Love Castles? Must See These!

I have a passion for Medieval history, and that includes castles.  Want to know more than just 'oh, that is a pretty castle'? Curious about how people lived in their castles, what they did while they were there? Have an itch to know how castles were built?

Philip Davis has had a life-long passion for castles, and he has created the most comprehensive website on castles I have found.

See GATEHOUSE for answers to your questions about castles: who made them, how they were constructed, who tore them down, who rebuilt them; what archeological investigation has found at individual sites; where exactly they are located and so much more. Gatehouse is deep and extensive for factual information, including a comprehensive list of licenses to crenelate. Images of castles are from a bird's eye view. [For photographs of castles, see other websites such as Wikipedia or Castles of Wales, etc.]

Among the most exciting discoveries I have made in my investigations is that many of our ancestors were not only warriors, they were statesmen. They were not only capable of besieging a castle, they were capable of building one. The narrow view of the Medieval knight as a brutal and ignorant fighter who knows how to do only one thing is proven wrong over and over again, in the multitude of records showing how they built, they protected, they preserved.

Below is a modern picture of the remaining shell keep of Cardiff Castle, Wales, which was rebuilt in stone circa 1136 by Sir Robert earl of Gloucester, my 25th times great-grandfather.

Photograph by Jvhertum 1 Dec 2012, from Wikimedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Norman_keep_cardiff_castle.jpg
 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

So Many Questions - so little Time

While putting together  a book about Magna Carta and our ancestors who were there, I have discovered great websites with information I can glean for the book.  The challenge is that no one place has all the information I want. So I wrote a page of questions that I'd like to answer about each baron.  After I wrote out the questions, I realized how much I have learned from reading books and websites. A year ago, I would not have even known what questions to ask.

Magna Carta Ancestors biography Questions -

What is fealty?

Name, date born, whether eldest son or inherited unexpectedly.
Shield and blazon
Titles (inherited or granted or acquired through marriage)
Honors/appointments
Whether a Marcher Lord
Castles and locations w/pictures and/or descriptions
Whether disseized of their titles and lands or reinstated
Whether went on Crusade
Whether a sheriff or a justice/judge
Marriage.  If widowed, wife’s activities/remarriage/nunnery.  Children.
Statesman; Warrior; Builder; Courtier; ?
How many knights/fees?     How many acres/manors?
Whether granted a license to crenelate their fortified manor or castle
Whether on river or bay
Whether granted exclusive import/export rights to X (wine, wool, or ?)
Abbeys or priories (hospitals, or ?)  they Established or supported
Rights to hold fairs (when, where)
Rights and offices of forests:
(example) from Many Mini Biographies - 8/22/1198, Confirmation by Richard I of his permission to Alan Bassetto hunt foxes, hares, and wild cats. (S) Pipe Roll Society, V10, 1888, P30.
Military campaigns
If they were sent on diplomatic missions
Whether active in Magna Carta; Oxford Provisions; etc.
Whether they were subsequently excommunicated for it and if restored?
When died and how. Where Buried.

A Baker's Dozen and Both Sides of the War

While extending one of the branches of our family tree that I had not quite finished, I came across another Magna Carta Surety ancestor.  This makes thirteen - a baker's dozen - of our ancestors who represented Magna Carta and a rule of law.

John FitzRobert, Sheriff of Norfolk, Suffolk, Northumberland; Governor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was born before 1191, and died circa 20 February 1241.

His blazon is:  Or two chevrons gules

According to the Baronial Order of Magna Charta, there are only seventeen (out of the twenty-five) surety barons who have descendants past the fourth generation, meaning there are only four more with whom we might possibly connect. 

Searching the  Preamble of Magna Carta, I have found five of the "illustrious men" mentioned by King John are our ancestors:  "William Marshal, earl of Pembroke; William, earl of Salisbury [William Longespee, who was half-brother of King John]; William, earl of Arundel; Hubert de Burgh; and Alan Basset. The men in this list are the ones who were considered royalists, the ones who stood with King John on his side of the field at Runnymede.  Many of them are known to have had strong sympathies with the 'rebel barons' and to have favored Magna Carta. They advised King John to sign it.

King John is also an ancestor, the twenty-fifth times great-grandfather of Leo.

Heroes and Villains

 Leo's 25th gr-grandfather was Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer, 1231-1282, who killed and beheaded Sir Simon VI de Montfort, the great-nephew of another of our ancestors, 

Sir Simon died in 1265 with his friends and sons at the battle of Evesham, defending freedom and liberty.  After his death, people came to his grave and many were healed, miraculously. This was something the king's touch was supposed to do - and did not. It infuriated King Henry III and his son, Prince Edward so much that they posted guards at the grave, and later had Simon's body disinterred and moved.

