In the ‘Spring’ of my research into the origins of my family, I was sent a facsimile of an account of a lecture given by James Robinson Planché, in which he, in passim, remarked on the Crispins and Colvilles being synonomous, leading to me following this line of enquiry. Now, in the ‘Winter’ of this endeavour, I think it may be of some interest to comment on another contention of Mr. Planché; that the ‘Crispins’ of Châteauceaux were a branch of the Crispins, battle-leaders of the Norman Dukes; and from this make a general point concerning the obsession with patriarchy in genealogy.

James Robinson Planché: “There is a charter of foundation of the priory of Châteauceaux, printed by Morice in his “Histoire de Bretagne,” Preuves, tom. i, pp. 384-5, which contains some interesting information respecting a branch of the Crispin family to be identified. In English it would run thus: ‘I, Gaufridus (Geoffrey or Godfrey) Crispin, Lord of Châteauceaux (Champtoceaux) for my salvation and the redemption of the soul of my beloved wife Margaret, and with the assent and authority of my brothers, Herluin, Orderic, Joscelin, and Ralph, &c.; and the gift is witnessed by Theobald, his eldest son, the lady Girbergia, his mother”.

The ancestry of this Geoffrey can be tentatively given, caution being the watch-word on any such attempt, as many charters on which genealogies are construed are ‘suspect’, notwithstanding the academic renown of their depository and its staff. As previous notes: What passes as ‘factual’ in most accounts of the early lineage of the Norman Dukes is nothing more than a preference for a Norwegian or Danish origin, fiercly contested in the 19th century by nationalistic zealots. Other thorns in the side of any truth are discovered through a consideration of chronology applied to monkish chronicles – a cursory study makes them unreliable, and open to being contrived to claim fictional marriage alliances that enhanced the elites’ legitimacy to rule. To merely quote them as references, without considering their validity, is short of the mark.

Thus, tentatively:
1. Roricon, comte du Maine, d. 839, m. Rotrude, dau. of Charlemagne (par Settipani).
1.1. Roricon, comte du Maine, d. 858-865.
1.1.1.Godfroy, comte du Maine, d. 913, m. Godehilde dau. of Charles ‘le Chauve’ and Ermentrude d’Orléans
1.1.1.1. Godfroy, seigneur de Jarzé, d. 958
1.1.1.1 Thibault, seigneur de Jarzé.
1.1.1.1.1. Berthe, d. aft. 992, m. Foulques, seigneur de Briollay, son of Foulques II, comte d’Anjou, dit le Bon, and Gerberge du Maine.
1.1.1.1.1.1. Foulques de Beauvau, seigneur de Jarzé, d. 1014.
1.1.1.1.1.1.1. Giraud de Beauvau, seigneur de Jarzé, m. a dau. of Herfast de Crepon, it is claimed, sister of Osbern de Crepon, who m. Emma d’ Ivry. Guillaume of Jumièges records that another sister married Osmund de Conteville. Their son was Foulques d’Anet. Gilbert Crispin I. married his sister/daughter, thus explaining Prevost’s statement that there was an obvious connection between the FitzOsborns, decendants of Osborn de Crepon, and the Crispins, without its basis being known. ‘Nous ignorons à quel titre Gislebert Crespin etait appele à ratifier cette donation; mais nous supposons que ce pouvait être à raison de quelque alliance avec la famille d’Ivri, dont le souvenir est perdu (‘Ordericus Vitalis’, ed. le Prevost et. al., p. 398, 1840). It also explains how Conteville came to be dower of Hesilia Crispin, it passing to her husband, William Malet.

