Baron of Belvoir Robert de Toeni

Notes:

Belvoir: The Heirs of Robert and Berengar de Tosny.

Taken from website http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/ihr/nine.html.

K. S. B. Keats-Rohan.

Succession to the fee of Belvoir has been discussed as a problem several times over the years, but perhaps the issue is actually straightforward once one has identified the key players.1 Domesday's Robert de Tosny of Belvoir was a collateral of his contemporaries Ralph and Roger. By c. 1050+ he had a first-born son Berengar who could expect to succeed his father in Normandy.2 Around the time of Domesday Book, a few years before his death, Robert founded Belvoir priory with his wife Adelais. Early charters of Belvoir mention their sons William and Geoffrey and their daughter Agnes.3 At his death, Robert's lands were divided between Berengar, his eldest son and Norman heir - co-incidentally an English tenant-in-chief in his own right - and his next son and English heir, William. Presumably some provision was made for the third son Geoffrey. As it happened, all three sons were to die without issue, which meant that rights of succession passed to Robert's daughters.

Initially, the sole right of succession passed to Robert's eldest daughter Albreda, who inherited the tenancies-in-chief of both her eldest brother Berengar and her younger brother William before the date of the Lindsey Survey, which shows her husband Robert de Insula in charge of both honours.4 It has always been assumed that Albreda was the widow of Berengar who took his land to a second husband, but the idea is clearly untenable once the full story of the Belvoir succession unfolds. The references in confirmation charters of the Lincolnshire abbey of Newhouse to 'the fee of Albreda de Tosny'' is an indication that the wife of Robert de Insula was a blood relative and heiress of Berengar, rather than his widow.5 This view is confirmed by the necrology of Belvoir priory, where the anniversaries of Berengar and Albreda uxor eius, deo sancta (a phrase always referring to a religious in this document) were kept on 29 June.6 All doubt is removed by a charter of c. 1147/52 in which Hugh Bigod made a grant to Kirkstall abbey for the soul of Albrede de Insula amite mee, a phrase that can only mean that Albreda was his mother's sister.7 The phrase also usefully confirms that Albreda de Tosny and Albreda (wife of Robert) de Insula were the same.

Robert de Tosny had two other daughters, of whom the youngest was Agnes. She confirmed her father's grant of land at Aslackby, Lincolnshire, to Belvoir priory as being part of her marriage portion on her first marriage to Ralph de Beaufour of Hockering (fl. 1086/1100).8 Widowed in the early twelfth century, she married secondly Hubert I de Ryes, castellan of Norwich, to whom the tenancy-in-chief of Hockering was given by Henry I. She occurs in the 1129/30 Pipe Roll (p. 93) charged with a debt of 35 silver marks because her son was with the count of Flanders. At a similar date she attested the charter which William de Albini pincerna gave for Wymondham priory on the day his wife Matilda Bigod, Agnes's niece, died. Agnes follows her sister Adelisa Bigod in the witness list, where she was accompanied by her daughter Almud and a niece or granddaughter (nepta) Muriel.9 Her dower lands at Aslackby and at Seaton, Northamptonshire (then in Rutland), were held in 1166 by her son or grandson Ralph de Beaufour from her grandson Hubert II de Ryes.10

The elder of Robert de Tosny's younger daughters was Adelisa, wife of Roger Bigod at his death in 1107. It is probable that Roger was married only once, although he is usually credited with two wives of the same name on the inconclusive evidence of a pro anama clause in a charter of his son William.11 Roger and his wife Adelisa gave charter for Rochester priory which referred to their sons and daughters and was attested by their children William, Humphrey, Gunnor and Matilda.12 This charter tellingly refers to King Henry, making it highly unlikely that Roger acquired a second wife and second family before his death in 1107. It is likely that Rogers' children were born from the late 1090s onwards, and that the youngest of them were Hugh and Cecilia.13 Roger's daughters Gunnor and Matilda were married soon after 1107. Gunnor's marriage to Robert fitz Swein of Essex had perhaps been arranged by her father. Matilda was married to William de Albini pincerna by Henry I who bestowed 10 Bigod fees on her as a marriage portion. The marriages certainly took place before Adelisa de Tosny became the heiress to Belvoir on the death without issue of her eldest sister Albreda, some time between 1115/18 and 1129, when Adelisa, as widow of Roger Bigod, accounted for her father's land of Belvoir.14

