When considering the ancestry of such as Geoffrey le Despenser and his son, Thomas le Despenser, a major issue is an over-reliance on the conjectures of antiquarians of old, which are referenced in modern ‘academic’ format, itself not a substitute for quality of content. Genealogical enquiry concerning the medieval period needs to be based on a knowledge of the social norms of that time. One such being the relationship between a lord and his “despenser”, which was invariably familial. It was such ties of ancestral blood which bound “despenser” and his lord in a bond of loyalty.

In that Geofrey le Despenser and his son, Thomas le Despenser, served Ranulf, Earl of Chester, the primary question has always been, what in their ancestries did they have in common? The answer would seem to be the Malets, and in particular, Duran Malet, who took over his brother’s holdings in Surry, which almost certainly included Berghes. This cannot be proven in ways acceptable to modern ‘acadaemia’, therefore is a suggestion devoid of a reference. This sadly misses the point. If it is likely that Berghes was a fief of the Malets, then all consequences that arose from this will lead at all points to the link between Earl Ranulf and his “despensers”, Geoffrey and Thomas; which they do. This is the alternative ‘academic’ process of ‘validation’, in which, where evidence is lacking, a number of ‘circumstances’ fit together (to validate each other), to suggest a clear picture of “what has happened here”.

The following account suggests a relationship between the Malets and the family of King Harald, yet, even if it is not what exactly happened, it is probably reasonably close to what did, and, whatever the case, would not detract from an overwhelming sense of “what happened” to enable Geoffrey le Despenser and his son, Thomas le Despenser, to serve Earl Ranulph. It was not a case that they turned up for a job interview with their cv’s. That was not a social norm of their time.

THE MERCIANS

1. AElfwine.
1.1. Leofwine, ealdorman in 994, named “dux” in royal diploma. “Loofuuinus ealdorman filius Elfuuine”, donated land to Peterborough Abbey. His last witnessing of a royal diploma was in 1023, concerning a grant by Cnut of lands in Newnham.
1.1.1. Leofric, b. ca. 990, Earl of Mercia, bef. 1032, m. (very probably as 2nd wife), Godgifu (Godiva). There is no evidence connecting the legend with this historical Godiva. Leofric (d. 1057) founded the monastery of Coventry. Godgifu may have been a sister of Turold the Sheriff.* “That Turold was really sheriff, and that he gave the manor of Bukenhale to Croyland abbey, rests on the authority of Domesday Book, and it is all we know with certainty about him. But the frequent repetitions of his name in the charters of the priory of Spalding, in enumeration of former lords of the place, shows that he was regarded as its Saxon lord; and the fact that the name of Earl Algar occurs in Domesday Book in the same position, may be thought some corroboration of the assertion that the Countess Godeva, Earl Algar’s mother, was the sister of Turold”. (John Gough Nichols, The Topographer and Genealogist, vol. 1, p. 11, 1846).

Leofric was the uncle of Leofwin, the married Abbot of Coventry Abbey. (David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, p. 103). Leofwin’s son was Leofric, and they were pre-Conquest holders of land in Gainsborough (Quenborough), which became the possession of Geofrey de Guerche and his chief subtenant, Rainald. Geofrey de Guerche probable m. Leofric’s sister, AEleva. (Oxoniensia, vols. 54-55, p. 296, 1991).

Anna Powell-Smith, Open Domesday. Land of Geoffrey of la Guerche. Gainsborough (Quenborough).
Owners: Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Geoffrey of la Guerche.
Lord in 1086: Rainald.
Lord in 1066: Leofwin (father of Leofric), whose pre-Conquest holdings included Burton-on-the-Wolds, Leicestershire.

1.1.1.1. Ælfgar, earl of Mercia, (b. ca. 1010; d. 1062, by father’s ist wife), m. Ælfgifu, who was possibly related to Ælfgifu, dau. of Ælfhelm, ealdorman of Northumbria, and his wife, Wulfrun.(Ann Williams, Ælfgar, earl of Mercia, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004). The latter Ælfgifu was the ist wife (handfasted) of Cnut, who m. 2ndly (by Christian ceremony), Emma of Normandy, dau. of ‘Duke’ Richard and Gunnor. It was quite common to retain a handfasted consort, in conjunction with a church-recognised wife.
1.1.1.1.1. Aldgyth (sister of Earl Morcar of Northumbria), m., as his second wife, King Harald, whose ist (handfasted) wife was “Eadgifu the Fair”, a tenant of Robert Malet, Domesday: Thrandeston, Suffolk. Folio: 310r. Little Domesday Book. People mentioned within entire folio: Eadric of Laxfield, Robert Malet’s predecessor; Godmann, commended to Eadgifu the Fair; Hubert; Hugh (almost certainly “de Berghes/de Avilers”, as hereinafter); Roger Bigod, sheriff of Suffolk, landowner.

