The Conqueror and his Companions

Front matter

THE CONQUEKOR AND HIS COMPANIONS. THE CONQUEROR AND HIS COMPANIONS. BY J. R. PLANCHE SOMERSBT HERALD. " We find but few historians of all ages who have been diligent enough In their search for truth. It is their common method to take on trust what thsy dis tribute to the Public, by which means a falsehood or.ee received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity."— Dr yden, Character of Polybvu. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: TLNSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, LONDON. 1874. [All rights reserved.] LONDON 3RADBUP.Y, AONEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. TO THE MOST NOBLE HARRY GEORGE PAULETT, DUKE OF CLEVELAND, E.G., THE PRESENT PROPRIETOR. OF BATTLE ABBEY, THESE VOLUMES ARE, BY PERMISSION, Intfcrilirtr BY HIS GRACE'S MCCH OBLIGED AND VERY FAITHFUL SERVANT, J. R. PLANCHE. College of Arms 1S74 PKEFACE.

I have undertaken a task which avouIcI be most agreeable to me but for one important consideration, namely, the difficulty of making the results agreeable to the public. The subject is one Avhich must not be treated lightly ; and yet, to be popular, it must be free from the heaviness almost inseparable from the" records of archæological researches and the minutiae of genealogical details. While retaining sufficient interest for the antiquary, it must not be " caviare to the general," for whom it is intended. At the first congress of the British Archæological Association, held at Canterbury in 1843, Professor Willis, in the course of his admirable lecture on the cathedral, observed, " I am not addressing a learned assembly." A remark which greatly amused the late PEEFACE. VIII Mr. Buckland, next to Avhom I Avas sitting, and avIio, repeating the Avords with a chuckle, pulled out his pocket-book and " made a note of it."

The remark, hoAvever, was perfectly correct, though open to misinterpretation. The majority of the audience Avas composed of ladies and gentlemen of more or less cultivated tastes residing in the neighbourhood, and many of the principal inhabitants of the city Avith their Avives and families, who listened with interest to the elocment description of their magnificent cathedral, but to whom such technical illustration as the erudite Professor would have in dulged in at a meeting of the Institute of Architects would have afforded no gratification whatever. I know from many years' experience how hard it is to pull up a hobby Ave are riding the moment its pace is carrying us ahead of the desire or power of an audience to folloAv us ; and the difficulty is greater in writing than speaking, as you cannot feel the effect you are producing on the reader, nor perceive the first symptoms of his weariness or inattention.

Introduction

. In anticipation of a question that may naturally arise from the perusal of these volumes, respecting the omission of the names of certain families both noble and gentle, the ancestors of Avhich Avere clearly con temporary Avith the Conquest and traditionally condu cive to it, I beg the reader's attention to the following brief statement of the reasons which decided me in adopting the plan I haAre worked upon. A reliable list of the principal personages who actually accompanied William Duke of Normandy to England in 1066, and were present in the great battle' commonly called of Hastings, does not exist. The various versions of the Roll of Battle Abbey are admitted on all hands to be not only imperfect, but, what is much worse, interpolated to an extent which it is iioav impossible for us to ascertain ; and the lists compiled by eminent modern French anti-

INTRODUCTION.

. quaries, though no doubt containing the names of many persons not to be found in the older Rolls, but recently discovered by diligent research in authentic documents abroad, are still far from complete, and open to many objections. In professing, therefore, to Avrite about "the Con queror and his Companions," it Avas in the first place imperatively necessary to ascertain who his com panions really were, and for the above reasons that was in numberless cases impracticable. Again, if I decided in favour of any particular list, it Avas evident on inspection that a third of my book would consist of names alone, and another third of notices, not of the companions themselves, but of their descendants, Avhich was altogether aAvay from my purpose in Avriting it. A third reason was the number. The Roll of Battle Abbey, formerly suspended in the building, consisted of no less than 645 names.

Duchesne's list, derived from a charter formerly in the Abbey, contains 405 names. One of the lists printed in Leland's Collec tanea gives us 498. The other is nothing more than a ludicrous blunder, which I have exposed elsewhere ; and the rhyming catalogue, printed in Brompton's Chronicle, includes 245. Monsieur de Magny's cata-

INTRODUCTION.

