2646673488. Magna Charta Surety, Baron William de Huntingfield
Dover Castle, the stronghold which William de Huntingfield held in the Barons' War, is a famous one, fulfilling the dream of the grim place of nameless cruelties and horrible prisons. It was built near the site of the ancient Roman Pharos or lighthouse. Legends attest that once William the Conqueror advised Harold to fortify it, then to deliver it up to the Normans when the time came, for it was a stout coastal defense. Harold was allegedly enticed to swear to do this, but if he did swear it, he took his oath lightly.
The Castle was completed by the son of Godwin, and was set high upon a rock above the sea. The rock was cut so that it was flush with the wall. By 1066 Dover Castle was thoroughly established, but there is no doubt that the wide encircling walls, the sturdy watch towers and massive keep are Norman. Even so, there were probably Roman and Saxon forts on the same site. The keep is believed to have been erected by Henry II about 1154. But the whole Castle, as we can envision it today, dates to a much earlier period.
WILLIAM de HUNTINGFIELD, the Surety, born about 1165, married Isabel Gressinghall, widow of Osmond de Stuteville. He was made constable of Dover Castle in 1204, and delivered up his son and daughter as hostages for his loyalty to the King. The son was to remain with the Earl of Arundel, the daughter with Earl Ferrers.
He was one of five wardens of the Ports of Norfolk and Suffolk from 1210 to 1212, and the following year he was one of the itinerant justices of Lincoln. He was high sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk until the end of 1214. He witnessed King John's grant of freedom of election to churches in 1214. He was governor of Sauvey Castle in Leistershire when he joined the cause of the Barons in arms against King John, and was excommunicated by the Pope. His lands were then given to Nicholas de Haya. According to the close and patent rolls he was one of the men actively in rebellion against King John before the issuance of Magna Charta. Very likely the cause of the Protector's severity toward Huntingfield was that he was one of those who plotted to have the Dauphin come to England and, after the Dauphin's landing, was very active in reducing the Courts of Essex and Suffolk to French authority. He fought at Lincoln 20 May 1217, and was taken prisoner by the King's forces. William had a daughter, Alice Huntingfield, who was married twice, but the name of her first husband has not been preserved. Her father paid the King a fine of "six fair Norway Goshawks," in the 15th of King John, for permission to marry Alice, his daughter, then a widow, to Richard de Solers. William de Huntingfield, the Surety, died 25 January 1220/1 on a Crusade.
2646871304. King of Scotland David I Canmore
David I, king of Scotland (1124-53), son of Malcolm III. When his oldest brother, King Edgar, died, he left the Scottish domains of the Forth of Clyde to another brother who became King Alexander I, while David inherited southern Scotland with the title of Earl of Cumbria. Six years later, David married the daughter of the Earl of Northumbria and thereby became Earl of Huntingdon and a vassal of the English crown. In 1123, King Alexander died, and David became the king of Scotland. From 1136 to 1148, David tried unsuccessfully to help his niece Matilda secure the English throne. Thereafter, David devoted himself to ruling Scotland. He replaced the traditional Scottish tribal organization with a feudal one modeled after that of Norman England and was noted for the castles he built and the monasteries he founded including Cambuskenneth at Stirling and Holyrood at Edinburgh.
2646871305. Matilda of Huntington
Daughter of Waltheof, Earl of Huntington.
2646871328. Baron Robert de Todeni
One of the Norman barons who came into England in 1066 as a standard bearer of Duke William; was the founder of this renowned, ancient family. For his distinguished service at Hastings, the victorious monarch rewarded him with the eighty lordships he possessed in twelve counties at the time of the first general survey of England. One of his estates in Lincolnshire, near the border of Leicestershire, he erected a castle which he named Belvoir, from its commanding position, and this became his chief seat.
From "Magna Charta" by John S. Wurts.
2646871330. Earl of Huntington and Northampton Simon St. Liz
Shortly after the year 1100, he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and died in 1115 at the Abbey of Charity in France.
