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Lord of Nether Gwent Walter de Clare

Lord of Nether Gwent Walter de Clare

Male 1083 - 1137  (54 years)

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Generation: 1

  1. 1.  Lord of Nether Gwent Walter de Clare was born in 1056/1083 (son of Richard FitzGilbert de Clare and Rohese Giffard); died on 10 Mar 1136/37.

Generation: 2

  1. 2.  Richard FitzGilbert de Clare was born on 10 Aug 1030 in Saint-Martin-de-Bienfaite-la-Cressonnière, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France (son of Gilbert de Clare, Count of Brionne and Gunnora d'Anjou); died on 14 Nov 1090 in St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England; was buried in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England.

    Other Events and Attributes:

    • Birth: 1030, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England

    Notes:

    also Sheriff of Devon

    Richard married Rohese Giffard. Rohese (daughter of Count of Longueville Walter Giffard and Ermentrude (Ermengarde) Fleitel) was born about 1035 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died after 1133. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 3.  Rohese Giffard was born about 1035 in Longueville, Normandy, France (daughter of Count of Longueville Walter Giffard and Ermentrude (Ermengarde) Fleitel); died after 1133.
    Children:
    1. Rohese FitzRichard de Clare was born about 1055 in Tunbridge, Kent, England; died in 1121 in England.
    2. Earl Hertford Gilbert FitzRichard de Clare was born before 1066 in Clare, Suffolk, England; died before 1117; was buried in 1117.
    3. 1. Lord of Nether Gwent Walter de Clare was born in 1056/1083; died on 10 Mar 1136/37.
    4. Roger FitzRichard de Clare was born in 1056/1083; died in 1130.
    5. Abbot of Ely Richard FitzRichard de Clare was born in 1056/1083; died in 1100.
    6. Baron of Baynard Robert FitzRichard de Clare was born in 1056/1083; died in 1136.


Generation: 3

  1. 4.  Gilbert de Clare, Count of Brionne was born in 1000 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France (son of Geoffrey, Count of Brionne and Hawise de Guines); died on 24 Nov 1040 in Eschafour,, Eu, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France.

    Gilbert married Gunnora d'Anjou in 1021 in Tillieres, Eure, France. Gunnora (daughter of Fulk III "The Black", Count of Anjou and Hildegarde de Lorraine) was born in 984 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 12 Sep 1042 in Fecamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 5.  Gunnora d'Anjou was born in 984 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France (daughter of Fulk III "The Black", Count of Anjou and Hildegarde de Lorraine); died on 12 Sep 1042 in Fecamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France.
    Children:
    1. 2. Richard FitzGilbert de Clare was born on 10 Aug 1030 in Saint-Martin-de-Bienfaite-la-Cressonnière, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 14 Nov 1090 in St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England; was buried in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England.
    2. Baldwin FitzGilbert was born about 1022 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France; died in 1095 in Okehampton, Devonshire, England.
    3. Esilia Crispin was born on 1 Nov 1020 in Tillières, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France; died in 1087 in Eye, Suffolk, England.
    4. Gilbert de Crispin was born in 1037 in Poix, Somme, Picardie, France; died in 1090 in Bec, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France.

  3. 6.  Count of Longueville Walter Giffard was born about 1010 in Longueville, Normandy, France (son of Lord of Longueville Osbern II de Bolbec and Avelina de Crepon); died in 1084 in France.

    Notes:

    WALTER GIFFARD
    The Conqueror and His Companions
    by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874..

    Here we have the name of an illustrious Norman, the progenitor of a race from which the noblest families in England are proud to trace their descent; and, strange to say, beyond this fact little or nothing is known about his own family which can be supported by credible authority. Even the origin of the name of Giffard, Gifford, or Giffart, as it is indifferently spelt, has yet to be definitively settled.

    The story that has been so often told about it, viz., that it signified a free-handed or liberal giver, is without any substantial foundation, and is, I believe, one of the many which have been so detrimental to the study of genealogy and heraldry, by misleading the inquirer or checking research altogether. It is upon the authority of William of Jumièges thatt this Walter Giffart, the companion of the Conqueror, the first we know of that name, has been set down as a son of Osborn de Bolbec by his wife, indifferently called Avelina and Duvelina, sister of Gonnor, wife of Richard, Duke of Normandy. Granting this to be true, as we have no documentary evidence to contradict it, the appellation of Giffart or Gifford, appears to be one of those sobriquets founded on personal peculiarities so commonly applied to distinguish certain members of a family previous to the general establishment of hereditary surnames.