In 1129 the sole surviving issue of Robert de Tosny were his younger daughters Adelisa Bigod and Agnes de Beaufour, who was then already married to Hubert de Ryes. At that date his Bigod granddaughter Matilda de Albini was probably already dead and her sister Gunnor not long removed from her second marriage to Haimo de St Clair. Of their siblings, only Hugh Bigod and Cecilia, then wife of William de Albini Brito, survived. The Carta returned by Hugh Bigod in 1166 shows him holding the fee of his aunt Albreda de Insula.15 At the same date William de Albini Brito II held the fee of Belvoir. The conclusion from this must be that Adelisa succeeded Albreda in the fees of both Berengar and Robert de Tosny as next surviving sister. When she in her turn died she left issue of both sexes. Her sole surviving son Hugh succeeded his aunt Albreda - and by extension, her eldest brother Berengar - as heir both to Berengar's tenancy-in-chief in Lincolnshire and the Norman lands of Robert de Tosny of Belvoir. His tenancy of Robert's Norman lands is shown in a Norman record of 1172 where he is named as holding land of the fee of Conches and Tosny.16 More important in terms of size in England, the lordship of Belvoir was nonetheless the lesser of the two Tosny lordships because it as not associated with their Norman heritage. As the inheritance of a woman married to an important tenant-in-chief it could be expected to pass to one of her younger children and not her husband's principal male heir. Since she had no surviving younger sons after 1120, the devolution of Belvoir to one of her daughters was inevitable. Gunnor and Matilda had long since been provided for from their father's inheritance by the time, after c. 1115/1118, that Adelisa succeeded to Belvoir. Consequently it was the youngest daughter Cecilia - quite probably a mere infant at her father's death in 1107 - who became her mother's heiress. She was, of course , an heiress whose marriage could advantageously be used to reward one of the king's loyal new men. Cecilia's marriage to William de Albini Brito has been said to have occurred as early as 1107 on the basis of a Belvoir charter given by Ralph de Raines and attested by Roger Bigod, but it certainly took place much later. The Belvoir charter just mentioned probably begins to the early 1140s . It was attested by William de Albini senior and his wife Cecilia, their son William junior, Roger Bigot, Robert de Toteneio, Ralph de Albeneio and others.17 Since William, Robert and Ralph were certainly sons of William and Cecilia it is clear that Roger Bigod was also, as is confirmed by the order of their sons William, Robert, Roger, listed in the Thorney Liber vitae (BL Add, 40,000, fol. 2r)

The prosopography of Domesday Book which is part of the COEL research project will be published later this year by Boydell and Brewer as Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166. Volume I. Domesday Book.

It is hoped that the COEL database will be published in November/December. Final details are still to be decided, but a network copy will probably cost around Ãii600. A few screen shottttts frommm theeeee database are available on the Unit website, http;://www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/prosop/home.stm (or, if that proves troublesome, www.linacre.ox.ac.uk, then click on Unit).

