Roger Religious bigot (sheriff)

Biography

Roger is perhaps the son of Robert Bigot, the knight who denounces the plot of Guillaume Werlenc, Count de Mortain, with the duke Guillaume Bastard the about 1055. Following this service, Robert appears among the guards of the duke. Guillaume de Jumièges mentions that this Religious bigot was a cousin of Richard Goz, the Vicomte of Avranches.

The Normans roots of Religious bigot were in the scrap-metal virois, the wooded country of the south Bessin.

After the conquest of England

About 1064, Roger holds of the grounds in the Calvados of Odon de Conteville, the bishop of Bayeux, half-brother of the duke William the Conqueror. Following the conquest, it takes much importance, enters to the royal service to become in 1086 one of the principal barons of East Anglia.

The services which it renders as close adviser and an agent of the first three Norman kings ensure him a great land fortune. According to the Domesday Book, in 1086 it holds 6 seigniories in the Essex, 117 in the Suffolk and 187 in the Norfolk , . It acquires the seigniory of Belvoir by marriage, his wife being the heiress of Robert de Tosny. The large majority of the grounds which it obtains were seized with the Archevêque of Canterbury Stigand and her brother Æthelmar, the bishop of Elmham in 1070, and to the count de Norfolk and Suffolk Ralph de Gaël after her revolt in 1075. It has very few grounds in Normandy.

Its possessions in East Anglia do of him one of the persons in charge of the defense of the Eastern coast of the kingdom, the usual point of arrival of the Scandinavian invaders. Jointly with Robert Malet and Ralph de Gaël, he faces Sven II of Denmark when this one unloads in Orwell in 1069, and beats it close to Ipswich.

Roger Bigot is royal judge between 1076 and 1079. He is Shérif Norfolk since 1069, and sheriff of the Suffolk for two different periods before 1086, and still under Henri Ist He is one of the seneshals of the king William Rufus, and one of his familiar. He is also sent in East Anglia as a travelling royal judge or a police chief.

In the first year of the reign of Guillaume II the Russet-red, it takes part in the Rébellion of 1088, which projects to replace the king by his older brother Robert Courteheuse, the Duc of Normandy. Roger strengthens the castle of Norwich and devastates the territory surrounding it. He is forgiven by the king, like much of others after royal repression.

Under the reign of Henri Ier

Its influence still grows after the forwarding of the duke of Normandy in 1101 to seize the throne of his/her brother Henri I {{er}}. Robert Malet, one of the large barons d' Est-Anglie being arranged at the sides of the duke, his vast possessions are confiscated to him, and the honor of Eye attached to the crown. Religious bigot is honest and devoted to Henri Ist It is one of its seneshals, and a close adviser, with Hugues d' Avranches, Richard de Reviers, Robert I {{er}} of Meulan inter alia. Following a gift of the king in 1101, it obtains the seigniory of Framlingham (Suffolk) and its castle, this one becoming the family seat of the Religious bigot until their disappearance in 1306.

It founds in 1103. Its monastery becomes one of principal of East Anglia.

It is because men such as Bigot were faithful for them that the Norman kings could reign. Thanks to this ministerial nobility, the administration could function, the policy of the kingdom being applied, and the counties kept under control. It is probably because Roger Bigot was one of the rare faithful and devoted barons in the east of the kingdom which it was so richly rewarded.

His/her Guillaume oldest son succeeds to him, but he perishes in the shipwreck of the White-Nave in 1120. Its junior Hugues succeeds to him, and becomes Count de Norfolk during the reign of Etienne of England. The Bigot dynasty holds the title of Count de Norfolk and dominates the East Anglia until the beginning of the 14th century.

Marriage and descent

Two wives a long time were allotted to him, but Katharine Keats-Rohan thinks today that these two women were actually the same person. He marries Alice of Tosny, girl of Robert de Tosny, Lord de Belvoir. They have as a known descent :

Guillaume († 1120), which deceased in the shipwreck of the White-Nave. It succeeds his father like Lord de Framlingham. Sheriff of Suffolk in 1116 ;
Hugues (v. 1095-1177), it succeeds his/her brother like Lord de Framlingham. Etienne created the Count de Norfolk at the end of 1140 ;
Humphrey († a. 1113), chaplain of Henri Ier ;
Gunnor († front 1137), wife Robert FitzSweyn, Lord de Rayleigh, then Hamon de Saint-Clearly ;
Maud or Mathilde († front 1133), wife Guillaume d' Aubigny known as Pincerna ;
Cécile, which inherits Belvoir by his/her mother, marries Guillaume d' Aubigny known as Bruto .

See too

Family Religious bigot
, on the English wikipédia

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