    Instances of the practice are familiar to the veriest schoolboy, and in the preceding memoir I have mentioned Lambert the Bearded, Eustace with the Eye, and Eustace with the Whiskers. Hence the complimentary suggestion of " Free-Giver," which I should be happy to leave undisputed could it be borne out by etymology. The family, however, was Norman, not Saxon; and it is in the Norman-French, or Low-Latin of the eleventh century, that we must look for its derivation. The word occurs in both those dialects. In Roquefort's Dictionnaire de la Langue Romane, "Giffarde" is rendered "Joufloue, qui a des grosses joues - servante de cuisine," the word being derived from giffe "the cheek," giffle also signifying in the same language "un soufflet," or blow on the cheek. An old French poet, Gautier de Coisiny, complains that women of every class paint themselves, even the torchepot, " scullion," and the Giffarde, " kitchen maid or cook." So in the new Dictionnaire Franco-Normand, by M. George Métivier, we have "Giffair, rire comme un jouflou." And, to myy great satisfaction, I find that this esteemed philologist has come to the same conclusion as myself, for under that word he has " Giffe, Giffle, Joue. Telle est l'origine de l'illustre famille Normande de Giffard, nom répandu très au-delà de cette Province (Jersey, of which Mons. Métiviervier is a native) et de nos îles." Vide also Ducange, sub voce "Giffardus,"" who has a similar interpretation, "Ancilla coquina." It is almost impossible to resist the conviction that Giffard, in the language of that day, signified a person with large cheeks, and was in consequence applied to a cook, who is popularly represented as fat and rubicund.

    I beg to apologize to those of my readers who may not take any interest in such disquisitions, and hasten to the sayings and doings of Walter Giffard, with whom the name, whatever it meant, could not have originated, as an Osborne and a Berenger Giffard were his contemporaries, proving that the sobriquet of an individual had become the appellation of a family.

    We first hear of him in 1035, as a companion of Hugh de Gournay in the abortive attempt of Edward son of King Ethelred to recover the crown of England (vide vol. ii. p. 113), and next in 1053, when he was left by Duke William in command of the forces blockading the Castle of Arques, and at that period was Lord of Longueville, and already past the prime of life, judging by his account of himself only thirteen years afterwards. In the following year Wace informs us he was entrusted by the Duke with the defense of the district of Caux, in which Longueville is situate, on the occasion of the invasion of Normandy by Henry, King of France. Subsequently he appears to have made a pilgrimage to St. Iago de Compostella, in Spain, or may perhaps have been sent there by the Duke on some mission to Alfonso King of Galicia, to whom William afterwards affianced his daughter Agatha, after the breaking off of the match with the Saxon Prince Edwin. All we learn from Wace is that in the great battle William's first horse had been brought to him by Giffard from Spain, "the gift of a king who had a great friendship for him." The Lord of Longueville accompanied his sovereign to England, having furnished his fleet, according to the List published by Taylor, with thirty vessels and a hundred men.

    Previous to the battle, Raoul de Conches, the hereditary standard-bearer of Normandy, having prayed quittance of service on that day, that he might fight with greater freedom in the field, the Duke called to him Walter Giffard, and desired him to bear his gonfanon, who also requested to be excused the honor on the plea of being too old and too feeble. "For the mercy of God, sire," said the old knight, "look upon my white and bald head; my strength is impaired, and I am short of breath," and in answer to the Duke's passionate reproaches, urged that he had a large contingent of men-at-arms in the field, whom he was bound to lead into action, and at the head of them he was ready to die in his sovereign's cause. Whereupon the Duke excused him, and assured him that he loved him more than ever, and that if he survived that day it should be the better for him (Walter) as long as he lived.

    We hear of no special exploit performed by him during the battle, Benoîtt de St.-More merely saying that he was struck down in the mélée, andnd rescued apparently by William himself. At its close, however, after Harold had been mortally wounded, this brave old Lord of Longueville, with his bald head and his white locks, is accused of assisting to mutilate the body of the heroic King!

    It would be an indignity to the noble veteran to defend him against so infamous a charge, and fortunately there is no need to do so, for it is unsupported by any evidence, and the accuser stands convicted of falsehood and exaggeration sufficient to deprive him of any character for honesty whatever.

    When the fight was over, and the victorious Duke had ordered a space on the top of the hill to be cleared of the dead and dying, that his tent might be pitched there, and signified his intention to sup and sleep on the spot, Walter Giffard galloped up to him. " Sire," he said, "what are you about? You are surely not fitly placed here among the dead. Many an Englishman lies bleeding and mingled with the slain, but yet living, and though wounded, only waiting to rise at night and escape in the darkness. They would delight to take their revenge, and would sell their lives dearly, no one caring who killed him afterwards, so he but slew a Norman first, for they say we have done them great wrong. You should lodge elsewhere, guarded by one or two thousand men whom you can best trust. Let a careful watch be set this night, for we know not what snares may be laid for us. You have made a noble day of it, but I like to see the end of the work." The Duke, however, adhered to his original determination. (Roman de Rou) There can be no doubt, I think, that this Walter Giffard who fought at Hastings was the person to whom William the Conqueror, in 1070, gave the earldom of Buckingham; for, old as he is said by Wace to have represented himself at that period, he lived nineteen years afterwards, and was one of the Commissioners entrusted by William to superintend the compilation of the great survey of England, and I can find no reason whatever for the ordinary assertion that his son, the second Walter, was the first earl.

    There is evidence that in 1079 he founded the priory of St. Michel de Bolbec, and he is reported to have died about 1081, which we may fairly understand to be 1085, the year in which Domesday was begun and completed.

