentmesnil e of Hugh de , s neschal England , he

of of founded the Abbey Thetford , in the county 1 107 Norfolk, and, dying in , was buried there By the Lady Adeliza he is said to have had seven

- m son r h is children Willia , his and hei , who by E ROGER L BIGOD .

3 R 4 ff 5 . le . Bigod , the ﬁrst earl ; ichard ; . Geo rey ;

6 u of d b P . e John ; Ma d, wife William Al ini incerna ;

7 e wh o of and . Gunn ra , married , ﬁrst, Robert Essex , and , secondly, Hamo de Clare . William perished in

re of the fatal w ck the White Ship , and Hugh , his

’ of brother and heir, in his turn steward the King s

of household , was eventually created Earl Norfolk ; his descendants , by a match with Maud , the eldest

c o- of of daughter and heiress the Marshals , Earls

P of f embroke , becoming marshals England , an o ﬁce

to D of enjoyed this day by the ukes Norfolk .

n of f The name and origi this amily, Mr . Taylor

of remarks , seem more worthy consideration than has it "e hitherto been given to . The name is spelt in

ff b VVi ot VVih ot di erently Bigod , Bigot, Bi ot, Vigot, g , ,

Vi l t of le I e o . and g , generally with the preﬁx The Normans are represented by the French to be B zyoz and Drauch iers ; the latter term is understood to — mean consumers of barley perhaps beer- drinkers and the former presumed to have been given them from their constantly taking the name of the Almighty in vain . Anderson , in his Genealogical Tables ,

was says , without quoting his authority, that Rollo

B ot of . styled yg , from his frequent use the p hrase This derivation receives some support from the well D MPAN 60 THE CONQUEROR AN HIS C O IONS .

of known story the altercation between Edward I . and

le of of Roger Bigod , Earl Norfolk , nephew the former R L oger, which is recorded unfortunately in atin by

of of its Walter Hemingford, and is therefore deprived otherwise singularly illustrative application , which , if the words were spoken in English , would be of some weight in the argument.

’ “ to B God In answer the King s declaration , y ,

ou or " Earl , y shall either go hang the undaunted “ O baron replied, By the same oath , King, I will

” “ neither g o nor hang " The per Deum and the per idem juramentum of the chronicler leaves us in uncertainty whether or not a play on the words was intended by either speaker.

I of own I have a theory my , which by no means

ff of insist upon , but only o er for the consideration those most competent to investigate the subject . The preﬁx le distinctly points out that the name is not derived

or of from a possession a place birth . It is either a

or personal a general designation . Personal it cannot

c ase n be in this , as it is applied to the whole natio , and we are therefore driven to the conclusion that it

to or either alluded a national habit a national origin .

v The former is the received opinion , as stated abo e

AN D HI 62 THE CONQ UEROR S COMPANIONS .

” &c le . Poitevin , Scot, , a nd in this category I think

” “ w le of le e may class Vigot , an abbreviation

“ ” Visi ot ﬁnd g , spelt, as we it, indifferently with a B

“ ” or W e to a (Bigot and Wig t), according the parti

f of c ular dialect o the writers . The application the name to the Normans generally, while it proves that it was not deri v ed from any hereditary possession or personal peculiarity, as in other cases , also testiﬁes

of to the purity the family, which was distinguished amongst its own people by the designation of that great

Gothic stock whence they commonly proceeded . A signet ring was dug up some few years ag o on one of the estates in Norfolk which had belonged to

of this family, exhibiting the ﬁgure a goat, with the

“ or word By above it, being a punning device rebus

’ G at o . I By t is engraved in Mr . Taylor s translation

“ of R Rou 2 3 5 of the oman de (p . , note), but the legend “ d round it the word Go is alone distinguishable .

a of no This , however, is merely a medi eval curiosity

of To importance to the question derivation . settle

“ ” that question we must learn to labour and to wait . I CHAPTER II .

ME N IL . HUMPHREY DE BOHUN. HUGH DE GREN T S

F RS . C HENRY DE ERRE RI HARD DE OGUROI . G F V EO FREY DE MANDE ILLE.

P H UM HREY DE BOHUN .

” D o u l nfr e B h n e Vieil O ei.

R oman de R ou , 1.

W A GE appears to be specially addicted to represent the companions of the Conqueror as venerable from

“ for r age as renowned thei valour. Humphrey with ” wh o D the beard , however, is the e Bohun he is here w commemorating, may , ith some propriety, be styled

“ ” old as is v the , there evidence that pre ious to the

Conquest he had been thrice married ; his g rant to

of f the nuns St . Amand at Rouen o a tith e of his own

for of plough and a garden , being made the health

of h one of his soul and the souls his t ree wives , not

m f but who un ortunately is named, it is witnessed by 64 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

indif England , the titles of Count and Duke being ferently used by him and by his predecessors . The practice of close shaving amongst the N or

and of mans, which caused the spies Harold to report

of that the invading army was an army priests, is further illustrated by such distinctions as with the ” “ ” l beard , and with the whiskers, being emp oyed to f identify particular members o a family . Several h t examples of t is practice have already been no iced . Of the origin of the De Bohuns very little has yet been discovered . We are vaguely informed that the

th e ﬁrst of this name known to us , aforesaid Hum

h re n p y with the beard , was a near ki sman of the

or Conqueror, but in what particular deg ree, by which of of the many branches, legitimate and illeg itimate ,

of m the ducal house Nor andy , no information is ff d a orde us . After the Conquest he became possessed of Talesford of f the lordship of , in the county Nor olk, so that whatever his relationship to or support of

IVilliam may have been , no very great beneﬁt appears d to have resulte from it .

or Bohun , rather Bohon , the place whence the f its arrondissea amily derived name, is situated in the f L6 o . t ll th ment St , in the Coten in, where are sti e

of . de G . communes St André and St. eorge Bohon 5 HUMPHREY DE BOHUN.

m a i . u of n in ago, and y be st ll The hono r Boho was possession of this Humphrey at the time of the

i t of of Norman invasion , and his later g f the Church

dc n l of S t. George Boho as a ce l to the Abbey

l m of Marmoutier, is conﬁrmed by Wi lia , King the

“ h is Math ildis t English , Queen , his sons Rober and

- of William , his half brother Odo , Bishop Bayeux ,

n Mont omeri Michael , Bishop of Avra ches , Roger de g , ” and Turstain of Richard , son of , husband Emma de

c ertaml Conteville , which y supports the belief that he was d closely connecte with the Conqueror, probably b one of v i a y his wi es , respect ng whose parent ge we are left so provokingly in the dark . d 1 1 1 3 He die before , having had issue three sons

two f or and daughters, but by which wi e wives we are

How enealo i unhappily in ignorance . important, g g

cally, to the descent it is scarcely necessary to observe . One of the daughters appears to me to have been n amed Adela at least I ﬁnd an Adela, aunt of Hum

h re IViltsh ire 3 1 st of p y de Bohun, in the Fine Roll for ,

’

I. u on Henry , and it co ld not have been the mother s

or ul of w side, she wo d have been a daughter Ed ard of s ri a of Sali bury, that myste ous person ge , one whose

d or i daughters, name Maud Mabel, was w fe of Hum

’ f h e of old h re . e t o p y II , the young s the t re sons Hum ” h re of of p y, and the founder the fortunes the family.

F 66 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPAN IONS .

t ’ The eldest son , Rober , died , in his father s lifetime a a pparently , unmarried and from Rich rd, the second

in son , descended the female line the Bohuns of Mid

in of hurst , Sussex ; but the grandeur the Bohuns was due to the extraordinary succession of great matches made by the descendants of the youngest

of sons , who became Earls Hereford, Essex, and

c o- t Northampton , the heiresses of the eleventh and las

one Humphrey de Bohun being the wives, of Thomas of W of of n oodstock, Earl Gloucester, and son Ki g w f . o Ed ard III , and the other Henry, surnamed

of J oh u of Bolingbroke, son Gaunt, Duke of Lan

a c ster, and subsequently ascending the throne of

as England King Henry IV.

HENRY DE FERRERS .

” le erriers Henri Sire de F , commemorated by

W as m t nl ace a co batan at Se ac, was Seigneur de

Saint Hilaire de Ferriers, near Bernay, and son of

W alkelin de Ferrers, who fell in a contest with the

ﬁrst Hugh de Montfort we hear of in the early days of i Duke W lliam II . , and therefore , though a younger

son , for he had an elder brother named Guillaume,

~ Plu uet in who , Monsieur de q tells us , was also the great battle, must have been well advanced in years 1 in 066. IEEN RY 67 DE FERRERS .

it a t h Whatever his services, was not till f er Hug

’ d Av ranch es of 1 07 1 was created Earl Chester, in , that Henry de Ferrers received at least the Castle of

“ ” h is Tutbury, caput Baronie, which had been pre v iousl t y g ran ed to the said Hugh , and resigned by h im on of In 1 08 5 becoming Earl Chester . , we ﬁnd h im appointed one of the commissioners for of in the general survey the kingdom, and t tha year he is recorded as the holder, besides the

a of t of sh i in t ff C stle Tu bury, seven lord ps S a ord s r in l i in hi e twenty in Berkshire, three Wi tsh re, ﬁve

O two l two Essex , seven in xfordshire, in Linco nshire ,

one in e two in in Buckinghamshire, Gloucest rshire,

ir —ﬁv e in Herefordshire, three in Hampsh e , thirty t h i w i Leices ers re, six in War ickshire , three in Nott ng

i one d n in hamsh re, and hun red and fourtee Derby s i " n s or h ow h re Whe be towed , however, obtained ,

l a of th e or whether whol y by gr nt King, partly by

is a r . d ma riage, not recorded Neither h ve we succeede in t h iden ifying his wife, Berta , in conj unction wit whom he founded and richly endowed the Priory of

“ u 1 08 9 n of Tutb ry in , by the concessio and authority ” l th e oun er of Wil iam y g (Rufus), King the English.

The date of his death also is unknown ; but he h ad

s En lf ll Th e h uenu . is ue t ree sons, g , Wi iam, and Robert two st di h is li and elde ed in fetime without issue ,

r 2 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

t of Robert, who succeeded him, was the ﬁrs Earl b Ferrers, not Earl Ferrers , as incorrectly described y

“ “ R obertus errarius de some , but , Comes de F or ” t Ferriers , as in the charter of the second Earl Rober , wh o of to was also Earl Nottingham, and according

O rderic a r t . Vit l , the ﬁ s Earl of Derby It is no part of the plan of this work to enter into details respecting the descendants of the actual com

. s panions of the Conqueror, but there are exception m l to ost, if not to all, rules, and there is so ittle to be

de h is said about Henry Ferrers, and so much about immediate successors, that I am tempted to depart

own from my rule on this occasion .

f in th e There is considerable dif erence of opinion,

two absence of indubitable facts, as to which of these — — Roberts father and son distinguished himself in the f l w amous battle at Northa lerton , kno n as the Battle of w i the Standard, also as to the exact period at h ch the earldoms of Nottingham and Derby were conferred

‘ up on an Earl of Ferrers ; but the prin cipal bone of con tention is the identiﬁcation of the fortunate member of f d M and that amily who marrie arg aret, daughter

i of ll e of he ress Wi iam Pever l , Lord Nottingham , who

' was e of s K in H enr II disposs ssed his e tates by g y . , for

IZROR AN D H IS 7 0 TH E C ON Q U COMPANIONS .

w of t h e ﬁr b wh o ri d Margaret the ife st Ro ert, mar e

Hawise de Vitry. For the proof that William was the happy man we

l st n are referred to the Oblate Roll of the of Joh , in

it am th e a of t which is said that Willi , third e rl tha

a . is name, calls Margaret his gr ndmother Now here w h the entry referred to, in hich you will ﬁnd no suc

—“ thing The Earl of Ferrers gives two thousan d

Heeh am Blidsw orth t marks for , , and Newbottle, tha the King m ay forego all c laim to other lands which

’ w e IVilliam P ev erel s and t o re , the King gives him

of Heeh am t r h is the park , which the Lord y,

- great grandfather (that is , King Henry II . ) gave in ” of IVilliam exchange to the ancestors Peverel , Where is Margaret 7 Where any mention of th e g randmother of the Earl of Ferrers

The next reference is to a plea- roll of th e 2 5 th

f ' o . a some Earl Henry III , which certainly proves th t of Ferrers assumed a right of heirship to IVilliam

Peverel , but by no means hints that it was in right w t Th of his ife, or makes any mention of Margare . e

err r n words are remarkable, The Earl of F e s is therei stated to have made h imself h eir of the aforesaid

intr William Peverel , and to have uded h imself into the same inheritance during th e war between the

a . N ow are a ne of King and his b rons , we told th t o E 1 H NRY DE FERRERS . 7

of in t h e h is the earliest acts Henry II. year after

1 1 5 was to i l . 5 W accession, viz , , d sinherit i liam Peverel ,

t of old n the staunch suppor er his rival Stephen, upo

of is r of h the opportune charge po oning the Ea l C ester, m as before mentioned . Henry hi self does not charge h im bu t i speciﬁcally with it, the cause is dist nctly

t Roffense sta ed by the Chronicon , the register of Dun

w w of i an d stable, Matthe Paris, Matthe Westm nster,

v of a of e Ger ase Dover, a goodly arr y highly respectabl authorities . But h ow are we to reconcile this statement with the t fact that Henry, before he ascended the throne, mos probably at the time of the p aciﬁc ation with Stephen in 1 1 5 2 n 1 1 5 3 h , and certai ly not later than , in whic

a R anul lr Ranul h year E rl p died , gave to this very p the

of n e man Peverel is accused poisoni g, with other larg

of t of e estates hostile nobles, the cas le and town Not tin h am of l g , and the whole fee Wi liam Peverel , wherever it was (with the exception of Hech am) unless he (W illiam Peverel) could acquit and clear himself of

. his wickedness and treason Are we not justiﬁed in

l n —for be ievi g, upon the evidence of this agreement

u of th e such is the nat re instrument, which is wit nessed for n and R anul h — t by parties both He ry p , tha

P c v ercl i of t not was d spossessed his es ates, for assist

of ing to poison the Earl Chester, for to that very 72 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

st Earl the e ates are given , but for wickedness and

l —in for treason general y plain words, supporting Stephen manf ully and faithfully against Henry and his mother 7 Such was ev idently the Opinion of Sir Peter

L r at eycester, who printed this impo tant document ” i length in his Prolegomena, prefaced w th these

of words, How Randal Earl Chester was rewarded

t itz- for taking par with Henry F Empress, being yet

of of but Duke Normandy and Earl Anjou , may h f appear by t is deed following. No hint o its being a m co pensation to him for injury inﬂicted by Peverel . And what was the punishment of the Countess

of so Maud, the supposed accomplice Peverel , and if , the most culpable of the twain ? Sh e survived the Earl

and h er her husband many years, name is associated w K ev ilioc l ith that of her son, Hugh , in severa acts of b and enevolence piety, amongst them actually the

of d purchase absolution for her husband , who ied excommunicated .

’ K ev ilioc wh o a Hugh , succeeded to his father s e rl

dom with all his possessions , had a daughter named

‘ A of g nes, who became the wife William , second of

of and it that name, Earl Ferrers Derby, and thus is clearly evident how that Earl made himself heir of

Peverel and intruded himself into that inheritance, 7 3 GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE .

Hech am of having purchased the King, which had been excepted from the rest of the fee of Peverel in the grant of Henry D uke of Normandy to R anulp lr

Gernons of , and claiming heirship to the estates

t of h is e c o- Peverel , in righ wife Agnes, sist r and heir of Ranul h Blondev ille n p , Earl of Chester, the gra dson of and h the grantee, not through any marriage wit

of this phantom Margaret Peverel , no trace whom has ever been found in one authentic document.

’ The reputed victim of P ev erel s machinations is said

“ ” i to t by K ng , in his Vale Royal , have died af er

i in linger ng agonies, which I suspect to be an absurd

“ translation of the post m ultos ag ones of Gervase f o . ul e a Dover His words are , post m t s g ones mili

i loriae t d tar s g , and the contex proves that the wor s do not to u apply bodily tort re , but to struggles or

u t of i contests as a soldier in p rsui mil tary glory .

’ Vide Ducan e a om a a oni ( g sub g and g za re. )

Ranul h What conclusive proof have we that p , Earl of Chester died of poison at all 7 U t fama fuit is

all r s of sa Ge va e Dover can y about it.

GEOFFREY DE MANDEVILLE .

This progenitor of one of the noblest and most

p owerful families on either side of the channel is simply ” e “ Ii allud d to by Wace as Sire de Mag nev ile (1. 4 E N 7 THE CONQU ROR AND HIS COMPA IONS .

n th e The French antiquaries, whilst agreei g as to

ua if individ l present at Hastings, d fer respecting the

M le locality whence he derived his name ; ons .

Prév ost s it Valon es con idering to be Magneville , near g , while Mons . Delisle reports that it was Mandeville le

e e of Ma navilles Tr vi res , the Norman estates the g ,

Mandev illes or f l , Mannevilles, as they were indi ferent y

of C reulli called , lying partly in the neighbourhood , and the rest round Argentan , where, at a later period ,

h am i they held the honour of C bo . No particular feat of arms is attributed to him by

N ornran on wh o the poet. He is only mentioned as e

ﬁnd rendered great aid in the decisive battle, and we him in consequence rewarded with ample domains in

of n England at the time the great survey, amounti g to one hundred and eighteen lords hips in various

of h i counties, which Walden, in Essex, was the c ef

of seat his descendants , who became the ﬁrst Norman earls of that county in the reign of Stephen . He w as also the ﬁrst Constable of the Tower of

th e f n h is London after Conquest , an o ﬁce e joyed by

on grandson of the same name, which I mention

of i account the interest ng fact that, in the charter

of . n t the Empress Matilda, which confers this amo gs

n many other honours bestowed upo him , the custody of w the To er of London is granted to him . and his E N IL 75 HUGH DE GRE N TM S .

little castle th ere heirs , with the (described in another charter as u nder it) which belong ed to R a veng er . This charter in which she creates Geoffrey de Man

' deville (grandson of the companion of th e C onq ueror)

’ of in u Earl Essex, is stated a marginal note in D gdale

“ Baronage to be the most ancient creation charter ” w h for ich hath been ever known , and , I may add , the numberless concessions and privileges recorded in

t . i , the most remarkable

n f f h is To retur to the ﬁrst Geo frey, we learn rom charter of foundation of the Benedictine Monastery of

in w . Hurley , Berkshire, that he was t ice married His ﬁrst wife Ath elaise (Adeliza) being the mother of his

IVilliam l n heir de Mandeville , and other chi dre not

m and Lec elin e w na ed ; his second wife, , by hom he

r appea s to have had no issue .

in a Mr. Stapleton, his annot tions to the Norman

of Rolls the Exchequer, suggests that Adeliza, the ﬁrst

of f Turstain wife Geo frey, was sister to Anna, wife of

H aldub al l , mother of Eudo Chape .

E GREN TME SN IL HUGH D .

Of th is noble Norman we have considerable infer m f Orderic ation af orded us by , in consequence of h is

of r of of being one the founde s the Abbey Ouche,

ow f o . in better kn n as that St Evroult, which the 76 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . histori an w as professed a monk by the venerable Abbot

of a Mainer, in the eleventh year his age , by the n me of V w ﬁft Vitalis ( ital), and in hich monastery he lived y six years .

From h im we learn that Hugh de Grentmesnil was one of the sons of a Robert de Grentmesnil (now known as a in Gr ndmesnil, the arrondissement of Lisieux) by

H awise Giroie w de , which Robert was mortally ounded in the battle between Roger de Toeni and Roger de 2 1 . i . 1 9 7 . Beaumont, already mentioned, vol . , pp ,

on He fought the side of De Toeni , and being c a off rried the ﬁeld , lingered for three weeks, and then died and was interred without the Church of N i . orre w and St Mary at , bet een Grandmesnil

Falaise . His issue by Hawise de Giroie was tw o s w m ons , Robert and Hugh , bet een who he divided his property . Robert became a monk in the abbey he had assisted

re- to edify . Hugh , who was eminent for his skill and ” c ourage , was, through the machinations of Mabel de

Mont om eri u l g , banished by D ke Wi liam without any

f 1 05 8 but m l real cause of o fence in , recalled fro exi e in 1 063 , and intrusted with the custody of the Castle of e- en- w th e on Neufmarch Lions, from hich Duke,

AN 78 T HE CONQUEROR D HIS COMPANIONS .

’ government of England during the King s absence in

and t h e of one d Normandy, besides donation hundre

-ﬁv e of manors in this country, sixty which were in

tie h f Leicestershire , he was appointed Viscount ( , s eri f) o of f that county and Governor Hampshire .

He was one of the Norman nobles wh o interceded w of - ith the Conqueror in favour Robert Court hense, and effected a temporary reconciliation . On the accession of Rufus he espoused the cause of the young d uke ; but like many others of h is rank and

t of coun ry, weary his vacillations, and disgusted by his general conduct, he ultimately took part against

1 09 0we old In ﬁnd him in Normandy, in his age , strenuously opposing the aggressions of the detestable

Belesm e Robert de , who had erected strongholds at

La C onebe on v Fourches and at , the ri er Orme,

on n whence he made inroads his eighbours, and

r harried all the count y round .

Grentm esnil C ourci Hugh de and Richard de , whose

to t domains lay nearest him, and mos exposed to his w t . depredations , ere the ﬁrst to take arms agains him

now - Both these knights were grey headed, but their

t n spiri was unbroken , and their intimate connectio

of strengthened the bond friendship between them ,

C ourci i d Richard de , the son of Richard , hav ng marrie RE N TME N IL 79 HUGH DE G S .

Roh esia of w of , daughter Hugh . Matthe , Count —’ - l Oise - in- law of Beaumont sur , brother Hugh , William

of de Warren , second Earl Surrey, with many other

h to knights , astened to their support, eager exhibit f i . son o the r prowess in such a ﬁeld Theobald ,

e Walt r de Breteuil, called the White Knight, because h is steed and appointments were all white, and his — in - brother arms Guy, called the Red Knight for a s of imilar reason , were slain in some these encounters but Robert de Belesme ﬁnding that he was unable to c w ope alone ith his brave and resolute opponents, pre

on of vailed the Duke Normandy, by humble supplica

and tions specious promises, to march to his assistance .

of 1 091 In the month January, , the Duke accordingly laid siege to C ourci-sur- Dive but unwilling to come

s to extremities with his great noble , took no measures

t B l sm for . e e e closely inves ing the place De , however, used every means by force and stratagem to get pos

s of . i ession the castle He caused a huge mach ne, c fr berfradum w alled a bel y ( ), being a wooden to er

i of or n conta ning a number stages ﬂoors, and movi g on wheels , to be constructed and rolled up to the c l l di astle wal s, ﬁ led with sol ers , who could leap from

on or ﬁ to n it to the battlements, ght hand ha d with

in i the defenders ; but the device proved va n , for as o h e e a e ften as att mpted an assault, powerful forc AN 8 0 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS C OMP IONS .

f Grentmesnil w rom hastened to the rescue , and dre him off from the attack . In one of these conﬂicts the garrison during a rally

IVilliam n s took prisoners , son of He ry de Ferrer

wh o f IVilliam Ru iere ( ought at Hastings), and de p , whose ransonrs were a great assistance to the besieg ed ;but , on the other hand , the besiegers cap turedIv e on e of of u Grentmesnil , the sons H gh de and

Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare , the latter of whom did not long survive the horrors of the dungeon to which

Belesm e h im De consigned .

ev en s An had been built out ide the fortiﬁcations,

’ w Belesme s r an d bet een the castle gate and De belf y , there the baker had to bake the bread for the use of

n the garrison , the siege having bee begun so suddenly that the rnh abitants of C ourc i had no time to con ﬁ struct one within the walls . The thickest of the ght

n ev en of was therefore often arou d this , for the men C ourci stood in arms to defend their bread while

’ Belesm e s r o ff De followers endeavou ed to carry it .

i i Th s led occas onally to a general engagement, in h i w ch there was much slaughter, without special

on e h advantage to either side ; but in of them, t e b s l l ﬁr e esieger having repu sed their assai ants , set to

l and e the be fry, succ eded in destroying it . U L 8 1 H GH DE GRE N TME SN I .

s f on el , account Of his advanced age , was much dis

of in tressed by the long continuance the siege , and c onsequence sent the following message to the Duke of Normandy " I long served your father and grand

f r father, and su fered much in thei service I have also

a 7 In always been loyal to you . What h ve I done what have I offended you ? How have I merited at your hands this hostility ? I Openly acknowledge

ou on not y as my liege lord, and that account will appear in arms aga inst you ; but I offer you two hundred livres to withdraw when it may suit your

one t pleasure for single day, that I may ﬁght Rober ” de Belesme l O rderic has not acquainted us with the reply of Court- hense to this manly appeal of the

r wh o r chivalric old war ior, , as he mentions his se vice

’ u to the D ke s grandfather, could not at this period have been much under eighty.

t i t n At all events , nei her the letter nor the med a io

of e d at Of Gerrard, Bishop S ez, who took up his abo e

t of the Conven Of Dive during the siege, in the hope

h ad ff t n restoring peace in his diocese, any e ec upo either the Duke or Robert de Belesme ; but the arrival of King William (Rufus) with a great ﬂeet caused them to decamp with all h aste and dis

u own band their forces, each man ret rning to his 8 2 T HE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMP ANIONS .

w Grentm esnil Three years after ards, Hugh de was

d n out again in Englan , and wor with age and i t m nﬁrmi y, ﬁnding his end approaching, assu ed, in

of accordance with the common practice the period ,

O f the habit a monk , and expired six days after he

2 2 nd 1 094 had taken to his bed, of February , , accord ing to our present calculation , and presumably in the

of city Leicester .

a th e His body, preserved in s lt and sewn up in hide of ox an , was conveyed to Normandy by two monks

Of St . Evroult, named Bernard and David , and honour ably buried by the Abbot Roger on the south side of of the Chapter House , near the tomb Abbot

Mainer.

A Tillieul rnold de , his nephew , caused a marble

Orderic slab to be placed over his grave, for which tells us he himself furnished the Latin epitaph in heroic verse , with which he obliges his readers ; but

l f on i as it is simply laudatory I wi l not in lict it m ne, observing only that it is a relief t o feel that in th is instance the praise appears to have been truly de

i of served , as I ﬁnd noth ng recorded Hugh de Grent mesnil that does not redound to his credit .

In h is youth we are told he married a very beauti ful of h e lady, Adeliza, daughter , Count of Beau — ’ m - IOise h is w w w ont sur , by ﬁrst ife Judith , ith hom C RICHARD DE OU RC I. 8 3

Brok esbourne in he had , Herefordshire, and three lordships in Warwickshire .

n She died at Roue seven years before her husband,

in f ’I6 o . Ev roult and was buried the Chapter House St , having had issue by him ﬁve sons and as many

t — ll Iv o and daugh ers namely , Robert, Wi iam , Hugh, ,

Hawise and Aubrey ; Adeline, , Rohais, Matilda, — Agnes none Of whom except Robert lived to an a di dvanced age, and he, although thrice married , ed il 1 1 3 6 di . m without issue in . Hugh ed young W lia ,

Iv e d i , and Aubrey forfeite the r reputation for bravery by their dishonourable and l udicrous escape from

for of Antioch , which obtained them the name rope

r of Hawise wh o di dance s . With the exception , ed unmarried , his daughters became the wives Of noble

’ ni s : Adeline of d Iv ri of t k ght f Roger , Rohais , Rober

C ourci of de , Matilda, Hugh de Montp incon, and f n o l . Ag es, Wil iam de Say

I E c s or R CHARD D en .

I t R son of s have jus mentioned obert, the thi

R son - in-law of Grentmesnil ichard , and Hugh de , and

“ shall conclude this chapter with a notice of this “ 2 8 1 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

m r of emo able family, the direct male descendant w w of hich ears at the present day the coronet a baron , one of the very few instances that can be quoted O f an u nbroken li ne of nobles in the same family from the

C onquest .

l “ ace simply mentions Cil de Cercie amongst ” t hose knigh ts wh o that day slew many English .

C ourci th e is in arrondissement of Falaise , and I have

- 1 09 1 just described its siege by Robert Court hense in ,

w C ourci at hich time it was held by Richard de , the

of son companion the Conqueror. He was the of

C ourci wh o w as of of Robert de , one the six sons

i O f ll Baldr c the Teuton, or German , Lord Bacquevi e

en ~ C aux f O f Arch earius , and held the O ﬁce under Duke IVilli am . He married a niece of Gilbert Comte de

B n of u O f rionne , grandso Richard ﬁrst D ke Normandy , n w w ame unkno n, by hom he had six sons and two daughters, and here we have an example of the difﬁ culty the general reader would experience in endeavour

ing to form an idea O f the family and connections O f

many important personages with whose names he in

c identall th e y meets in popular histories Of England .