. XV logue contains 425, and that compiled by Monsieur Leopold Delisle, in the church at Dive, 485 ; the principal additions being the names of persons whose families are unknown in this country, and conse quently possessing no interest for the reader of English History. To make a selection from these — to compile, in fact, a list of my oavii, would have been as presumptuous as invidious. Hundreds who believe their ancestors " came over Avith the Conqueror," because their names, or something like them, are to be found in one of these doubtful documents, would naturally have felt offended at my omission of them. I saw but one Avay to justify my title and avoid offence, and that was to limit my notices to those personages Avho are recorded by contemporary or nearly contemporary Avriters as having been present in the Norman host at Hastings, or at least con spicuous in England during the four years immediately folloAving, at the expiration of which period (that is, in 1070) the subjugation of the entire kingdom was virtually accomplished.

With this object I decided on taking the elaborate account of the invasion and the battle giATen by Master Wace in his " Roman de Rou " as the foundation of

INTRODUCTION.

. my work, supplementing and illustrating it by the information directly or indirectly afforded me by writers avIio were actually living at the time of the Conquest, or must have known and conversed with persons who, if not present themselves in the conflict, retained a vivid recollection of the event, or had gathered the reports of it from those Avho were. Wace, born in Jersey at the commencement of the reign of Henry I. (a.d. 1100), some four-and-thirty years after the landing at Pevensey, Avas taken Avhen young to Caen in Normandy for education, made a prebend of Bayeux by Henry II., completed his " Roman de Rou " (a metrical history of the Duke of Normandy) in 1160, and died in England subsequently to 1173. The early portions of his " Roman " he copied from Dudo, Dean of St. Quentin, and Guillaume de JumieVes ; but his materials for the history of William the Con queror, and specially of the invasion of 1066, were drawn from original and independent sources, the verbal descriptions of the veteran survivors of the great battle, their sons or other relatives, and the gossip, if you will, in general circulation, while the details of that momentous event were yet fresh in the recollections of numbers both in England aud in Nor-

INTRODUCTION.

. XVII mandy ; some of Avhom, as children, might have been eye-witnesses of the muster at the mouth of the Dive, or the march of the invaders from Hastings to Hetheland. The writers contemporary with the Conquest, in addition to those already mentioned, Avere, 1, Guil laume de Poitiers, the chaplain of Duke William ; 2, the author of a Latin poem on the Battle of Hastings, supposed to have been Guy, Bishop of Amiens, almoner to the Duchess Matilda ; 3, Orderic Vital, author "of the Ecclesiastical History, born at Atcham, near Shrewsbury, in 1075, in which city he was sent to school, Avhen five years old, by his father Odelirius, Avho Avas in the service of the poAverful Roger de Montgomeri, Earl of Arundel and Shrews bury. At the a<rc of ten he was transferred to Nor mandy, and became a monk in the Abbey of Ouche, otherwise St. Evroult.

In 1115 he returned to England to collect materials for his history, and in 1141 Avas compelled by age and infirmity to bring his Avork to a conclusion. Like Wace, he Avas indebted for some of his information to Guillaume de Jumieges, whose Gesta Normanorum Avas finished during the life of the Conqueror and dedicated to him ; but the peculiar advantages he enjoyed for the execution of his task i TO! . xyiii

INTRODUCTION.

. will be frequently commented on in the course of these volumes. Robert du Mont, one of the continuators of the monk of Jumieges, and Benoit de Sainte-More, a con temporary of Wace, may be added to the short list of fairly original writers on the subject immediately under consideration. All the subsequent chroniclers and historians, both foreign and English, are mere copyists of each other in rotation until they arrive at their OAvn times, and are rarely, therefore, of assistance to us in the investigation of those of the Conqueror. " Domesday " not having been compiled until nearly the close of William's reign, that invaluable record is only occasionally of service, as many of the com panions of the Conqueror had died in the interim and are not named in it, or the lands they had received in reward for their assistance had passed into the hands of their descendants — facts Avhich require careful con sideration when identification is the object.

The personages distinctly named or apparently indi cated by Wace amount altogether to one hundred and eighteen, twenty-seven of Avhom are either progenitors of some of the most illustrious families in England, or have indelibly made their mark in its history for good or for evil. Of these the reader will find notices con-

INTRODUCTION.