2646871552. Sir Nele d'Aubigny
Came into England with William the Conqueror and obtained several lordships after the Battle at Hastings. After the Battle at Tenercheby in 1106, the king granted him the English lands of Robert de Stuteville. During the Norman rebellion, Nele, with his brother William, remained faithful to King Henry I and fought for him at the victory over the French King at Bremule on 20 August 1119. He had a grant of Montbraik or Mowbray and the other forfeited lands in Normandy of Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland.
2646871553. Gundred de Gourney
Daughter of Gerard de Gourney and his wife Edith, daughter of William, first Earl of Surrey.
2646871682. King of England Henry I Beauclerc
King of England 1100 to 1135.
Throughout his career, Henry showed a capacity for swift and violent action. He caused two of his granddaughters to be blinded in retaliation for their father's treatment of hostages and, in 1124-25, he had all the moneyers in England mutilated without trial, to discourage their successors from falsifying the coinage. He seems to have been naturally both cruel and avaricious. All the same, this heavy hand checked lawlessness in all parts of his kingdom, and he had the knack of winning admiration and even trust.
Henry reigned for the most part in peace. In 1106, however, he defeated his older brother Robert of Normandy in an unexpectedly decisive battle at Tinchebrai, seized his Duchy and imprisoned him for the rest of Robert's life.
One of Henry's first acts as King was to marry a descendant of King Alfred the Great, a match with obvious dynastic overtones.
2646871692. King of France Louis VI
Called "The Fat," King of France (1108-1137), son and successor of Philip I. Almost his entire reign was spent in subduing the robber barons who preyed on the environs of Paris, but were finally forced to yield to royal authority. For som 20 years during the period 1109-1135, Louis waged war against Henry I, the Norman King of England, and Agasinst Henry's son-in-law, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V; he successfully repelled an invasion by Henry V in 1124. Louis greatly strengthened the royal power in France, granted benefactions to the church and privileges to towns, and became known as the protector of the peasants and as a fearless military leader.
Called "The Fat," King of France (1108-1137), son and successor of Philip I. Almost his entire reign was spent in subduing the robber barons who preyed on the environs of Paris, but were finally forced to yield to royal authority. For som 20 years during the period 1109-1135, Louis waged war against Henry I, the Norman King of England, and Agasinst Henry's son-in-law, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V; he successfully repelled an invasion by Henry V in 1124. Louis greatly strengthened the royal power in France, granted benefactions to the church and privileges to towns, and became known as the protector of the peasants and as a fearless military leader.
2646871698. King of Castile Alphonso-Raimond VII
After capturing Cordova and other Moorish territory, died in 1157.
2646871938. King of England, Duke of Normandy Henry I
King Henry I (1068-1135) Born: September 1068 at Selby, Yorkshire West Riding King of England Duke of Normandy Died: 1st December 1135 at St. Denis-le-Fermont, Gisors, Normandy
Henry was the youngest son of William the Conqueror and his only child born in England. He came into the World at Selby, in Yorkshire, while Queen Matilda was accompanying her husband on his expedition to subdue the North. Henry was always his mother’s favourite and, though his father held a life interest, he inherited all her English states upon her death in 1083.
As a boy, Henry received an excellent education at Abingdon Abbey <../churches/abingdon_abbey.html> in Berkshire. Though a native speaker of Norman-French, as well as learning the usual Latin, he was taught to read and write in English. He also studied English law, possibly with a view to entering the Church, like so many other younger sons. Henry had a particular interest in natural history and, being far in advance of the times, eventually collected together the first zoo in the country, at his palace in Woodstock (Oxfordshire). His wide-ranging knowledge earned him the epithet of ‘Beauclerc’ meaning ‘Fine Scholar’, a name of which he was extremely proud. In later years, he even declared that ‘an unlettered King was but a crowned ass.’