Inquiries can be sent be e-mail to katherine.keats-rohan@linacre.ox.ac.uk

Footnotes
1 Cf. J. Green, Government of England Under Henry I, 228-9.
2 Named after his father's brother Berengar Spina, all three occur in a Marmoutier charter of 1063, when Berengar , probably then still an adolescent, authorised an agreement made by his father (Faroux, Recueil...de Normandie, 157).
3 Mon. Ang. ii, 288-9.
4 Lindsey Survey (Lincoln Record Soc. Vol. 19) L3/8, 4/3, 6/5, 7/5, 10/1.
5 Stenton, Danelaw Charters, nos. 238-9.
6 BL Add. 4936, fol. 27.
7 Coucher Book of Kirkstall (Thoresby Soc. Vol. 8, 1904), no. cclxvi, pp. 188-9.
8 Mon. Ang. ii, 290, no. vii.
9 Mon. Ang. iii, 330-1.
10 RBE, 401.
11 Mon. Ang. iii, 330-1.
12 BL Cotton Domitian A x, fol. 201v-2r.
13 The view that all his children were minors at his death in 1107 was expressed in A. Wareham,'Motives and politics of the Bigod family c.1066-1177', Anglo-Norman Studies 17 (1995).
14 Pipe Roll 31 Henry I, 114.
15 RBE 397.
16 At Guerney and Vesley, Eure, cant. Gisors; RBE, 642; cf. Loyd, Anglo-Norman Families, 74.
17 Mon. Ang. ii, 289, no. 111.

Family/Spouse: Adeliza. Adeliza was born about 1050. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adeliza married Earl of East Anglia Roger Bigod about 1084 in Leicestershire, England. Roger (son of Robert Bigod and Billeheude de St. Sauveur) was born about 1060 in St. Saveur, Calvados, Normandy, France; died on 8 Sep 1107 in Evesham, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: William "Pincerna Regis" d'Aubigny. William (son of Roger d'Aubigny and Amice de Montbrey) died in 1139. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Hugh Bigod, brother of William, steward of the household of King Henry I, was also steward to King Henry I, who being mainly instrumental in raising Stephen, Earl of Bologne, to the throne upon the decease of his royal master, was rewarded by this new king with the Earldom of the East Angles, commonly called Norfolk, and by that designation we find him styled in 1140 (6th Stephen). His lordship remained faithful in his allegiance to King Stephen through the difficulties which afterwards beset that monarch, and gallantly defended the castle of Ipswich against the Empress Maud and her son until obligated at length to surrender for want of timely relief. In the 12th Henry II, this powerful noble certified his knight's fee to be one hundred and twenty-five "devetrifeoffamento," and thirty-five "de novo," upon the occasion of the assessment in aid of the marriage of the king's daughter; and he appears to have acquired at this period a considerable degree of royal favor, for we find him not only re-created Earl of Norfolk, by charter, dated at Northampton, but by the same instrument obtaining a grant of the office of steward, to hold in as ample a manner as his father had done in the time of Henry I. Notwithstanding, however, these and other equally substantial marks of the kings liberality, the Earl of Norfolk sided with Robert, Earl of Leicester, in the insurrection incited by that nobleman in favor of the king's son (whom Henry himself had crowned, ) in the 19th of the monarch's reign; but his treason upon this occasion cost him the surrender of his strongest castles, and a find of 1,000 marks. After which he went into the Holy Land with the Earl of Flanders, and died in 1177. His lordship had married twice; by his 1st wife, Julian, dau. of Alberic de Vere, he had a son, Rogers; and by his 2nd, Gundred, he had two sons, Hugh and William. He was s. by his eldest son, Roger Bigod, 2nd earl. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 53, Bigod, Earls of Norfolk]

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The Bigods held the hereditary office of steward (dapifer) of the royal household, and their chief castle was at Framlingham in Suffolk. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961 ed, Vol. 3, pages 556/557, Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk.)