. XIX taming all the information I have been able to scrape together, biographical or genealogical. The remainder, less known, and in some cases not identified, and therefore furnishing no materials for memoirs, I have arranged alphabetically in the last chapter of the second Arolume, accompanied by the annotations of Monsieur Le Prevost and Mr. Edgar Taylor, the French and English editors of the Roman de Rou, and such of my own as I have been able to add to them. Wace honestly says at the conclusion of what may be called his Roll, "many other Barons there were whom I have not even mentioned, for I cannot give an account of them all, nor can I describe all their deeds, for I Avould not be tedious ; neither can I giA'e the names of all the Barons, nor the surnames of all avIio came from Normandy and Brittany in the com pany of the Duke."

Benoit also says briefly that if he had undertaken to enumerate all the chiefs in the Duke's army, three quires of parchment would not have sufficed to con tain them. HoAvever it may be regretted that a complete and .authentic catalogue has not been handed down to us, we must console ourselves with the reflection, that of

INTRODUCTION.

. XX the host of Norman, Breton, Angevine, Poitevine, Flemish, and other foreign families represented by one or more members in that great expedition, hundreds would simply contribute to swell the already too long list of names to which no personal history attaches no general interest could noAV be imparted. In conclusion let me observe, that having described herein the feAV Avorks that can be looked upon at all in the light of authorities for the Life and Times of William the Conqueror, I have abstained from encum bering my pages with unnecessary notes and references. The antiquary will knoAv Avhence the general information is derived, and the less critical reader's attention is only directed to its source Avhere vouchers for my OAvn assertions and opinions are essentially demanded. CONTENTS. — ♦ — PAQE Preface xii Introduction xiii

Chapter I. The Conqueror

Everybody knows that William II., Duke of Nor mandy, invaded England, defeated Harold near Hastings, and established himself on the throne of this kingdom. Most persons of ordinary education are cognizant of many other facts connected with his history and that of his Queen Matilda : — the un authenticated tale of his courtship ; the conspiracies against him both in Normandy and England ; the revolt of his son Robert ; the compilation of Domes day ; the fatal injury at Mantes ; his death, and the disgraceful scenes Avhich followed it, Hume and Henry, Turner and Lingard, one or all of our national historians are to be found on the shelves of every English gentleman's library. I am not going to fight the battle over again, nor repeat the often told story VOL. I. £ of the Conquest and its consequences.

It is a personal and domestic, not a general or political, history I am Avriting, and the great public events of the reign of AVilliam the Conqueror will be only alluded to in support or contradiction of statements which are dis putable, or when newly discovered or hitherto neglected details can add to their interest or contribute to their illustration. There are two recently published works Avhich it may be thought have anticipated to a great degree the observations I am about to make respecting the Conqueror: Mr. Cobbe's "History of the Norman Kings of England," * and Mr. Freeman's " History of the Norman Conquest." f Over a portion of the ground of both I shall naturally have to go ; but there are only five chapters of the first which bear slightly upon my subject, and the four massive volumes already issued of the latter, valuable as they must undoubtedly prove to the historical student as an exhaustive collec tion and minute examination of the principal contem porary authorities, have nothing in common with my * History of the Norman Ejngs of England, by Thomas Cobbe, Barrister-at-Law.

Svo. Lond. 1869. t History of the Norman Conquest, by Edward A. Freeman, M.A. 4 vols. 8vo. London, 1870. The same observations may apply to the late Sir F. Palgrave's still earlier " History of Normandy and England," published in 1864, an unfinished work, as fanciful as it is fascinating. less pretentious pages beyond the obvious fact of being indebted to the same sources of information. While, as I have already remarked, the name and fame of William the Conqueror are familiar to all, our national historians are uncertain of the date of his birth ; divided in opinion as to the social position of his mother and her parents ; at issue respecting the name of her father and the period of her marriage ; puzzled by the story of William's courtship of Matilda, Avhich the most incredulous can not furnish fair evidence of being purely apocryphal ; equally unable to prove or disprove the previous marriage of Matilda and the parentage of the mysterious Gundrada ; and totally ignorant of the order of birth of the undoubted children of William, and even of the exact names and number of the .female portion of them.