O f Robert, the third these six sons, alone bore the name of De C ourci : all th e rest assumed surnames simi

larly deri v ed from their

ER 8 6 THE CONQ U OR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

barony of Stoke in the county of Somerset, and the m n anors of Newnham , Sete den , and Foxeote, in Oxford

a th e shire . At le st, he held them at time of the great survey. We hear no more of him during the reign of the m elder Willia , thoug h it is improbable he could have remained quiescent during all the commotions that were constantly convulsing the duchy but whether h e fought or not we may be satisﬁed that he remained

’ IVilliam loyal to the Conqueror, and to his successor w Rufus, hose opportune arrival in Normandy caused

Robert Court- hense and Robert de Belesme to raise the

rci s C ou . iege of , as before related Both he and his friend and neighbour Hugh de

Grentmesnil now , who was connected with him by the marriage of their children, were considerably advanced in u C ourci years, and like H g h , the Lord of , may not

‘ have mingled in the melee but it is strange not to ﬁnd Robert’ s name mentioned amongst the gallant defenders of his own property and that of h is father

- in law . f Besides this Robert , whose line was not o long en

’ ur IVill am d ance, Richard had a second son named i , fr o d C ourci om whom descended the famous J h n e , I 8 7 RICHARD DE C OU RC .

e n d pres nce of his sovereig , traditionally grante by

King John to the said Earl O f Ulster in reward for the f ollowing service .

Philip Augustus , King of France, having proposed to King John to settle the difference between the

Crowns of England and France respecting their pre D tensions to the uchy of Normandy by single combat , had appointed on his side a champion . King John , wh o h ad u rrwaril one of y fixed the day , could find no sufficient streng th o r prow ess to oppose the Frenchm an

a wh o th e H but the E rl of Ulster, , at instigation of ugh

di h i a O f . s de Lacy, had been spossessed estates, and was prisoner in the Tower . Having accepted the challenge

in for the honour of his country, he appeared the lists on the appointed day , and so terriﬁed the French champion by his gigantic form and warlike demeanour

on u d that, the third sounding of the tr mpets , he wheele

l in about , broke through the lists , and gal op g to the

o C ourc i c ast took ship for Spain, leaving De victor i d w . without a blo To grat fy King Philip , who desire

an exhibition of his extraordinary strength , the Earl directed a massive su it of mail surmounted by a

on h e helmet to be placed a block , and at one stroke

e w te cleft armour and helm t asunder, his s ord en ring ' as TH E eoxounnon AN D H IS COMPANIONS .

n w o e. King John being well satisﬁed ith his extra i t ord nary service restored him to his titles and esta es, and bade him ask besides anything it was in h is

h ad power to grant, to which the Earl replied , that he

bu t h is titles and estates enough , desired that he and

- f e successors, the heirs male of his amily, might hav the privilege, their ﬁrst obeisance being paid , to remain covered in the presence of him and his successors the

of Kings England, which was granted accordingly There is about as much truth in this story as th ere was in the one formerly told by the w arders in th e

wh o Tower of London, were wont to show a remarkably

of large suit plate armour of the time of Henry VIII . as being that of the very redoubtable John dc C ourci aforesaid .

O f u t The King France , Philip Aug stus , never set foo

lI. in . England William , King of Scotland , never saw w King John , save on the one occasion hen he did homage to him at Lincoln . De C ourci w as never re

b w n stored to his estates y John , and no one kno s whe

a privilege, as worthless as it is unmannerly, was con f or on w erred, or by whom hat authority it was ﬁrst l d c aimed and exercise .

on h ad his hat , but the good taste to reverse th e . R E 8 9 RICHA D D C OU RC I. custom by remaining u ncov ered after the ﬁrst assertion of his privilege .

- h m . u our edl to George II g ood y Observed Gerald ,

of Alm ericus h is cousin and successor , that,although lordship had a right to wear his hat before him, he

to had no right do so before ladies . Let us trust that good sense and good taste will

to Observ combine abolish an absurd custom, for the ance of which no credible authority can be produced

- no dignity lost by its discontinuance . CHAPTER IV .

W I TA ISSON . ILLIAM DE ALBIN . RAOUL

W W DE S . ILLIAM MALET. ILLIAM MOULIN W T G E G DE VIE UXP ON D . ILLIAM . HU H OURNAY

WILLIAM DE AL BINI .

THAT one or more of the family of Aubigny

Albinio (Latinised into De , and better known in England as De Albini) came over with the Con ” u at q eror, and fought Hastings, there can be no

not question ; but Wace, who does specify the

“ individual but simply calls h im li boteillier

’ d Aubi nie g , has been accused of an anachronism by

. f of or Mr Taylor, who considers the O ﬁce Pincerna ,

ﬁ t u butler, to have been rs conferred pon the grand son of IV' illi m a . c irc a 1 1 00 by Henry I , when for his services to that monarch he was enfeoffed of the barony of Buckenham to hold in grand - sergeantry by

f now the butlery, an o ﬁce discharged at coronations

of s n by the Duke Norfolk, his de ce d ants possessing a 9 1 WILLIAM DE ALBINI .

of part the barony. The companion of the Conqueror

Of he believes to have been William , the ﬁrst that name

of or of we know , his son Roger, father the second l Wi liam}and Nigel de Albini , of whom we have pre

i usl v o y spoken (p .

lo e M . Pr vost votes for Roger, who made a dona

’ L Essai in 1 0 4 tion to the Abbey of 8 . There is no reason why he should not also have been in the battle .

In the absence of conclusive evidence I have headed

- t this chapter with William de Albini , the earlies

of n m d known that a e , which he erived from the com

of n mune Aubigny, ear Periers , in the Cotentin, and with whom the family pedigree commences .

This William married a sister of Grimoult da

of - - Plessis , the traitor Valognes and Val és Dunes , who 2 i . 0 v ol . 5 in 1 4 7 . died his dungeon in ( , pp and and Wace may after all be right in styling him Le ” l d f Botellier r bab e . ﬁ , as it is p q that he hel that O ce in h i . s the household of the Duke of Normandy By wife , the sister Of Grimoult (I have not yet lighted on her

’ n son d Aubi n d ame), he had a , the Roger g y aforesai ,

Amicia or t of ff who married , Avitia, sis er Geo rey,

Montbrai Bishop Of Coutances , and of Roger de , and is

le Prév ost to w supposed by M . have been ith his

’ dAubi n or n h is Roger g y, De Albi i, had issue by 92 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Montbrai w wife Avitia de , ﬁve sons William , kno n ” IVilliam r as de Albini Pincerna Butler), ancesto

O f r the Earls of Sussex, who married Maud , daughte

le 1 1 3 9 of Of Roger Bigod , and died . Richard , Abbot

R . . Rualon St Albans, Nigel , Humphrey, and , or alph

Montbrai Nigel , the third son , was heir of Robert de ,

wh w a or Mowbray , his ﬁrst cousin , ose ife he m rried during the lifetime of her husband by licence O f Pope w t Paschal, and for some time treated her ith respec out of regard for her noble parents bu t on the death

’ of t l Ai le her brother Gilber de g , having no issue by her, he craftily sought for a divorce on the ground of that very kinship which he exerted so much inﬂuence to induce the Pope to overlook, and then married

G undred O f b , daughter Gerrard de Gournay , y whom

wh o w he had Roger, assumed the name of Mo bray, it and transmitted to his descendants, Dukes of Norfolk

r and Earls Marshal of England ; and Henri , ancesto of C in the line of Albini of a h o.

t YVilliam To return to the ﬁrs , it is clear that his m 1 066 sons were ere infants even if born in ,

n and therefore I believe that it was the William, the

h is wh o Pincerna, and probably also Roger, son, were companions of the C onq u

94 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

r bea ing s, but the lion was more probably ﬁrst borne

of r of by his son , the second Earl A undel Of the line w Aubigny, in token Of his descent from Adeliza, wido f I o . Henry , in whose reign we have the earliest evi dence Of golden lions being adopted as a personal i decoration , if not strictly an herald c bearing.

AL WILLIAM M ET . Here again is a memorable personage Of whose orig in and family little is known . Wace mentions ki ’ ” him as Guillaume l en dit Mallet , but why so l ff . t cal ed has not even been guessed at Geo rey, Coun of l h is n Anjou, is popu arly said to have received ame

’ of Martel from the horseman s hammer, which is

a n assumed to have been his favourite we po ; but this , d like many such stories, is unsupporte by any sub stantial t d evidence, and is con este by the French

r M is . rt antiqua y, M de la Mairie, who asse s that artel

of - w simply another form Martin , and the well kno n

a Martelette or charge in her ldry, Martlet, , little

or S l w Martin, wal o , appears to corroborate that asser

ll a two tion. Therefore, although the mai et,

a s he ded hammer, was as early known to the Norman ” not th as the martel de fer, if, indeed, it were e

’ L un tie t un e é ée ou e n p sans f rr , ’ ’ u t e u ne maillet ut e un e c e: L a r , l a r ha h 95 W ILLIAM MAL ET .

same weapon , I have no belief in such a derivation , the name being, moreover, borne by the whole family . Wh ether the companion Of the C onqueror was the

ﬁrst so called is unknown . Le Prevost simply says he was the source of a noble race still existing in

v France , that Of Malet de Gra ille . The author of Carmen de Belle tells us he was

a C om ater p rtly Norman and partly English , and p ” Heraldi ul to n , which wo d seem signify joi t sponsor

com are n r ide with Harold, p , as the Fre ch have it (

Duc an e in v oce g ). It would be interesting t o discover whose child

to ﬁnd h im they stood godfathers , and why we in the ranks of his fellow- gossip the knowledge of that i fact might reveal to us many others . W as t in Engl and or in Normandy that he stood at the font 7 with Harold If in the latter, it must have been in

’ 1 062 i nf of w son to , dur ng the e orced visit God in s D l h i uke Wil iam, the year in w ch Adela was born . Is it possible that Harold and William Malet were her

’ 7 f il r . o ns d godfathers Guy , Amie , Mat a s almone ,

nl f would certai y be cognizant o that fact .

not His name, however, is met with , I believe, 96 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . either in Saxon or Norman annals previous to the f we o . invasion , when hear his valour and his peril t w Guillaume, whom they call Malle , also thre him self boldly into the midst . With his ﬂaming sword he terriﬁed the English . But they pierced his shield ll d and ki e his horse, and he would have been slain l himself, when the Sire de Montfort and Wi liam de

- Vieux ont w Vez Pont ( p ) came up ith a strong force ,

a and g all ntly rescued him , though with the loss Of m m en f any Of their , and mounted him on a resh

o le R ou - 8 R man o . horse ( , l We next hear of him as the person appointed by

of the Conqueror to take charge the body Of Harold , which had been discovered by the swan - necked

Ead th to on - g y , and bury it the sea shore ; his selection for that purpose would seem to have some connection with the curious statement of Bishop

of Guy, as from his previous knowledge the Saxon

King, and the spiritual brotherhood which is said to w t have existed bet een hem , he may have been con sidered by William to have the best claim to the melancholy honour after the mother, to whom it had

After this we ﬁnd him mentioned as accompanying

98 THE CONQUEROR AND H IS COMPANIONS .

al taken prisoner at York . Another William M et, set

H esilia down as the son of Crispin , died an Old man in the Abbey of Bee ;but there is no identifying either

of with the companion the Conqueror, though each has a claim to the distinction, for our William , the

‘ f c om ere of rt sheri f of Yorkshire and p Harold, ce ainly

of had a son and heir named Robert, and a sister

ll H esilia Wi iam Crispin , named , is variously asserted to have been the mother or wife of the William Malet l who fought at Sen ac . He was a witness to a charter of Kin g William to

r of -le- the Chu ch St . Martin Grand in London , and is “ ’ 2 l therein styled Princeps . He also gave Contevi le * of h in Normandy to the Abbey Bec, w ich indicates

n Herluin H rlev e some con ection with and e . How came he possessed of Conteville ? We know that H erluin b had been previously married, and had y his ﬁrst wife

son if a named Ralf. Was that ﬁrst w e an English

W son lli oman, and had she a second named Wi am ,

’ to 7 h is inv alu ill . heir eventually Contev e Glover, in

l etted n able col ections, has j down the subscribi g

to t wh o s witnesses a char er by a Gilbert Malet, tyles

m f “ e hi sel Dapifer Regis, and we ﬁnd amongst th m

“ ” l M i h aerede meo and. Wi liam alet, his he r , Robert ,

P ia . , p E U X N T 99 WILLIAM DE VI PO .

of Ralph , brothers William , and another William , grandson or nephew of the grantor (“ nepote meo

Unfortunately it is without date ; but I am inclined ff to consider Gilbert a brother of the sheri , and the w William he calls his nephe , the youngest Of the two of ff sons the sheri , who were taken prisoners with h im th e wh o at York other being Robert , succeeded

i in Suﬂolk and him , Obta ned the honour Of Eye , at the compilation of Domesday was found to possess two hundred and sixty- eight manors in

b . England , Eye eing the chief His father was then

an d all a dead, that is we at present know for cer

t n 1 . no 069 tainty I f slai in , he might well be the

of Bee h e Old man who died in the Abbey , to which

t for we n was a benefac or, have no means of g uessi g ' f h is age at the time o the invasion . The smallest contribution to his his tory would be gratefully received .

IE XP N I' ‘ WILLIAM DE V U O .

The combatant at Senlac wh o with the Sire de

i of i d Montfort saved the l fe W lliam Malet, as describe in din i the prece g memo r, is named by Wace, who ”

W ll . . Ie Prév ost records the incident, i iam M says,

t t it Vieux ont authorita ively, tha was Robert de p , and 1 00 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . in corroboration of the assertion of the learned w antiquary whose Opinion he has adopted , and hich appears to h ave been formed not upon any contempo

of rary documents , but from the simple fact a Robert

Vieux ont Vi ou nt de p , or p , as it became anglicised, 1 073 a having been sent in to Normandy, to the ssist

d ric O r e . e t . ance of Jean de la Fl che , as s ated by (lib iv

1 3 Vieux ont cap . ) but the existence of a Robert de p in 1 07 3 does not convince me that there w as not a

VViIliam Vieux ont n 1 066. , lord of p , at Hasti gs in Wace, it is true, cannot be implicitly depended upon for the baptismal names of the personages he mentions as h l taking part in t e great battle ; and M . e Prevost has in tw o or three instances made some valuable corrections Of his text on good and su ﬂicient authority

h e O f but in this case cites none in support his assertion ,

' and therefore , with great respect for his opinion, I

’ r ff VVac e s ventu e to di er from him and accept account, which is uncontradicted by anything within my know l edge , and has great probability in its favour. William and Robert were favourite names in the

m Vieux ont- en fa ily, supposed to have its origin in p

i O f 1 1 3 1 Ange , in the arrond ssement Lisieux and in

l Vi ount a of there was a Wi liam de p , apparently son

E 1 02 TH CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . have thought ﬁt to perpetuate the memories of the noble and gallant knights who perished in that me morable conﬂict is to me most surprising.

The ﬁrst Robert is said by O rderic to have been

of 1 08 5 le killed at the siege St . Suzanne in but M . e f f Pr vost quotes a charter o Henry I . in avour Of

- - w the Abbey of St. Pierre sur Dive , hich records his having become a monk in that house .

of t Vi ounts We hear nothing of the wives the ﬁrs p , nor by what means they became possessed of the lands they held in England, but g reat accessions of honours

' and estates w ere acquired in the reign of King Joh n

' Vi ount wh o w as f by a Robert de p , high in avour with t h ad o of hat sovereign , and cust dy the unfortunate

u i Of Mirav elt Prince Arth r, taken pr soner in the battle , for his services in which Robert had a grant from th e of s King the ca tle and barony Of Appleby ; and , adhering strictly to John during the whole of his

n M reig , is ranked by atthew Paris , with a brother

’ Iv o named , amongst the King s wicked counsellors .

’ i t w e ' ﬁnd a u Th s Rober s mother was M ude, da ghter

~ of vi of Anv ald u Hugh de More lle, Kirk , co nty Cum berland , who gave divers lands in IVestm oreland to

‘ of of w the Abbey Shap, but hich previous Robert or T 03 WILLIAM DE VIEUXPON .

Buill of k l of of John de y, lord Of the honor Tic hi l, w s - in hich, with all the land and chattels of his father law l 1 1 1 4 1 2 2 8 12 th of , he had ivery in , and died in ( ' — Henry being then notwithstanding his great

a revenues, the wealth he had am ssed by rapine and i m plunder during the civ l wars , and the emolu ents m fﬁ derived fro the various O ces he held, amongst others those of a j ustice itinerant in the county Of York and one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas d t e 1 99 7 l. 1 1 8 . 6 . indebted to h King in the sum of ,

r of tune of besides ﬁve g eat horses price for ﬁve wine, which debt was not paid off many years after .

The male line of these Vip ounts terminated in the

n of t grandso this Rober , who was slain, as it would

e ln t of of s em, the ba tle Evesham, on the side the

l de t AD . 1 2 61 rebe lious barons under Simon Mon fort, ,

n ds i whe his lan were se zed by the King, but were sub

u to t wo t s co- i seq ently restored his daugh er and he rs,

Isabella and Idonea the former of whom married Roger ff t de Cli ord and the latter Roger de Leybourne , af er

- l whose death sh e re marrried with John de Cromwel .

Through the match with Clifford the Castle of Appleby

to famil o f Tuftons s of passed in the y the , Earl Thanet,

~ of S ir r and are a t present in . the possession Hen y 104 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

TAI N RAOUL SSO .

Taisson O f We have already heard of a Raoul , Lord

C in ueleiz - - 1 047 g , at the battle of Val és Dunes in ;

descended , it is supposed , from the Counts of Anj ou ,

of O f and the founder the Abbey Fontenay . Three

i Lords of C ing u eleiz were so named in succession

d of Raol uring the time the Conqueror. The

Teisson mentioned by Wace as present at Hastings ,

of is presumed to have been the second, and the son ‘ — - the combatant at Val es Dunes .

of Rodulﬁ Taisson The name , the father , is

appended to the foundation charter of the Priory of 1 03 5 Sigi by Hugh de Gournay before , the other b f witnesses eing Neel the Viscount , Geo frey the

Viscount, William the Count, son Of the glorious

i Ma istri Robert, Duke of the Normans, and Will am , g

C omitis - s- e , whoever he may be . After Val é Dunes w ﬁnd him summoned by the D uke to his aid on the 1 05 4 invasion of the French in . He is not named in

any account of the battle of Mortemer , and was there

fore most probably with the Duke himself.

Taisson lI His son , Raoul . , followed him to Hastings .

to He is presumed have been killed in the battle, as no more is known about him , nor of any of his descend

in n n ants E gla d , although for some time ﬂourishing

106 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

of of th e O f to that the foundation Abbey Fontenay , we hear nothing of uncle Walter but what his dying nephew relates respecting his care Of him when a h ﬂd c . The marriage of his daughter Matilda with so im

a Taisson i port nt and wealthy a person as Raoul , S re de f C in u eleiz “ g , indicates that alter held some rank and h t possessions in Normandy at t at period , al hough they have never been speciﬁed .

of un Who was Walter de Falaise , father an

Of l doubted companion the Conqueror, Of whom I wi l

n next speak in order to conti ue this inquiry namely,

W I LLIAM DE MOULIN S .

i M u - - e W lliam, Lord of o lins la Marche, arrondiss ment

’ IVace as one of Of Mortagne, is mentioned by the combatants at Senlac

E dam m d ol d e es Ram e Rou 1. Willa M ins ( . , but neither Le Prevost nor Taylor enlightens us as to his pedigree, the latter merely describing . him as the son of IValter of al l F aise , as we a ready knew from

Orderic n th e f , who is silent respecti g family o his

on to mation the subject , I am strong ly inclined 107 WILLIAM DE MOULINS .

Herlev e of and uncle William the Conqueror, who

‘ Matilda wife of Taisson wit with his daughter , Raoul , n essed the foundation charter of Fontenay as already stated .

son The title Of De Moulins, borne by the Of Walter l de Fa aise, was obtained by him through his marriage

Alberede or Albrede of with , daughter and heir a

Guitmund o b certain , whose hand was best wed y the

’ on of Conqueror William , with the whole her father s

ﬁef of w of Molines, in re ard his services either at

or Orderic Senlac elsewhere, he being , as informs us , l ” a ga lant soldier. In conjunction with his wife Alberede he w as a

f ult w o . great benefactor to the Abbey St Evro , besto

on of Mah ern t all ing it the Church , wi h the titles and

’ and i to the priest s lands the cemetery belong ng it,

of li the Church Of St. Lawrence in the town Mou nes ,

h is n h h and demes e land near the castle, and the C urc of Bonmoulines - , with all the tithes Of corn , the mill , and the oven . 1 073 In he was sent by King William, in company w l Vieux ont and ith Wil iam de p other brave knights , to the assistance of John de la Fleche against F ulk le

Reeh in u l un of h is a (the Q arre ler), Co t Anjou , and lly, 108 THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS . a mediation which terminated in th ePeace of Blanche

ari i l de (vol . . , p .

Al \Villiam After breda had borne him two sons , and

h e Robert, it appears divorced her on the plea of con s m a anguinity . This y afford us some clue to the

a desired inform tion .

William married secondly Duda, daughter of Wal

de wh Ire tw o cran Meulent, by om also had sons, Simon

wh o off and Hugh , were both cut by a cruel death ,

“ O rderic informs us, leaving no issue The divorced

A unrrer lbreda ended her days in a n y. l The same author, describing William de Mou ines ,

“ s w as f ays he too ond of vain and empty glory, in pursuit of which he w as guilty of indiscriminate h slaug ter . It is reported that he shed much blood, and that his ferocity w as so great that every blow he dealt was fatal . Through prosperity and adversity he

w old w lived to g ro , and , so far as this orld is concerned , passed his days in honour . Dying at length in his ow n w as - of castle, he buried in the chapter house

St . Evroult .

His son and successor, Robert , fell under the dis

I. w as s w pleasure of Henry , bani hed, and ith his wife

d of Grentmesnil Agnes, aughter Robert de , went to

1 10 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

d the Conquest, and though fairly to be describe as an ” O ld le i man , the term v el may be held to signify simply the senior, as it appears that there were

of of three the family Gournay present at Hastings,

le viz . , Hue de Gournay , the Sire de Brai Comte , and the Seigneur de Gournay. h Hug h de Gournay, the second Of t at name, would i be the Se g neur de Gournay at that period , and Hue

of de Gournay his son the third the name, who

a laitel of married Basili , daughter of Gerrard F , sister

of W alter ff l st the wife Gi ard , Earl Of Buckingham, e h and widow of Raoul de Gac . Hugh, his fat er,

de n Seigneur Gournay , is described by Wace as bei g accompanied at Senlac by a strong force of his men of

on l Brai, and doing much execution the Eng ish . He is said by the Norman chroniclers to have been f 1 074 mortally wounded in a battle at Cardi f in , and

to carried Normandy, where he died . There is, f however, considerable doubt about their account o this battle, as it is clear that several persons said to have been engaged or slain in it were either deceased

n or l lo g prior to it, cou d not possibly have been present ; but more of that anon .

The ﬁrst of the family of Gournay is presumed to

of or have been a follower Ralf Rollo , to whom, after 1 HUGH DE GOURNAY . 1 1

t t of allotted par of the dis rict Le Brai, the principal

u La te places in which were Go rnay, Fer , Lions, Charle val, and Fleury .

La Ferte was assigned to a younger branch of the

of house Gournay before the Conquest . Hugh , the son d of Eudes, is reporte to have been the ﬁrs t to make f Gournay a place o strength . The ancient records of the family ascribe to him the erection of a citadel

and f and surrounded by a triple wall osse, further ” a La s ecured by a tower n med after him , Tour Hue , which was standing as late as the beginning of the 1 th f 7 century . Such was the reputed strength o this fortress that a rhyming chronicler (William de Brito) declares it was able to resist a hostile attack undefended by a single soldier . A description magni ﬁcent enough to take rank amongst the most amusing e xaggerations of our transatlantic brethren .

w as u Hugh succeeded by a Rena d de Gournay, the

of ﬁrst the family mentioned in any charter, who by

wi Alberada h ad two and his fe sons , Hugh Gautier,

n the elder becoming Lord Of Gournay, and the you ger of e- en- f La Fert Brai, of which he ounded the Priory

“ c irca 990 m or , by co mand request of his brother

u for souls H gh , and the health of the Of Renaud and H I 1 12 THE CONQUEROR AND S COMPANIONS .

P ara iu m r Norman custom called g , from the younge

“ h e son being put p ar i conditione with the elder. T old Coutume dc Normandie gives this deﬁnition of it La tenure par p arag e est quand cil qui tient et

’ c il de qui il tient sent pers es parties de l h éritag es q u i

n urs in descend de leurs a c essc . The younger son

of bu t such case was not the feudal vassal the elder, h h is of ﬁef eld portion the by equal tenure , the elder,

v - however, doing homage to the o er lord for the whole

ﬁef f to the seventh generation , when all a ﬁnity was supposed to cease .

d r I have made this little igression , because I conside such explanations of ancient customs most important to readers of history , as accounting for acts and circumstances otherwise inexplicable or liable to mis

n interpretation and co fusion, as in the instance I have already pointed out in my notice Of Aimeri de Thouars

i . (vol . . , p

u G H gh IL, Seigneur de ournay, most probably the son of the former Hugh , is the personage I have

“ already mentioned as believed to be the O ld Hue

’ of W ac e s ni Chro cle, and the Hugo Miles who auth o rised the gift of the land of C alv elv ille to th e Abbey of Montvilliers by William while Count ’ of ‘ the

Hiemois .

1 14 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

of h ad d Monastery Ely , his eyes put out, and die shortly afterwards .

ﬁ nd one of Subsequently we Hugh de Gournay, the 5 4 f A D. 1 0 v o . ictors in the battle Mortemer, , and ﬁnally at Hastings in in company with his son ” Hugh , and his relative, the Sire de Brai, a title by which the latter Hugh was distinguished in some rolls, and may in this instance have been appropriated l to his son Gerrard . I have a ready alluded to the reported death of the elder Hugh from wounds

of C ardiﬂ A D 1 0 4 . 7 received in the mysterious battle , . , ll and wi give my reasons for discrediting that account . By Monsieur le Prevost he is said to have become a monk at Bee ; but it is suggested that the Hugh de

son Gournay recorded to have done so , was his

r of Flaitel wh o Hugh , thi d husband Basilia , also retired from the world, and ended her days there,

Anfride i together with her niece , and Eva, w fe Of li Wi l am Crispin .

la Fert R cle The Sire de é mentioned by Wace ( om. 1 R on . not one of Gourna f amil , was the y y, the

Of erté - en - last of that branch , lords La F Bray, having di A f O ed without issue a monk in the bbey o St. uen at to Rouen previous the invasion .

And now for a word or two about the battle of 1 15 HUGH DE GOURNAY . this subject by the inclusion of the name Of Hugh de

u Go rnay amongst the personages connected with it,

“ ’ and following a French account in L Histoire et ” Chronique de Normandie , printed at Rouen by

Me issier 1 61 0 g in , he very naturally questioned the fact Of there ever having been such a battle at Cardiff at all. Having had occasion to examine this subject upon

a o other grounds some years g , I went deeper into it

dis than my amiable friend had done, and believe I covered a substratum of truth on which a story irre concilable w ith established facts had been constructed . The Norman Chronicle describes the battle as 1 074 having occurred in , during the lifetime of the

n m et Conqueror, and states that the Da es were by Guilh aum e le ﬁls Auber (who was slain in Flanders

’ Gu ilh aume le son t in Roux , the King s (at tha i of Mont omeri t me a boy fourteen), Roger de g , Hue de Mortemer, and the Comte de Vennes ; that the ff Normans were victorious, but su ered great loss .

That Guilh aume le Roux was taken prisoner that

“ ” “ ” u t Mont om eri Arnoult de Harco r , Roger de g ,

“ ” ” i le Guilh aume le ﬁls Ne l Vicomte , Auber, and

w ll on many others ere ki ed and buried the spot, and

’ Hue de Gournay and the Comte d Ev reu x were 1 16 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . they died soon afterwards winding up with the infor

of mation that Odo, Bishop Bayeux, and the Comte de Vennes retired after the battle with the remainder of their forces to Caerleon . That this account is a jumble O f two or three separate actions is evident from the names introduced in n it . The Comte de Ven es was Count Brian of

B t t wo of and rittany , who defea ed the sons Harold 1 O f 069 . o their Irish allies in do , Bishop Bayeux , was in arms agains t the Earls of Norfolk and Here f 1 074 of ff ord in , and the battle Cardi , according to

w as w the Welsh Chronicler, fought some t enty years

n Guilh au nre le later, whe Roux was king, and had been lying sick at Gloucester.