Hugh married Juliana de Vere about 1133 in Marriage was annulled. Juliana (daughter of Lord Great Chamberlain of England Aubrey II de Vere and Alice FitzGilbert de Clare) was born in 1116 in Hedingham, Essex, England; died after 1185. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Gundred de Beaumont. Gundred (daughter of 2nd Earl of Warwick Roger de Beaumont and Gundred de Warenne) was born about 1134 in Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England; died in 1200/1208. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lord Baron Halton Richard FitzEustace Clavering. Richard (son of Lord of Alnwick Eustace FitzJohn de Burgo and Agnes FitzNigel) was born about 1128 in Halton Castle, Skipton, Yorkshire, England; died in 1163 in Halton Castle, Skipton, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was influential in arranging the treaty of 1153, whereby the Crown continued with King Stephen for life, though the inheritance thereof was secured to Henry II. To this instrument he subscribed as "Comes Cicestrie." Henry II, by a grant undated, but supposed to have been in 1155 (the year after his accession), confirms to him as "William, EARL OF ARUNDEL, the Castle of Arundel, with the whole honor of Arundel and all its appurtenances," and, by the same instrument, bestows on him the third penny of the pleas of the county of SUSSEX unde Comes est. He was justly held in great esteem by Henry II, and was one of the embassy to Rome in 1163/4, and to Saxony (on the espousal of the Princess to the Duke of Saxony) in 1168. He was also in command of the Royal army in August 1173, in Normandy, against the King's rebellious sons, where he distinguished himself for his "swiftness and velocity," and, on 29 September following he assisted at the defeat, near Bury St. Edmunds, of the Earl of Leicester, who, with his Flemings, had invaded Suffolk.

William married Adeliza de Leuven in 1138. Adeliza (daughter of Count of Leuven and Brussels, Landgraves of Brabant Godfrey de Leuven, Duke of Lorraine I and of Chiny Ida) was born about 1094 in Affligem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium; died on 23 Apr 1151 in Affligem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Roger Bigod, 2nd earl of Norfolk, who, in the 1st year of Richard I, had charter dated at Westminster, 27 November, reconstituting him Earl of Norfolk and steward of the household, his lordship obtaining at the same time restitution of some manors, with grants of others, and confirmation of all his wide-spreading demesnes. In the same year he was made one of the ambassadors from the English monarch to Philip of France, for obtaining aid towards the recovery of the Holy Land. Upon return of King Richard from his captivity, the Earl of Norfolk assisted at the great council held by the king at Nottingham; and at his second coronation, his lordship was one of the four earls that carried the silken canopy over the monarch's head. In the reign of King John he was one of the barons that extorted the great Charters of Freedom from that prince, and was amongst the twenty-five lords appointed to enforce their fulfillment. His lordship m. Isabel, dau. of Hamelyn, Earl of Warrenne and Surrey, and had issue,

Hugh, his successor.
William, m. Margaret, dau of Robert de Sutton, with whom he acquired considerable property.
Thomas.
Margery, m. to William de Hastings.
Adeliza, m. to Alberic de Vere, Earl of Oxford.
Mary, m. to Ralph Fitz-Robert, Lord of Middlesham.

The earl d. in 1220 and was s. by his eldest son, Hugh Bigod, 3rd earl.

[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 53, Bigod, Earls of Norfolk]

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The Bigods held the hereditary office of steward (dapifer) of the royal household, and their chief castle was at Framlingham in Suffolk.[Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961 ed, Vol. 3, pages 556/557, article Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk.)

Roger married Ida (Isabel) de Warenne about 1185. Ida (daughter of 5th Earl of Surrey Hamelin de Warenne and Countess of Surrey Isabel de Warenne) was born in 1154 in Norfolk, England; died in 1189/1259. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Roger Fitz-Richard who was feudal Baron of Warkworth, Northumberland, a lordship granted to him by King Henry II, m. Alianor, dau. and co-heir of Henry of Essex, Baron of Raleigh, and was s. by his only son, Robert Fitz-Roger. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p.121, Clavering, Barons Clavering]

Roger married Alice de Vere before 1176. Alice (daughter of Lord Great Chamberlain of England Aubrey II de Vere and Alice FitzGilbert de Clare) was born before 1141 in Hedingham, Essex, England; died after 1185 in Warkworth Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]