Companions of William the Conqueror

The term companions of the Conqueror is a collective denomination for all those which united with Guillaume Bastard the, Duc of Normandy, in the great adventure which was the Conquête Norman of England in 1066, and fought with Hastings. The term is also sometimes employed to qualify people having taken part in the conquest of England (1066-1069), arriving in reinforcement more or less a long time after this battle.

The majority of the families of importance of the country asserted to count among their ancestors a combatant with Hastings, object of pride and legitimacy. But these families do not have any proof to support their claims. Several lists appeared during the centuries, but none received some credit that it is on behalf of the historians. The three most famous lists are: the list of the Abbey of the Battle (Battle abbey), the list of Divine-on-Sea, the list of Cliff; a description is given by it below.

Academic studies

To know which fought exactly in Hastings was the subject of many academic work. The historians, and in particular the two principal specialists in the field, the professor David C. Douglas and the genealogist G.H. White, agree to recognize that twenty participants in this battle were identified with certainty, being based on the writings of a contemporary chronicler, Guillaume of Poitiers, and by accepting some others mentioned by Orderic Vital or represented on the Tapisserie of Bayeux.

Douglas proposed other names while being based on indirect resources: people having attested the charters signed little before the departure for England by William the Conqueror, and in connection with the project; and charters signed shortly after the crowning of the duke. He also used the poem Carmen de Hastingae Proelio ( Chanson of the battle of Hastings ) which was found in 1826, but the origin, and thus reliability, are discussed.

J.F.A. Mason also proposed another name to him by using the account of Orderic Vital.

The additional names suggested by Douglas and Mason are not the subject of a consensus, and nothing proves that these people really fought in Hastings. Nevertheless, their implication in the events is probable. They are listed independently.

Sir James H. Ramsay notices that in this adventure, the principal Norman barons were represented by their son (Beaumont, Évreux, Mortagne, perhaps Ponthieu) if they were in age to fight. Mason proposes that this remark must be established in a more general form: in the big families baroniales Normans, when the father and the son were in age to fight, then there was a tendency so that only one of them takes part in it. The thirteenth one is represented on the Tapisserie of Bayeux, the fourteenth and fifteenth are quoted by Orderic Vital.

Five additional participants who fought doubtless are retained. Sixteenth is named by Guillaume of Poitiers as present little before the battle, the three following is represented on the tapestry of Bayeux, twentieth is mentioned by Orderic Vital as having taken part in the English war before the duke Guillaume does not become king d' Angleterre .

Other names of participants in the conquest proposed

; By J.F.A. Mason. This castle out of wooden was built between the unloading and the battle, and it is represented on the Tapestry of Bayeux. It is thus probable that Onfroy was a companion of the Conqueror, but whom it did not take part in the battle. Onfroy would be one of the two only participants in the forwarding which one knows that they had already put the feet in England, with Eustace II of Boulogne.

; By D.C. Douglas

According to not specified sources :

Robert de Vitot, wounded in the battle
Gerelmus de Panileuse
Robert wire of Ernis, killed in the battle
Roger wire of Turold
Erchembald, wire of Erchembald the Viscount

according to the poem Carmen de Hastingae Proelio :

Ivo Taillefer
a member of the House of Ponthieu. Probably Hugues de Ponthieu, wire of the count Hugues II and brother of the count Guy Ier de Ponthieu.

people having attested charters signed shortly after crowning :

Gerald or Gérold the seneshal, grandfather of Guillaume de Roumare, which contributed for 40 ships at the time of the conquest
Rodulf the chamberlain, perhaps of Tancarville
Hugues d' Ivry, the Master of hotel
Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare
Pons, possible ancestor of Clifford

people having attested a made charter with Caen on June 17th, 1066 :

Richard Goz, Viscount of Avranches
Ranulf II Meschin, Viscount of Bayeux
Ralf Shard
Foulque d' Aunou, which contributed for 40 ships

Other lists of participants

List abbey of the Battle

The Abbaye of the Battle was built according to the wish of the Conqueror which had promised to build an abbey on the place of the battle of Hastings, and precisely with the place even where Harold II of England had fallen. A list of patronyms of the participants in the battle, written on a shelf, is supposed to be suspended in this abbey since its creation. The oldest printed versions of this list date from the 16th century, probably compiled starting from a version of the 14th century. They were published by Holinshed and Leland. The list seems to be a composite of several sources, many names being duplicated. The version of Holinshed contains 629 names, for an army estimated at least 5000 men.

It was so obvious that several of these patronyms had no reason to be reproduced on this list, that Dugdale and Camdem suggested that the monks writers of the list would have been encouraged, for their own advantage, to add to their list family names of low origins become powerful, but which were not in Hastings. Another made suggestion is that the monks would have quite simply compiled all the names seeming of origin Norman of their time.

The list of Divine-on-Sea

This list of 475 names classified alphabetically of the first names, was engraved on the wall of the nave of the Romance church Notre-Dame of Divine-on-Sea (11th century), starting place of forwarding. It was inaugurated, on August 17th, 1862, at the time of an international academic meeting historians. The list, which covers 24 m ² of surface, was drawn up by the French company of Archeology. Léopold Delisle, the writer of this list, specifies that it did not use the English lists of and the centuries, nor even the Roman of Rou, but of the English charters of the reign of Guillaume and especially the Domesday Book. Therefore, contrary to the list of the abbey of the Battle which claims to count those having fought in Hastings, the list the Divine ones would list all the Normands implied in the conquest and the tender of England.

The Cliff list

June 24th, 1931, a plate bronzes some containing 315 names of knights, supposed to have fought in Hastings, was inaugurated on the initiative of the French government. It was a time preserved in the vault of the Château of Cliff. Mr. J. Crispin and Leonce Macary, professor of the Cliff college, published a book published in the United Kingdom in 1938. Their investigations showed that this compilation of names is based on the Roman of Rou and a list of the abbey of the Battle. Consequently, this list is considered to be unreliable.

The Romance of Rou

Writing hundred years after the battle, the work of the main poet-chronicler Robert Wace, was discussed a long time, and its reputation of chronicler practically reduced to nothing. In 2005, an important study of Dr. Elisabeth Van Houts showed that criticisms towards Wace were not founded for the majority. Nevertheless, Wace particularly seems to have underlined the contributions made by the families of the area of Bayeux, so that it is necessary to consider some of these names with precaution, and probably to eliminate them.

The poem of Wace mentions 116 people, called by their toponym. On these participants, 38 are mentioned by their first name and their nickname, accompanied by long descriptions of the actions of 21 of them. They are easily identifiable, and the probability that they actually fought is large. The 77 others are mentioned by a name and the indication of the fields of which they are the lords.

See too

Domesday Book
Conquest of England

External bonds

'' Companions off the Conqueror '' by C.P. Lewis
List of the abbey of the Battle
List of Divine-on-Sea
List of Cliff

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