Nothing more accurate has been said about the faintly visible characters that inhabit the distant past of Normandy than by David Bates, who commented about the mythical status of Duvelina, a supposed sister of Gunnor, and her supposed relationship with the equally mythical (in a sense) Torf, Turold, and Turchetil. The sense of these not being mythical is that they were ‘borrowed’ from a later time, so as to fill the void of knowledge. They were genealogical time travellers. Turchetil, a known brother of Honfroi de Veilles, was a typical ‘transportee’, as their sister, Duvelina. (See David Bates, Normandy before 1066, p. 213, 1982).

The entire aim of this genealogical sleight of hand was to support the myth of the leading families of Normandy all being related to the ducal house, thus providing a (God sanctioned) right to rule.

In the genealogical table that follows, for 1. Torf; 1.1. Turchetil; 1.2. Turold, substitute any name you wish. The early voids of knowledge, however, do not detract from what is known or reasonably conjectured about the Beaumont kinship network.

1. Torf. According to Robert of Torigny (GND, viii. c. 37), Torf was the father of Turold and Turchetil (see also OV ii. 12).
1.1. Turchetil. (He did not necessarilly die without children; this assumption was given because an understanding of the origins of the Harcourts is not known, and the perceived wisdom of their ‘succession’ had to be accomodated). ).
1.1.1. Turulfus; charters of St-Pierre de Préaux, c.1040, mention his son Gilbert (nos. 320, 334, 112). He was also mentioned as the father of Hugh and Geoffrey, c. 1080 (nos. 286, 345). As stated in Nomina Germanica (vol. 11, p. 341, 1954), it is reasonable to conjecture that this Turulfus was a nephew of Torulf of Pont-Audemer, and was consanguineus with Roger de Beaumont, son of Honfroi de Vielles.
1.1.1. Gilbert Efflanc. Tourville was held by the Efflancs.
1.1.1.1. ‘Anschetillus filius Gisleberti Efflanci’.
1.1.1.2. Ralph, of St Germain (Anschetil Efflanc, son of Gilbert Efflanc, held lands in the parish of St-Germain de Pont Audemer); who held the manor of Milton (Cambs.) in 1086 (DB), whose wife was Agnes, da. of Picot the sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Hugoline Gernon (probable da. of Robert Gernon).
1.1.1.2.1. Turstin Efflanc, mentioned in various charters of Préaux as son of Ranulph and br, of Gilbert. (Gallia Christ., t. xii, p. 853).
1.1.1.2.1.1. Roger. “filius suus”, Cart. de Préaux, fol. 109.
1.1.1.2.2. Gilbert Efflanc.
1.1.2. Ansketil “Ansketil son of Turulph”. Mr. Holt, Colonial England, p. 208, 1997: “Sometime between 1044 and 1078, probably before 1066, the knight Ansketil, son of Turulph, made a post obitum gift, with the consent of his wife and sons, to the abbey of St-Pierre de Préaux of whatever came to him by right from paternal inheritance in Tourville and Campigny. At his death the inheritance was divided among his surviving brothers. The abbey’s portion amounted to three tenant-holdings (hospites) and two of the brothers, Gilbert and Geoffrey, persuaded Abbot Ansfrid to grant them to them in beneficia. (This is not Anschetil de Campigni, who gave land in Saint-Germain (Pont-Audemer, sur Tourville) to Préaux, and is designated Anschetillus de Campiniaco, filius Seffridi in Cart. de Préaux, f. 404. Seffridi was the br. of *Osbern: (“Sasfridi fratris sui”); father of Goiffredus (Geoffrey) de Turvilla* (see Cartul. St-P. Préaux, fol. 109 v.), and Osbern. *Osbernus de Turvilla filius Duneline, as follows.