Sir Roger died seventeen years later, after a life of fighting for wealth, privilege and power. His epitaph speaks: "Here lies buried, glittering with praise, Roger the pure, Roger Mortimer the second, called Lord of Wigmore by those who held him dear. While he lived all Wales feared his power, and given as a gift to him all Wales remained his. It knew his campaigns, he subjected it to torment."

Why these ancestors should matter, is that between them they touched the lives of many of our ancestors, and influenced the fate of kings and nations.  If ever anyone embodied the epitome of the curse "May you live in interesting times", it would be these knights, whose actions indeed made the times most interesting for themselves, and everyone else as well.

In a study of history, the individual appears to be lost in the context of great events that affect nations.  However, studying individuals in the light of their historical context can put history in perspective and reveal the human character and motives.

Documenting Legendary Trees

AETHELBERHT I,  who married Bertha of Paris, was King of Kent, England from about 580 or 590 to his death  24 February 616. He is thought to have been born around 552 to 560.

(1) In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the eighth-century monk Bede lists Aethelberht as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the late ninth century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Æthelberht is referred to as a bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler". He was the first English king to convert to Christianity.

Although Saint AEthelberht died one-thousand four-hundred fifty-two years ago, his Wikipedia biography references six primary sources and nine secondary sources.

The concept that people contemporary with my 40th great-grandfather wrote about him, and those writings are known to us today, may be the most mind-boggling fact from a tree full of surprises. Or perhaps the most astounding fact is that people who are far more qualified and experienced than I, who have traced their trees far back in time with these sources, have shared them on the Internet. I am grateful that people like me can find where our ancestors may merge with their tree.

 Mr. Marlyn Lewis, of Portland, Oregon is one such compiler, and for anyone doing research in New England, Virginia, England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany or Switzerland, I recommend his site, Our Royal, Titled, Noble and Commoner Ancestors & Cousins.

 Whether one regards such ancient branches on the family tree as mere legend, or as documented history, it is fascinating to me to view the events of the past through the lens of an ancestor. I hope to add more posts about Legendary Trees in the future. 

(1) from Wikipedia - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; see Æthelberht of Kent

Another Companion of William the Conqueror

William the Conqueror is thought to have invaded England with an army of no less than 5,000 (some estimates are from 7,000 to 11,000). The number of proven "Companions of the Conqueror" ought to be large; however, many have claimed to have ancestors who were at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 when an analysis of their family tree proves that to have been impossible.

The names of the known companions are no more than fifteen from 'unimpeachable sources', (with six names added by more recent historians studying the best secondary sources).  Twenty-one out of over five-thousand isn't much, but then, it was nearly a thousand years ago, plus the natural confusion in the aftermath of a major battle and years spent subduing the countryside.

So I find it quite amazing that Leo and I are both directly descended from six of the companions of William the Conqueror, from the list of fifteen; Leo alone is descended from a seventh companion.

Here is a link to the coat of arms for one of them - Walter Giffard. It is an excellent website with the symbolic meaning of the colors and charges on the shields, and some history of the person.

Genealogy Ancestral Family Trees

Blazon:  gules three lions passant gardant in pale argent

Described in the classic The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and wales: by Sir Bernard Burke, copyright 1864, are the arms of Walter Giffard, Seigneur de Longueville, circa 1015-1085. He received fame for his valor at the seige of Barbastro in Aragon, Spain, part of the Reconquista. Sir Walter Giffard is a direct ancestor of both Leo and April.

Some of the early known rolls of arms I have found for England begin circa 1270-1280. The Bayeux Tapestry, woven soon after the Battle of Hastings (1066) shows some arms on shields, so we know that at least some arms were displayed as early as 1066.

About 1245, a monk called Matthew of Paris wrote and drew pictures of some of the arms borne by the great men of his time and prior to his time. Here is a link to digitized parchment image, courtesy of the British Library. I am still searching the pages for the shield of Walter Giffard.

[A slight detour here, just because it is so fabulous to have the only copy of Matthew Paris' "Historia Anglorum" available on the Internet!]  The link opens to the page recording the crowning of King Henry III (age 9) following the death of his father, King John (previous page). Notice in the second column, tenth line from the bottom, the script concerns "Willi comits Penbroke-magni" and goes on to record that William earl of Pembroke has become the Regent of England for the young king. (I don't read Old Latin - but I think that is the sense of the text.)

So with the authority of Sir Bernard Burke, we can be confident that the above image is similar to that borne by Sir Walter Giffard.

I must apologize for having earlier posted the image for Walter Giffard prematurely, which I  have discovered with more research was for a cadet branch of the same Giffard family.