Knighted by his father at Whitsun 1086, Henry became one of the barons who suffered from divided loyalties after the latter’s death the next year. The Conqueror left Normandy to his eldest son, Robert Curthose, and England to his second son, William Rufus. For nine years, this resulted in many disputes in which men like Henry, with lands in both realms, were obliged to take sides with one overlord while unintentionally antagonizing the other. Eventually, however, Robert renounced Normandy and set off on crusade, leaving Henry and the other barons to serve the monarch of a united kingdom. He was thus attending his brother, William, in the New Forest when he was accidentally (or otherwise) shot dead whilst out hunting on 2nd August 1100. Recognising the need for quick actions, the young prince left his brother’s body on the forest floor and rode straight for Winchester to secure both the treasury and his election as King by a small band of available councilors. He then left for Westminster where Bishop Maurice of crowned him in the Abbey, four days later.
Henry promised to return to the ways of his father and his first act as king was to restore the exiled St. Anselm to the Archdiocese of Canterbury. He then began his search for a suitable wife and quickly decided Princess Edith (later renamed Matilda), the eldest daughter of King Malcolm Canmore of Scots. Her mother was St Margaret, the grandaughter of the penultimate Saxon King of England, Edmund Ironside. So their children united the blood lines of both the old and new ruling houses.
Anselm’s return was not without controversy and the monarch and prelate soon clashed over the question of lay investiture of ecclesiastical estates. Believing he held his estates from the Pope, for years, the Archbishop refused to do homage for them to King Henry, until the frustrated monarch finally forced him to flee into exile once more. The King's sister, the Countess of Blois, eventually suggested a compromise in 1107, by which the bishops paid homage for their lands in return for Henry allowing clerical investiture.
King Henry’s elder brother, Robert, had returned from the Crusade in 1100, but proved such an ineffectual ruler in Normandy that the barons revolted against him and asked Henry, a wise monarch and a skilled diplomat, to take his place. The King crossed the Channel to aid their struggle and Duke Robert was prisoner at Tinchebrai. Disquiet continued to harass Henry’s rule in Normandy over the next few years, and this was not helped by war with France. However, in 1109, his foreign policy was triumphant in arranging the betrothal of his only legitimate daughter, Matilda, to the powerful German Emperor, Henry V. They were married five years later.
Despite his numerous bastard progeny, King Henry had only one other legitimate child, his heir, Prince William, a boisterous young man whom the monarch completely idolized. Tragically, in 1120, the prince was needlessly drowned - along with many of his generation at court - while making a return trip from Normandy in the ‘White Ship’ which ran aground and sank. It is said that Henry never smiled again. His first wife having died in 1118, Henry took a second, Adeliza of Louvain, in 1122. But, despite the lady being many years his junior, the marriage remained childless. So, four years later, while staying for Christmas at Windsor Castle, the King designated as his successor, his widowed daughter, the Empress Matilda; and all the barons swore to uphold her rights after his death. The following May, Henry also found his daughter a new husband, in the person of Geoffrey, the rather young heir to the County of Anjou.
Henry found it expedient to spent an equal amount of time in both his realms but, on 1st August 1135, he left England for the last time. An eclipse the next day was seen as a bad omen and by December, the King was dead. He apparently had a great love of lampreys (eels), despite their disagreeing with him intensely. He had been ordered not to eat them by his physician, but, at his hunting lodge at St Denis-le-Fermont, near Gisors, the monarch decided he fancied some for supper. A severe case of ptomaine poisoning ensued, of which gluttonous King Henry died.
Several Norman monasteries wanted Henry’s body buried within their walls, but it was mummified for transportation back to England and only his bowels, brains, heart, eyes & tongue were interred at Rouen Cathedral. As he had wished, King Henry was laid to rest before the high altar of Reading Abbey, at the time, an incomplete Cluniac house he had founded in 1121. The Dissolution of the Monasteries was severe at Reading and little survives of its walls, let alone any trace of the effigial monument that once marked the Royal grave. Even the King’s vault, below St. Joseph’s School, was broken into in the hope of finding his ‘silver coffin’, and his bones scattered in anger when it was found it be a myth. A large Celtic Cross to his memory now stands on the site of the old west front.