Strange as this may appear to many of my readers, such is nevertheless the case, as I found on examination of the materials requisite for the compilation of this memoir. William "the Great," "the Elder," "the Bastard," or "the Conqueror," undoubtedly died in September, 1087, and according to a contemporary historian * he was at that period close upon sixty, in which case he must have been born in 1027 or 1028; but by the same historian he is made to assert upon his death-bed * Ordericus Vitalis. B that he Avas sixty-four, which would place the date of his birth in 1023 or 1024, and there are not Avanting authorities to corroborate his OAvn — if it be his OAvn — statement, as I shall sIioav to all whom it may concern in the folloAA'ing chapter, it being undesirable to enter into dry discussions of dates in the body of the memoir.

His father was Robert I., Duke of Normandy, styled by some " the Magnificent," from his liberalities and love of splendour ; " the Jerusalemite," in conse quence of his pilgrimage ; and by others less courte ously " the Devil," though wherefore or at what period has not been satisfactorily ascertained. From a pas sage in "L'Estoire de Seint Ædward le Rei," it would appear there Avas a tradition in the family of Rollo, of one of his descendants (Richard I. ?) having beaten and bound his Satanic majesty, " E Due Eichard de'apres li vint, Ki li diable ateint e tint E le venquit e le lia." Robert Avas the second son of Richard II., Duke of Normandy, by his wife Judith, daughter of Gonan le Tort (the Crooked), Count of Rennes, and sister of the half blood to Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany ; and it Avas during the lifetime of his father, and while Robert was only Count of the Hiemois, and it may be in his non age, that he first saw Herleve, Harlett, or Ariot (for it is Avritten in all manner of Avays), daughter of a burgess of Falaise, an accident the results of which were the subjugation of England and the succession of a line of kings unsurpassed for valour and power by the greatest sovereigns in Europe.

" The trade of Herleve's father," says the most recent writer on the subject, " seems to be agreed on at ■all hands. He Avas a burgess of Falaise, and a tanner."* Why particularly a tanner, I am at a loss to discover. By the Norman chroniclers he is called in Latin Pelletarius and Pelleciarius,^ and in French Pelletier and Parmenticr, never by any authority Tanneur or Coriarius. Pelletier signifies a furrier, skinner, or fellmonger, and Parmentier a tailor.f: Now the insult offered to William at Alencon, where a .-skin Avas hung out and beaten to the cry of " La Pel, la Pel al Parmentier," in allusion to his maternal origin, is more applicable to the trade of a dealer in furs or leather than to a tanner. The vendor of furs must have been of some importance in those days, * Freeman: History of the Norman Conquest, vol. ii. p. 611. ■j- Guill. de Jumiuges, "Parentes matris cjus, 2>e7?<"ci'an7existiterant," -whence the modern word pelisse, from the French pelice, pelisson.

X Permentarius seu Parmentarius ex Paramentarius qui vestes parat, id est ornat nostris olim Parmentier qui hodie, tailleurd' habits. Ducange in voce. " Parmentier, or taylor," Cotgrave. One MS. roads " Pantonnier,"' which is simply an abusive epithet, signifying " a lewd, stubborn, saucy knave." Ibid. THE CONQUEEOR AND HIS COMPANIONS. 6 Avhen garments lined or trimmed with fur Avere Avorn by both sexes and all classes ; from the princely ermine, the sumptuous sable, the vair and minie-vair of the nobility to the humble budge or lambskin of the citizen or artizan. Leather must also have been in great demand, for not only were leathern jackets and leggings worn by workmen, but archers and the common soldiery Avere equipped with leathern Jaques ; that is, coats made of what is called "jacked leather," and the Anglo-Saxons Ave find wearing helmets made of the same material.

The furrier, skinner, or leather-seller Avould then, as in the present day, not only sell the materials but the robes, mantles, or vestments, the jaques, or coats of which they were made, or with which they were lined and ornamented, and " Par mentier " (tailor) would be considered probably in the eleventh century a more contemptuous allusion to the maternal descent of the chivalrous young duke than " Pelletier," furrier, or skinner. It is true that at Falaise there were in former times many tanneries, of which only three of importance remained in 1830' (Galeron, " Histoire de Falaise," p. 121) ; but we learn from Wace that in the eleventh century it Avas equally Avell knoAvn as the abode of furriers or skinners : " U peletiers aveit asez " (Boman de Bou, 1. 9162), and it by no means folloAvs that the father ot Herleve should of necessity have been of the former "unsavory calling."