’ ’ In Dr . Powell s continuation of Humphrey Lloyd s T “ ales IVelsh description of , translated from the , and

1 5 8 4 under th published in , it is recorded e date of

1 09 4 : R o er M ont omer of About this time g g y, Earl

l itz- of Salop and Arundell , Wi liam F Eustace , Earl

A r nold de H arcour t and N a l Gloucester, e e le Vicount were slain between Cardiff and Brecknock by the

; IVa lter E rereux E ar l o S ar um Welshmen also , f , and H u h E ar l Gour ne were th ere h u rt and g y , died ” aﬂ er in N ormandy.

1 18 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

w h confounding him ith his successor . As for Hug

n w de Gour ay , in hom at this moment we are more

th e of specially interested , last we hear him is that he

some became a monk in Normandy, where he died time after 1 08 5 ; but nothing is positively known

w as how long after , or what the cause of his death , ” f and the assertion that he was hurt at Cardi f, ” i and died after in Normandy, is quite reconc lable

if one with the fact, it be , that he became a monk there, as it was a common practice in those days for a warrior to assume the monastic habit even in articulo mortis ; and the same observation applies to Roger de

Mont omeri in g , who died a monk at Shrewsbury

1 094 .

t Of Arnould de Harcour , named in both accounts, I have found nothing to affect the question either “( way, and we have therefore only alter Evreux,

of IVilliam Earl Sarum , and Fitz Eustace, Earl of

of Gloucester, to dispose .

That there is evidence of the existence of a IVilliam

of Fitz Eustace, probably a son Eustace, Count of

Boulogne , I demonstrated some years ag o at " C irencesterﬁ That there ever was a “f alter

Vide VVilIiam of e. Boh emond e O f t oc ette Tyr , Princ An i h , in a l r to h is o e o e , m e t o oth e son of u t ce m e u o br th r R g r n i ns an r E s a na d H g . 1 19 HUGH DE GOURNAY.

‘ E arl of S arunr i Evreux , , is st ll an open question , which I am not warranted in discussing here . We knowHugh was not E ar l of Gournay but that does not destroy his identity . In the absence Of any posi h tive authority, the simple statement Of the Wels

and Chronicler, uncontradicted in any important point , throwing a light upon several Obscure points of his d tory and biography, deserves respectful consi eration .

1 094 it not Although recorded under the year , does f w d ﬁx the precise date o the battle . The or s are ”

time. about th is There is nothing, therefore , to prevent our considering it to have been fought in

1 092 or 1 093 i , before March , , which would reconc le every apparent discrepancy . P R CHA TE V .

’

F K D A UN OU . WILLIAM DE MOHUN. UL

RI CHARD DE V . EUDO AL CHAPEL . NE IL A F EUDO D PI ER .

WILLIAM DE MOHUN .

THIS ancestor of the ﬁrst Earls Of Somerset is n amed t by Wace amongs the Norman barons at Senlac, but

R ou le Moion R om . de simply as Viel Willame de ( , l n . Deriving his ame from a vill three h . LO leagues south Of St , w ere the remains of the l h im castle were recently to be seen , all we earn of from the rhyming chronicler is th at he had with him

m a many co panions , ont avec li maint comp gnon but if w e were to give any credit to a list handed down ” us Britannicis to by Leland Collectanea de Rebus , i Ed . Hearne , vol . . , p . he had a following worthy w Of an emperor, and deserved the description besto ed

’ ’

. en i n l oste This William de Moi , he tells us , had his

1 22 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

n killed in the battle . And this astoundi g catalogue is wound up by the repeated assurance that all the above- named seigneurs were in the retinue of Mou sier ” de Moion as aforesaid . I have copied the list in order that whoever pleases may satisfy himself, as I have done , respecting its

nor origin . It is in fact nothing more less than

“ a copy of all the names mentioned in the Roman R ” de ou , from line to line just as they follow each other in the poem and the assertion that all these noble Normans were a la retennaunce de

Monsier Moion , resulted from the curious blunder of wh o ns the copyist, co idered the lines

L e Viel Willam e de Moien O nt v e m om o a c li aint c pagn n , had reference to the knight-s and barons named imme diatel all of y afterwards, whom he pressed into the

no t service, and would doub have included half the army if an unmistakable full stop and change of subject h ad not pulled him up short with the death O f

R Erneis o obert Fitz , which he writes inc rrectly

Il ex o e erv eis . This p s is necessary to prevent any one from imagining that this list is extracted from m so e independent authority . Le livre des C on ” uerors out R de Rou q turns to be Le oman .

v of u Moion The ser ices Mo sier de were, however, 123 WILLIAM DE MOHUN . sufﬁciently appreciated to obtain for him the grant of l C lch an re n of the ordships of g , in the cou ty D evon, and Sutton , in the county of Wilts, with

ﬁfty- ﬁv e others in the county of Somerset ; Dunster Castle being apparently his caput baronise and prin ci al p residence , near which he founded a priory and ma to n h de it a cell that at Bath, g ivi g to it the Churc

i u s of . n St George D n ster, as al o the lordship of

Alc ombe all n , with the tithe s Of his vi eyards and arable lands at Dunster and K aramp ton . Of his age at the time of the Conquest we h ave no f d means o j u ging. As I have previously remarked ” ls the epithet Viel may simply signify the elder, and not i mply old in the fullest sense of the word .

n of son WVace Writi g in the time his , would natu

’ IVe do so rally so dis tinguish him . in similar cases

to u in the present day . He appears have s rvived the

w as r in . O Conqueror, and bu ied the Priory Of Bath f h is parentage we are equally ignorant . For all I

w one of kno , he may have been descended from the

rn i same family as Raoul, su amed Mou n , the reported

’ of for assassin Robert, the Conqueror s father ; the f t Moion . name is spel indi ferently , Moun , and Moyne

h is wi e By fe , who ver she may have been , he had a 124 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . charter of the priory at Bruton he distinctly calls

“ VVillielmus himself de Moyne, comes Somerset

3) th e m of of ensis . From ti e the Conquest to that

of this Earl , history is silent respecting the deeds the

De Mohuns.

EUDO AL CHAPEL .

There are some doubts as to whom Wace alludes as ” le de Sire la Haie, whom he describes as charging

' nor t n impetuously at Senlac, neither sparing pi yi g

on h e any, dealing death all encountered , inﬂicting wounds which no skill could cure .

Eudo, or , as Wace calls him in a previous portion

Ronran Iwun al of his , Chapel , was the eldest son of Turstain Haldub Halduc Haralduc as ( , and it

i ff n a or A h is w is ndi ere tly written) by Emm nna ife , and subscribes himself Eudo Haldub in a charter

A . D 1 0 4 . 7 . At the time of the Conquest he w as head of of - du - the house Haie Puits , in the Cotentin ,

’ of IEssa Turstain near the Abbey y, founded by (also d calle Richard) his father.

Herluin Eudo married Muriel, a daughter of de

126 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

l ll Eudo a Chapel, Dapifer to Wi iam Duke Of Nor

and m andy, in no way appears related to Eudo , son of Hubert de Rie, Dapifer to the King Of England , with whom it seems to have b een his fate to be con founded .

’ w of Ra a Robert s mother, ife lph, ppears to have been Oliva , a daughter of William de Albini Pincerna, the second of that name .

EUDO DAPIFER .

There is no satisfactory evidence of this celebrated

Norman having fought at Senlac, although it has been suggested that Wace may h ave designated him ” Pracls of as the Sire de Préaux Cil de , which dl 1 00. le Eudo was undoubte y possessed in 7 M .

Prév ost f i , therefore, who himsel furnishes us with th s

m for w h is infor ation , hich he acknowledges Obligation e h . t e to M H nault , is rather inconsistent in at same time charging the poor poet with a gross ana

’ ch ronism , on the ground that the house of Préaux

a of a i of C ailli h ad was a junior br nch the f m ly , which only just been detached from it at the period Wace

r A . D 1 1 60 for w ote, . ; if the evidence titre dis

Préaux in 1 070may well have been so four years E 127 UDO DAPIF ER.

é in 1 1 2 0 w i of ts his Castle Of Pr aux , h ch is i elf a f ’ to . le P e su ﬁcient answer M r vost s Obj ection, and as

h i s on t he m elf records that fact, his note the subjec is incomprehensible .

But to our memoir . This Eudo w as the fourth son of s Hubert de Rie , the loyal va sal who saved the life of Duke William in his ﬂight from Valog n es by

n on f a mou ting him a resh horse , and misle ding his i i r ck . . pursuers, who were close upon his heels ( vol ,

’ of t p . Three Hubert s four sons were direc ed by

to not l him escort the Duke, and leave him ti l he was af w as one of s e in Falaise . Whether Eudo the three

not O rderic not n as we know , as does ame them but

all they must have been young at that time , and Eudo

u s of al the yo nge t the four, it is probable that R ph ,

e i and Hub rt, and Adam were the gu des guardians of i f r n not the r youth ul p i ce , themselves much his seniors .

’ Wh ether all four were in the Conqueror s army we

no of i have at present means ascerta ning, but we ﬁnd

all in r our them England , and , if we may t ust ft ll authority, their father also immediately a er Wi iam

' of was possessed the crown . 1

’ MS . is o of th e ou t o of St. e e o e te . o o . t H t ry f nda i n P t r s , C lch s r C tt n N 128 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPA IONS .

The account from which we derive it is rather w apocryphal . In the time Of King Ed ard the

dc Confessor, we are told, Hubert Rie, a trusty

r v \Villiam se ant to Duke of Normandy, being by him sent on a mission to that king when h e lay on his

- bed w t death , came ith a pompous equipage in o d Englan , and after conference with King Edward , returned to the Duke w ith certain tokens by which he was declared by that King his heir to the crown of w h . t is realm, viz , a sword, in the belt hereof were

’ of enclosed the relics some saints, a hunter s horn of

of gold and the head a mighty stag, for which service the Duke promised Hubert he should be steward of his household . ’ IVilliam But , continues the writer, when Duke had

ot w g the cro n, fearing that disturbances might arise in

u Normandy , and well weighing the sagacity in co nsel h h im and dexterity in action of t is Hubert, he sent thither to have an eye to that danger, and soon after w him his sons Ralph , hom he had made Castellan of

n O f of Notti gham, Hubert, governor the Castle m Norwich , and Ada , to whom he had g iven large possessions in Kent ; the which Adam was ﬁrst

C um om m e u h aleratis et frem atu terribilibus p pa agna , q is p , ” minibu s er co indu tis et o o e v e t u m e t u h o s i c l r s r sp c abilis . S ch an

THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

The anecdote abou t the ill- roasted crane is not im probable, and is at least characteristic, and may have partly inﬂuenced the Conqueror in his decision to send

1 7 rid v l Fitz Osbern to Normandy in 00( e o . i . p . for he could ill spare at any time the personal ” of w attendance a trust orthy cousin and councillor, like the newly created Earl of Hereford .

v It is clear, howe er, that Eudo became Dapifer after

of for the departure the Earl for Normandy, and

of seventeen years enjoyed the favour his sovereign, and being in attendance on the dying Conqueror at

w as Rouen, mainly instrumental to the securing

O f the crown to Rufus, whom he accompanied to d England , and by his representations Obtaine from W illiam de P ontarch e the keys Of the treasury at W w inchester, herein the regalia, as well as the m oney, was deposited . Thence he hastened to Dover, and bound the governor of the castle by a solemn o ath that he would not yield it to any one but by h is a dvice .

s Peven ey , Hastings, and other maritime strong d m i hol s he anaged to secure in like manner, pretend ng

in ll that the K g, whose death was sti rumoured in secret, would stay longer in Normandy, and desired to have good assurances of the safety of his castles 111

E n gland from himself, his then steward. 13 1 E UDO DAP IFER .

Returning to Winchester he publicly announced the death Of the Conqueror so , while the nobles were consulting together in Normandy respecting the "W ’ succession, illiam by Eudo s policy, was pro claimed King in England .

f in His great service was duly appreciated by Ru us ,

u whose favo r he remained during his whole reign, and — f ’ in 1 096 7 founded the Church o St . Peter s at

l n r R oh esia Colchester, he himse f layi g the ﬁ st stone, ,

and his wife , the second , Gilbert Fitz Richard de Clare,

r her brother, the thi d . On the death of Rufus he w as coldly looked upon

new in r u h im by the K g, Hen y, who s spected of being

t - h eu se sub a par isan of his brother Robert Court , but sequently was reconciled to him and visited h im when

of v he was dying in his Castle Préaux, and ad ised him

to i as the d sposition of his temporal estates .

h is d to To Abbey at Colchester, wherein he esired be

r one d bu ied, he bequeathed hundre pounds in money,

o his gold ring with a t paz, a standing cup and cover

w of ul adorned ith plates gold, his horse and a m e, and in addition to the lands he had endow ed it with on

on h its foundation , he bestowed it his manor of Brig t lin si g e.

was E brought over to ngland , and accord M 13 2 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS CO PANIONS .

Colchester on the morrow preceding the kalends of

1 1 2 0 2 oth of March , ( Henry

B R oh esia y his wife , daughter of Richard Fitz

or Roh esia Gilbert de Clare de Bienfaite , and , only

u IValter fa da ghter of Gif rd , the ﬁrst Earl of Bucking d ham , he left issue one sole daughter and heir, name

VViIliam ll Margaret , married to de Mandevi e, and

of ff O f mother Geo rey de Mandeville, ﬁrst Earl Essex , to secure w hose services King Stephen and the Empress Maude appear to have bid against each other i to a fabulous extent . Dying excommun cated for

on outrages committed the monks Of Ramsey, his corpse was carried by some Knights Templars into their orchard in the Old Temple at London , arrayed in the

of habit the Order, and after being enclosed in lead ,

of i hung on a branch a tree , where it remained unt l

u a f Al absol tion being Obt ined rom Pope exander, by

i IValden was n the ntercession Of the Prior of , it take dow n and privately buried in the porch of the N ew w f ll to . Temple, here his e ﬁgy is sti be seen

’ K FUL D AUNC H .

’ ” ki i d Alnou Of m Cil ert S re , another those Nor an i seigneurs Master Wace leaves us to ident fy, is gene

13 4 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

two O f their sons, , if not three, whom were in the army at Hastings .

’ A Fnlc one C laudo is set down in Taylor s List as

’ hav ing contributed forty vessels to William s ﬂeet

“ n x1 A Fulco e Clau de . nav es ;

n e but u less Claud be a clerical error, and we should A t read luou , I cannot venture to appropriate the gif

of to the son Baldric the Teuton . Another son of that Baldric was the immediate ancestor of a family unequalled for fame and power

f n f by any in England . The name o Nevil is o e o the greatest inscribed on the roll of Anglo - Norman

Orderic chivalry ; and though not mentioned by ,

IVace u , G illaume de Poitiers, or any other chronicler in of of t h e their list the companions Conqueror, we w cannot, ho ever questionable may be the authority Of

l of it the Rol of Battle Abbey, challenge the insertion

one u as of the proofs Of its inacc racy .

RICHARD DE NEVIL

of th e was the fourth son Baldric German , and so

l h is ﬁef Of - -Toc ue ca led from Neuville sur q , in the

O f n department the Orne, the arrondissement of Arge

of e of f tan , and the canton Gac . The name his wi e

h ere is as yet unknown to us, but she to him four sons, Gilbert, Robert , Richard , and Ralph . Gilbert, E 3 RICHARD DE N VIL . 1 5

apparently the eldest, is the Gilbert N ormanus traditionally said not only to have come over with

to the Conqueror, but have been the admiral Of his

ﬂeet.

as r n ﬁr t This se tion, appare tly s made towards th e t close of the ﬁfteenth century, is repor ed by Leland on

l of l the authority, as he te ls us, a roul e of the ” n l ge ea ogie of the Erles of Westmoreland , but giving us no idea of the date of that roll or the authorities from which it was c ompiled . At best it can only be looked upon as a family tradition supported, as Mr .

of Drummond appears to think, by the device a ship which is to be seen on the seal of his grand - nephew

l u of Lan Henry de Nevi le , preserved in the D chy

a f of w c ster O ﬁce, and the date hich would be between

1 1 9 9 and 1 2 1 6. My experience in these matters induces me to draw an inference from this fact directly opposed to that Of

Mr It l on . Drummond . is my be ief, founded the many analogous examples I have met with in the course of a tolerably long period passed in such in v esti ations i of i l g , that the trad tion Gilbert de Nev l e having been an admiral has actually arisen from the

of h i h i so far f m i appearance this s p, w ch, ro ndicating 1 3 6 THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS .

signifying a ship, and , therefore, picturing the ﬁrst

N v ille Musc te syllable Of ef , as we ﬁnd (ﬂies) upon

Mu scam s the Old seals Of the p , and hosts of similar

- and much farther fetched canting devices . Nearly all the strange stories and bold assertions to be met with in the works of early historical writers are found upon examination to have originated in an

’ c oncetti and e attempt to account for such , if Gilb rt s uncle did really contribute so large a contingent as f n orty ships to the invadi g ﬂeet, the supposition in the present instance seems a very natural one . Monsieur

one of Leopold de Lisle, the ablest antiquaries in

France , has m a recently compiled catalogue which has been cut in the ston e of the western wall O f the

C h urch Of Dives, introduced a Richard de Neuville

IVilliam rt amongst the followers of , but no Gilbe but

wh o neither by him nor by the Viscount de Magny, has printed the list with some additions in his

do Nobiliaire Normandie, is any authority quoted in

of a support the st tement, and they have probably so distinguished him from observing that the ﬁrst of the

of l name, and who was a contemporary Duke Wil iam, ill was Richard de Novav a, the father Of Gilbert ; but

this Richard had also a son named Richard, and that some of the sons or nephews of the elder Richard

t a n were presen at H sti gs is very probable .

13 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

’ ’ fa his mother s name but retained his ther s arms, sprang the magniﬁcent tree the branches of which are truly said to have overshadowed the land . This

of Saxon line Nevil has given to England two queens,

of e a Princess Wales , a mother of two kings, a Duk of of M of Bedford, a Marquis ontacute, Earls North umberland IVarwick , Westmoreland, Salisbury , Kent , ,

urniv al and Montacute ; Barons Nevil, F , Latimer,

Fauconber g , Montacute, and Abergavenny Duchesses

’ of f n IVarwick Nor olk, Exeter, York , Bucki gham , ,

Clarence, and Bedford ; a Marchioness Of Dorset ;

Ar u Countesses of Northumberland , Westmoreland , n f del, Worcester, Derby, Oxford , Su folk , Rutland , w Exeter, Bridgewater, and Nor ich Baronesses de Ros ,

Dacre, Scrope, Dovercourt, Mountj oy, Spencer, Fitz

VVillou h b Hugh , Harrington, Hastings, Comyn , g y de

Broke, Hunsdon, Cobham, Strange, Montacute, and

t wo Lucas ; nine Knights of the Garter, Lord High

l two O f Chance lors , Archbishops of York, a Bishop ,

l of u m" Sa isbury , Exeter, and of D rha

’ I regret that the nature and limits of th is w ork debar me from particular notice of many members of this wonderful family , the above remarkable list of illustrious descendants being of itself a departure from the rule I have g enerally observed of conﬁning my annotations to th e origin and actions of the actual E 13 9 RICHARD DE N VIL .

companions and contemporaries of the Conqueror. Memoirs of the Peacock of the North and the ” King-maker would alone demand a volume for their illustration ; and it is unnecessary to point out the impossibility of doing similar justice to the many descendants of other families whose ancestors are recorded to have been present with

IVilliam l Duke at Hastings, and would have equa claims on my consideration . CHAPTER VI.

- DE NEEL DE SAINT SA UVE U R s WALTER A N D ILBERT I IA LAC W LL M DE ROUMARE . Y DE TH E CHA MBERLAIN or ROBERT AN D N O VE S C I TA N K E R VILLE . . ’ ’ S E U GUE N ULF DE L AIGLE . UR O D ABITOT ,

- NEEL DE SAINT SAUVEUR . f . LE EVO S o M P R T , the French annotator Wace, is

ls disinclined to believe that Neel Vicomte , whom we have seen in arms against Duke William at the battle

- - v ol. . Of Val és Dunes ( i . p was ﬁghting in his cause at Senlac and Mr . Taylor, in his English l e ’ version , does ittle more than cite Le Pr vost s

The reasons Of the latter are Of no great weight

142 AND N THE CONQUEROR HIS COMPANIO S . describing and now let us see what evidence we can

ﬁnd to support him . It is well known that after the Noble Chef de ” l Faucon, as he was ca led, unwillingly retreated from

- - Val és Dunes , he was banished by Duke William , and took refuge in Brittany, that he was subsequently pardoned and restored to his estates, at what time is not exactly ascertained , but most likely at the moment the politic Duke felt the importance of such assistance as the valorous Viscount could afford h im in his p ro

ected x s j e pedition ; and, con equently, we ﬁnd him at i m l the head of a company, exert ng hi se f to deserve th e favour of the suzerain who had forgiven him his former rebellion .

not That he is mentioned in Domesday is , as Mr .

Taylor admits , to be accounted for by the supposition that he died previously to its compilation ; and that supposition receives support from the fact that h is son

as - di and successor , the l t Neel de Saint Sauveur, ed in 1 092 , seven years afterwards, as is proved by the

t ffr desire of his rela ive , Geo ey , Bishop of Coutances,

“ ” h is . . m . . 2 6 to attend funeral ( Mem Ant Nor an i 8 ,

lf n the bishop himse dying the followi g year . l h According to the We sh C ronicles, as trans mitted . el to us by Humphrey Lloyd and Dr Pow l ,

Neel th e Viscount was one of the slain in the battle - 1 43 NEEL DE SAINT SAUVEUR.

if A . D 1 094 f . . rv i o . Card f, (p Mons de Ge lle , f 1 0 4 ollowing the French account, says 7 , but after

‘ wards , as I have already mentioned , corrects as 1 092 he imagines this date , substituting that of ; e vidently confounding h im with h is son and suc c essor above mentioned .

The more critically the Welsh account of the battle of f Cardi f is examined , the more does the general

of th e truth story appear, and if the last Neel the

killed ' in 1 092 Viscount was Wales in , in company

of of Ar Roger, Earl Shrewsbury , and nold de Har

h is was court , there is every probability that father

a companion of the Conqueror in 1 066. But Wace names also a Sire de Ncahon t amongst the combatants at Senlac, and it is a ques ion

whether he is alluding to Neel de S aint- Sauveur by

or i a . another title , to some distinct ind vidu l The

ﬁef of of Nehou, in the arrondissement Valognes,

received its name from Neel, an ancestor of the Saint

’ u famil N eh ou or l Sauve r y, signifying Neel s Hou Ho m , _

' ' N z ellz H umua ni of 6. g On the ba shment Neel the

1 047 is to Viscount in , Nehou said have been given by Duke William to Baldwin de Meules but it could not

w h is r have been at that period, as Bald in and brothe

c Ri hard were then refugees in Flanders, and not

’ W as received into the Duke s favour until 1 05 3 . THE E 144 CONQU ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Nehou excepted when William restored to Neel his estates previous to the Conquest, or did it pass to the

Rivieres (De Redvers , Rivers) on the death of his son , 1 092 ? I ' the last of the family , in shall return to this subject when noticing the Vernons (ride p . wh o were Sires de Nehou from the end of the eleventh to the end of the thirteenth century .

R WILLIAM DE ROUMA E .

Th is is supposed to be another inaccuracy of Master

’ le e lVace s w e . , and are told by M Pr vost that we should read Roger instead of William , the Norman

” poet having substitu ted the name of the son for that ill of the father . That W iam, the son of Roger de

dil but Roumare, was not at Hastings I rea y admit,

Wace does not say he was . He simply mentions a

“ l B w e Dam Wil ame de omarc, and unless could

a w cle rly sho there was no such person then existing, it is hardly fair to tax an almost contemporaneous

n t i author with even u inten ional m srepresentation .

Th e pedigree of th e family of Roumare is one of the most puzzling in the w hole catalog u e of Norman

d i f f n t nobility . The il gent study o orty years has o

to w enabled me penetrate its mysteries . Ed ard of

146 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMP ANIONS .

ro neglect of verifying dates, has been confounded p h f bably with her mot er, married to her ather before

w - ih - own she was born , set do n as the sister law of her

of son, and thus innocently made the cause consider able trouble to the learned and curious in history and

of genealogy. The ﬁrst fact we are in possession respecting Roger Fitz Gerald is his appearance as Lord of S aldin p g in the county of Lincoln , before the death of

1 1 00 t of a Rufus in . The da e his marri ge is unknown , but his son William must have been of full age in 1 12 2 f o . , as in that year he claimed King Henry I

- f dc certain lands which his step father, Ranul

Bri uessart for q , had surrendered to the King the

a a e rldom of Chester. It is cle r, therefore , that Roger was dead and William twenty-one and upwards in 1 1 2 2 h , so that the latter could not possibly ave fought il at Senlac, seeing that he was not born t l at least thirty years after it .

It is a question , indeed , whether his father Roger de Roumare was present at Hastings, as we ﬁnd him

of n i - s Lord Spaldi g th rty four years afterward , and are informed that he was a young man newly married at

to dence the contrary . IL 14 W LIAM DE ROUMARE . 7 that there was a William de Roumare in the ranks of

of the Norman army invasion . Without relying on

of the statement Peter de Blois , that Roger Fitz

Gerald had an elder brother named William, by whom

on and Lucia was honourably received her marriage, w whom the riter inaccurately styles Earl of Lincoln , there is every probability that such was the fact .

of Gerold de Roumare , the presumed father Roger, — had two wives Albreda and Emicia ; but we have no information w hatever that can be relied on re

of f or specting the number his o fspring, , with the

of of exception Robert, which of his wives they were th e issue . The above little but important fact is derived from

’ ’ a charter printed in P omm eraye s H istoir e dc l A b ” 1 6 2 ba de S t A m n R u en . 6 c . a d ole o g/ , fol , in which a knight named Gerold gives to the Abbey of St . Amand the Church of Roumare for the sake of his own soul

of and that of his wife Albreda , with the assent his

th e of h son and heir Robert , and attestation Ralp , brother of Gerold .

The son Robert is supposed to be the Robert Fitz

“ ” o th e th o Gerald f Domesday, and brother Ralph

n of Tank erv ille w Chamberlai , of hom I shall have to N 148 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPA IONS .

w of elder brother, he ould at the time the Conquest

“ D IVilliam Rom are be om (Dominus) de , and dying ” unmarried before the compilation of Domesday, no traces might have been left of him . At all events I hav e

’ found nothing to justify the rejection of W ace s state

th e of th e ment, and therefore leave name William at

of of head this chapter as a companion the Conqueror, convinced that there might be a Robert , but certainly not a Roger, Fitz Gerald in the host at Hastings .

ILLE THE CHAMBERLAIN OF TAN KE RV .

No identiﬁcation of this noble Norman has yet been made by any of the commentators on the Roman de ” w e in Rou , in which alone ﬁnd such a personage cluded in the list of the followers of the Duke of

. le e . v Normandy Mr Taylor says , M . Pr ost rather

’ inconclusively observes that Ralph , William s guardian , w as too old and his children t oo young to be engaged

“ ’ is t and adds, Ralph s age hardly itself a competen

’ contradiction to Waco s statement ; for his charter giving the Church of Mirev ille to Jumiég es shows

1 lVilliam 079 . that he was living in , his son and successor as Chamberlain , so appears in i e I certainly do not share the op nion of Le Pr vost,

‘ and w w f am at a loss to kno here he ound that Ralph ,

Tank erv ille uardia . the Chamberlain of , was g n to

M 100 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS CO PANIONS .

h as ‘ who a son , Robert , by the ﬁrst ; while the other

w l n s h Gerold h ad a ife named H e ise di . Whether t ey w e Gerolds h ow th e w con er both of Roumare , y ere nected , which was the father of Roger de Roumare ,

w h as and hich of Ralph the Chamberlain , yet to be distinctly proved . The names of Gerald , Robert ,

a and w R lph , William ere much too common at that period to be of themselves sufﬁcient identiﬁcation ; but that the chamberlain of Tank erv ille mentioned by

IVace w as G Ralph , the son of erold and father of lVilliam h h the C amberlain , I t ink cannot reasonably be doubted . A little more light on the family of the

Chamberlain has been thrown by the authors of ” le of a Recherches sur Domesday, in their notice personage better known to the readers of English history, namely

D’AB URSO ETOT .

