Stewart Binns: Crusade

Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, eldest son of the Conqueror, died in 1134 in Cardiff Castle in his early eighties. He was buried in the abbey church of St Peter, in Gloucester. The exact place of his burial is difficult to establish – legend states that he requested to be buried before the high altar. The church has subsequently become Gloucester Cathedral.

There is little mention in the historical records of the whereabouts of Edgar the Atheling after the beginning of the reign of Henry I. All that is said by William of Malmesbury, writing in 1025, was that he ‘had retired to his estates in England’. There is no record of him ever marrying. Intriguingly, there is mention of an ‘Edgar Atheling’ in the Great Pipe Rolls of the Second, Third and Fourth Years of the Reign of Henry II . It is recorded that ‘Edgar Atheling owed money for a donum [Latin: present, gift, offering] taken in Northumberland’ before 1157. If this Edgar is Prince Edgar, he would have been 105 years old. It seems unlikely. However, it also seems odd that a man living in Northumbria at this time would carry a name suggesting he was the heir to the English throne – unless he was a twelfth-century Walter Mitty!

It has been written that Hereward of Bourne returned to his mountain eyrie after the Crusade and lived for many years as the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’. But the true circumstances of his life or death after the Siege of Ely remain a mystery. Even though he is now known as Hereward ‘the Wake’, Hereward of Bourne was not given the suffix ‘Wake’ until many years after his death. The term is thought to come from the Old French ‘wac’ dog, as in wake-dog, the name for dogs used to warn of intruders.

The present-day Wakes of Courteenhall are directly descended from a Geoffrey Wac, who died in 1150. His son, Hugh Wac, who died 1172, married Emma, the daughter of Baldwin Fitzgilbert and his unnamed wife. That wife, it is supposed, was the granddaughter of either Gunnhild or Estrith in the female line from Hereward and Torfida. It is suggested that her mother had married Richard de Rulos and her grandmother had married Hugh de Evermur, a Norman knight in the service of King William. It is a tenuous link, but a remote possibility.

There are also other claimants, including the Harvard family (the founders of Harvard University) and the Howard family (the Dukes of Norfolk and Earls Marshal of England).

Also known as the Charter of Liberties, it was sent to every shire in England to mark the King’s coronation on 5 August 1100. Although Henry was less than assiduous in following it, it did set a precedent and contained many of the principles that formed the basis of the Great Charter (Magna Carta) of 1215 and put into writing a commitment to the pre-eminence of the rule of law.

Written in Latin in fourteen points, its text translates, in summary, as follows.

1. I, Henry, by the grace of God having been crowned the King of England, shall not take or sell any property from a Church upon the death of a bishop or abbot, until a successor has been named to that Church property. I shall end all the oppressive practices which have been an evil presence in England.

2. If any baron or earl of mine shall die, his heirs shall not be forced to purchase their inheritance, but shall retrieve it through force of law and custom.

3. Any baron or earl who wishes to betroth his daughter or other women kinsfolk in marriage should consult me first, but I will not stand in the way of any prudent marriage. Any widow who wishes to remarry should consult with me, but I shall abide by the wishes of her close relatives, the other barons and earls. I will not allow her to marry one of my enemies.

4. Any wife of my barons who becomes a widow shall not be denied her dowry. She should be allowed to remarry according to her wishes, so long as she maintains the integrity of her body, in a lawful manner. Barons overseeing the children of a dead baron shall maintain their land and interest in a lawful manner.

5. Common seigniorages taken in the cities and counties, not in the time of Edward I, shall henceforth be forbidden.

6. I shall remit all debts and pleas which were owing to my brother, except those which were lawfully made through an inheritance.

7. If any of my barons should grow feeble, and give away money or other possessions, these shall be honoured, so long as the heirs are properly remembered. Gifts given by feeble barons under force of arms shall not be enforced.

8. If any of my barons commit a crime, he shall not bind himself to the Crown with a payment as was done in the time of my father and brother, but shall stand for the crime as was custom and law before the time of my father, and make amends as are appropriate. Anyone guilty of treachery or other heinous crime shall make proper amends.

9. I forgive all murders committed before I was crowned. Subsequent murders shall stand before the justice of the Crown.

10. With the common consent of my barons, I shall maintain all the forests, as was done in the time of my father.

11. Those knights who render military service and horses shall not be required to give grain or other farm goods to me.

12. I impose a strict peace on the land, and command that it be maintained.

13. I restore the law of King Edward and the amendments which my father introduced upon the advice of his barons.

14. Anything taken from me after the death of my father shall be returned immediately, without fine. If it is not returned, a heavy fine shall be enforced.

Witnesses: Maurice, Bishop of London, and William, Bishop Elect of Winchester, and Gerard, Bishop of Hereford, and Earl Henry and Earl Simon and Walter Giffard and Robert de Montfort and Roger Bigot and Eudo the Steward and Robert, son of Hamo and Robert Malet. At London when I was crowned. Farewell.