There is no reason that a tanner should be less respectable than a furrier,* and the distinction may be thought by some of little consequence, particularly as in the eleventh century the trades might have been combined ; but it avouIc! be interest ing to ascertain the origin of the English designation, Avhich is certainly not justified by either the French or the Latin versions of the story. And who were the parents of Herleve, whatever may have been their occupation ? Here, again, Ave meet with nothing but contradictions : Fact and Fiction, like the old powers of light and darkness, struggling for mastery. That her father was a burgess of Falaise in some way of trade is incontestable. Sir Francis Palgrave (Hist, ot Norm.), upon the authority of Alberic de Troisfontaines, says he Avas a brewer as Avell as a tanner, a combina tion of crafts prohibited in England.

But what was his name ? By one he is called Fulbert and Robert ; by another Richard, Avith the sobriquet or descriptive appellation of Sabmpyr, which has yet to be explained ; * All authorities do not agree as to the " obloquy " attached to the leather trade insisted on by Sir F. Palgrave. " The tanners, the fur riers, tho goldsmiths, and the jewellers' arts, so far as they relate to dress, will appear to have been practised with great success by the Normans, and so far as we can judge from record, with as much honour as profit." — Strutt : Dress and Habits of tho People of England, vol. i. part 3, cap. 1. while a third names him indifferently "Herbert or Verperay."* Her mother, as the wife of Richard, is named Helen, and represented as a descendant of the royal Anglo-Saxon family; while, as the Avife of Robert, she is said to be one Dodo or Duxia, who came with her husband from the neighbourhood of Liege and settled at Falaise.

The narrator of this last version also tells us that Count Robert sa\v the daughter of his provost or bailiff dancing, and fell in love with her, but that the daughter of the tanner was substituted for her. Another story is that it Avas Herleve herself Avhom he first saAv dancing ; and the third version is that Robert, returning from hunting, saAv Herleve washing linen in the brook which runs through the dell beloAv the castle ; while the tradition popular in the place itself is that he observed her so occupied from a AvindoAV of the castle, Avhich is still pointed out to the tourist, as Avell as the very apartment in AA'hich William Avas born, though it is doubtful if any portion Avhatever of the original structure is in existence, or that he could possibly have discerned her from it in any case.

Whether any grains of truth will ever be picked out of this bushel of fable I Avill not presume to say. * Ducarel : Ant. Ang.-Norm. Galeron, Histoire de Falaise (1830), p. 81, has " La Fille do Yertprey." There is nothing improbable in either of the former stories, but as they differ one from another, no dependence can be placed on any one of them. Count Robert, a young, gay, voluptuous prince, would not be many days in Falaise without knowing by sight every girl with any pretension to beauty in his little capital. He is just as likely to have seen Herleve at mass or in the market, in the streets of Falaise, or in the shop of her father, probably his own furrier, for according to certain local documents it Avould seem that William was born in a house belon<rin2; to his grandfather in the old market-place of that town, and that he vras baptized in the parish church dedicated to the Holy Trinity.* This fact is curiously corroborative of the story told by Wace in the " Roman de Rou " of the infamous William Talvas, Seigneur of Belesme, avIio being one day in the streets of Falaise, Avas accosted by a burgess, and laughingly invited to enter a house (not the castle, observe), in Avhich the infant AVilliam Avas being nursed, and look upon the child of his liege lord, Talvas being a feudatory of the Count.