“ ” The name of Dabitott appears in the Roll of

Battle Abbey, and although not mentioned by Wace and the other chroniclers of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, may fairly be admitted as belonging to one of u of h i the companions of the Conq eror, the absence s D’ A BETOT 1 1 URSO . 5

’ d Abetot C albose of v , canton of , arrondissement Ha re, the lordship of w hich belonged to th e family of

Tankerv ille of , as appears from the charter formation l B of of . osh erv ille the col ege St George de , to which G 1 05 0 Ralph Fitz erald , in , gave the church and tithes of Abetot for the support of the monks of that

w a 1 2 s 1 4 . college, which made an abbey in

This Ralph Fitz Gerald , who is the Chamberlain of

Tankerv ille of t d the las memoir, was the el er brother

i ’ of Aum ar d Abetot y , above mentioned . Their father being the Gerold who was the husband of Helisendis

of of (not Gerold Roumare , husband Albreda), and

Tank erv ille r who probably , as Sire de , held the heredita y f of to of o ﬁce chamberlain the Dukes Normandy, which we ﬁnd his son Ralph and his grandson William enjoying in succession .

Aumar ﬁefs of y, his younger son, inherited the

Abetot of , and was the father two sons, Urso and

“ ” t Des enc er an Rober , the latter distinguished as p , ofﬁce which gave a name to the noble families of Le

Des encer wh o p and Spenser, trace their descent from

’ the niece of this Robert d Abetot . Whether Urso was or w as not in the army at Hasting s there is at present no decisiv e evidence but that he w as in

n w f of E gland shortly after ards , and made sheri f the 1 52 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPAN IONS .

0 ’ . 1 73 one enough In he was of the King s council , and rendered great serv ice in the suppression of the rebellion of the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk . His w character, ho ever, as a spoiler and devastator is amongst the worst recorded of the Norman settlers in

d a Englan , and he appears to h ve especially oppressed the Church of Worcester, building so close to it that the mole of the castle encroached on th e cemetery ” of the monks .

ad Ealdred A complaint being m e to Archbishop ,

A in rchbishop of York , he came to Worcester and s ected w h p the ork, and sternly reproved Urso , to w om h e is reported to have said

? te t t ou e High s h , Urs ’ Hav e thou G od s cu rse

d ad ing, and mine and that of all holy men unless

rem ov est w of thou thy castle from hence, and kno a truth that thine offspring shall n ot long hold the land ” of . St Mary to their heritage .

The prophecy , if not a subsequent invention , was

’ s d Abetot oon fulﬁlled, for his son Roger , having k l of I. w as il ed a servant Henry , banished and his c h e w onﬁscated estates given by t King, ith the hand

’ of dAbetot lValter his sister Emmeline , to ,de Beau f c hamp of Bed ord .

1 54 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

consider them two distinct personages . That they were brothers, however, is fairly presumable, from the

of l t fact that the mother lber de Lacy , Emma, is named in a charter, and Walter had a daughter Emma, named according to custom after her grandmother . No particular deed of arms is attributed to either but the Sire de Lacie is n amed as one of a party of seven or i wh o eight kn ghts charged the English in company,

“ n did fearing neither pri ce nor pope . Many a man w they overthro , many did they wound, and many a ” good horse did they kill . As early as the third year

’ of lVilliam s 1 069 a reign , , Walter de L cy was sent into

Wales w i th William Fitz O sbern and oth er tried

of soldiers, ag ainst the people Brecknock , led by their

a w a Bleth n Prince of Wales, Rhys p O en , Cadogan p y ,

a and Meredith p Owen , whom they attacked and de feated with great slaughter .

W ulstan of Subsequently he assisted , Bishop

’ d Abitot ff of a Worcester, and Urso , then sheri th t

n of county, in preventi g the passing the Severn by

of e t of the Earls Hereford and Norfolk , with the obj c ff t e ec ing a junction of their forces .

on of His death , however, was not the ﬁeld battle, nor was he shorn a monk in some abbey according to a 155 WALTER AND IL BERT DE LACY .

t w and taking much interes in the building , hen the

to w ork was nearly ﬁnished, he mounted a ladder

c of inspe t some portion it , when his foot slipping, he fell

on 6 a of l and was killed the spot ( k lends Apri ,

He was buried in the chapter - house of the Cathedr al at Gloucester, to which Emmeline , his wife, for the

of health his soul, gave ﬁve hides of land at

Duntesborne.

By this lady, whoever she was , he left three sons ,

W l a Roger, Hugh , and alter, the ast monk in the

of . two Abbey St Peter at Gloucester ; and daughters ,

Erm lin e e and Emma .

i of Dy ng before the compilation Domesday, we can not be certain what was his reward in lands and honours for the serv ices he had rendered his sovereign ; but in that precious record we ﬁnd his

of i - son and successor, Roger, in possession n nety six

sh i - ﬁv e of lord ps , sixty which were in Gloucestershire , besides four carucates of land lying w ithin the limits of of li the Castle Civia, which King Wil am had

st e on h is i be ow d father. Conspiring, however, ag a nst lVilliam u Odo of R fus, ﬁrst with , Bishop Bayeux ,

w of and afterwards ith Robert de Mowbray, Earl

m h e Northu berland , was banished the realm and all h is d to u of lan s g iven his brother Hugh , the fo nder 1 6 E 5 TH E CONQU ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . g reat inheritance between his two sisters above

E m i a named . r el ne h d no children but by a

wh o husband unnamed , had issue , a son , Gilbert, assumed the name of L acy and became the ancestor of the g reat lord of Ulster and conqueror of the largest

of part Ireland .

ILBERT DE LACY . The other companion of the Conqueror received for

w of his services at Senlac, the castle and to n Ponte fract and all that part of the county of Lancaster then

Blackbu nsh ire of t as now called r , with other lands vas

of v extent, so that at the time the general sur ey he

one possessed hundred and seventy lordships, the

of n g reater portion them in Yorkshire, Notti ghamshire ,

IVilliam and Lincolnshire, and obtained from King Rufus a conﬁrmation of all those customs belonging to his Castle at Pontefract, which he had enjoyed in the li time of King \Vil am his father .

h is Hawise By wife, a lady named , he left two sons,

Robert and Hugh , the former of whom completed l ll . w N oste the bui ding of the Abbey of St Os ald at , the f h i nd oundation of w ch was commenced by his father, a a mply endowed it .

C MP AN 158 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS O IONS .

the same difﬁculty exists of identifying the Sires de ” Vaccie IVac e , mentioned by with the Robert and Ivo

aforesaid . The former we ﬁnd in Domesday the possessor of

of nineteen lordships in the counties Northampton ,

Warwick, Lincoln , and Leicester, and Ivo equally well

provided for, the Conqueror having presented him

of with the hand of Alda, the granddaughter Gilbert

of of Tyson , Lord Alnwick, in the county Northum

h ad on berland , who fallen the side of Harold at Senlac,

" of W i and only daughter and heir his son lliam , Lord

of w w nl Aln ick and Malton , to hom she bore an o y i i daughter and he r, Beatr ce , the ﬁrst wife of Eustace

IVilliam Fitz John , whose son , by her named , assumed

of Vesci the name De and bequeathed it to his heirs .

His grandson John was the ﬁrst Baron de Vesci sum

e d 2 4th 1 2 64 m ne to Parliament by writ, December,

lli son and with Wi am, the illegitimate of his brother 8 William, summoned by writ as third Baron , th 1 3 1 3 i January, , and k lled at the battle of Sterling 1 3 1 5 t in , the title became ex inct, and the estates were carried by the heiress of a collateral branch into

f of u the family of the Clif ords, Earls C mberland , with

of Al in1 3 09 to the exception nwick , which was sold

Henry de Percy, and thus became one of the noblest ’ 9 E U GU E N U L F DE L AIGLE . 15

The present Viscount de Vesci and ’ Lords Fitz Gerald and Vesci claim to be descended from a collateral branch of this family which settled in

Scotland .

le P rév ost in on M . , the supplement to his Notes

“ ” Rou to the Roman de , tells us that according the

L ch na u . a es e information f rnished to M y des Bois, the om d w family of Vassy descended fr Richar , nephe of

’ Raoul Téte- dAne (Raoul de Gace so called) by his grandson Auvray, who inherited the lands of Vassy , and gave his name to the forest of Auvray ; but that unfortunately such persons are only known to us from the traditions of the family at present bearing the name .

M . de Gerville remarks that there is a Vesey near

Pontorson , but does not consider that it is in any way

Vass s or Vescis connected with the y of Normandy , the

of of England ; the latter whom , wherever they hail

of from , are undoubtedly descendants the companions of the Conqueror .

’ E U GUEN U LF DE L AIGLE . 160 TH E CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . and therefore probably one of the knights in the

of t . service Rober , Comte de Mortain Wace tells us “ he came with shield slung at h is neck, and with his lance ﬁercely charged the English .

He stro v e hard to serve the Duke well for the sake of

R oma n dc R ou the lands he had promised him ( , 1 .

Alas "he was not allowed to enjoy what he h ad

of so bravely striven to obtain . He is one the very few whose names have descended ' to us as having

in undoubtedly fallen that memorable battle . Wace , strangely enough , says nothing of his death , which is

Orderic : n thus recorded by The Normans, ﬁndi g the

English completely routed , pursued them vigorously t ff all Sunday night, but not withou su ering a great

f un loss, for galloping onward in hot pursuit they ell awares , horses and armour, into an ancient trench ,

n n overgrow and concealed by ra k grass , and rolling over each other were crushed and smothered. This accident restored conﬁdence to the routed English , for, perceiving the advantage given them by the

of mouldering rampart and a succession ditches, they rallied in a body, and, making a sudden stand , caused the Normans severe loss . At this place

’ E n uerrand of l Ai le l g , Lord g , and many others fe l ,

of the number the Normans who perished being,

1 62 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

l h ow r e dest, was slain ( is not recorded) about the yea

1 060 Orderic Eu u enulf h is , and informs us that g and

' h ri Ric ev e de . wife came to St Evroult in deep g rief, entreating the prayers and good ofﬁces of the monks for the salvation of their souls and that of their son

’ s Roger, which were granted , and thereupon Roger best horse was offered by his parents to God and th e

a ld; monks . The horse being very valu ble, Arnou

’ d Esch afour begged to have it in exchange for th e

of Bac uenc e lands and services Baldric de q y, whos

ﬁef had been ceded to him by the Abbey . f We ﬁnd , therefore, that six years be ore the inva

Eu u enulf of sion g was married, and the father appa rentl -u l e y grown p sons, and we may therefore conc ud

t 1 066 h e that he was between forty and ﬁf y in , when was killed at Senlac .

h e A sad fate seemed to pursue his family . On t

1 8 th 1 08 5 m r November, , while the royal ar y unde

of of the command Alan the Red , Earl Richmond , f f was marching to the siege o the Castle o St .

u on Suzanne, a beardless yo th, concealed in the bushes w d the roadside, shot an arro , which mortally wounde

’ l Ai le son of Eu uenulf Richer de g , the eldest surviving g ,

. i in the eye His followers rode up , burn ng with rage,

' u ut h im on and seizing the youth, wo ld have p to death

th e d n ff the spot but yi g Baron , with a violent e ort, E U GU EN U LF ’ DE L AIGLE . 163

“ e of gen rously exclaimed , Spare him for the love ” God " u It is for my sins that I am th s called to die .

n l w The assassi being a lo ed to go free , the noble

f to lord confessed himsel his companions in arms, L ’ Ai l and expired before they could convey him to g e.

His body was borne to the convent of St . Sulpice

’ - i L Ai le sur R sle, which his father had founded near g ,

of where he was buried , with great lamentations

ns his ki folk and connections, by Gilbert Bishop of

Evreux .

of r In the month Janua y following, Gilbert de

’ l Ai le g , eager to avenge his brother, made , in con junction with William de Warren and William Comte

’ d Ev reux on of , a desperate assault the Castle St.

Suzanne ; but they w ere vigorously repulsed by the

’ s d Ev reu x g arri on , William Comte being taken prisoner. In 1 09 1 we ﬁnd Gilbert in high fav our with Robert

—h euse wh o h im of Hiemois Court , made Viscount the ,

and gave h im the c astle for h is residence . This deeply offended the violent and detestable

Belesm e of ul wicked Robert de , whose turb ence and

ou so wh o ness y have heard much already, assembled h is - ﬁrst of 1 09 1 troops , and in the week January, , 164 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

w number of retainers in the castle , but they ere brave and loyal, and made a stout resistance , hurling spears

n and stones on the assailants, and precipitati g into

wh o w l the ditch those attempted to scale the al s . w Mean hile his nephew , Gilbert , the young lord of L’ Ai l e . g , son of Richer slam on the march to St Suzanne,

’ hearing of his uncle s position , came to his assistance with eighty men , and getting into the castle by night , w supplied the garrison ith fresh provisions and arms, and enabled them to continue the defence Upon

Belesme this, Robert de , ﬁnding the place too strong

mortiﬁ ation d off for, c him, in great rage and rew his

i own troops, and retreated inglor ously to his territory . w The follo ing year, as the elder Gilbert, brother of

Richer, was returning home from a visit to Sainte

S c h olasse , he halted at Moulins to pay his respects to

of VValeran of Duda, daughter , Earl Meulent, and

w f of lVilliam second i e de Moulins, lord of that castle, and leaving towards evening unarmed and attended only by his esquires , was seen and pursued by Gerrard

Chevreuil and Robert de Ferrers, with some thirteen

- at - of C orbonn ais men arms the , who endeavoured to

a t ke him alive . He spurred his horse to a gallop , but was overtaken and wounded in the side by one of their i on. spears so badly that he d ed the same day, and the m i - da 2 9th orrow, which was bissext le y ( of February,

1 66 THE CONQUEROR AND H IS COMPANIONS .

d l a an . honours He should have a so excepted Matild ,

t and of wife of Rober de Mowbray, who by dispensation

’ the Pope married, during her husband s incarceration,

i d c mt ri e . 3 0 e Nigel de Alb ni ( p , ), but who cer

' tainly was not an exc ep tion to the unfortunate destiny attending the majority of her family .

’ of of L Ai le Gilbert, the second that name, Lord g , the young warrior who so opportunely came to the rescue of his uncle when besieged by Robert de

Belesme u of f , married Juliana, da ghter Geof rey , Count of orta ne of M g , who, reﬂecting that the slaying Gilbert

of Hiem ois wh o Viscount the ,by men were his vassals , had sown the seeds of inﬁnite mischief to his own m territories, endeavoured to accommodate atters with w the nephe , and prove that he had no participation in

’ f of h is the act, by the o fer to him daughter s hand ,

s which was accepted, and ecured peace between the

li for of un rece two fami es a period forty years, an p

in dented circumstance the early history of Normandy, the barons whereof were in constant hostility one with another .

But even peace could not preserve the line of

’ L Ai le g from calamity . Of the four sons born to

r l Gilbe t and Ju iana, two were drown ed together ln ” of “I 2 5 th the wreck the hite Ship , November, CHAPTER VII.

R E O . F Z E RN EI OB RT MARMI N ROBERT IT S . G DE C W HU H BEAU HAMP. ILLIAM PATRY DE LA W C N ILLIAM DE PER Y. LA D E .

ROBERT MARMION .

’ S f i i to THI name , am liar sed the reader s ears by the n oble poem of Walter Scott will conjure up visions of

’ N orh am s castled steep , and the welcome that a waited there the

— o of F ontenra e L rd y , Lu tterward S criv elba e Of and y , Of Tamworth Tower and Town ;

of a ﬁctitious personage , as the Wizard the North a i ' dmits, but invested by his gen us with such a sem

u it f l not h is blance of tr th , that is di ﬁcu t to believe in

“ a s old R og er Marmion ; but no Roger appears

is in the pedig ree before the times of Richard I . It 168 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

W il typographical error, and that Robert, to whom liam the Conqueror gave “ Tamworth Tower and

Town shortly after the Conquest, must be the

Marmion who had assisted h im in the achievement . Of that Robert the following story is told by Dug i on . n dale , the faith of an ancient MS his day in

of . the possession John Ferrers, Esq , of Tamworth

Castle .

“ of a In the time the Norm n Conqueror, Robert

t of a Marmion having , by the gif th t king, the Castle of

of Tamworth, in the county Warwick , with the territory adj acent , thence expelled those nuns he found there

a f unto a place c lled Oldbury, about our miles distant ,

of w after which , within the compass a t elvemonth it

s w is aid , making a costly entertainment at Tam orth

a of C stle for some his friends, among st which was Sir lValter W h ich ov er th e de Somerville , Lord of , in county of f t it Sta ford, his sworn bro her, so happened that as he h i s . v lay in bed , St Edith appeared to him as a eiled nun , with a crozier in her hand , and advertized him,

h e of w that if did not restore the Abbey Poles orth ,

(which lay w ithin th e territories of the Castle of

ul Tamworth , ) he sho d have an evil death; and go to

i Well , it appears St . Edith did not m nce her

“ - and words, but spoke pure Anglo Saxon , that he

” m a n ight be the more sensible of this her dmonitio ,

1 70 AN THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMP IONS .

on of w h bestowed them the whole lordship Poles ort , w VVav ert on ith its demesnes in , which grant King ” t w S ephen after ards conﬁrmed . i i Robert Marmion had a w fe named M licent , with whose consent he g ave the neig hbouring town of

Bute ate of of g to the monks Bardney, in the county

th e of of Lincoln, for health the souls his father and mother (unfortunately not naming them), his own and

’ of his wife s soul, and the souls their heirs .

No particular feats of arms are recorded of old

R or obert Rog er, as the case may be , either at Senlac or elsewhere ; Wace merely says th at in the great battle he and Raoul Taisson de C ing ueleiz behaved w themselves as barons should , and were after ards richly rewarded .

rv When he died I have not found, but if dese ing

“ 1 066 a the epithet of old in , he could sc rcely have I of . lived till the reign Henry , who granted to his

‘ son and heir, Robert, free warren in all his lands in

articu Warwickshire, as Robert his father had, and p l rl a y at Tamworth . This second Robert possessed th e strong

Fontenai , near Caen, called from its ancient lords

ontenai le F Marmion , to distinguish it from eight 1 1 ROBERT MARMION . 7

ioned 1 t by Wace ( . was the lord of another

or Fontenai, , as it has been suggested , the same person he has previously spoken of as le viel Rog ier ” Marmion . Several other analogous instances occur

“ ” an in the Rom de Rou , and I think its author has i been too hast ly accused of inaccuracy .

of The fate the second Robert Marmion , who

d not married a Mau de Beauchamp, whom I have yet

“

f . been able to a ﬁliate, is deserving notice Being a

th e of h wh o g reat adversary to Earl C ester, had a

of noble seat at Coventry in the eighth Stephen , he

h w as but entered the priory t ere, which a little ’ l distance from that Earl s castle, and expe ling the k d mon s , fortiﬁed it, digging in the ﬁelds a jacent d ivers deep ditches covered over with earth, to the intent that such as made approaches thereto should be entrapped whereupon it so happened that as he rode

’ out himself to reconn oitre the Earl of Chester s forces

t to one of tha began draw near, he fell into them and m broke his thigh, so that a com on soldier presently

”as

on off h ead. seizing him, cut his

Th e th e of in Marmions held manor Scrivelsby , the c r m fﬁ ounty of Lincoln , by the service of pe for ing the o ce

’ of champion a t the King s coronation : a c o-heir of the family brought Scrivelsby and the championship into 1 72 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

of w n the family Ludlo , and the ce to that of Dymoke , and the ofﬁce was claimed and served by Sir Henry

of t for i Dymoke Scrivelsby , mos probably the last t me , at the coronation of his Maj esty King George IV. ,

1 9 1 2 1 n ame r 8 . July , But the of Ma mion indi

l its cates the possession origina ly of another ofﬁce, as

IVilliam meaning is much the s ame as Despenser. f Beauchamp of Bed ord , connected with the Marmions , acted as grand almoner at the nuptials of King

Henry III .

HUGH DE BEAUCHAMP .

of The name this great historical , proliﬁc and wide l spreading fami y, of which no less than ten branches

of n are recorded in the Baronage E gland , appears in

of but every list of the companions the Conqueror, is not mentioned by any of the contemporary writers . Nor do the old lists in which it occurs give the baptismal a names of the persons recorded , and we h ve therefore to search in other quarters for evidence that w us to identify the particular member the family who may be fairly presumed to

of present in the battle Hastings .

1 THE 74 CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

The De Beauchamps who so strongly defended Bed

w O rderic of ford Castle ere , according to , the sons

of Robert de Beauchamp, and not Hugh , as above stated ; and if this Robert be identical w ith th e

of Viscount of Arques we have just heard , the whole line of Beauchamp of Bedf ord is thrown into disorder.

Orderic says that King Stephen , against the

of of lVinch ester advice his brother Henry, Bishop ,

u t laid siege to Bedford , b as it was the season of

t and Chris mas, the winter very rainy , after great

no . th e sons o exertions he had success Indeed , f R ober t de B eauch amp defended the place with great

s n i v al re olution , and u t l the arri of the Bishop , the

’ of King s brother, rejected all terms submission to

Stephen . Not that they resolved to deny the fealty

r and se vice they owed to him as their liege lord , but having heard that the King had given th e daug h ter of

S imon ole B eauch a m to p Hugh, surnamed the Poor,

’ f r with her father s lordships , they ea ed they should

" lose their whole inh eritan ceﬁ

ow h f N ere we have also the in ormation that Simon ,

to h a di who is said ve ed without issue, left a daughter, for that she could not be the d aughter of the second BE A C HALIP 1 5 HUGH DE U . 7

d m w as in Be ford , is clear , as that Si on living the eighth

of 1 2 07 . John ,

n no I s Dugdale, upo authority that can see , call

sister of d her the the defenders of Be ford , whom he describes as the sons of the second Simon de Beau

w to champ, ste ard King Stephen , which is simply

for s impossible , the rea on just given . We have there fore three different fathers to choose from for th e progenitors of the line of Eaton .

Let us now turn to the account of the siege of

Bedford by another contemporary writer . The ano n mous of th e of K y author Acts ing Stephen , says The King having held his court during Christmas at e ( Dunstable) with b coming splendour, despatched

de wh o messengers to Milo Beauchamp, by royal l of icence had the custody of the Castle Bedford , with

of and orders that he should hold the castle Hugh , do i service to him instead of the King. If he read ly obeyed this command he should have honour and

w as reward , but if he withstood it in any manner, he

n to be assured that it w ould be h is ruin . O receipt of

i a w lli to the royal message , M lo replied th t he was i ng serve the King as his tru e knight and to obey his com

u l t h im of mands, n ess he attemp ed to deprive the possessi ons which belonged to h im and h is heirs by

’ r i t heredita y right but if that was the King s nten ion , 1 76 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

and he endeavoured to execute it by force , he would

’ h ear th e King s displeasure as best h e could ; and as

for the castle , he would never yield it unless he was d riven to the last extremity . Finding how things

stood , the King s indignation was roused against Milo , and he raised an army from all parts of England to lay

. of siege to Bedford Aware his approach , Milo swept

off a all the provisions he could lay his hands on , m king violent seizures both from the townsmen and the in

a a of h bit nts the neighbourhood, with whom before he

had been on good terms , as belonging to his lordship .

t d a These supplies he s ore in the c stle , and securely closing the gates he for this time excluded the King’ s

w h is . people ithout any loss on own side The King ,

however, after carefully reconnoitring the fortiﬁcations ,

a of pl ced under cover bands archers at convenient posts , with directions to maintain such a constant discharge of arrows against those wh o manned the battlements

and w to ers, as should prevent them keeping a good

lookout and hold them al ways in a state of confusion .

“ Meanwhile, he exerted all his energies to have engines constructed for ﬁlling the trenches and

n w . batteri g the alls All that skill and ingenuity, labour and expense could compass was effected .

Night watches were posted at all the castle gates to

1 78 THE CONQUEROR AN D H IS COMPANIONS .

u h ow Viscount and Milo his s ccessor ; in which case,

‘ th e nameless dau h ter of was he related to g Simon , the

“ ” of w ife Hugh de Meulent , surnamed the Poor,

of ? wa of Earl Bedford A word, by the y, this

of w surname , the explanation hich is clearly given by

“ ” the author of the Acts of King Stephen in a subse

a h quent pass ge in his istory, though no modern writer appears to have paid attention to it . The reader is told th at King Stephen bestowed the

of d on P earldom Be ford Hugh , surnamed the auper, and naturally imagines that the said Hugh was raised by the muniﬁc enc e of his sovereign from a state of f . w poverty to rank and af luence The case, ho ever, is t exactly the reverse, for thus says the author jus

’ : l quoted Hugh , a so surnamed The Pauper, who by royal licence possessed the earldom of Bedford , d after the expulsion of Milo de Beauchamp , con ucted ff his a airs with so much negligence , like the careless

man i and effeminate he was , that, willing or not w ll

a n ing, he gave up the t sk to Milo, becomi g by the righteous judgment of God, from an earl a simple ”

a enniless man . knight , and from that shortly p It ” ” or was not, therefore , Hugh the Poor, the Pauper

f u de who was made the Earl of Bed ord , but H gh

Meulent, third son of Robert Earl of Leicester, by a

of of r m an of daughter the great house Ve mandois , a H 179 UGH DE BEAUCHAMP .

n i oble birth, who be ng created Earl of Bedford , reduced himself by his own folly and effeminacy to so miserable a condition as to acquire the appellation which has been associated with his name for seven

and our centuries, not unnaturally misled later

" annalists and annotatorsﬁ ffi i Still we are unable to a liate M lo, who , whether

of t th e the son Hugh or Rober de Beauchamp , must , if t above accoun can be depended upon , have been

1 1 3 7 in of in possession the patrimonial estates ,

of including the Castle Bedford , for which he was commanded thenceforth to do homage to Hugh de

of . Meulent instead to the King Pagan , to whom l the barony of Bedford was g iven by Wi liam Rufus , must then have been dead but as he left issue by his

Roh esia t of wife two sons , Simon and Pagan , the eldes w of hom conﬁrmed the gifts his mother, the Countess

Roh esia C h ick sand to , to the Priory of , and the

of N ew enh am f Abbey , founded by his ather, and was sheriff of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in

I in our of the reign of Richard . , it is present state information impossible to account for the position of

i e e o e v e a Th e intelligent English translator of O rder c v n bs r s in o l N or as it wo e t th e o of o e e o . iv . . w n t (v , p any nd r tha s ns R g r f t e ou (Robert ?) de Beau champ shou ld oppose th e alliance o h ir c sin ” i u . An german with a person of such m ean substance as th s H gh altogether gratu itou s assumption . 18 0 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Milo and the language attributed to him . He appears to have been living in the reign of Henry II . , when , w of ith consent Pagan , his heir (not his son , observe), he gave a mill at Bedford to the monks of

Bermondsey . But I must hasten to the line of Beauch amp of

all n Elmley, from which sprang the most disti guished personages of this proud and potent family . Here a a f g in we are met with the same di ﬁculty at starting , for no one h as yet been able to show the relationship of t w Walter, the earlies kno n of this branch , to Hugh ,

or the companion of the Conqueror, to Robert the

of th e Viscount of Arques . We ﬁrst hear him as

’ d Abetot husband of Emmeline , daughter of , Urso ,

a i of and sister of Roger , who, for sl y ng a servant King

was I. all Henry , banished the realm , and his estates — - in law “f g iven to his brother , this alter de Beauchamp f (then called of Bedford), with the o ﬁce of Dispensator

Regis, which Robert, the brother of Urso, had for merly held ; and the sh rievalty of Worcestershire to

to hold as freely as Urso had done, conﬁrming also h im Ath eliza the lands given him by , the widow of

Urso . Making Elmley Castle in Worcestershire his s w chief re idence , he and his descendants ere thence m forth known as Beaucha p of Elmley .

18 2 THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS .

w as one of standard at Cressy, and the founders of O the most noble rder of the Garter, or of Richard , an account of whose magniﬁcent array and knightly prowess in the celebrated j ousts at Calais would of itself occupy more space than the longest notice I can afford to give to the most important companion of the t Conqueror, I cannot venture to speak . I mus even ap ologise to the general reader for the genealogical details which I have been led into by the imperfect and perplexing pedigree of the early Barons of Bedford .

