Guillaume Fitz Osbern

Guillaume de Crépon known as Fitz Osbern (wire of Osbern) (about 1020 - 20 or February 22nd 1071), lord of Breteuil-on-Iton, lord of Cormeilles in the the Eure and 1st Count d' Hereford were one of closest the companions to the Duc of Normandy William the Conqueror.

The confidence which this last granted to him made it possible him to become one of the principal characters of the duchy and, after the conquest Norman of 1066, of England.

A descendant of the family of Seersucker

Its important position at the ducal court is due already to the prestige of its parentèle. He is the great nephew of Gunnor, the second wife of Richard I {{er}} of Normandy and the son of Osbern de Crépon, Sénéchal of Normandy. About 1040, therefore during the minority of the duke Guillaume the Bastard one ( Nothus ) (which will become William the Conqueror), his father is killed by protecting this last from an attempted murder. Guillaume is thus probably high near the duke. Its ducal integration with the entourage is manifest with part of the end of the year 1040. “The son of Osbern belongs to the restricted circle of the tycoons on whom William the Conqueror will be pressed to control the duchy the shortly after his victory of the Valley-be-Dunes (1047)”. He takes again the function of seneshal occupied by his father.

A powerful Norman baron

The Historian Pierre Bauduin Guillaume place among the Norman tycoons most fortunate of its time. The origin of its land richness remains still dubious: if he of course inherited his father, he also seems to have recovered possessions of his uncle Hugues of Bayeux.

Guillaume holds the Honneur of Breteuil, a whole of Fief S dispersed, in the Pays of Ouche (Breteuil-on-Iton, Glos-the-Tool bag, the New-Quadrant etc), in the valleys of the Andelle (Bridge-Saint-Pierre) and of the Eure (Pacy-sur-Eure) and elsewhere. He has also the guard of the ducal castle of Breteuil. Consequently, it is an essential fulcrum for the duke in this walk of the Évrecin where the barons are often opposite (the Géré, the Tosny…). Implied in the process of pacification of this area, he marries Adelize, the girl of Roger I {{er}} of Tosny, which serves as “  currency of échange  ” between Tosny and the Seersucker.

Guillaume Fitz Osbern is also a fulcrum in the south of the duchy vis-a-vis the attacks of king de France and the count of Blois-Chartres

A decisive role in the conquest of England

According to the historiographer Guillaume de Jumièges, it is him which convinces the Norman barons of the feasibility of the conquest of England at the time of the council of Lillebonne. Besides he promised to provide sixty ships for the crossing of the English Channel (wood not missing in its field). At the time of the decisive battle of Hastings against the Anglo-Saxon king Harold, in 1066, Guillaume Fitz Osbern orders the right wing of the army Norman.

The duke and new King d' Angleterre William the Conqueror reward liberally his faithful friend. He offers the to him county of Hereford at the border of the Wales, as well as the island of Wight. But it seems that its command largely exceeded the limits of the county. With its English possessions, it is in any case the fourth richer lord Anglo-Norman (far however behind the half-brother from the duke Odon of Bayeux). Such a fortune enables him to enrich the equipment by the two Normans abbeys which it founded before 1066: Quadrant and Cormeilles.

The duke counts on him to dominate rebellious England with the authority of the new occupants. When William the Conqueror re-embarks in March 1067 for Normandy, it leaves the administration of the country conquered with his half-brother Odon of Bayeux and in Guillaume Fitz Osbern who, by their refusal to return justice to the English oppressed by the Norman officers, caused revolts which were very difficult to repress. To subdue the rebellions and to control the country Fitz Osbern builds castle-forts (Chepstow, Monmouth, Clifford, Berkeley). In 1070, it gains a victory over three Welsh princes, which enables him to extend its county towards the west.

A last fatal campaign in Flandres

At the dawn of the year 1071, Guillaume Fitz Osbern returns in the duchy. The historiographer Guillaume de Malmesbury interprets this return like a disgrace. William the Conqueror sends it to fight in Flandres. It must help Arnoul III over there says Arnoul the Unhappy one, the minor heir to the Comté of Flanders, against his brother Robert the Clippings which seized the capacity. This last surprises the small troop Norman with Cassel between Dunkirk and Hazebrouck, a battle engages. Guillaume Fitz Osbern is killed with the combat the 20 or the February 22nd 1071.

William the Conqueror loses one of his best barons but also, according to the historian François Neveux, its only friend or at the very least his more faithful collaborator.

He is buried in his abbey of Cormeilles.

Families and descent

He married Adelize, girl of Roger I {{er}}, lord of Tosny and Godechilde. They had four children:

  • Guillaume († January 12th 1103), succeeded his father in Normandy. Lord of Breteuil and Pacy. He married Adeline, girl of Hugues II of Montfort  ;

  • Roger de Breteuil known as the Stubborn person († after 1087), succeeded his father in England. He had a descent and was 2nd count d' Hereford. He rebelled against William the Conqueror in 1075, and was imprisoned with life  ;
  • Emma, married Raoul Ier de Gaël, Count de Norfolk in 1075  ;
  • a supposed girl.

Wire illegitimate probable:

  • Raoul, became monk with Cormeilles as of its childhood.

After 1070, at the extreme end of its life, he would have been the third husband of Richilde de Hainaut, widow of Hermann de Hainaut and Baudoin VI, Count de Flandre.

Brother:

See too

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