That he did so, and cursed the babe, adding prophetically, " for by thee and by thy descendants great mischief will be worked to me * Langevin: Recherches Ilistoriques sur Falaise, 1S14. The site on which the present building stands is described in old documents as " Lo manoir duDuc Guillaume." Galeron, Histoiro de Falaise, p. 93. and mine." The grandfather's house being in the market-place strengthens my belief in his calling, as a dealer in furs and skins Avould be likely to have his shop there ; AA'hile, if simply a tanner, he would more probably have resided on the banks of the brook in the dell, where the tanneries are at present. All Ave can tolerably rely on is, that Robert, while only Count of the Hiemois, became enamoured of the daughter of a burgess of Falaise, that he made her his mistress, and had by her two children : William, Avho succeeded him, and Adelaide, or Adeliza, who eventually married Enguerrand, Count of Ponthieu, and has been an aAvful stumbling-block in the paths of the genealogists (vide p. 121).

Herleve is said to have been extremely beautiful, and was not yielded to the young Count by her father Avithout considerable reluctance. The proposal, made to him by " a discreet ambassador," Avas received with the greatest indignation; but on consulting, Ave are told, his brother, avIio Avas a holy hermit in the neighbouring forest of Govert or Gouffern, a man of great sanctity,* and avIio expressed his opinion * " Ne fust un suen frere, un seint horn Qui ont de grand relligion. Qu'en Govert ont son armitage." Benoit de Sainte-Moro. — Nouvelle Histoire de Normandie, par M. le Baron de la Frenay. that nothing could be refused to their liege lord (an acknowledgment of the " droit de seigneur" savouring more of policy than piety), his scruples were over come, and Herleve Avas surrendered to the Count, by whom, we are told, she was treated Avith all affection and respect as his Avife, according to the old Danish custom Avhich still lingered in Normandy, Avhereby such connections Avere not regarded in the disreputable light they are at the present day.

According to Benoit, the girl Avas exceedingly proud of her position, insisted on riding to the castle on a palfrey, and refused to enter it by a wicket. " Since the Duke has sent for me, Avhy are his doors closed against me ? ThroAv open the gates, beaux amis ! " And her com mands were immediately obeyed. Upon Robert's succession to the dukedom on the death of his elder brother Richard, in 1027, the father of Herleve Avas appointed his chamberlain, having therefore the care of the robes which he had probably made. Her brother Walter was also attached in some capacity to his person. Their residence in the mar ket-place, Ave may presume, Avas iioav exchanged for an official one, either at Falaise or Rouen, and Her leve and her children were no doubt installed in the ducal apartments. The gossip of the day informs us that William, immediately on being born, Avas placed on the straAv or rushes with which, according to the custom of that period, the chamber was strewn, and clasped a quantity of it so firmly in his arms, that,-, coupled with the story that Herleve had dreamed— she saw a tree arise from her body, the branches of Avhich spread out till they overshadowed all Normandy — the nurse Avas induced to exclaim, " What a great lord wilt thou be!

Much wilt thou conquer and obtain. Quickly hast thou filled thy hands and thine arms with the first stuff thou couldst lay hold of." " The Duke," adds the same chronicler, " loved the child as much as if he had been born in Avedlock, and caused him to be as richly and as nobly cared for." * A stronger proof of his affection was soon to be displayed. After Duke Robert had ruled Normandy some seven or eight years, he called together at Fecamp the chief persons in his dominions, an nounced to them his intention to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and his desire to settle the succession previously to undertaking a perilous journey from which he might never return. His auditors, amongst Avhom Avas his uncle Robert, Archbishop of Rouen and Count of Evreux, avIio had himself pretensions to that succession, strongly opposed his proposition.

To leave Normandy under such circumstances would be * Benoit de Sainte-More ; Roger de Hoveden. ruin to it. The Duke Avas conjured to remain at home and protect the duchy from the inroads of the Bretons and Burgundians.* Robert, hoAvever, was not to be dissuaded from his purpose. " Seigneurs," he said, " you speak truly. I have no direct heir, but I have a little boy, avIio, if it please yon, shall be your Duke, acting under the advice of the King of France, who will be his protector. He is little, but he Avill grow. I acknoAvledge him my son. Receive him and you will do well. It may please God that I shall return. If not, he will have been brought up amongst you. He will do honour to his culture, and, if you will promise to love and loyally serAre him, I will leave him in my place." As there Avere no short-hand writers in those days, no " interviewers," nor any of those means of obtaining and transmitting to the public verbatim reports of the speeches or conversations of important personages, we must take with a considerable quantity of salt the orations placed in their mouths by even contemporary chroniclers.