WILLIAM DE PERCY . m The na e of Percy, strange to say, does not occur in the Roll of Battle Abbey ; for I cannot agree with my old friend Sir Bernard Burke in his discovery of

P ercela in w it in y, a form hich I have never found it

. a w of in any authority Str nge, because in vie the

one numerous interpolations it contains, can scarcely imagine the omission of a name so distinguished in

- a Anglo Norm n history . But for those manifest addi tions the fact of the absence of the name of Percy o w uld go far to establish the genuineness of the Rolls , as no member of that family appears to have fought

do at Senlac , and William Percy must be placed in the list of those noble Normans who came over with ” 1 06 the Conqueror on his return to England in 7, ' W ILLM M 18 3 DE PERCY . amongst whom I have already mentioned Roger de

’ Mont om eri d Av ranch s g and Hugh e .

h Villiam de Percy w as the s worn brother- in- arms of ” t wh o the lat er, and accompanied him to England , and on being made Earl of Chester transferred to h im the

of s lordship Whitby, with the exten ive domains

in t attached to it the Eas Riding of Yorkshire . By what serv ice he obtained the vast possessions held by h im w e at the time of , the general survey have no

old d information , an manuscript, quote by Dug dale,

“ simply saying that, being much beloved by the

n h r h is King , he e j oyed them t ough bounty , and it is not till w e arri v e at the reign of Stephen that we hear of any remarkable actions attributed to h is descend

n w - - ll a ts, hen his great great grandson , Wi iam de

l u in Percy, distinguished himse f by his valo r the famous battle of the S tandard . The name of this ancient and noble family was

m ﬁef of l i derived fro their great Perci, near Vi led eu ,

t n in Normandy, and according to raditio they were

‘ t of Mainfred the descendan s one , a Dane , who had

f of n t t . preceded Rollo i o Neus ria Geo frey , the son

Mainfred ‘ l w h im , fo lo ed in the service of Rollo, and w as in \Villiam ff succeeded rotation by , Geo rey, Wil 18 4 THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS .

of th e Geoffrey being the father William de Percy ,

of of subject this notice , and Serlo , his brother , the m ﬁrst abbot of Whitby, a onastery founded by William on Skinsh ale the site of one called , which had been

an destroyed by Ing u ar d Hubba . Upon this abbey " W illiam bestowed the towns of

Seaxby and Everley bu t resumed and regranted them

a wh o to R lph de Everley , his esquire, had been in his service many years .

n Abbot Serlo , his brother, feeling i j ured by this m h proceeding , ade his complaint to William Rufus, wit w hom he had been on terms of intimacy du ring the

h is reign of father, and the King ordered restitution to w be made . Serlo, ho ever, was not satisﬁed with the

of th e w n restoration to ns, and havi g no conﬁdence in m his brother , deter ined to quit Whitby and establish

h th e himself w ere he should hold under King only,

’ out w and be of his brother s po er . He therefore beg ged of Rufus six carucates of land in Hakenas and

N orth ﬁeld a of c ommu , and tr nslated thither part the nit of y Whitby .

William de Percy married a lady named Emma de ” of our Port , in discharging his conscience , says

t b s ancient wri er, she being very eire to the estate

to h im \Villiam o and in 1 096 given by the C nqueror, , having joined the ﬁrst Crusade in company with

1 6 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

d se— a to have one most remarkable fact, for surely the names of men who died in the hour of victory were as deserving of commemoration as those of the

v . of sur ivors That a list of the killed, if not the

dr wounded , should not have been specially awn up , and preserved in memoriam by the pious monks of

or d n Battle, , at any rate, isti guished by some mark in h the Roll , is to me incomprehensible , in days , too, w en mortuary Rolls were compiled in nearly every mon astic establishment . I cannot help thinking some such

m n h as docu e t unfortunately perished , although the silence of Wace and of all other chroniclers respecting the slain at Senlac may be addu ced in proof of the little reg ard paid at that period to the subject.

Erneis th e Robert Fitz , only Norman mentioned by

' as in Wace having fallen battle was, as his name

r Erneis impo ts, the son of , a collateral descendant of th e of Taisson Hawise of family , by his wife , sister

’ Aun Fulk d ou . His death is thus described by

“ “f : E rneis a ace Robert Fitz let fall his l nce , took h is w shield and galloped to ards the standard ,

w n n d w t s ord in ha d , hewi g o n with its trenchan

a wh o blade an Englishm n stood before it , and , ﬁ m ghting his way through any others, reached the

d c ut w standar , and endeavoured to it do n , but the I M 18 W LLIA PATRY DE LA LANDE . 7

“ uisarmesﬁ on th e g He was found the spot, when y a for fterwards sought him , lying dead at the stan

’ ” dard s foot.

l m Hawise He married a lady named, ike his other, ,

son l t Ern eis and had a ca led after himself Rober Fitz , wh o v ol , in a charter printed in Gallia Christiana ( . ix .

’ t u d Ins rument m , mentions his father s eath

“ ” Bedem vero Patre meo in Anglia occiso .

L A WILLIAM PATRY DE LANDE . William Patric de la Lande called aloud for King d Harol , saying that if he could see him he would

of appeal him perjury. He had seen him at La

h is Lande, and Harold had rested there on way

was through , when he taken to the Duke , then at

on r Avranches, his oad to Brittany. The Duke made him a knight there , and gave him and his companions

rm . arms and ga ents , and sent him against the Bretons

’ Patric stood armed by the Duke s side , and was much T de R ou 1. t R om . es eemed by him . ( , hus far Wace but the correctness of his account has been

P ré v ost wh o c ontradic questioned by Le , considers it

th e of ll wh o tory to evidence Gui aume de Poitiers,

l of says the Duke received Harold at Eu, and a so the 18 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

: Bayeux Tapestry , which represents Harold being surrendered to the Duke of Normandy by the Count

n of Ponthieu in perso , observing also that the Duke did not send Harold against the Bretons , but took him r t w with him . This is a her hypercritical , and the hole story of this campaign is one of the most confused in

n the an als of Normandy, no lig ht being thrown upon f m o . it by those Brittany Duke Willia , contem plating the war with Conan , might have been at

on of w Avranches, the borders Brittany, hen the news

’ of Harold s captivity reached him ; and the demand

h is n VVido for release despatched the ce to Count ,

William , with his usual rapidity of action , following almost on th e heels of his messenger to Eu . on the

of h or frontier Pont ieu , to receive the Saxon prince, enforce his demand if not promptly complied w ith .

La Lande Patry is in the arrondissement of Dom front, not far from Avranches, and its lord may have ﬁrst seen Harold when passing with the Duke

t of on to Avranches, on their road to Bri tany, instead

is of his journey from Beaurain . There no point

an import ce involved in this little discrepancy . The time and place of William ’ s bestowal of knight

and to . of hood , giving arms Harold , is a question

s as a more intere t, the fact represented in the B yeux Tapestry is distinctly stated by W ace in the p assage

190 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

that Patry was particularly a favourite with his Duke, and that he was also a witness to the oath said to have two been taken by Harold somewhere or other, for no

w to authorities are agreed , by hich he bound himself

’ be William s Man, and to acknowledge his right to the crown of England on the death of King w Ed ard the Confessor. Who then so likely to accuse Harold of perjury as the Lord of La Lande Patry

“ ” His name may be indicated by De la Lande in

of an d the Roll Battle , another catalogue, but history is silent respecting him or his descendants subsequent

and to to the Conquest, I have nothing to add the brief but suggestive notice of him by the Canon of

Bayeux. R CHAPTE VIII .

W C S ILLIAM RI PI . BE RNARD DE sr. V N ALERI . V N L DE E IAR Z ’ A E E . O R O R BE T D ILEY . ’ F K ’ L D A L A . V U U N Y J EAN D I RI .

WILLIAM CRISPIN .

IT is with great difﬁdenc e that I offer any observa

e on tions what ver this very mysterious family, from whom so many of the noblest houses in England claim a descent . Wace enumerates amongst the combatants at

’ ” ki l on n Senlac, William dit Crespi , and he has ” ki done e previously mentioned Cil gard nt Tillieres, wh o not s n one , if the ame personage , must have bee of mi le e t the fa ly, and is presumed by M . Pr vos to

of ili brother, according to some genealogists, W l am , w - - b n w as. S eig n eu Bee en r de Caux . and whose name 192 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

a 1 00 and 1 2 ppears in charters of the dates of 8 08 .

of w ? But if brothers, hom were they the sons

The late Mr. Stacey Grimaldi , who considered himself

of of or a collateral descendant the family Crispin ,

n I dif Crespi as n ferently written, took great pains to

’ establish the fact , and published in the Gentleman s O 1 8 3 2 Magazine for ctober, , a pedigree , founded on f his researches, di fering from that set forth in the

’ w D A ch er appendix to the orks of Lanfranc by y. His

of son , the Rev. Alexander B . Grimaldi , Eastry, Kent , has most kindly intrusted to me what I m ay call the working papers of his father ; but unfortunately they

not w f n do thro su ﬁcient lig ht o the point in question .

Mr . Stapleton, in his illustrations of the Norman Rolls of h the Exc equer, only deals with the later genera

Pré v ost on tions, and Le , in his notes Wace, simply ff f m m . akes a statement di ering ro that of Mr Grimaldi , without citing any evidence in support of it .

C ris inus of Bee According to the latter, p , Baron ,

of of l was the son Crispina, daughter Rol o, by

Grim aldus n , Pri ce of Monaco . By his wife Heloise of n C ris inus on e Guynes and Boulog e , p had ﬁve sons, of l f of Goisfrid Bee whom, Rol o , was the ather de or

Marescal - , and Toustain Fitz Rou , the standard bearer

. a n suc at Hastings Another, n med Gilbert Crispi , ﬁrst c eeded Bee his father as Baron of , and had three

' THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

’ d of l Aumar b Eva, the aughter Simon de Montfort y, y whom he had William Crispin II . , the doughty

Bremule G t warrior at the battle of , and ilber , who

Bee became a monk in the Abbey of , and eventually Abbot of Westminster

I. William Crispin , the subject of this memoir, we have previously heard of as one of the victorious

of 1 05 4 leaders in the murderous battle Mortemer, .

He must have been a very young man at that time, and probably it was the ﬁrst combat of consequence he had ever been engaged in . He was living in

1 08 2 f of , when he witnessed the oundation charters the Conqueror to the Abbeys of St . Stephen and the

Holy Trinity, at Caen , and the conﬁrmation of the

of of Fontenv ille privileges the Abbey , in the same

d Oistel year, at the council hel at , near Rouen . No

of particular exploit is recorded him at Senlac , nor do we hear of h is being employed in any military service either in England or Normandy after the C onquest .

H e w as d 1 08 5 probably decease before , as his name does not appear in Domesday, Milo Crispin, a brother

i to of his, accord ng Mr. Grimaldi, but not named by

e i of in P re Anselm, being at the t me the survey pos

of of session certain estates, some which may have WILLIAM CRISPIN . 195

tioned , wh o e 1 066 the personage held Tilli res in , w l and follo ed his feudal lord to Eng and . He and

ry a Hen de Ferrers charged the English together, e ch h aving brought a large company into the ﬁeld . All wh o i or opposed them were either k lled captured . “ th ” R om. ole R on The ear trembled beneath them ( , 1 . From him descended the Seigneurs de

lie one Til res , of whom , Gilbert, presumably his son

w as and heir, the second husband of Eleanore de

f w f of l t , t Vitré , a ter ards wi e Wi liam Fitz Pa rick, ﬁrs

of Earl Salis bury .

not Milo , the tenant in Domesday, is attempted to f l o be a ﬁliated by Dugdale , and is a t gether ignored by

n h im in wa A selm . I do not ﬁnd any y alluded to by

IVa ce t . m l as having been in the bat le, and Mr Gri a di

alone makes him a brother of William and Gilbert .

w as v Whoever he might be, he a ery substantial per

e n no t - e r s nage, possessi g less han eighty ight lo dships

l th e of b in Eng and at time the survey, and , y marriage

’ w of d Oile ith Maud, daughter Robert y, becoming Lord

' of llin f in sh i Wa g ord , Berk re , the castle whereof he made his principal seat .

But I must now retu rn to the sisters of William and ’

lber one l A s E lise h e Gi t, of whom , cal ed by n elm , 1 96 THE CONQUEROR AND H IS COMPANIONS .

H esilia l Crispin , otherwise named (Elisia ), mother,

’ D A ch er according to the pedigree in y, of the William

t n Malet who fough at Se lac , and gave Conteville

(however he came by it) to the Abbey of Bee. I have pointed out the curious association of the

H erlev e of names of , mother the Conqueror, and Gil

H erluin bert Crispin . Is it probable that she survived ,

Bee- n and married secondly Gilbert, Baron of Crispi

a e i and C stellan of Tilli res , and that Contev lle passed in

H esilia this way by his daughter, or Elisia, to her son

i A William Malet , who g ves it, you observe, to the bbey

Bee Herluin ? of , and not to Gerstein , founded by

We have no dates or evidence whatever of the

il or marriage of G bert with Gonnor, of their decease , and where there is so much confusion and incertitude a little speculation is perhaps allowable when pro v ok ed h by evidence hit erto apparently disregarded . There is a charter of foundation of the priory of

C h ateau ceaux in , printed by Morice his Histoire de ” i 3 4- . . 8 5 Bretagne, Preuves, tom . , pp , which contains some interesting information respecting a branch of

the Crispin family to be identiﬁed . In English it

* : Gaufridus Geoffre or G would run thus I, ( y odfrey)

' of C h ateau c eaux for and Crispin , Lord , my salvation

‘ the redemption of the soul of my beloved wife Mar

THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

w i is f W alkelin . ather of Malet I am eary of say ng, ” s said , but as that would take us two generation

w i or belo the Conquest, I need not pursue that l ne bestow my tediousness any further on the general reader . I shall therefore conclude my notice of the Crispins

ff Bee Marescal by observing, that from Geo rey de , or

of a Mr. Domesd y , Grimaldi derives the present family of Fitzwilliam .

AVENEL DE BIARZ . l The Seigneur de Biarz is twice mentioned by Wace

’ in his Roman de Rou . First in company with

’ Richard d Av ranch es

’ D A v raneh in i fu Rich arz em e od li de Biarz Ens bl cil (l . and subsequently thus

Des Biarz fu e 1 i Av nals ( .

W i th e a n or hich m ght or might not be s me perso , simply that there w as more than one of that family in

’ “ ' the Duke s army . There were the Avenels of th e E E IAR Z 3 AVEN L DE . 19

’ - Mortain, the Duke s half brother, and would therefore

o w to w r pr bably follo his lord the a s . There is no

a v one or of re son , howe er, that more his brothers (he appears to have had ﬁve) should not have aecom i p an ed him .

The n ame of Avenel does not occur in either of

of the Rolls Battle Abbey , but it is included in

’ Brom ton s one p List, and the rhyming of Leland . A

- sub tenant of that name occurs also in Domesday, holding half a hide of land in the hundred of

C endov re Mont om eri of , under Roger de g , Earl

Shrewsbury ; but w e trace no grants from the C on querer to any one of the family in reward of their l services at Sen ac , a circumst ance which excites the ” r of su prise the authors of Les Recherches, to whom

' w e are indebted for many particulars of the early lords

or E s- of the Biards Biards . i Accord ng to Vincent de Beauvais, an historian of

one the thirteenth century , Harold Avenel was the

of wh o t in ﬁrst the family set led Normandy, whither

h ad f of m he accompanied Rol , who he was a kinsman

P a nels Taissons Gif as well as of the y , the , the fards,

of i v i h is t and others Scand na ian g , and statemen , y ori n w r i though not al ays to be elied upon, is in th s

In son of o a charter by Hugues, the John de Rocet , E C O N Q UE ROB OMP AN I N TH AND HIS C O S .

1 of Marmou tiers A . D 03 5 . , granting to the Abbey the

f n Belesm e f o . Church St Marti de , the gi t is declared to of of be made with the consent Odo, brother

n a f r oun He ry I . King of Fr nce, of Geo f ey C t of

’ n of e k s A jou , Ivo Bishop S ez, and of the grantor s in

e Brav iard n or i . In man , Herv de (Bi ard , B ard)

1 067 i a another charter, dated , hav ng reference to di i t spute respect ng the above dona ion , the name recurs

e ins c on of Herv , the k man of Hugues de Roceto, in

u w of Si ember des - Biarz j nction ith that a g g , appa rentl H erv é wh o ls to y the son of , a o seems have been

of O rmellinus Av enellus wh o the father , surnamed , , w n of h is f i 1 060 ith the co sent wi e Avit a, in concedes t a third of his rights on the Church of St. Mar in de

“ f Si ember Biarz Say g g des dying without male issue, w e ﬁnd the sons of h is brother O smellinus j oinin g

of Binrz to the name that of Avenel , borne by their father.

us of s We th arrive at the epoch the Conque t, when

Si ember Biarz l it appears that g g des was sti l living,

” c is is d ﬁ‘ om h is w Wa e, d tingu he the Avenels , nephe s,

TH E CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPAN IONS .

How the Avenel of Domesday was connected with

l h is Wi liam the Seneschal , and from which of brothers d the English branch descen ed , remains yet undecided but an Avenel of Haddon w itnessed the foundation charter of the Priory of Linton in Nottinghamshire by

n I. William Peverel in the reig of Henry , in com

errers Ansle n pany with Henry de F , Ralph y , and others . The same Avenel by his own charter granted to that priory two m anors w hich formed part of his l domain of Haddon . Another charter by Wil iam

Peverel in the register of L enten i s Wi tnessed by a

William Avenel, and a Robert Avenel subscribes the foundation charter of the Abbey of St . James at

WVelbeck i li i ; and I am nc ned to bel eve that Ranulf, one n of \Villiam a of the you ger brothers the Senesch l, w as the progenitor of the English Avenels.

of l a Vincent has transcribed a charter Wil i m , the

e d-e son of William Avenel , wherein he nam s Richard

Vernon and Simon Basset as the husbands of his two w daughters and heirs , ith whom they had lands in

VVelbec k th e n Haddon and , and we obtain ame of the daughter wh o m arried Richard de Vernon from a

‘ lVilliam de n wh o l charter of their son Ver on , ca ls his

‘ w mother Avicia Avenel, a family name hich we can trace from the wife of O rmellinus in the eleventh K ’ 203 FUL D AULNAY . century to the Avicia Avenel wh o married John

ll sl Ro e y in the fourteenth . By the above charter we see how Haddon passed from the Avenels to the Vernons . The romantic but

‘ of of authentic story the ﬂight the fair Dorothy ,

t c o- of daugh er and heir Sir George Vernon , with Sir

J too ohn Manners , from Haddon Hall , has been told

t o ' often to call for repetition here , and is only referred in illustration of the Norman descent of the Dukes of

u Ormellinus c o nominh abitus R tland from , qui g Ave ” ellu s of h , through the baronial house Vernon , a scion of ou r th e of which also demands notice , under name

K ’ FUL D AULNAY .

’ IVa R d ' The Sire d Alnei mentioned by ce ( om . e

R ou 1. t , receives but little attention from ei her the French or the English commentators of the Norman

to poet, and they have made no attempt identify him .

m of a There are several co munes that n me in Normandy ,

’ one of n l Abba e e which , Aul ay y , n ar Caen , belonged

w r to in the t elfth centu y the family of Say , a member of which was present at Senlac ; Monsieur

s l ﬁnd no Iatini ed de A no , but I conclusive evidence as 204 H IS THE CONQUEROR AND COMPANIONS .

Jum1e es w The continuator of Guillaume de g , ho ever, enlightens us as to his parentage ; a poi nt of more 4 7 importance . As I have already stated, page of

An eio this volume, he tells us that Fulk de (de

’ lu d An et it l of A eto , de Aneto, , for is spe t all manner w w as C entumv ille tie ays) the son of Osmund de ( .

C otenv ille) by a niece of the D uchess Gonnor or

e Gunn ra, and , according to the same authority, uncle

u n u mv ille of a Baldwin de Redvers . Osm nd e de C e t w as V a H icomte de Vernon, and ugh de Redvers ,

h of also called Hug de Vernon , another uncle the 9 m w Bru more 1 08 . sa e Bald in , made grants to in That members of the latter family were indiffer ently called De Rivieres and De Vernon many

n of proofs could be adduced , showi g that they were

of ﬁefs the same stock , assuming the names their own

of dr for distinction , as in the instance the sons of Bau y le th e t l Teuton, to grea confusion of the genea og ist and mystiﬁcation of the readers of history . That Vernon was the general name of the desc en

d of in . ants Osmund, can , I th k , be scarcely doubted lVilliam of de Vernon possessed the town and Castle.

n 1 05 2 ﬁef w of Verno in , a hich had been held by Guy

u in Burg ndy, on whom , his youth , Duke William had

w wh o h besto ed it together with Brionne , but lost bot

’ i - és- n 1 04 w e h s 7 . by defeat at Val Du es in Brionne, see ,

h fPAN I N 2 06 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS C O O S .

I will not pretend to decide upon the exact relation

’ of l d A ulna to ship Fu k y William de Vernon , but if that they were very near connections, not brothers ,

I think cannot be well disputed .

’ of d Aulna h as From a similarity names , Fulk y

’ f d Au nou been con ounded constantly with Fulk , of

1 3 2 a nte . v whom I have already discoursed (p . , ) E en

l Pr v . M . e é ost has been partially misled by it

Beyond his presence in the battle, I have no

v information to gi e . Genealogy and history are both

far silent about him as as I know . The name

. of De Al neto is of frequent occurrence in charters of

’ d Al neto the subsequent century. A Berenger sub scribes the foundation charter of the Abbey of Aumale

1 1 1 u Aln f in 5 . H bert de eto witnesses two charters o

I. Alneto to Henry , and Roger de appears be a relation of Gundred f Al ini de Gournay, wi e of Nigel de b but no lin k is discoverable between either of these and

of Fulk . Was he amongst the hundreds unrecorded

? Did l for slain he fa l in the ﬁght the standard, or was he slaughtered in the slough of the Malefosse ?

’ d Aneti or de Aneio in A Simon , recorded the red book . E BERNARD DE ST VAL RI . 207

I have said so much about the Vernons in this notice of one of the family that I shall not appropriate

a to a sep rate article them , as I could only repeat my

s was ugg estion , that if a De Vernon present at Senlac,

he was probably alluded to by Wace as the Sire de

of ﬁef w as Nehou , a portion which certainly held by t Richard de Vernon when Wace wro e , and might have

u of n been held by him, nder the Viscount Sai t

' v of Sauveur , by military ser ice at the time the inva

if t o sion , indeed Nehou was restored Neel after its

f u in 1 047 w as orfeit re , at which period it probably given to Baldw in de Redvers wh o has been so

f n t w n l as reque tly confounded wi h Bald i de Meu es, I

n i . of 4 s 0 a nte . have i tanced in my memo r him (page , )

B E E ERNARD D ST . VAL RI .

O rderic has supplied us wi th plenty of material ff for mil of . a n a memoir of the fa y St V leri , i di erently

w t W aleri al of rit en and G eri , so many which were

e a t to of u i b nef c ors his beloved Abbey O che, otherw se

f ll a . v ul as o St E ro t, and, the ﬂeet Duke Wi iam s iled f f a - ur- u t e o . s rom h port St V lery Somme, the bo rg from

h i t r u r n w ch they ook thei name, it wo ld be st a ge

“ ” if not e indeed a Sire de St. Galeri had b en THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

w ﬁef They did not, ho ever, hold the of St . Valeri in own as d d of their right, but here itary a vocates the d 61 3 w abbey, founde there by Lothaire in , in hich the

of u lordsh ip was vested . To the devotion the D ke and his barons to its patron saint, the Merovingian

VValleric , and the solemn procession of the abbot and monks bearing the shrine wh ich contai ned his holy

was of relics , attributed the favourable change the

lVilliam w wind for which had so long aited .

The Sires of St . Valeri were also connected by

a f and marriage with the duc l amily, could claim w cousinship by blood ith the Conqueror. Gilbert , f o . a d the Advocate St Valeri, married Papi , aughter i “ of R chard II . Duke of Normandy, by his wife , more ” e of Danic , that name . She bore to him two sons, Ber h nd . nard a Richard Of Richard, I shall speak ereafter.

It is with his elder brother that we have ﬁrst to deal , as he has been unh esitatingly named by M . le Pré v ost

“ ” of as the Sire de Galeri the Norman poet, though

w to r upon hat authority I have not been able discove .

l O rderic rov ok Certain y not upon that of , who, p in l h i f g y enoug , while most l beral in his in ormation

’ respecting Richard and his descendants, tells us nothing about Bernard except that he was the father

of . was Walter de St Valery, who probably the Walter of n of its t Domesday, possessi g at the time compila ion ,

E THE CONQU ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

St . Valery was found seized of the manor of Isle

. 1 09 7 worth The latter was living in , when, with his son d was Bernar , he in the Holy Land, and fought under the banners of Boh emond in the great battle of

Dorylaeum .

r But Walter de St . Vale y was not the only one of the name who held lands in England at the time of the

v sur ey .

W a leri wa . e s of R andel A Ranulf de St Lord y,

Stamtone Stratone Bur rede Sc otome , Refan, , g , and , in

r not Lincolnshi e , but how related to Walter does ” of appear. What came him or his posterity, says

“ an Dugdale, if he had y, I know not , for those in the d ” succeeding ages had not any lan s in that county . ” of n Those being the issue Regi ald , son of Guy de d St . Valerie, who hel Hazeldine , in Gloucestershire, of

n which he was deprived by Ki g Stephen , being a

of partizan Henry Fitz Empress, but recovered it again on a wa one the accession of the l tter, and who s of the persons sent by him with letters to the King requesting him not to give any reception or

u of a to the f gitive Archbishop Canterbury, Thomas

Becket . - i a o f That th s Reginald was _ lineal descendant Ber

v f m on nard and Walter is ob ious ro the fact that , the

of s 3 III death his grand on Thomas , in ( Henry ), E . B RNARD DE ST VALERI . 2 11

h all his hereditary estates passed wit Annora, sole

ild of s to ch Thoma , her ﬁrst husband , Robert Comte

to m de Dreux , who at the same time she brought the

of w w i r in manor Isle orth, h ch Walte held the reign of

of the Conqueror, and which the Comte de Dreux was found seized in rig ht of h is wife in w i Let us, ho ever, before leaving th s subj ect, hear

O rderic n a what has to say respecti g Rich rd de St .

Valery and his descendants . This second son of Gilbert and Papia was “ long employed in the military

of of “ m m service his uncle, Richard Duke Nor andy, fro

in w of whom he received marriage Ada, wido the l ” Her euin v il t . elder de Heugle le , wi h all her inheritance

n d i He ce it appears he assume , accord ng to custom,

of e ll a the name Heugl vi e , and built a town at place

e Isnelv ille form rly called , on the river Sie, naming it from the hill which rose above it covered with beech

Aufa Alfa ium n ir trees , y ( g ), thus acquiri g a th d appella

' as d t i for tion as the Lord of Aufa . H e w is ingu shed y — his military abilities and his great liberality a formid~

h f l ri t able foe and a fait u f end . During the minori y of u ill w ll of Ar s t D ke W iam , hen Wi iam que revol ed

a and w as b n r all ag inst him, he deserted y ea ly the

a e as e e r Lords of T lou , Richard alon held his c tl n a the E P 2 1 2 THE CONQU ROR AND HIS COM ANIONS .

d Church of St . Aubin against the rebels , and exerte himself to defend th e loyal inh abitants of the country f of rom the inroads of the garrison Arques .

of Au fa Now this Richard de Heugleville , Lord y,

a had a son named, as usual after his grandf ther, il G bert, who married Beatrice, daughter of Christian

“ ” de Valenciennes, an illustrious captain . This lady,

O rderic of tells us, was a cousin Queen Matilda , and

b one bore to her hus and two sons and daughter.

’ d Aufa Gilbert y, as he was called from his patrimonial estates, was also, by his grandmother Papia, a kinsman of f Duke William, and the same author a ﬁrms that he

’ fought by the Duke s side at the head of his vassals ” in ll th e r in i al a p c p actions during the English War .

of That he included the most important all is, I

“ B u t think , evident from the passage which follows

wh en W illiam became Kin b g , and peace was esta lished ,

Gilbert returned to Normandy, notwithstanding Wil ff h im liam o ered ample domains in England , for with innate honesty of character he refused to participate in

the fruits of rapine . Content with his patrimonial

of estates, he declined those others, and piously devoted

h is t o son Hugh a monastic life under Abbot Mainer,

of . in the Abbey St Evroult .

f 111 The name o St . Valery is only to be found

m Aufa Bro pton and the modern lists, and that of y no

2 14 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPAN IONS .

’ d Oile s th e Robert y built the Ca tle of Oxford , and w i collegiate church of St . John ith n the walls . He was also one of the witnesses to the foundation charter

f i ll a o the Abbey of Selby by K ng Wi i m, and at the time of the general survey possessed four lordships f in Berkshire, ourteen in Herefordshire, seven in

i r e Buck nghamshire, th ee in Gloucestershire, and thre

orth am tonsh ire in N p , one in Bedfordshire, one in

- Warwickshire, and twenty eight in Oxfordshire, in all sixty- one manors ; besides forty - two habit able

houses in Oxford, and eight which then lay waste , w with thirty acres of meadow land adjoining the all , and a mill v alued at ten shillings per annum of the f money o that time . Being likewise Constable of

Oxford, he had the full sway of the whole county, and f was so power ul a baron that no one durst Oppose him .