1.1.3. Hugh ( Hugo Putefosse). When the monks of Saint-Pierre de Preaux complained to Roger de Beaumont that their late abbot, Ansfrid, had given the churches of Pont-Audemer to Hugh the cleric son of Turulf (the abbey’s patron) without their permission, Hugh replied that he had received the churches from Roger’s father, Humphrey de Vieilles, and from Roger himself before he received them from Ansfrid. A charter of Roger de Beaumont, dated 1035-1036, gave to Preaux all he held in Espaignes (Pont Audemer), except those portions held by tenants of Preaux; his testes Hugo Putefosse, Goscelinus filius (le Rous/Roux/Rufus); his signature to confirm (‘firmati’; L. singular, nom. part. (‘to confirm’); Vitalis, Wadardus (Arch. de l’Eure, H. 711, fol. CII).
1.1.3.1. Goscelin le Rous/Roux/Rufus.
1.1.4. Geoffrey. Goisfred. (Cartul. St-P. Préaux, nos. 286, fol. 99, 345, 114).
1.2. Turold. M. Le Prevost (‘Essai Archéologique sur Pont-Audemer’, p. 8, 1834) did not consider this Turold to be the tutor of the young Duke William.
1.2.1. Hunfrid (Honfroi de Vieilles).
1.2.1.1. Roger de Beaumont; Asketil, his dapifer, being a junior kinsman. 1087-1095. Notification that “in the reign of Robert son of William king of the English, Roger de Beaumont gave, etc. The same day he gave to St. Peter, Preaux, 20 pounds of English money annually from the tithe of his revenues oversea, etc. Signa … Anchetilli pincerna”.
1.2.1.2. Dunelma (Dunelina and Duvelina). Charters that Humphrey’s son Roger had a sister called Dunelma, whose daughter was a nun at Saint-Leger-de-Preaux. This Dunelma might be identified with Dunelina, mother of Osbern de Tourville- sur-Pont-Audemer. If this identification were correct it would mean that Dunelina had married a landholder in Tourville-sur-Pont-Audemer. Before 1050 Abbess Emma of St Leger of Preaux exchanged thirty acres at Tourville-sur-Pont Audemer with filiis Dunelinae, see N.P., p. 522. Osbernus de Turvilla filius Duneline .
1.2.2. Turchetil.
1.2.2.1. Asketil (de Harcourt, I conjecture) de Rieu (“senioris”), gave the abbey of Tréport, c. 1060, the tithes of ‘decimam suam de Riu’. (Carlularium sanctae Trinitatis, p. 425).
1.2.2.1.1. Hugues de Rieu, confirmed his father’s gifts to Treport. At Domesday, he held Rotingedene (near Bergemere, contracted to Burg and Berges) from William de Warenne, whose son, William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey (d. 1138), m. Isabelle de Vermandois, widow of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, whose son founded Garendon.
1.2.2.1.2. Asketil. D.B.: The Land of the Count of Eu, Bexill Hundred: ‘Ansketil of Rieux 1/2 hide‘. Possible pincerna of Roger de Beaumont, as second-cousin.
1.2.2.1.1.1.1. Robert fitz Anschetil, ob. 1118 (ctl. Preaux, fol. 102v).
1.2.2.1.1.1.1.1. William fitz Robert, fl. 1149 (P.R. 31 H. 1). Granted Stanton-under-Bardon, Leic., to Garendon Abbey, founded by Robert de Beaumont (cart. Garendon, fols. 5v., 15v.).
1.2.2.1.2.1.1.1.1. Robert fitz William, m. Eve Crispin, da. of baron of the Vexin Normande, Joscelin Crispin.
1.2.2.1.1.1.1.2. Ivo de Harcourt. He ratified the confirmation of his brother, William, of their father’s gifts to Garendon (ctl. Garendon, fol. 15v.; Nichols’ Leic. vii.).

To envisage too readily a descent from such luminaries is to not account for the very stormy waters of time, which wrecked male-line succession on the rocks of frequent wars and disease, which brought about adoption on a scale not understood (nor wished to be understood). If any two families survived by male-line succession from a common Domesday ancestor a rare event has occurred; made impossible events the more other families are claimed to stem from a ‘Moses of Domesday’.

What is required is a clear understanding that names of a Saxon origin should not be transmuted into Norman ones with ease, and tenurial associations were frequently of a non-consanguineous kinship variety.

A Happy Christmas to all.

copyright m stanhoe 2017