    The wife of this Walter was Ermengarde, a daughter of Gerrard Flaitel, by whom he had a son, the second Walter, Earl of Buckingham, who died in 1102, and with whom he has been confounded. He had also a second son named William, who was Chancellor to William Rufus, made Bishop of Winchester by Henry I, 1107, and died in 1128, and a daughter, named Rohais or Rohesia, wife of Richard Fitz Gilbert, from whom descended the great house of Clare.

    Walter married Ermentrude (Ermengarde) Fleitel. Ermentrude (daughter of Gerrard Flaitel and d'Evereaux) was born in 1014 in Longueville, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  4. 7.  Ermentrude (Ermengarde) Fleitel was born in 1014 in Longueville, Normandy, France (daughter of Gerrard Flaitel and d'Evereaux).
    Children:
    1. 3. Rohese Giffard was born about 1035 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died after 1133.
    2. Earl of Buckingham 1st Walter Giffard was born about 1038; died on 15 Jul 1102.
    3. Bishop of Winchester William Giffard was born about 1038 in Longueville, Normandy, France.


Generation: 4

  1. 8.  Geoffrey, Count of Brionne was born in 962 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France (son of Richard I "The Fearless", Duke of Normandy and Gunnora de Crepon); died on 28 Aug 1015 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France.

    Geoffrey married Hawise de GuinesBrionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France. Hawise (daughter of Count Guisnes Sigefred "The Dane" and Countess of Guisnes Elstrude de Flanders) was born in 958 in Guînes, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 19 Jul 1002 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  2. 9.  Hawise de Guines was born in 958 in Guînes, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France (daughter of Count Guisnes Sigefred "The Dane" and Countess of Guisnes Elstrude de Flanders); died on 19 Jul 1002 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France.
    Children:
    1. 4. Gilbert de Clare, Count of Brionne was born in 1000 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France; died on 24 Nov 1040 in Eschafour,, Eu, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France.
    2. Adela d'Eu

  3. 10.  Fulk III "The Black", Count of Anjou was born on 21 Jun 972 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France (son of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou I and Adelaide de Vermandois, son of Geoffrey "Greymantle" d'Anjou and Adelaide de Vermandois); died on 21 Jun 1040 in Metz, Moselle, Lorraine, France; was buried in Beaulieu-les-Loches, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, France.

    Fulk married Hildegarde de Lorraine in 1001 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France. Hildegarde (daughter of Adalbert von Metz and Judith von Ohningen Comtesse Konradiner) was born in 987 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 1 Apr 1046 in Jerusalem; was buried in Jerusalem. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  4. 11.  Hildegarde de Lorraine was born in 987 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France (daughter of Adalbert von Metz and Judith von Ohningen Comtesse Konradiner); died on 1 Apr 1046 in Jerusalem; was buried in Jerusalem.

    Other Events and Attributes:

    • Name: Hildegarde de Metz

    Children:
    1. Ermengarde Blanche d'Anjou was born about 1018 in Semur, Cote-d'Or, Bourgogne, France; died on 18 Mar 1076 in Fleury-sur-Ouche, Cote-d'Or, Bourgogne, France; was buried in Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye, Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne, France.
    2. Geoffroy II "Martel" d'Anjou was born on 13 Oct 1006 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 14 Nov 1061.
    3. Elizabeth d'Anjou was born about 1002 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 18 Mar 1075 in France.
    4. 5. Gunnora d'Anjou was born in 984 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 12 Sep 1042 in Fecamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France.
    5. Adelaide d'Anjou died in 1026.

  5. 12.  Lord of Longueville Osbern II de Bolbec was born in 975 in Longueville, Normandy, France (son of Lord of Longueville Osbern I de Bolbec and Wevie de Crepon); died in 1063 in Longueville, Normandy, France.

    Osbern married Avelina de Crepon about 1001 in France. Avelina (daughter of Herfast de Crepon and Cyrid) was born about 974 in of Longueville, Normandy, France; died in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  6. 13.  Avelina de Crepon was born about 974 in of Longueville, Normandy, France (daughter of Herfast de Crepon and Cyrid); died in France.
    Children:
    1. 6. Count of Longueville Walter Giffard was born about 1010 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died in 1084 in France.
    2. Beatrice de Bolbec was born in 995 in Vascoeuil, Haute-Normandie, France; died in 1059 in Vascoeuil, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France.
    3. Geoffrey de Bolebec was born after 973 in Longueville, Normandy, France.
    4. Gozeline d'Arques was born about 985 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died after 1035 in Arques-la-Bataille, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France.

  7. 14.  Gerrard Flaitel was born in Jan 983 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died in 1028 in Longueville, Normandy, France.

    Gerrard married d'Evereaux. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]


  8. 15.  d'Evereaux (daughter of Count of Evreux and Archbishop of Rouen Robert d'Evereaux and Havlive de Rouen).
    Children:
    1. 7. Ermentrude (Ermengarde) Fleitel was born in 1014 in Longueville, Normandy, France.