’ t W ith the King s consent he took possession of a large meadow near the Castle of Oxford which

e to n of b longed the mo ks Abingdon , who, being sorely

-b aggrieved y this act, came in a body before the altar of our ‘ t i Lady, and pros rat ng themselves, prayed with

to tears God that He would avenge the injury. Where

a s s e upon , s y Dugdale, it hortly aft r happened that

’ D Oile f i s but n im y ell nto a grievous ickness, co tinued

royal palace , where, amongst many nobles standin g ’ L ROBERT D OI EY . 2 15

on about it , was a glorious throne , which sat a beautiful person habited like a woman , and before her

and knelt two monks of Abingdon whom he knew,

who, when they saw him enter the palace, said with

“ to deep sighs the Lady , Behold this is he who usur eth of th u p the inheritance y ch rch , having taken away that meadow from us for which we make this ” complaint . The Lady, much moved , commanded that he should be thrust out of doors and taken to

to Two w . that meado , there be tormented young men who stood near immediately seized and led him

w and to the meado , where they made him sit down, he was forthwith surrounded by divers ugly children w ith loads of hay upon their shoulders, who laughingly

“ our said to each other, Here is friend, let us play ” " to with him Upon which , setting ﬁre the hay, they smoked and burned him till in his anguish he

ou t " t called aloud, O blessed Lady have pi y upon " i l me, for I am dying His w fe, much a armed ,

“ m for ou exclai ed , Awake , sir, y are much troubled in

your sleep , and being thus aroused he answered , t Yes, truly, for I was amongs devils The Lord preserve thee from all harm "” ejaculated his pious

on n m and affectionate helpmate , and heari g his drea ,

“ s d h con oled him with the text , Whom the Lor lovet 2 16 THE CONQU EROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

i At her nstance, to quiet his conscience, he shortly

a afterwards rep ired to Abingdon , and there, before the

of t i altar, in presence Abbo Reg nald and the whole

of a convent , as well as m ny personal friends, he gave

C admerton to the community the lordship of , value

n t ten pounds per annum, solemnly protesti g tha he would never meddle more with any of their posses sions . He also presented them with more than a hundred pounds in money tow ards the reconstruction

e of their monastery, in atonem nt for the wrong he had

for done them . Moreover, he amended his ways the

n rest of his life , repairing divers churches both withi

of mi and without the walls Oxford, beco ng very

n charitable to the poor, and amo gst other good works i build ng the great bridge there .

I have told th rs silly story (omitting some little coarseness), as I have told others of the same nature

of in the course of this work, in illustration the childish superstition by which men of the most u n

— ﬁerce daunted courage , proud and ‘ powerful w ak ere we enough to be enslaved . Some of these tales were doubtless subsequen t inventions by the

k t descri mon s themselves , while o hers are veritable p

“ ” tions of pious frauds practised by them on the

of sick or the dying, for the purpose augmenting their

or i i funds ncreasing the r inﬂuence . At the same time

2 1 8 THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS .

w sh e u of W l n d hom bro ght the whole barony al i gfor , i h but having no issue , both she and Br en betook t em selves to a religious life, whereupon King Henry I . seized lValling ford and appropriated it to his own uses .

’ Robert d Oiley leaving no male issue was succeeded l by his brother Nige , whose son and successor, Robert,

I. married the beautiful Edith Forne, mistress of Henry ,

a . nd. by that king mother of Robert , Earl of Gloucester

a There is a little bit of medi eval gossip about this lady, which professes to account for the foundation of the

O sene O Abbey of y, near xford . The fair but frail

v n l of Edith, ha i g become the awful wife the said

’ d Oile was of Robert y, in the frequent habit strolling

Th e down from the castle to the banks of the Isis . pleasure she derived from this innocen t and healthful w recreation was, ho ever, considerably interfered with ” of ch at ter ies wh o by the conduct of a colony p , had established themselves in a clump of trees by the side

on of the river, and invariably her appearance com m enc ed w w as a most impertinent clamour, hich it

impossible to mistake for ﬂattery . Humiliated as

i sh e well as irritated by this almost da ly insult, sent

of f Randolph , a person virtuous li e , and her own con ’ 2 19 ROBERT D OILEY .

course he suggested that the only mode of escaping the malicious mockery of the magpies was to clear away the trees and build some relig ious house upon wh i the spot, ch she immediately entreated her husband

to l do , who kind y consented , and thereupon erected

and founded the Abbey of O sen ey for black canons of w . h is the order of St Augustin , and , ith the consent of

two i sons , Henry and G lbert, richly endowed it with

s t no land and other property, consti uting Randolph (

doub t to his great surprise) the ﬁrst prior .

’ of two Margery, the elder Robert s granddaughters ,

co- of of heirs their brother Henry, the last male the

’ D Oile s e y , married Henry de B aumont, Earl of War w l ick , and has genera ly been accredited as the mother

of s of \Varwic k c onse his heir, Thoma Earl , and

and Pl i s quently ancestress of the Marshals De ess te .

”

of i s 1 1 th . By a writ Novel d s eisin , of Henry III , I a m inclined to believe Thomas was the son of

h i nr n wh o P lippa, the second wife of He y de Beaumo t ,

Th omas a of t was daug hter of , Lord B sset Hedding on , and has been hitherto said to have died w ithout

i s M e s ue . any erroneous descents hav been recorded in these early pedigrees through the neglect of accu ere a man has married 2 20 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

e quer r, we have seen her issue by each husband most perplexingly confounded .

J ’ EAN D IVRI .

I shall conclude this chapter w ith a few lines con taining all I ha v e hitherto discovered respecting this

a w person g e , who is only known as the s orn brother

’ in - d Oile wh o arms of Robert y, and appears to be equally entitled w ith h im to cl aim companionship w ith the Conqueror, yet I do not ﬁnd his name in any

a roll or c talogue , nor can I detect him amongst the

a many unidentiﬁed leaders mentioned by IVce. That

a of he is not myth , however, is clear from the fact

’ his h aving received from Robert d Oiley a larg e

th e r of . share of spoil , and specially the hono St

W aleries bu t whether he married or left issue does not appear . His patronymic would point to a descent

’ a d Iv ri or Yv er Ibreio from R lph , Comte , y (latinized

- h I. and Iberico), half brother of Ric ard , being the son of S rote of lVilliam w f p , mistress Longs ord, Duke o

A s erlen th e i Normandy , by p g , wealthy M ller of

V u “ a dreuil, whom she married after the death of the

Duke .

e or Alberade t Aubr e , wife of Count Ralph , buil the

Lanfred famous Castle of Ivri . The architect was ,

2 22 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Ten ch ebrai a , in Norm ndy , by service of cupbearer

f a to the Duke, so that the o ﬁce ppears to have been hereditary in the family also eight and a half knights’

nd f w not fees in the town a castle o Ivri . They ere

but a of lords of Ivri, apparently hereditary c stellans

of the fortress until the close the eleventh century .

a According to tr dition , Count Ralph had Ivri given

conse to him by Duke Richard, his uterine brother, in

q uenc e of his slaying a monstrous bear when they

ﬁef were out hunting together. The appears to have

al O sbern passed from R ph to Fitz , and in the second year of the reign of Rufus was in the possession of

William de Breteuil .

’ n d Iv ri Asceli Goel de Percival, son of Robert , Lord

of of Breval , took the Castle Ivri by surprise and

- un delivered it to Robert Court hense. De Breteuil , w illing to lose it, redeemed it from the Duke for ﬁfteen

ni hundred livres . Having recovered his castle , to pu sh Goel he deprived him of the hereditary right to its

and custody , of everything he held in his lordship . The ﬁerce Lord of Breval avenged himself by laying w aste the whole neighbourhood . Aumari de Montfort,

was called Le Fort, having fallen in an inroad he

making on the lands of William de Breteuil , Richard ,

to his brother, devoted himself avenge his death , and

t of j oining his forces wi h those Ascelin Goel, they J ’ I EAN D VRI . 223

t attacked and defeated De Breteuil in a pi ched battle , taking him prisoner, and consigning him to a noisome

n dungeon, in which he li gered until Richard de Mont fort relenting, succeeded , with the assistance of Hugh

Mont omeri de g , Earl of Shrewsbury, Gervase de

euch atel n w N , and many others , in maki g peace bet een

and Ascelin Goel and his feudal lord prisoner . A c c to ording the terms of the treaty concluded at Breval , William de Breteuil gave his illegitimate daughter

in to i s Isabel marriage Goel, and ransomed h m elf at

of of the expense a thousand livres Dreux, besides

rt . w horses, arms, and other prope y With great sorro h e added also the impregnable Castle of Ivri The ” O rderic infamous freebooter, as calls Goel, thus e l h is nriched , grew into erably insolent, and enclosed * was den of castle, which indeed a very thieves , with i f deep ditches and stout palisades, pass ng his li e there in continued rapine and bloodshed . He had s h is w as in even sons by ife Isabel, who , they grew

i in n so cries of years, ncreased wicked ess, that the the ” widow and the destit ute followed their evil deeds .

O m en f these seven very bad only three are known ,

v le a Louv el Robert, lord of I ri, Roger Begue , and Willi m

Lu ellus an t of Le v els of ( p , the little Wolf), ces ors the

e u me for I was n o ee of u t e efe e . pr s , v ri in n d f r h r d nc s

h e ee mo e o t es . av s n , a d l f r r s 224 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

Tich marsh Lev el , the Lords of Kary , and the Percivals ,

Earls of Egmont . The introduction, therefore, of the

’ Lev el t Brom ton s name of in the Roll of Ba tle Abbey, p

un List , and the second list in Leland is completely

ustiﬁable on j , as William the son of Ascelin Goel , w u whom it was ﬁrst besto ed , co ld not have been born for at least thirty years after the Conquest . The

s same observation applies to that of Percival , unles a Sire de Percival can be found earlier than Ascelin

Goel .

2 2 E C h i PAN I 6 THE CONQU ROR AND HIS O ON S .

Alf 1 048 r . of red I in , and su viving the invasion

r h is England some sixteen o seventeen years . By

i — Juth ael or w fe Adelaide he had three sons , Eudes

h is O . do , and Raoul The two former died in life

and time without issue , he was therefore succeeded by 1 4 D m i a 08 . o his younger son Raoul , c rc So says .

“ ”

t r . Morice , in his His oi e de Bretagne, and M de

P omm ereul of , who follows him in his History the

“ ’ ” r of ou eres l Art e Ba ons F g ( de V riﬁer les Dates,

i . 2 0 f 7 . vol . x ii . p , edit This would be airly borne out by the date of Domesday , at which a Raoul

ir is stated to hold certain lands in Surrey, Devonsh e, B i i u ff . ck nghamsh re, Norfolk, and Su olk But then wh o was William The ﬁrst William de Fougeres that I can ﬁnd mention of was one of the

ldr R A v o se seven chi en of aoul by y or Avicia,

of daughter Richard de Bienfaite , and as he was

nl certai y not the eldest son, Raoul being succeeded

t . wh o ﬁrs by Meen III , died without issue, and he by I 1 1 3 l . 7 Henri , the next brother, in , Wil iam, their

ul not of f younger brother , co d surely be su ﬁcient age

s n l h be t o hold land in E g and in 1 08 5 . T ere must either some great conf usion of dates or there was a \Villiam de Fougeres unknown to Morice or his

is of ul copy t . The account Rao is very vague . Long before he su cceeded his father we are told A U U R O L DE FO GERES . 27

of he had given proofs his valour, by following William

D of to t of n uke Normandy the conques E gland . By

that prince he was p ut in possession of large terri

out of tories, which he made various donations to the

of to of Abbey Risle and that Savigny, which he f 1 1 12 ounded in . He conﬁrmed the fo undation of

of m the Priory the Holy Trinity by his other , Ade

of i laide , and gave it, as well as the Church Sa nt

ul to A of e S pice at Fougeres , the bbey Marm ntier.

' e to R Subsequently he trav lled ome , and passing by

r Ma moutier, conﬁrmed all his previous g ifts to it .

di 1 1 2 4 h is wif n He ed in , leaving by e aforesaid seve

— n children Mee , Henri , Gauthier, Robert, Guillaume,

Av elon . , and Beatrice

N ow on if these dates can be depended , and they are not materially affecte d by any test I have been

to to not Le able apply them, it is surprising that Prevost should doubt the presence of Raoul at Hast

w W of ings, bet een hich event and that his death there

ﬁf - l w u t . wo ld elapse y eight years Stil , allo ing him to

of t wo- - w 1 066 have been a young man and t enty in , — he would have been only eighty in 1 1 2 4 not an

a for to e improb ble age him have attained , and we hav n not s we o ev idence to show that he did do so . Unles c ould prove that he was too young to ﬁgh t at Senlac in

1 066 of u o h im . , the beneﬁt the doubt m st be accorded t Q 2 228 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

He was therefore, we may conclude, the companion of the Conqueror and the tenant in Domesday : but this does not advance us a step in our knowledge of the William de Fougeres in the same record . He must have been born before 1 066 to have held land in

1 08 5 and m th e of capite in , as Willia , son Raoul and

Avicia, had certainly two if not four elder brothers , not counting the sisters whose births might have inter

of vened, we must date the marriage Raoul as far back

1 060 u as at least, which wo ld make a serious addition to the venerable age I have already accorded to him .

We have two later Williams, who of course are

out n quite of the questio , but whom I must mention,

’ in order to correct a serious error in l Ar t de Veriﬁer D ” les ates, which its authors have been led into by

nf Morice, tending to create the greatest co usion . f o I. Henri Baron Fougeres, second son of Raoul , and brother of Meen , whom he succeeded, had , by his

f O — Fran al wi e , live de Bretagne, three sons Raoul, g , il ' and . t Gu l aume Raoul, the eldes , succeeded his father

’

. Th e as Raoul II above writers give him two wives,

i i and make him father, w thout distinguishing th e é — of - ff uh el ll mothers, four sons Geo rey, J , Gui aume, — of e d and Henri the eldest whom, they say, succe de h i m. Mr . Stapleton has clearly shown that Geoffrey

2 3 0 THE CONQ UEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

iciousl l l kn p y, and ca ls him a person ittle own, and

h is Aneh etil or much less authentic than father, , his

’ H r rt d a court . brother Robe , the ﬁrst Sire of that name

I do not participate in these suspicions . I believe him

of to have been a veritable companion the Conqueror, and shall adduce my reasons presently for taking a particular interest in him .

of on of The family Harcourt, illustrious both sides

wn the Channel, is fairly enough sho by La Roque to m have descended fro Bernard the Dane, Governor

A D 9 1 2 and Regent of Normandy , . , and from the same

e stock he derives the Sires de B aumont , Comtes de

of C anc elles d Meulent, the Barons and St. Paer, the Lor s of and u Gournay Milly , the Barons of Neubo rg, the

VVar Viscounts of Evreux, the Earls of Leicester and

n an d l wick , and ma y other French English nob e houses .

Turketil Tan uera e , Seigneur de Turqueville and de q y , named c irca 1 001 in several charters concerning

of e al the Abbeys F camp and Bernay, is identic

Th urkild or according to La Roque with the Thorold ,

of e- eu - of Lord Neufmarch Lions, the governor the boy

a Duke William, who was treacherously ssassinated by

of l i t id . e v o . . the hirelings Raoul de Gace ( , p and

of f son of was the second son Tor , the Bernard, The wi of Turk etil of fe was Anceline, sister Toustain, ERRAND DE HARCOURT . 23 1

e - - S igneur de Montfort sur Risle , and their issue two s Anch etil and one Leceline ons, Walter, and daughter,

’ d Eu de Turqueville, who married William, Comte , the

u I. D of d nat ral son of Richard , uke Norman y.

Aneh etil son , the eldest , was the ﬁrst who assumed

of of t the name Harcourt, from the bourg Harcour

near Brionne , and was present with his father,

Turketil of of , at the conﬁrmation the foundation the

of b of Abbey Bernay, y, Judith , Duchess Normandy,

Boesse D B ss -le 1 01 4 . oe e in By Eve de y, ame de y

one t Chapel, he had seven sons and daughter, the eldes son being the Errand de Harcourt asserted to have been the companion of the Conqueror .

of t r or r We have no dates bir hs, mar iages, any othe events which would assist us to form an idea of the age of Errand at the time of the Conquest . His father Anch etil must have been a mere child wh en he witnessed with his father the conﬁrmation charter of

r 1 03 5 and His father was mu dered shortly after ,

Anch etil must therefore have been of mature age in

1 06 i to r d 6. Still, accord ng the genealogy, he su vive

t son d h is son his eldes , and was succeede by second

n 1 1 00 of Ph i Robert , who was livi g in , and father lip

u Bi of i u 1 1 40. Harco rt, shop Sal sb ry,

but t From Robert all is clear, it is with his eldes ‘ 23 2 IHE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPAN IONS . brother Errand and his younger ones that we have to

th e do . Why Errand should have been selected as

’ d Harcourt f h ad Sire who ought at Senlac, if Robert

a of re lly been the man, is incomprehensible . The vice ancient genealogists was the endeavour to exalt th e character and exaggerate the valorous achievements of of of the ancestors the family, to the extent even inventing stories to account for armorial devices which

or they could not comprehend , sobriquets they took wh r . o no trouble to trace to thei origin Had Robert ,

’ d Harcourt was Sire when Wace wrote, been present in the battle , some tradition would surely have been pre served in the family and eag erly recorded by its historian . That Errand “ is little known is no reason for b dou ting his presence at Hasting s . How many were

of How there whom we know nothing at all many,

I in a of g rieve to say, are named even these p ges whom we know next to nothing ? That he should be less known than h is father and brother is not at all

’ t of s surprising, as it is eviden from the fact Robert

’ succession that Errand died during his father s life

in of time, leav g no male issue by his wife , who was

of the family Estouteville . Jean le Feron informs us that he returned to Nor

1 07 8 s m mandy in , and probably died soon after, a fro

23 4 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

’ t A rnoul Gervazs and Errand, Rober , Jean, , , Yves,

Renauld de Harcourt .

out of Here are two , at any rate, the three laid at

of the door the genealogist, and what proof that they ? are apocryphal What evidence to show that they ? were not at Hastings with their brother Errand

t Ar Tha an noul de Harcourt was in England, and killed in a skirmish with the Welsh either in the

of f 1 09 4 to mysterious battle Cardi f in , according the

or one of Welsh Chronicles, in some the other frays which have been mixed with it by the Norman his

i ns tor a I . , think there can be little doubt At all

i n e events, the name is not l kely to have bee invent d

and i in by the Welsh , there is noth ng the date to pre

of An eh etil vent his being the son , recorded by La

Roque . It may be quite true that the Harcourts did

in of not settle Eng land before the reign John , but h ow does that prove that none of their ancestors fought at Senlac 7

WILLIAM PAINEL .

of P aisnel or Pa anell The important family , Painel g , as it is variously written in French or English docu

u n s t of H bert, in the arro di semen Lisieux. WILLIAM PAINEL . 23 3

Des M - ou stiers Hu bert P ain als is named by Wace in his Roman de Rou

(1. in company with Avenel de Biarz and R obert Bertram the Crooked, as killing many of the

English .

Le Prevost remarks that there are tw o ways of r eading the above line Hubert Paisnel of Mous

” “ ” or Paisnel of - tiers , Moustiers Hubert , and adopts

e P aisnels the latter as the mor correct, the being the a of th e ncient proprietors district so called , a William

P aisncl of 1 1 4 5 , who founded the Abbey Hambie in , making sundry donations to it deri v able from his

of - t forest and castle Moustiers Huber . He therefore s uggests that the Painel of Wace was an earlier

ll O rderic t Wi iam, who is mentioned by as dying abou th e same time as the Conqueror. In the Roll printed by Leland of the noble Normans wh o came into England with William the Conqueror, absurdly represented as specially the followers of

l m de of Hubert Wi lia Mohun, the name occurs

’ Paig nel ; but that is evidently only the copyist s n of of i terpretation the language Wace, and little doubt can exist that it was the William Paisnel men tione Orderic wh o was in at d by the army Hastings, and who subscribed a charter to the Cathedral of

B O rderic to ayeux in 1 073 . He is said by have 2 3 6 THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS .

“ It died about the same period as King William .

or as must have been a year so before him , Ralph

- ﬁv e Painel is the tenant in Domesday, holding forty

1 08 5 of m lordships in , and no mention is made Willia , to whom he had succeeded eith er as son or brother . T d 1 08 9 R his Ralph founde , in (second William ufus),

of on the Priory the Holy Trinity at York for nuns, the site of a house for canons which had been destroyed

of by that devoted son the Church , the Conqueror .

Either Ralph, or his son Fulk Painel , married

of l Beatrice, daughter and sole heir Wi liam Fitz

A nscul h of p , a probable companion the Conqueror, and the possessor of vast domains in England at the

of u of time the s rvey, the greater portion , if not all,

th e l of ] articu which she brought into fami y Paine , p

’ larl y her father s principal seat, Dudley Castle, in the

of f h i county Sta ford , w ch was demolished in the reign of lI . of ] Henry , in consequence Gervase Paine , the then

r possesso , being in rebellion .

’ N WALTER D AI COURT .

’ The name of D Ain court is not mentioned by lVace, it unless has been derived from Driencourt, a

s h w ou t uggestion t ro n by Mr. Taylor which I am by

n to as no means i clined adopt, the original name of

2 3 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

in l i one and h im Blankney Linco nsh re was , made by

of the head his barony. Of his origin and antecedents no more is kn own

en than of his actions . Contemporary history is tirel ﬁn d h im y silent about him . We do not

n f e gaged in any combat, intrusted with any o ﬁce,

on i employed any mission , found ng or endowing any

li or monastic estab shment, even witnessing a charter, and might well doubt his having ever existed but for

of and the enumeration his possessions in Domesday, l the epitaph of his son William in Lincoln Cathedra , on a leaden plate found in his grave in the church yard there . From that we learn that he was a kins

of or n man Remi Remigius, Bishop of Lincol , who,

’ n accordi g to Taylor s List, contributed a ship and

- — twenty knights or men at arms to the ﬂeet of Duke

W ll one i iam, a fact that leads to the conclusion that the lucky Walter owed his barony to the good ofﬁces of

not of own the bishop, and to any merit his . His son William is stated in his epitaph to have

n ae bee in some way descended from royalty. Pr fatus W illielmu s re iae r ni us How g stirpe p og e t .

n n provoki g are these vague insinuatio s . The descent

of must have been through his mother, as the wording s mi l the sentence expre sly li ts the honour to Wil iam , and not even her baptismal name is known to us. M D’AN SNE IL LE SA SON V . 23 9

l of Wil iam died in the reign Rufus, leaving a son and R wh o heir named alph, was the founder of

r a Thu g rton Priory . The male line became extinct in

- ﬁrs of t . e the twenty Henry VI , by the d ath of Robert,

’ of l d E ncourt uncle Wil iam , last Baron y , when

Al of ll Margaret and ice, sisters the said Wi iam , were found his heirs and carried the estates into the f i of ] am lies Cromwell and Love .

D’ AN SNE ILLE SAMSON V .

m of or Wace records, as for ing one a troop company of Norman knights who charged together, fearing

nor neither stake fosse, and overthrowing and killing ” may a good horse and man , a certain Sire de Val

’ le e too de Saire . M . Pr vost rather hastily observes in a note on th is passage Our author takes Val de

for of h i h i Saire the name a lords p , w le it is that of a

n of canton in the pe insular the Cotentin . The mis

r for to take is still more extraordina y him have made, ” as of n w that part the province was well k o n to him . f l The commentator has himself a len into an error. He seems not to have been aware that there was a n i of of Ansnev ille oble Norman fam ly the name , . or n to derived from, give by them a parish in Val de

a of . S ire, which they were the lords

Th e n of of . n chro icle the Abbey St Etienne at Cae , 2 40 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS C OLEPAN ION S .

of of as well as the history the Island Guernsey, furnish us with the earliest information respect

i An snev ille r ing the fam ly of . Previous to the yea

1 05 0 of re , some pirates from the Bay Biscay

eatedl d of G t p y ravage the Island uernsey, at tha d time belonging to Normandy , and ﬁnally establishe

n n themselves there . The inhabitants ot bei g able to m ll eject the , applied to their Duke, Wi iam, for assist ance . He was at that time at his favourite residence at Valognes, and immediately sent a force under the

’ m d of d Ansnev ille co man Samson , who destroyed the

i b out of forts bu lt y the pirates , and drove them the

to v island , which they ne er returned .

1 061 n an of n In , accordi g to entry that date in . a l Exchequer Roll at Rouen, Duke Wil iam gave to

’ ” d Ansnev ille Samson , his esquire, and to the

of . f of of Abbey Mont St Michael, hal the Isle

’ s d Ansne Guernsey in equal portion , the said Samson ville engaging for himself and h is heirs to serve the D uke and his successors as esquires of the body

t ten whenever they came in o the island , to pay f livres for livery of the land, do homage, and per orm all v an other ser ices due to the Duke d the duchy.

1 066 i of i In , at the t me the Conquest, and dur ng

’ of dAnsnev ille the regency Queen Matilda, a Seig neur

of D was Governor the Val de Saire, and in omesday

2 42 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

h is n e suit and service, and I have therefore placed am at the head of this notice .

HAMO DE C REVE C (E U R .

of e o wh o Wace speaks a Sire de Cr vec eur, , in

t of Briencort company wi h those Driencourt and , w followed the Duke wherever he ent in the battle . u I think he might have spoken in the pl ral , for it is highly probable that two of the family were in the

’ Duke s army .

— — or You have already heard of Hamon aux Dents, ” w as with the teeth , who killed in the battle of ’

- - H 1 045 . e two s Val és Dunes in left sons, the elde t

or VVil Hamo Hamon , who became Dapifer to King liam, and the second Robert, both of whom subscribe

f h e A a o t o . charter C nqueror to the bbey of St Denis , at Paris . The latter appears to have died without l m d egiti ate issue before Domesday was compile .

w as of Hamo, the Dapifer , sheriff of Kent, and one w O the judges in the cause bet een Lanfranc and do,

e . Bishop of Bay ux He had two sons, the eldest,

a Robert Fitz Hamon , a prominent person ge in the

of I “ Tewkes reign Rufus and of Henry . , the founder of

a d of w of a n bury n father Mabel , ife Robert de C e ,

n n Earl of Gloucester. Of the second son , Hamo, othi g C R VE C CE HAMO DE E UR . 243

r n w to appea s absolutely k o n , but I believe him be th e

of e u progenitor of that family Cr vecoe r, the last male w e of hich , Hamon de Cr vecoeur, married , temp .

’ I d Av ranch es Richard . , Maude , the great heiress of

Folkestone .

But wh o then was the Sire de Crevecoeur wh o ? fought at Senlac We must hark back to exami ne that question .

Hamon- aux- Dents was Lord of Thorigny an d

C reulli be ; but , dying in rebellion , his estates would f l for eited , and we consequent y ﬁnd his grandson, i w h Robert Fitz Hamon , com ng over to England it

u D ke William , described as a young man, Lord of * Astrem ev ille in s , Normandy, a designation soon lo t sight of in the gre at honour of Gloucester bestow ed ~ h im b of and upon y Rufus , his conquest Glamorgan , the lo rdships of a host of manors and castles seized or given to him by Jestin ap Gurg unt for his assistance

in 1 9 0 1 . against Rhys, Prince of South Wales ,

i or His father is only known as Hamo the Dap fer, ” - i Hamo Vice comes , hold ng certain lands in England , but not as the possessor of any seigneurie in Nor

mandy . Hasted, however , asserts that his family 21 4 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

w arrondissement of Lisieux, hich might have passed to

h is t Astremev ille. son Hamon , Rober succeeding to h If Hasted had satisfactory aut ority for his assertion, and I have found nothing whatever to contradict or w it thro the least doubt upon , Hamo the Dapifer ” must surely h ave been the Sire de Crevecoeur of

7) th e n w Roman de Rou . Robert Fitz Hamo , we kno , had no male issue but Hamon Fitz Hamon I take to be the father of the ﬁrst Robert dc Crev ecoeur of whom w e in 1 1 1 9 are cognizant, who, , founded the Priory of

and Leeds , in Kent , had , by his wife Rohais, three

and sons , Adam , Elias, and Daniel , a daughter named

Gunnora .

u d 1 2 th He was s cceede by Daniel, who , in the of

. on of Henry II , assessment aid for the marriage of

’ h of the King s daug ter, certiﬁed to the possession

’ ” v eteri feoffemento fourteen knights fees de , and

his son and successor, another Robert, was the father

' of m th e of Ha on , last the race and name , who

a d m rrie the heiress of Folkestone .