(That Gilbert sported the cognomen ‘Crispin’ may have been the result of a favourite device of the Normans; a pun joining a physical characteristic (his recorded crinkly hair) with an ancestry (Crepon) orthographically synonomous with Crispin (crinkly). Gilbert’s real name (not the French or latin version) would have been Gislebert (Germanic Gisilberht or Gisalberht; its fem. form being Gisela), which equates to ‘noble offspring’. Herfast’s name is a form of Haerfest (OE), Herbist (OHG); Herfst (Dutch). These are Saxon terms meaning harvest, and are seen in the statements ‘god sumer’, ‘god harfest’. They represent a distinctly Saxon form of harvest, being distinguishable from the Scandinavian forms Haust (ON), Hdst (OSw.); Host (OD). It is therefore likely that the family of Crepon were of some Saxon association. Dudo of Saint-Quentin claimed that Gunnor (Harfast’s sister, and wife of Richard 1) was of noble Danish origin, without specifying whether this was a paternal association. Dudo’s account of the Norman hierarchy is contained in his account of “Rollo’s dream”, in which the Normans are described as “birds of many colours”, i.e. of a racial mixture).

Harfast names Angoht (Ansgot) as one of his milites in a ducal charter (“Ego Arefastus notum esse volo omnibus christianis”, etc.), perhaps this one:
1. Richard, ‘the Great Prince’, br.-in-law of Herfast, who was the grandfather of Gilbert Crispin’s wife.
1.1. Godefroy d’Eu.
1.1.1. Heloise (I suggest), m. Ansgot. Heloise received Bonneville as dower.
1.1.1.1. Herluin de Bec. Educated in the household of Gilbert de Brionne. ‘Hellouin, in the presence of his two brothers, Odo and Roger, gave to Bec the third part belonging to him from his land of Bonneville, and his lands of Petit-Quevilli, Seine-Inférieure, and Surci, Eure, as well as the land of Cernai-sur-Orbec, Calvados’. (See W. Genet, t. xi, p. 35). This charter dates to c. 1035.
1.1.2. Gilbert de Brionne, second-cousin of Foulques d’Anet and (if his sister) Gunnora d’Anet, wife of Gilbert Crispin, who held the fortress of Tillieres under the ducal family, as a vassal of Gilbert de Brionne. For Ansgot (O.N name Asgautr composed of two elements, a god, of the Goths) to have been the father of Gilbert Crispin, as imagined by antiquarians of the distant past (solely on the basis of the close association of the Crispins to Bec, “founded” by Herluin), he would most likely have been illigitimate. Bec was actually founded on the land of Gilbert de Brionne, and under his patronage.

1.1.1.1.1.1.2. Raoul de Beauvau, Seigneur de Jarzé, gave hommage with his brother to the Comte d’Anjou, in 1025.
1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1. Geoffroi de Beauvau, Seigneur de Jarzé, m. Margaret d’ Argouges, dau. of Charles d’ Argouges and Sprotte de Grantemesnil, dau. of Guillaume de Grandmesnil and Sprote de Crépy. She was the sister of Drogo de Mantes (an ally of William the Conqueror), Count of Valois, who m. Godgifu, dau. of Æthelred “the Unready”, King of the English, and Emma (dau. of Richard I, ‘the Fearless’, Duke of Normandy and Gunnor), parents of Edward the Confessor.

Between 1050-1060, this Geoffroy, lord of Castrum CeIsum (Chateauceaux) glfted to the monks of Marmoutier. With the consent of his mother, Aenor, and his four brothers Hardouin, Oderic, Goscelin and Raoul, the chapel built by his parents and dedicated to Saint-Jean-Buptiste. This gift included the vineyards and cultivated lands surrounding the castle, the Priory of Chateauceaux, with its tithes, as well as half of the fisheries of the Loire. He also freed from all tolls the boats (going to Marmoutier) which descended or ascended the river. These gifts were confirmed by the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey Martel, who signed the original charter. (See Paul Alexandre Marchegay, ‘Archives d’Anjou: recueil de documents et mémoires’, v. ii., 1853).