DE AY PICOT S . C il 1 de Saie, mentioned by Wace (. is

of supposed to be Picot de Say, one a family deriving

a m r e l their n me fro Say , near A g ntan, the ords of

2 46 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS . g uish ed w arrior in the reign of Stephen and William de Say , and by his marriage with Beatrice , sister of

f of th e Geo frey de Mandeville , Earl Essex, increasing wealth and power of both families .

lVilliam A William de Say, the grandfather of that ,

of Grentmesnil married Agnes , daughter Hugh de

a 8 3 ante (see p ge , ), and might have been in the

- in - l battle with his father law, as conﬁdent y stated in

of Sa the pedigree the Lords y and Sele , who deduce

h ienncs their descent from him t rough the family of F ,

do f as also the Dukes o Newcastle .

th e a The Pigots, or Pigotts , assume to be descend nts of of one the Norman Picots Domesday, family from

a the Shropshire and the other from the Cheshire br nch .

IVe have nothing, however, but probability to guide us in our attempt to identify the actual companion of the'

w e Conqueror indicated by Master Wace , nor have any materials for the biography of any Sire de Say i wh o m ght be entitled to that distinction . CHA PTER X

ROB T ’ . E R D E STO U TE VILLE ROBERT BERTRAM . G DE O W . V L HU H P RT ILLIAM PE ERE . WILLIAM DE CO LOM E S BI RE .

ROBERT BERTRAM .

o er e t m ki esteit torz R b t B r ra , . m R o . de R ow, 1.

E n ot HER we have only the baptismal name , but a personal description to assist us in identi

“ f in of r r R y g this companion the Conque o . obert

B t on er ram , who was crooked , but was very strong w horseback , had ith him a great force , and many men

w t t n h Not i hs andi g these particulars, and the fact t at ” r le t or Bertram , su named Tor , the crooked , is a real 2 48 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

1 08 2 le P r v . . é ost s S t Stephen at Caen , about , M tell us it is commonly considered that it w as not Robert

’ wh o rt th e W a Bertram took pa in expedition , but illi m

a a was Bertram , prob bly his brother ; and also th t he

or u a Bastenbou r son grandson of To st in de g , pro g enitors of the Lords of Briq u ebec and those of

Montfort .

illiam an Mr . Taylor presumes that both lV d Robert w a wh ich I w ere in the b ttle , ill not dispute but I f “ a as believe ace to be right in this inst nce , as well in m any others which have been qu estioned but not disproved . Robert Bertram was evidently dead before the compilation of Domesday ; and Dugdale makes

‘ h im h is no mention of , beginning account of the f W of M amily with illiam , Baron itford , who, with the

cf H awise f Gu consent his wi e, as also of Roger, y,

and d William, Richard , his sons , founde , temp .

I. of Brin kh elm orth umberland Henry , the Priory , N , for of u . canons regular the order of St . A gustin The branch of the Bertrams of Both all I take to be th e e m eld st , and Richard , the ﬁrst of that line entioned, to

h l th c b aron have been a grandson of Robert, as he e d y of Both all h e in capite of the King, Henry by t

" of service three knights fees, as his ancestors had

“ ” v eteri feoffc m en to th e done, de , and conﬁrmed to monks of Loirmouth t wo sheaves ou t of his lordship

2 P N 50 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COM A IONS .

u m shire, a subseq ent acquisition , probably by arriag e , and assuming the monastic habit at Winchester, ended

n h is his days there , leavi g, by an unnamed wife, Henry, son i Sh irebourn and he r, who founded the Priory of , n ear Basing .

A Gilbert as well as a Hubert de Port appears as

a 1 witness to v rious charters from 08 0to 1 08 2 . d t A am de Por , grandson of the Henry above men t ioned a dc Aurev alle , m rried Mabel , daughter and heir o f h dc . w Muriel St Jo n , hose grandfather, William de St .

J h of o n , is stated to have been a companion the Con

e a quer r, which is possibly true but he is lso described

“ ” as th e Grand Master of Artillery a title which w ould mislead a reader wh o was not sufﬁciently an antiquary to know that Artillaria was a term in use long before i m the nvention of cannon, and signiﬁed unitions of w ar a in gener l, but more especially the machines con s tructed for the purpose of casting heavy stones and

l w n a other missi es, movable to ers for assaulti g a c stle,

w n to battering rams , It ould be interesti g discover what authority there is for this family tradi tion . In the Bayeux Tapestry w e see men bearing

to body armour and lances the ships , but no catapults ,

‘ Inan onels a or an g , or balist e ; nor does Wace y other au thor speak of such engines being conveyed on board the ﬂeet to Engl and but in the w ider sense of \VILLIAl\I R DE COLOMBIE ES . 25 1

w th e , Duc an e ord as may be seen by reference to g , l S t Wi liam de . John might have been Magister Artil l a of s a ari e , having the care all the military store , rmour, a nd weapons included .

The son of Adam de Port and Mabel de Au rev alle

n assumed the name of St . Joh as representative of h is

’ r m - mother s family ; and f o his great grandson John , f d . o of Lord St John Basing , escended the Marquises

of n Winchester, the Dukes Bolton , the Baro s St . John o f Bletsh oe of , the Viscounts Grandison , the Earls

Jersey, and the Earls and Viscounts Bolingbroke .

m w e m S t. J o e v e o t A ak , y hn , l a all in r hings ” ” To lo m o an d th e e of w a biti n prid kings .

Pope has done more to innn ortalize th e n ame of

of St . John than the Grand Master of the Artillery

William the Conqueror .

E WILLIAM DE COLOMBI RES .

Little is known of this personage mentioned by

W d h e a R om . c R ou t ace ( , beyond f ct of the occurrence of his name in a ch arter in favour of the 1 2 Abbey aux Dames at Caen in 03 . He w as probably deceased before the compilation of i Rannul h C olumbels Domesday, n which a p de 25 2 THE CONQUEROR AND H IS COMPANIONS .

eith er R annul h or lVilliam of a by p himself the W ce , e whom he might have succeeded . Colombi res is in w the arrondissement of Bayeux, and it is orthy of note that in the charter above mentioned a Raoul

’ d Asnieres is found in company w ith the Lord de

i r C olumb e es. Asnieres being in the same arrondisse

’ ” le dAsnieres ment, and Gilbert viel coupled with

T “ illam e C olumbieres de in the Roman de Rou, it is fairly presumable that they w ere near connections as well as near neig hbours . The family of Colom

‘ bic res C olumbers C olumbels ( , ) alone appears to have

in struck root England , and had become an important

a 2 h of n . 1 t baroni l family in the reign He ry II , in the of whose reign Philip de C olumbers accounted for ten

’ “ “ knigh ts fees dc v eteri feoffemento and one de ” 2 2 md of novo, and in the the same reign paid twenty

’ ’ Du dale s marks for trespassing in the King s forests . g

not account only begins with this Philip, and he has

of noticed that in a Plea Roll Henry II . Roger Bacon

w as h C olumbers is set do n brother to P ilip de , nor that a Gilbert de C olu mbers w as a contemporary of

Philip and settled in Berkshire . (Lib. Niger. ) The family of C olu mbers intermarried with th e

of C ourt enai families Chandos and , and were Seigneurs

’ Dudev ill i in of , in Normandy ; but the male l ne failed

th e of 1 3 n r England towards close the th ce tu y.

2 5 4 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

w h as Mr. Ed ard Taylor taken any trouble on th e i subject, although some nformation has been furnished us by Orderic which enables me to correct Dugdale

of le P ré v ost and answer the observation M . , echoed by

a Mr . Taylor, that he (Robert) must h ve been very young if he w as th e same who fell forty years after at

Tcnch ebrai 1 1 06 as , in , by the simple surance to them that he was not the same .

Some ten or eleven years previous to the Conquest ,

’ d Es ou tev ille w as Robert I . t governor of the Castle of e G ff Ambri res , and stoutly defended it against eo rey

Martel until relieved by the approach of Duke William .

He could not therefore have been very young e ven at

w n that time say bet ee twenty and thirty, and in

1 066 he would have been between thirty and forty .

w e Of his exploits at Senlac hear nothing, and his n w e ame does not appear in Domesday , so are in

if w for i g norance of the reward, any, hich he received his services . The latest mention of him is by

Orderic c onﬁrm a , who records him as a witness to a

of son of uerneville tion charter William Fulk de Q ,

to of u Dean of Evreux , the Abbey Ouche or St . Evro lt, 1 before the year 08 9 .

The date of h is death is unascertained but he was

’ son d Estoutev ille succeeded by his Robert II . , alto

emitted i n gether by Dugdale , but connection with R D ’ E STO U TE VIL E OBERT L . 25 5 whom the follo wing strange story is told by O rderic

xi . . (lib . , cap xiii ) The same year (1 1 06) the follo wing occurrence — ’ m d Estotev iIle happened in Nor andy Robert , a

r b ave and powerful baron , was a strong partizan of

t - h euse the Duke (Rober Court ), and superintended his 00 tr ps and fortresses in the Pays de Caux . It chanced on t - 9a;of 1 1 05 h is Eas er day ( April , as chaplain was administering the holy sacrament to the baron and

c his household , that a ertain knight having approached the altar for the purpose of reverently receiving the t Eucharist , the pries took the consecrated wafer in his hand for the purpose of putting it into the mouth of

w as the communicant, but found that he quite inca l f i p ab e o lift ng his hand from the altar . Both parties were exceedingly terriﬁed by this circumstance , but at length the priest said to the knight , Take it if you

l out of w to can ; for myse f, it is my po er move my

’ ’ hand and deliver the Lord s body t o you. Upon this

c a w the knight stret hed his neck over the alt r , ith f t h some e for reached the c alice , and received the Host

’ in his open mouth from the priest s hand . This ex traordinar r h im w u y occu rence covered ith conf sion ,

of w and apprehending some misfortune , but hat

w ut s c nature he kne not, he distrib ed in con equen e THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

and w perty amongst the poor clergy . He as slain soon after Easter in the ﬁrst battle fought at Ma romme , near Rouen . “ w The chaplain, hose name was Robert, related to

to u t me what happened him and the unfort na e knight, as I have stated during the celebration of the life giving mysteries .

ff i The e ect of this alarming m racle on Robert, the

of wh o w wit Lord Estouteville, and his family, ere

of nesses it, is not recorded, but it is possible they might have some gloomy forebodings as respected w i themselves, hich were speed ly veriﬁed ; for Robert,

. r the son and heir of this Robert II , was taken prisone

. few w by King Henry I a months after ards, at the l storming of Dive, and his father a so at the battle of w Tcnch ebrai . as , closely following The son liberated but the elder Robert was sent a captive to ‘ England i w and immured for l fe in a dungeon , and the hole of his estates were seized and bestow ed by King Henry on l of Nigel de A bini, ancestor the second race of the w Mo brays .

t . Stotev ille . It was Rober III de , or Stuteville ,

wh o dis the young knight who was taken at Dive, t ing uish ed himself in the battle of the Standard

. t ff (temp S ephen), and was made sheri of Yorkshire

208 TH E CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

i of of h is K rkby, for the health the soul Robert

l of t h is g randfather, and for the sou s Rober father,

Ernebur a and g his mother, as also for the souls of

Helewisa and IVilliam son l his wife , his , Sibi la his f h im second wi e surviving .

It is singular that although Dugdale has recited th e

v of e pro isions this charter, and printed a pedigre

n n d which correspo ds with it, he should have confou de

t R th e the ﬁrs obert with the second, the second with

r t thi d, and invented a fourth , to whom he at ributes the charter to the Abbey of Rievaulx . There are other inaccuracies in his account of this f i amily, but they are beyond my prov nce in this

fﬁ out work . I have travelled already su ciently far of the record in clearing up the extraordinary confu m h sion of its co mencement, which appears to ave

l P é . puzzled M . e r v ost and Mr. Taylor

E WILLIAM P VEREL .

f‘ emission of of a The the name this person ge , the

of subject so much controversy, by the author of the “ ’ i t Roman de Rou , s no so remarkable as his silence

t of l n respecting Eus ace, Count Bou ogne, whose ra k in

own h ad his country, and the unenviable notoriety he I E E 259 W LLIAM P V REL.

s l r it for h im hou d imagine, rende impossible to have

n N or bee completely overlooked . does the appearance o f a of P R of the n me everel in the oll Battle Abbey,

’

Duch sne s L i . t ist, the rhym ng ca alogue, and those

r d and d ecently compile by Messrs . de Magny Leopol

i in for h im on Delisle , just fy us claiming , their u t nsupported and very questionable authority , the righ t o d t be classe amongs the conquerors at Senlac.

no in th e At the same time we have evidence, as

’ c of R r Mont om eri dAv ranch es ases oge de g , Hugh , and P to our Henry de ercy, warrant entertaining a

n c ontrary opi ion . We must therefore g ive him the

b t of th e i eneﬁ doubt, part cularly as we ﬁnd him as early as 1 068 in charge of the newly-built Castle of

N n at of of otti gham , and the time the compilation Domesday the lord of one hundred and sixty - t

in i in t manors England , and possess ng No ting ham

’ ’ a - or n lone forty eight merchants traders houses, thirtee

’ ’ n bondsm en s ta k ights houses, and eight cot ges , besides ten acres of land granted to him by the King f to an o . make orchard , and the churches St Mary, f i . all r o St . Peter, and St Nicholas , th ee wh ch we ﬁnd

a i and he g ve w th their land, tithe , appurtenances by

r of Lenten his charter to the Prio y . Surely his services must have been most important — h is ut r i t is h rep ation for valou and ab li y well establ ed ,

8 2 - THE CONQUEROR AN D HIS COMPANIONS .

to have . merited su ch magniﬁcent rewards . To have obtained for h im from the wary and suspicious Con querer so important a trust as the custody of Notting — — h am Castle at so early an age too for if the date of

’ his death in the register of St . James s, Northampton ,

f h is n one o o . 5 th foundations, can be relied , , viz ,

1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 our kalends of February, ( according to

a present calculation), he could sc rcely have been more — than four or ﬁv e- and twenty at the time of his appointment .

it no How is then that, p revious to that period , deed of arms is recorded of him ? That in all th e battles and commotions of which Norman dy was the

r theatre during the thi ty years preceding the Conquest ,

v in th e the name of Pe erel, if such a family existed

l of duchy, never crops up, even accidenta ly , in any the pages of the contemporary chroniclers A Ranulp h Peverel also appears in Domesday as

of - s the lord sixty four manors . Of a verity, the merit of P ev erels or t ir these must have been great , he inﬂuence at Court from some cause or another

r extraordina y .

O u if w f co rse, it ere true, as we have hitherto been

l son led to believe , that Wi liam Peverel was a natural of i be Will am the Conqueror, not a word more need

on Mr h is wasted the subject but . Eaton, in History

N THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIO S .

* century wh o praises him for the exercise of that . single v irtue that has been so ostentatiously p araded

i or at ' by his later paneg yr sts apologists, and even he

“ the same time acknowledges that there were not wanting persons who prated of matters irreconcilable

" with such a reputation . I am therefore at a loss to

“ discover the general character of Duke William

’ u which is the foundation of one of Mr. Eaton s arg m ents .

it s The other is easier to deal with , because consist of matters of of fact, not merely matters Opinion

h e i i a Moreover, cont nues, th s alleged liaison with S axon lady of rank can have originated in no earlier

’ ’ circumstance than the ev ent of the Duke s visit to the

rt f w 1 o f 1 05 . Cou Ed ard the Con essor in However, William Peverel must have been born before that

h e old 1 068 d period , for was enough in to be intruste with one of the most responsible affairs in the kingdom

the custody of the castle and province from which :

h is he took name .

s il The pos ib ity never seems to have occurred to Mr.

of m d. Eaton, that the Saxon lady rank ight have visite

d be ore 1 05 1 r d Norman y f , a ci cumstance which woul

l s f remove the on y seriou di ﬁculty in the story . Wil

o e w e u e to th e u e t th r rit r all d s s bj c . WILLIAM PEVEREL . 263

liam Peverel was no doubt of full age at the time of

the Conquest, and might have been , as I have said ,

four or ﬁv e- and-twenty when appointed to the govern

of ti ment Not ngham , and near upon seventy at the

o time f his death . According to this calculation he would have been born a year or so previous to Duke

’ m of Willia s ﬁrst proposal to Matilda Flanders . ”

r . n t a Myste y, Mr Eato admi s , there cert inly is

b s a out the whole ubject, and the truth may very

b of possi ly be buried with some tale courtly scandal, though not of the precise character hitherto pointed ” t ou .

The entire histo ry of William Duke of Normandy

of n in up to the Invasion England is i volved mystery, and th at of William Peverel might tend to elucidate

a of some p rt it .

u was not If the D ke his father, as asserted and belie v ed as early at least as the time of Camden and

been r t . Glove , who could not have the origina or, as Mr

’ of th e uncertiﬁed t Freeman implies, and almos impossible scandal ” —who were his parents ? Upon no occasion does he allude even to them a

t l and He mos sing u ar signiﬁcant fact . founds and

w P of Lenten for endo s the riory , near Nottingham ,

the health of the soul of King William and Matilda h fP I 264 THE CONQ UEROR AND HIS C O AN ON S .

h is c for and Maud onsort, as also the souls of Wil liam and Maud their children ; and likewise for the health of his own soul and the souls of Adeline his

w IVilliam and . ife, his son , all his other children No

of f or of mention ather mother, nor any ancestors ”

li . . ﬁ us whatever He was, in fact, nullus

“ And h ow came it that the young nameless ad ” n of w was ve turer, hom nothing is previously known , d la en with wealth and honours, and selected from a

of host noble, valiant, and experienced warriors for so important a command

And next his name . I will not draw any inference from his baptismal one though it certainly does not ? weaken the argument ; but whence that Of P cv ercl

m of Not fro his place birth, nor lands which he

or possessed , we should somewhere ﬁnd the Norman

de preﬁxed to it.

In elric n One story is that the daug hter Of g , an A glo

a not S xon nobleman , and a benefactor if the founder

f - l - o of . e the collegiate church St Martin Grand ,

D lVill am London, having been the mistress of uke i

and of the mother by him a son named after him ,

Ranul h married subsequently p Peverel, who aecom

anied n and p the Conqueror to Engla d , that not only

’ of a the children born that marri ge, but also the Duke s son m w t r h th e , Willia , ere hencefo t known by name of

266 E THE CONQ U ROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

r There is nothing emarkable in such circumstances, except their coincidence with those of Robert and

H erlev e nor th e of n , indeed in that, as y were commo occurrence in Normandy, and tolerated , if not sanc tioned f i o r . , as the custom the count y And what f

not of more Danica of the existence only a wife , but a son should have been one of the hitches in the matri monial arrangements of William and Matilda of ? Flanders Several good reasons might be adduced to show the bearing of this case on the mystery that still enshro uds the singular courtship of the lady and th e u of but no nexplained prohibition the Pope, I have desire to multiply theories which cannot be fairly

s to supported by fact , and have only endeavoured show as brieﬂy as possible that there are better grounds for believing in the story than for contemp tu

i w re ously dismissing it. Trad tion should al ays be c civ cd w w ith great caution , but here not irreconcilable ” w nor d ith dates , met by rebutting evidence, it shoul not be hastily discarded as utterly un worthy of i cons deration .

IVe are m a W i ~ not dealing with ystic person ges . l

of Ranul h O f liam Peverel Nottingham , as well as p

Essex , had each a local habitation as well as a name .

The latter w as founder of the Priory of Hatﬁeld

l at i of or n Pevere , the inst gation , in co junction with, I E E 6 W LLIAM PEV R L . 2 7

of In elric or h is the daughter g , his wife, , as I believe,

l a . too mother Weever, who tel s her story in langu ge t highly coloured for these pages , says she died abou

1 1 00 . , and was buried there Her image , he states,

was in his time to be seen car v ed in stone in one of

n the wi dows . What have we against all this corroborative testi

? an mony A denial, and opinion

of P e I d not The name ever l , as have observe , was

f ﬁ f or derived rom a e a locality . In a paper I read

a o n out many years g at Notti gham , I pointed that Sir

l P for Wi liam ole , in his Collections Devonshire, speak

of th e s ing branch which settled in that county , say

P or Pi erell a the name was everell p , and in Domesd y — we ﬁnd it continually spelt Pip erellus Terra ”

Ranul h i Pi erelli. not p p p This, however, does illus

t n of rate its derivatio , and the detestable practice latinising proper names only tends to confuse and

th e in or mislead us, as y become turn translate d cor rup ted till the original is either lost or rendered hope ” i i n lessly inexplicable . My bel ef is, that l ke Mesqui ,

or i n Misch inus lesser j un or, tra slated into , and dis t orted Micenis P m of into De , everel is the Nor an form

P euerellus as r - , we ﬁnd it w itten in the Anglo Norm

Pi e a v in p and Plea Rolls . The being pronounced

N P euerellus m m e l n ormandy, and being si ply a issp l i g THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

o f P uerulus l d the Latin , a boy or child , naturally app ie

to n h im h is to the son disti guish from father.

W or l ‘ illiam Peverel was therefore , literally , boy chi d

.W illiam .

" W e see in the instance of the descendants Of Richard

’ “ ” d Av ranch cs h ow n i Mesquin , used to disti gu sh

th e of a younger son, became name a family, and so I t it h a w ake to ve been ith Peverel , which, originally a w as w pplied to William, after ards borne by so many of l his relations in Eng and . The Ranulph Peverel of Domesday I believe to

’ h lVilliam - s . ave been half brother At any rate , he c ould scarcely have been the Ranulph wh o married

of In elric the daughter g , for we ﬁnd his eldest son

or H amm ond a man r w Hammo, , g o n , settled in England

one of a few years after the Conquest, and the chief

of Mon t omeri tenants or barons Roger de g , Earl of

1 d two Shrewsbury. He s also reporte to have had e IVilliam ther sons, Payne Peverel Of Brune , and

“ Peverel of Dover ; but I have no busi ness with t fear - hese in this place, and I I may have already ‘ wearied the reader with my attempt to aﬂiliate William the child and controvert the recently formed o pinion of th e immaculate morality of IVilliam the

” f w h w n y ather, hic , not ithstandi g the must have been

was a ll acq uainted with the passage in Malnresbu ry,

E AN D THE CONQU ROR HIS COMPANIONS .

a t t th e by any one, I have lready called a ten ion to in

u ﬁrst vol me of this work, but subsequent inquiry

n having strengthened my suspicions, and the questio

' d b me t being raise y for the ﬁrs time, I cannot con elude this memoir w ithout placing my facts before th e

own dispassionate reader, leaving him to draw his

as conclusions from them I have done .

Here is the extract from the charter as printed by

' v tim t lzt ra tim li arius v erba c e . O ,

“ IVillielmu &c . s dis en In nomine , , Ego divina p

An lorum sante misericordia, Rex g Duc Nor

A nne a In carnationis I m anoru m &c . , Dominic MLXXX scripta est haec charta ab excellentiorabus regni

' ersonis testicata conﬁrmata mi DtrI p , in no ne

IVI L IE M i . L L US a a felic ter, Amen Ego Dei gr ti Anglo rum Rex hoc p raecep tum p ossi ‘ scribere scriptum

c onﬁrman i E o signo Dominica Crucis do impressi f . g

firrn av i V Lanfr n u s a MATH lLDIS c on P . Ego a c Arch e pisc it Ego THOMAS Arch iep isc op u s Regis ﬁlius it

o erius . l Ego R g comes Ego Hugo comes . Ego A anus

R DBE R T O U S . comes . Ego comes Ego Eustatius

4 W ILLIELMUs ﬁlius comes 4 . Regis it W illielmus

ﬁlius t IValter t Osbert i de Gand i (Arch . S .

Pet . Gand . ) Observe that the n ame of Th omas is printed in L WILLIAM PEVERE . 273

w th e t hile those of Primate Lanfranc , the grea Earls of r n Shrewsbu y , Chester, Richmond , and Boulog e are

n i ordinary type .

What the distinction may h ave been in the charter

t but itself, I canno presume to say ; there can be no

t was n of t or doub there a distinctio equal impor ance , it would not hav e been thus indicated by Oliv arius

“ ” rendering the words Regis ﬁlius still more sig niﬁ t cant . Another remarkable circums ance is the occur

of of th e of O rence the name a William, son sbert,

of amongst the witnesses . The names the parents of Archbishop Thomas are said to have been Osbert and

' on of entries m ade Muriel , the authority some from time to time in the blank spaces left in a calendar printed in an appendix to the Surtees Edition of the

a m 2 4 Liber Vit e Dunelm . , fro a MS . marked B iv, , f which belongs to the Dean and Chapter o D urham .

’ biit sbertus a . . 0 O Febru rius V Kal Mar. ( ) Pater

i ae dom ni Archiepiscopi Thom .

“ ’ Ar Junius V . Id O Muriel , Mater Domini chie

Th omas 0 . piscopi . N year stated These entries are assumed to apply to Thomas of

of d 1 07 0— 1 1 00 Bayeux, the successor Aldre , ; but what proof is there that they do not refer to his n w s of ephe Thoma , Provost Beverley, and Bishop

of wh o t n elect London , before consecra io thereto was

d to A D 1 1 09 promote York, . . , and who has been occa AN D P THE CONQUEROR HIS COM ANIONS .

a t t th e by any one, I have lready called a ten ion to in

u of ﬁrst vol me this work, but subsequent inquiry

n having strengthened my suspicions, and the questio

' b m e being raised y for the ﬁrst time, I cannot con elude this memoir without placing my facts before th e

a own dispassionate re der, leaving him to draw his conclusions from them as I have done .

Here is the extract from the charter as printed by

’ ' t l t ra tim liv rius r erbatzm c z e . O a ,

“ IVillielmu s i di n m &c . s e In no ine , , Ego div na p

a An lorum 65 Du e sante misericordi , Rex g Nor

Incarnationi I manor um &c . s , Anno Dominica MLXXX scripta est haec charta ab excellentiorabus regni

ersonis testicata conﬁrmata DﬁI p , in nomine T “ ILL IE LM S a n o~ i . U felic ter, Amen Ego Dei gr tia A gl rum Rex hoc p raecep tum p ossi scribere scriptum

ﬁ man v E o signo Dominica Crucis con r do impressi P . g

MATH ILDIS c onﬁrmav i it Ego Lanfrancu s Arch ae

F pisc it Ego THOMAS A rch iep isc op u s Regis ﬁlius F.

erius . Ego R og comes Ego Hugo comes . Ego Alanus

RO DBE RTU S . comes . Ego comes Ego Eustatius

4 IVILLIELMUS ﬁlius F l . Villi l comes H Reg is E. e mus

b lVal er > 4 ﬁlius . t Osbert P de Gand I . (Arch . S .

Pet . Gand . ) Observe that the name of Thomas is printed in

274 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS C OMPANIONS . sionally confounded with his uncle of the same name

? m a w e in and position Be this as it y, have the above charter evidence of a IVilliam Fit-z Osbert living

1 08 1 u i in w in , and s bscrib ng a document company ith

“ the Archbishop Thomas , who calls himself Regis ” ﬁliu s O f , though asserted by Brompton to be the son f l ” N am u e resb teri . a priest, q p y fuit i ius

Thomas of Bayeux had a brother named Samson , who was sent with him to Liege by Bishop Odo for d t his education . He was ordaine a pries by Anselm , 1 4th 1 09 6 Archbishop of Canterbury , June , , at Lam

’

and W . beth , consecrated Bishop of orcester at St Paul s " Cathedral th e next day t at inﬂ uence could pos sibly have been at work to elevate and enrich in so remarkable a manner the sons of an obscure eccle siastic or t , the married unmarried pries Osbert

in n Of course, as the insta ce of Peverel , if Thomas was the son of William Duke of Normandy and King of England , the answer is Obvious .

l st Well , the fortunate Thomas had an equally for tunate IVas 2 ud. nephew, Archbishop Thomas he

w as or the son of Bishop Samson , or he not related to the William the son of Osbert wh o w itnessed the Charter of IVilliam the Conqueror in company with Archbishop Thomas Regis ﬁlius 7

The career of this Thomas of Bayeux and W illiam P h u . w everel are sing larly similar Eac , ithout previous WILLIAM PEVEREL . 275

w distinction , was suddenly raised to rank and po er on

r t t f the ﬁ s Opportuni y. Nothing is posi tively known o

their parentage . Tradition , uncontradicted by facts,

asserts Peverel to have been a son Of King William,

and Thomas declares himself another .

If the entry in the Calendar really refers to him ,

- in-law and Muriel was his mother, and not his sister ,

n oom a ne of O she could only have bee the p g sbert , as the marriage of priests was prohibited by the Synod

u and no of Lisieux and Ro en, she therefore holds

In elri higher position than g c . The story of Peverel could not have been the in v ention of no an enemy , as in the eleventh century

to shame was attached such illicit connections . From

t l r of Rolf the Dane to Rober the Devi , eve y ancestor

l m u the Conqueror had left i legiti ate iss e, and there fore in the summary of his crimes and vices no con temporary would have dreamed of including inconti nenc h e. T at neither Glover nor Camden ever ques tioned t is f the fac , to me su ﬁcient evidence that they had satisﬁed themselves as to the authenticity of the

on information which they had asserted it. They may

n but t s r have bee deceived , they did not inven the to y,

wh e is oth n edi f s h as in ich th re n ing i cr ble, and if al e, yet to be traced to its orig in b efore we are justified in rejecting it . CHAPTER XI .

- 4

O F the following personages but few can be

of few identiﬁed , and those no materials have been found h itherto for the briefest biographical notice . To the meagre information and vague speculations

l ré of Messrs . e P v ost and Edgar Taylor I have a in dded in some instances a fact, and others a sug gestion ; and generally upheld the authority of IVace w here it could not be shaken by direct evidence . I have already given my reasons for the conﬁdence I

subse place in his testimony , and feel assured that

u w of q ent researches ill justify my opinion him .

The honest Prebend of Bayeux , at the conclusion

“ of what may be fairly called his Roll , candidly w h w ackno ledges, Many ot er barons there were hom

I have not even named , for I cannot give an account of them all, nor can I tell of all the feats they did , for

I would not be tedious . Neither can I give the

of all names of all the barons, nor the surnames whom the Duke brought from Normandy and Brittany

’ Th e e h w h . s in his company , o ever, w om he has

2 78 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

v Ponthieu , is the locality indicated . I ha e mentioned

of of in my memoir Eustace, Count Boulogne, the fact that both th e Counts of Ponthieu and the Counts

“ ” of Boulogne were occasionally called of Abbeville . But strange as it appears that so remarkable a person

emitted as Eustace II . should have been altogether

IVac e w by , hich he certainly has been if not alluded

n n to as above, there is nothi g to e able us to identify him with the unknown companion of the Conqueror

w u d recorded by the Prebend of Bayeux . He o l surely ” h ave written Li q uens VViestac e de Abev ile had

' n W h o he i tended to speak of Count Eustace . then was this W iestac e ? No one of the n ame of Abbe v a ille ppears in Domesday. An obscure adventurer a of soldier fortune , perhaps killed in the battle would scarcely have been classed w ith the Cham berlain of Tankerv ille th e of , Lord Mandeville , and

W or th e illiam Crispin , even mentioned at all by

for of u h e Norman poet the sake the rhyme , nless

n th e or had disti guished himself in conﬂict, in some way made the name of Eustace of Abbeville familiar to his countrymen . I am strongly under the impression that for Abbe

w e na ville should read Appeville, of which me there

W as more than one Norman family of note in th e e w leventh , t elfth, and thirteenth centuries . “(IE STA C E ABE ILE DE V .

Three parishes so named are to be found in Nor

- - : l . of mandy Appeville, canton Montfort sur Risle ,

P ontaudem - l arrondissement of er ; 2 . Appeville e

t of Affranv ille of Peti , canton , arrondissement Dieppe ;

- - - - 3 . of du Appeville la Haye, canton Haye Puits, arron dissem ent of a of - sur Cout nces . The lords Montfort

w of of Risle ere also seigneurs Appev ille, and several

h of their c arters are subscribed by persons that name ,

of of as are also some charters the Counts Meulent,

’ P ontaudem er Gosce dA ev ille sires de . pp witnesses the g ift of the hermitage of Bretone to th e Abbey of 1 1 63 Préaux , by Robert , Comte de Meulent, circa .

Appeville - lo- Petit furnishes us with no indications ; but Appeville - la- Haye was no doubt the cradle of a

n Turstain family so amed . Our former acquaintance,

Haldub of - du - at of th e , lord Haye Puits the time

’ a d A ev ille Conquest, was lso Seigneur p p ; and from the foundation charter of the Abbey of Lessay w e

w son al l learn that he, ith his Eudo Chape , gave to

all that abbey the churches, lands, woods, and meadows

A av il O sulfv il] et aliis m aisnillis ae in p and , qu ad ” in i Ap arillam p ert ebant. Observe that Appev lle is

“ h ere one as th e spelt with p , Abbeville in Roman ” dc Rou w one b of is ith . A very slight slip the p en may ha v e caused all the confusion . Still stronger presumptive evidence is affo rded us A 28 0 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMP NIONS .

W alterus by Domesday . de Appeville is therein

dc th e recorded as holding, under William Arcis , f o . manor Folkestone , in the hundred of that name

IVe h ave here distinct proof that an Appeville h ad h 1 08 5 established imself in England before , and

a w it may f irly dra from the inference , that either lValter himself or one of his family w as a companion

MM d Ma n and of n 1 066 . c the Co queror in . g y

’ D h Gau tier lValter d A ev ille elisle ave ( ) p p , but no

u of in E stace . The name Abbeville occurs the Roll

of A but no . Battle bbey , that is evidence

“ A SN E BE C O nebac l 4 - A sn bec 3 7 8 . e ( ), cil l . , is

le a commune in the neighbourhood of Voie . M .

P ré v ost doubts that it was a seigneurie at the time of th e it n Conquest, and believes to have belo ged to

- - n th e Robert , the younger son of Hamon aux De ts ,

of - - 04 rebel lord Thorigny killed at Val és Duncs in 1 7 . That Robert succeeded his father in the lordship of

n as Pré v ost m e Thorig y, Le i plies, is very pr ble

’ m atic al m a d A snebce and ; but he y have been Sire ,

1 066 th e irr as such recognized in , if he were in

m w not vading ar y, hich must ﬁrst be ascertained . If ,

“ ” He of O nebec remains for th e present u nidenti

ﬁed.

‘ E “ l i l d — e S S e Ve . A NI RE , Gilbert , l Asni res, a commune in the arrondissement of Bayeux . A Raoul

2 8 2 TIIE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

P eleit le ﬁlz Bertran may be interpreted either as

son P eleit or P eleit th e of Bertrand the of , de son

or itz- dc P eleit l Bertrand , F Bertrand

“ ” B IE — 1 3 . R N C OR T le . , Sire de , No such place

in ev known Normandy . Supposed by Le Pr ost to be intended for Brucourt , arrondissement of Pont

’ lE u e q . A Robert de Brucourt conﬁrmed grants

Geffr IValsin h am by y de Fervaques to g , the only instance of the con nection of the name with English affa irs .

“ - N N E S le i dc . n BO BO Q , S re , l From Bon e

’ bos - N O identiﬁ m of e l E v é u e. q , arrondisse ent P nt q

n l cation or connection with E g and .

BO TEVILA IN -A dc Bou ttev ile a , l . Sire , rron diss m e ent a f . dc of V lognes, is certi ied by Mons

G na erville to have been in the expedition . The me

in of am occurs the Roll Battle Abbey, and the f ily establish ed itself in the counties of Somerset and d t Be ford. A the same tinre a family named Boutte

in w villain is found seated in Northamptonshire, hich

u l Boutev ile n f 1 1 43 county a G i laume y ounded , in ,

f i e el the Abbey o P p w l. This name appears in

’ Bromp ton s List ; brrt whether the Boutev illes and the Bouttev illains were one and the same family is

as wh o a left to conjecture, as well were the ctual

C O D] BE LF 3 ROBERT DE O U . 28

m Botev ille of quises of Bath , clai descent from f o . Shelton , county Salop

BE LFO U l — t o . c w e , Rober Sire de, l Her G have a baptismal name to assist us, and as uillaume t h im t l de Poi iers also calls Robert, I adop it, mere y observing that Le Pré v ost states he is called Ralf in

w e some contemporary documents , and that ﬁnd a

R adul lr Bellofa o n p de g in Domesday . The moder

a d lists have Raoul n William .

Beau foi or Belfai latirrised Bellofa us Beaufou , , , g , is

’ of - l Ev u e in the neighbourhood Pont éq . Its lords w ere descended in female line from Ralph , Comte

’ d Iv ri I of . , uterine brother Duke Richard , already

n a 2 2 0 a nte r mentio ed (p ge , ) ; and Sir Hen y Ellis ,

“ ” in his Introduction to Domesday, suggests that

Radul h us of w as the p that book a near relation , if not of lVilliam dc Beaufoe d a son , , Bishop Of Thetfor ,

h con Chaplain and Chancellor of t e Conqueror. I

of sider him more likely to have been the son Robert,

a nd w of the combatant of Senlac, nephe William the w Bishop . No particulars are kno n of either, and except th rough females no descendants are traceable in England .

—C aill is in th e CAILLY, Sire de , l . y arron dissement of R no t ouen , and there can be doubt tha 8 4 H S 2 T E CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANION . one or more of the family may have been in the

o w as a expedition . Osb rn de Cailly pparently the

of th e ﬁef in 1 066 d holder , as his son Roger ma e a ll n 1 08 0. IVi iam C ail donation to St. Oue in A de g i

a a also ppears in Domesd y. Although by alliances

’ w ith the Giffards and the Tatc sh alls they became of

m r a n i po t nce in England , the companio of the Con

r h a aff . quere s orded no materials for a memoir. By th e of a h death Thom s de Cailly , Baron of Bucken am

1 0th Edw IL w th e ( . ), ithout issue , property passed ,

u and to thro gh his sister heir Margaret, the family of

Clifton .

C A R T R A I an d 1. , Onfroi Mangier, Carteret, in the arrondissement of Valognes, imparted its name

f of in to this family , rom a branch which , settled

a and Jersey , the B rons Carteret, and from the sisters c o- of t n t heirs Rober , seco d Earl Granville , Viscoun

a a 1 7 7 and B ron C rteret, who died without issue in d wecddale escend the present Marquises of Bath and T , and a w O the E rls Dysart and Co per. f Humphrey

Mau ier of and g , the companions the Conqueror, no thing is known but their names . That of Roger is

m R e naud C ar added by the modern co pilers . g de t eret of an i , son earl er Humphrey, accompanied Duke

Robert the Magniﬁcent to the Holy Land in 1 03 5 .

“ A E 4 - e P r v ost H IGN s . é le 1 3 66 . C , Sire de, l , D derives

28 6 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMP ANIONS .

r i m of “ e IVill a . for the conquest England have here,

of tw o th e therefore, the names other companions of

Conqueror, neither of whom is mentioned by M . de

a e w M gny or Delisle ; William de la Fert , who ith 1 073 Turgis de Tracie were governors of Maine in ,

i de was perhaps of the same fam ly . A William Fcri tate (Ferte) held Weston and Stokes in Baronise from

dc l the Conquest of England (Testa Nevi le , p .

A e Mac é or Sire de Fert , either Mathias William ,

of Odo married a sister , Bishop of Bayeux , and his son IVilliam is described as neph ew of that worthy

of of . prelate in the charter an Archbishop Tours, temp ? St . Louis . What sister of Odo, and by which father ” — GA SC IE . e , cil de, l Gac , arrondissement

wh o w e of Argentan . It is not known as Sire de Gac

1 066. e in Raoul de Gac , the instigator of the murder of Gilbert, Count of Eu , died childless before the

Conquest , and his domains were seized by Duke

Th h rm lVilliam . e older under h has not been dis covered .

SA P Los. G See . ” — GOVIZ . a , cil de, l Gouvix is in the rron dissem ent of n w of Falaise , but no possessor it is k o n

of at the time the Conquest .

“ ” — oar . J , cil de, l Jort is a commune near i C ourc of . n to , arrondissement Falaise It had belo ged A LA M RE . 28 7

Lesc eline t of , Coun ess of Eu , but no possessor it in

w n 1 066 is kno n to Fre ch antiquaries . It was pro bably held by some one under the De C ourc is of that

C ourci s day, as they are named together Cil de Cil de Jort .

“ - li . r LITHAIRE, Sire de , l Lithaire, co n

- - in Of du . al mune Haye Puits , the Cotentin Eudo

of in 1 066 bu t t Chapel was lord it ; Rober de Haie , who married Muriel , daughter and heir of Eudo , t 1 2 an e . h im . 5 might have held under (see p , )

“ ” — E i . LA MAR , S re de , l The name of this great Anglo - Norman family was derived from the t ﬁef of La Mare , at St . Oppor une , arrondissement of

r l on P ontaudeme , where the castle was bui t on piles

- of . the border the lake, still called Grand Mare Lemare occurs in the Roll of Battle Abbey and

’ ’ la Duchesne s List , and De Mare in Leland s but I

la cannot ﬁnd a Hugues de Mare , as sugg ested by Le

t in P rév os , any , no baptismal names being men l . tioned. The modern lists have Gui laume ” “ —Th e i I le l. MOLE , Sire de, fam ly name

or - in h of the Sire dc Molay , Vieux Molay , the elevent century was Bacon subseq uently so illustrious In , 2 S 8 8 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANION .

“

th e th e . the veil , is Sire de Molai of Roman de Rou

c a w of of A Ri h rd Bacon , nephe Ranulf, Earl Chester, ff u R onc ester . fo nded the priory of , county of Sta ord

The family - O f the gre at Lord Chancellor and th e premier baronets of Eng land do not deduce their

n descent from the Norma lords of Molay , but from

I of lVilliam de “ arren w Grimbald , a cousin , hose great grandson , according to their genealogists, as sumed the name of Bacon in Normandy.

“ MO NC EA LS 1 — , La, . There are several

u n comm nes of the ame of Monceaux in Normandy. Le Prév ost considers the one in question is in the

r of neighbou hood of Bayeux, and the seat the family of n of Drogo de Monceaux, the second husba d Edith

IVarren w w of G de , ido errard de Gournay . Either Drogo or his son of the same name witnessed the f n u in oundatio charter Of D nstable, the county of

. nr I. Bedford, temp He y , and the name is of frequent occurrence in later documents. Guillaume dc Mon

ceaux occurs in the modern lists . “ ” — C R ki - PA I , cil ert Sire de, l . Paci sur

w as u Eure , at the time of the Conq est, in the posses

lVilliam O sbern sion of Fitz , and after his death , 1 074 , formed a portion of the inheritance of IVilliam de l l . . o v Breteui , his son M Pre ost denounces this as an

290 E M THE CONQU ROR AND HIS CO PANIONS .

“ R EBER C IL le —N ow l d , Sire de, l . cal e

Rubercy, in the arrondissement of Bayeux. The com

n of not w in 1 1 68 panio the Conqueror kno n , but

of R ebercil Hughes Wae (Wake), Lord , founded the

of W one of Abbey Longues, and the family Of ake is

t i t n - n H ow the mos mportan in A glo Norma history .

of R ebercil he became Lord , whether by inheritance

or . was marriage , has yet to be discovered His wife Emma daughter of B aldwin de Gant and Adelaide de R ullos but Hugh could not have been born at the

of w d time the Conquest, and we have no kno le ge of

f N O his ather. connection is hinted to have existed w bet een Hugh and the celebrated Hereward, whose n ame of Le Wake is of dubious derivation ; but the f ounding of the Priory of Brunne in Lincolnshire by

w f -in - Bald in de Gant, the ather law of Hug h, is worthy of observation , taken in connection with the story

t h w w as of . at Here ard a son of Leofric, Lord Brunne

Th e name of Wake occurs in all the Rolls and cata

lo ues of . s g except those MM de Magny and Deli le,

of and the Wakes Clevedon, in the county of Somerset, c to laim be descended from Sir Thomas, called from his ” large possessions the great Wake in the reign of

E dward III. “ — E le . i SAINT CL R, Sire de, l Sa nt Clair is t h e principal town in the c anton of that name in th e ST —S T 2 . MARTIN . . SEVER . 9 1

t of St LO of t w as a rrondissemen . . The site the cas le s e - a till to b seen ne r the church when M . de Gerville

w e o on in rot his valuable w rk the castles La Manche .

A William de Saint Clair was a benefactor to th e

f v in f n o n o I. Abbey Sa igny the reig He ry , and one o f not the same name , if the same person , founded the Priory of Villiers Fossard in 1 1 3 9 ;but wh o came o o R ver with the C nq ueror does not appear . A ichard d e S encler is in as a found Domesday, from whom , m O f c u h n atter o rse, the Englis Si clairs are reported to h ave descended .

“ — d n iﬁ N le . i e t ca ST . T MAR I , Sire de , l No t r of or ion eithe place person . There are very many

S t . t s and w of Mar in , we kno nothing their seigneurs

f of in 1 066. A amily that name was seated in Eng

la in th e fo nd early llowing century, and a Robert de

’ S t n f d d of in . Marti oun e the Abbey Robert s Bridge , th e of S s in 1 1 7 6. county u sex,

“ I R c il —Le e u s SA NT SEVE , de Pr vost do bt the e i of of in 1 066 t x stence any seigneur Saint Sever , tha place having been always the property of the Viscounts

of i N ow v " . the Avranch n . Saint Se er Sire St Sever " was the w ar cry Of Renou f de Bricasard at

- - th D l i . e of v o . . battle Val és unes (see , p and his son Ranul h Bricasard l Mesch in or th e p de , ca led Le , 92 E HI N 2 THE CONQU ROR AND S COMPA IONS .

L of th e bably been the ord of St . Sever at the time

h ad old d expedition he been enough , but as he live

1 1 2 all th e till 9 that is not probable . At events

de learned antiquary is, I think, mistaken . Renouf

Bricasard of B essin 1 047 of was Viscount the in , not ll f the Avranchin , and therefore frequently ca ed Renou

of d de Bayeux . He married Matilda, daughter Richar

’ d Av ran ch es of , by Emma de Conteville, and sister

f n o e . Hugh , Earl Chest r That is the only connectio

’ d Av ranch es h im with the Vicomtes , which , supposing

1 047 in w a to be married in , might account some y for a of his war cry . We h ve no means ascertaining the ag e of either father or son in 1 066 but as Neel"

- th e V was de Saint Sauveur, other rebellious iscount,

f of th e r in the expedition , the odds are in avour elde

’ ” son-in -law of that Rich arz ki fu dAv rancin (see

1 6 ant . e . p , ), under whom he might have held St

or ff n at Sever, been enfeo ed with it in fra k marriage the time of his union with h is daughter . ” — “ il? SAP . c , cil de, l Wace couples with

” “ dc w Prév ost re Sap , cil de Gloz, upon hich Le

’ marks Here again are two seigneurs of our author s

of n creation . At the time the Conquest Sap had bee

' n t ul w de give wi h Mo es to Bald in Fitz Gilbert, Comte

" as v c Brionne, we ha e already said , and ould not con

’ s equently have a seigneur particulier . As to Gloz,

N 294 THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPA IONS .

“ C —M v h is E dc . SA I , cil , l . de Ger ille, in ” C h etteaux M h as Recherches sur les de la anche , pointed out that the place here mentioned is not Sassy

e O ourdain n ar Falaise, but Sacey near Pont rson . A J de Sacey , chevalier, was living in the twelfth century, and an Emeric de Sacey occurs in the but no guess has b een made as to the actual com

t n . panion of the Conqueror. I will venture a sugges io

of on of In the Commune Sacey, the banks the Coes

i of and non, a river divid ng the provinces Normandy

1 03 0 t . Brittany, a castle was built in by Rober Duke of of of w Normandy, father the Conqueror, the site hich

l v on ll r was, and may be stil , isible a hi about a quarte of u b . a leag e from the ourg Of Sassy . This castle ,

ff C h arruez C h eruel ~ indi erently called and , is said to have given its name to the well - known Norman family f K o riel. of K riel y Wace makes no mention a y , but if one of the family held lands in the commune he

w Viole might have been kno n as a Sire de Sassy .

’ ' . n Bru ke s . Recherches de M de Gerville , and Sir Ber ard l Ro l of Battle Abbey .

S AIN TEA LS — , cil de, l . This commune,

Gonv ix de now called Cintheaux, near , arrondissement

f no of 1 066 . Falaise, o fers record a possessor in . In

1 08 1 to m th e it belonged Robert Mar ion , who gave

of r O of t : church there to the Abbey Barbe y . ne tha SEMILLIE — . SOLI GNIE . 295

family may have been an under- tenant at the time of

the Conquest .

S E MILLIE — do 1. A , li Sire , Guillaume

de St LO is Semilly (near . ) a witness to t wo c harters

108 2 a in , and appears to h ve been a person of some O importance, as he signs immediately after do Bishop

of M n m ri Bayeux and Roger de o tg o e . He was pro ” i emillie of bably the S re de S Senlac . His daughter

and son of a d heiress, Agnes, married Guillaume, Rich r

dc l of n r t Hommet, Constab e Norma dy, and thei eldes

son of Guillaume assumed the family name his mother, granting as Guillaume de Semilly a hundred acres of

of land in his demesnes to the Abbey Aunay, with the

of d of s consent his brothers , Jour ain , Bishop Li ieux ,

Geoffrey and Eng uerrand du Hommet (Recherches sur le Domesday, p .

“ SO LI IE l — l GN o . r , Sire de, l Sub igny, nea

Avranches . According to Le Prév ost (Corrections

n f f m h A v ol. o e o w o and dditions to this a ily,

Sulli n Sousli n wrote themselves g y, g y, and Subligny,

of o t became Bishop Avranches, and another t ok par in ﬁ d Paniells the rst crusa e . A marriage with the , or P a anels of in g , caused the property a branch

to f and n of Normandy pass into that amily, the ame

es of n ll Subligny existed in the counti Cor wa , Devon ,

5 Th e and Somerset as late as the present century . 296 THE CONQ UEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS .

m of to co panion the Conqueror, however , has yet be d identiﬁe .

“ - A UE S 1 5 . TOUQ , cil de, . place at the mouth of of a t of the river that name , rrondissemen Pont

’ l Ev ue l e n é . e q Mons . Pr vost notices the appeara ce of of n dc the names Jorda , Rog er, Robert, and Henri

’ Touques in Dug dale s Monasticon but neither he nor

of Mr . Edgar Taylor seems to have been aware the

of of n u ancient family Toke Godingto , in the co nty of

of Kent, who claim descent from the companion the

Conqueror. Thoroton , who spells the name in seven

ff of teen di erent ways , states that a branch this family

n i of R was seated in Notti ghamsh re in the reign ufus, and other ramiﬁcations m ay be found in the counties of s and Derby, York, Cambridge, Hert , Dorset. The

of h present representative the house is the Rev . Nic olas f o i . Toke, God ngton , near Ashford

“ ” TORN E OR O of , Sire del, l f the Sire

E u TORN I RRS 1. r , Sire de, Le Tou ne r,

or th e of e near Vire, his comrade Sire Tourni res, arron dissement of n th e Bayeux , othing is known by either

r n of W a a French o the E glish annotators ce . A Rich rd de Tourneriis is mentioned in the foundation charter of I . . a of Kenilworth, temp Henry , and the E rl Win t erton claims to be descended from a Sire de Tour nour wh o came over with the Conqueror.

298 E E HI TH CONQU ROR AND S COMPANIONS .

of r Gervase de Cou tenay, whose name I do not ﬁnd f in the pedigree o that house .

“ TRE GOZ ki tenoit L l 3 669 —Trc oz , cil donc , , . g is in of LO of the arrondissement St. . The ruins a castle were existing lately at the conﬂuence of the Vire and

“ of Mar u eran of h im ‘ the brook q , but the name who ” Tre oz then held g is unknown to me . Mr. Edgar

“ IVace ff Tre oz Taylor, in his notes to , says Je ery de g would , according to Dugdale (Baronage , i , be

f “ the probable contemporary o the Conquest. What he founds that -Opinion upon I am at a lo s s to dis~

ff Tre oz m t cover. The ﬁrst Geo rey de g en ioned by

of IVilliam Tre oz wh o in Dugdale was the son a de g , 1 1 3 1 had the lands of IVilliam Peverel of London in

not old farm , and therefore even he could have been

1 066 to v e enough in ha e fought at Senlac, where Wac tells us that he who then held Treg oz killed two

transﬁxin one w and cleav Englishmen , g ith his lance

of w h is w ing the skull the other ith s ord , and galloping

It n . back unwounded by the enemy . may have bee the father of that William who perf ormed that exploit ; but Dugdale takes us no higher than IVil li R Tre oz w as f of IViltsh ire am . A obert de g Sheri f

th e of I t . and a dis inguished warrior in time Richard , and the name has descended to us in his old place of

— a -Tre ose residence in the above county Ledy rd g . TROSSE BOT. 299

TR OSSE BO T — , l . This name is coupled with

that of Botev ilain by “face as two warriors wh o feared

nor t and neither cut thrust, ﬁghting furiously tha day, l P . e t g iving and receiving severe blows . M revos

n of h i in could not , however, trace the orig i t s family

Trou ssebot t Normandy, and a William is ﬁrst brough

to our of O rderic notice in the reign Henry I . by

wh o h im n of low Vital , includes amo gst the men

w for origin , hom their obsequious services that sove

of as it. reign raised to the rank nobles, raising them

th e were from dust, heaping wealth upon them , and

exalting them above earls and noble lords of castles

Troussebots to e (lib . xi . cap . The are supposed hav been resident in the north - western part of the district of of t Neubourg, near the domain Rober de Harcourt, whose daughter Albreda became th e wife of lVilliam

Trussbot of f and above mentioned , son Geo frey grand

Troussebot wh o all was. son of Pagan , in probability the combatant at Senlac . ff d Geo rey Fitz Payne , as he is called, was seate

Va r i of . l rt e n before the reign Henry I at Holderness ,

of r h in the county York , and the family was thencefo t

T utt of W artre m i b styled the rusb s . The ale line fa led y

f i i s and th e death of the three sons o William w thout s ue,

t Hillarie and c e their three sis ers, Rose, , Agatha, be am THE M CONQUEROR AND HIS CO PANIONS .

t h e t li Ros whole proper y devolved upon Wil am de ,

n of wh o de g randso Rose, married Everard Ros, a

wh o a m l great baron in Holderness, ssu ed the a lusive c of Trussbot of - oat W artre : three water bougets .

’ ” or h of water Trois bouts d eau , t ree bougets .

U R IN E “ — I . to , cil l Supposed be

O of two in rigny, which name there are communes

N one Belesme h a ormandy, near , and the ot er ne r

a n Mamers, but nothing has been le rned respecti g the

rs p e on alluded to .

VITR IE cil —R rt u , de, l . obe Seigne r de

-et- of Riv allon -le- Vitré (Ille Vilaine), grandson Vicaire , is stated by the historians of Brittany to have been t h e wh o IVa O or h is person is indicated by ce. f him d eeds we have no record .

’ e r of Andr de Vit y married Agnes, daughter Robert C l i a v o . . . omte de Mort in ( , p and consequently h t e . not niece to Conqueror We have the date, but a s te D 1 07 8 her younger;sis r enise was married in ,

of it appears doubtful to me if Robert , son Agnes , c ould have been old enough to have fought at Senlac in 1 066 of f of . The annalist the amily Vitré states

’ t hat on Robert s birth his grandfather (the Comt e de

M to é is a h im ortain) came Vitr , and at his bapt m g ve h is all e name and the land he held in Trugny, Nic y,

3 02 E C h EPAN I N S THE CONQU ROR AND HIS O O . more light upon the many perplexing points which are forced upon our consideration in pursuin g these

i or of con inquiries , by the s lence contradiction the temporary writers to whom we naturally turn for ff authentic information . In venturing to di er with s m of ome of the ost erudite the present day, I have r d w w ll aise , ho ever, a few questions hich wi no doubt be either at once conclusively answered , or if deemed

t r w wor hy of attention, lead to fu ther investigation , ith probably interesting results . I have no desire to i awaken controversies which end in convinc ng nobody , f and too often o fend somebody . The great Object we

and can have all at heart is truth , I sincerely adopt

w of old l the ords my friend and master, the ate Sir

was Samuel Rush Meyrick, who wont to say, the

one n g reatest pleasure any can give me , next to provi g me to be right, is kindly showing me where I am wrong. IN DE X .

VOL 1 . Vo 1 V l. . 0 Cout ce Geoff e an s , r y A bev ille or Ap ev ille Bishop of C ev ecoeur r . Crisp in b a if e Eudo Al ini D p r ( ) . A n sn ev ille Ep ine A sn ebec E stou tev ille ie e Eu Coun t of Asn r s , u E v eux Cou t of A lnay r , n Ferrers Auv illiers Ferté v a c s F tz B u cie A r n he . i r a eux O do i o of Fitz O sbern B y , B sh p e u c am Fitz R ou ou t i B a h p , T s a n Beau m ont (Le Blane) B elf ou Foug eres Bertram Gael B ertran Gaseie Biarz Giff ard Bienf aite Glos Big od Gournay B ohun Gov iz Bonnebosq Grentm esnil H arcourt oulo e mi stace v B g n , I ri Count of J ert

et e Cou t c . Br ag n , n sAlain La y of a de P att . La L n ( y) La Mare La Val

C haig nes

C ourci