1.1.1.1.1.1.3. Thibaud de Jarzé, vassal of Geoffroy Martel in Châteauceaux. Don fait à Saint-Serge, par Geofroi de Jarzé, du dotalicium de sa mère avec le consentement de celle-ci (S. Serg., p. 193). Promisit insuper illam partem quam in eodem altare mater ejus habebat post mortem videlicet matris suae (Cod. sec. S. Serg., n. 50). Donavit illis omnem suam partem quse sibi de Buiscello conveniebat et matris (S. Trin. Vind., f. 35). S. Pétri Carnot. , p. 223, avant 1080. Donation anticipée d’un bien appartenant à L’oncle du donateur (Id., p. 485).
1.1.1.1.1.1.3.1. Amauri Crespin, m. Ermengarde. “Chartes originales”: “don par Amaury Crespin, Almaricus Crispini, seigenur de Chantoceaux, Castri Celsi, et sa femme Ermengarde, surnommée Guarmaise, de l’église Saint-Mainbeuf d’Angers et de celles de Beaufort, de l’église Saint-Mainbeuf d’Angers et de celles de Beaufort et de Bessé, de Belfort et de Bessi, qui est confirmée par le comte Foulques, sa femme Aremburge et leur fils aîné Geoffroy, de La Flèche, et encore par l’évêque de Nantes à Chantoceaux; et comme le donateur n’a pas de sceau, il fait souscrire de nombreux témoins, et lui-même, sa femme, leurs deux fils apposent leur croix, comme ils peuvent, sicut manus indocta potuit (1124-1126, magnifique original); don par le même Amaury de six septerées ad Crucem Adeladis prope scilicet Baissiacum; abandon par Guérin Gislier de tout droit sur les prés, aunaies et bois donnés par son père aux moines qui lui donnent en reconnaissance 10 s. et un poulain, un porc à sa femme, deux deniers à chacune de ses deux filles” (1125-1130).
1.1.1.1.1.1.3.1.1. Thibaud Crespin, held the seigneuries of Tilliers and Montfaucon, two municipalities in the department of Maine-et-Loire (Beaupréau region).
1.1.1.1.1.1.3.1.1.1. Amauri Crespin. About 1170, the lord of Châteauceaux and Montfaucon was another Amauri Crespin, perhaps the son of this Thibaud.
1.1.1.1.1.1.3.1.1.1.1. Geoffroi, who made a donation to the abbey of Marmoutier, dated l185, gifting lands at Châteauceaux; a farm, a fishery, rights of use in his wood, etc. At the same time, he confirmed the many donations made previously by his vassals; naming almost all members of the family of Geoffroî, namely: his mother Girberge, his brother Simon, already dead, his wife Marguerite, his three sons, Simon, Robert, and Thibaud Crispin, the eldest, who succeeded his father in the last years of the twelfth century. (Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes, v. 5, 15, 1854). He made these donations for the soul of his uncle, Robert Crespin, and to those of his father and his ancestors. Amauri de Peston, also nephew of Robert Crespin, gave them his tithes of the mill and the fishing of his deep-shore pond, in consideration for the monks to say a daily mass before the altar of the crucifix for the rest of the souls of these benefactors. (Memoirs of the Archaeological Society of Touraine, v. 25, 1875).
1.1.1.1.1.1.3.1.1.1.2. Amauri de Peston, also nephew of Robert Crespin, gave them his tithes of the mill and the fishing of his deep-shore pond, in consideration for the monks to say a daily mass before the altar of the crucifix for the rest of the souls of these benefactors. (Memoirs of the Archaeological Society of Touraine, v. 25, 1875).
1.1.1.1.1.1.3.1.1.2. Robert Crespin, lord of Châteauceaux and Montfaucon in 1180. He was succeeded by his nephew, Geoffroi.

The reason that the Crispins of Châteauceaux and the family of Gilbert Crispin were considered synonomous by some was that they probably shared shared a common ancestor (through the female line) in Herfastus, and were non-consanguineous cousins; reflected perhaps by a shared useage of the name Amaury. Gilbert Crispin’s son, William Crispin I. had a wife named Eve de Montfort, the sister of Norman frontier lord Simon de Montfort (W. Frolich, trsl., The Letters of Anselme of Canterbury, 1990-1994, nos. 22, 98, 118, and 147). They were of the house of Montfort L’Amaury. The Crispins of Châteauceaux also had familial links to the English aristocracy, as Gilbert Crispin’s family; Hesilia, sister of William Crispin I. m. William Malet, who was of part English blood.

There is an unfortunate tendency in genealogical enquiry to focus on patriarchs – to chase Prasutagus and ignore the other half (of us all).

copyright m stanhope 2018