1.1.1.2. Wulfgifu, m. … Malet. Her holdings temp. Domeday were mostly in Hartismere Hundred, wherein was Eye, the caput of the Malet family. These estates became those of (1) Hesilia Crispin; (2) her son, Robert Malet. Some of Wulfgifu’s estates had been given to her by Queen Aldgyth. (D.B. 6. Sf. 6/ 229/30).
1.1.1.2.1. William Malet, b. ca. 1025 (“partim Normannus et Anglus”), whose child’s godfather was King Harald, hence the true meaning Guy of Amien’s “compater Haraldi”, m. Hesilia Crispin, b. ca. 1030. We are told by Orderic Vitalis and Guy of Amiens that William Malet was given the task of burying King Harald after the Battle of Hastings.
1.1.1.2.1.1. Lucy Malet, b. ca. 1050, m. *Turold the Sheriff. (K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, “The Parentage of Countess Lucy Made Plain”, Prosopon Newsletter, 2, 1995).
1.1.1.2.1.1.1. Lucy FitzTurold, b. ca. 1075, m. (3) Ranulph de Meschines (1070-1129), son of Ranulph, Viscount of Bayeux. (Keats-Rohan, Prosopon Newsletter, May 1995: “Lucy was William Malet’s thrice-married granddaughter“).
1.1.1.2.1.1.1. Ranulph “de Gernon” de Meschines, 4th Earl of Chester, from 1129 to 1153. Geoffrey le Despenser and his son, Thomas le Despenser, served Ranulph.
1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1. Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester, from 1162 to 1181, m. Bertrade de Montfort, descendant of Hesilia Crispin’s brother-in-law.
1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1. Ranulf de Meschines, b. 1170, d. 1232, 6th Earl of Chester, from 1181, de jure, as a minor.

1.1.1.2.1.2. Durand Malet (b. ca. 1050), held 13 carucates (ca. 1,500 ac.), belonging to Burton in the manor in Prestwold, Leicestershire. Domesday Book records that “Durand holds from Robert Malet, Cransford, Plumesgate Hundred, Suffolk. Robert Malet’s Surry holdings included the Manor of Sutton: “Upon the Inquest the verdict of the Jury was that Durand had seized this estate without the King’s Brief or Livery. (Nathaniel Salmon, Antiquities of Surrey, p. 142, 1736. Sutton is ca, 10 miles N. of Burghes: “There seems to have been a Manor here by the name of Berge, next after Mickelham in the Record. This had been in Edward’s time four Manors, enjoyed by as many Lords (almost certainly one being Robert Malet), who might do with them whither they pleased, and they seem to have gone into Walton Hundred, because it is here asserted that these Lands, now brought into one Manor, and held of the Bishop by one Hugh,* are rated in Walton Hundred, ibid., p. 98. Berge was synonomous with Berghes. *Hugh de Berghes.

It is most reasonably suggested that Hugh de Berghes was synonomous with Hugh de Avilers, tenant of Robert Malet in Thrandeston, Suffolk, and the Hugh de Avilers (or his son), who witnessed the foundation charter of Eye Priory, ante 1120. (Eye Cartulary, no. 55). “Hugh de Avilers gave the town, and the tithe of the market of Eye; all the two parts of his tithe in Brome and Selfħangre, the church churches which then existed or might subsequently be and tithe of the vill, and tithe of thirty acres of land of the erected in Dunwich; the tithes of the vill, and a fair for fee of the earl of Britany (Mr.Dugdale). Mr. Loyd pointed out that Conteville (the Malet holding), lies only 6 milrs S.E. of Auvilliers and he noted that Hugh de Avilers was a tenant of Robert Malet at Brome, Suffolk. Although Auvilliers cannot be ‘proven’ to be of the Malet fee, and this Conteville cannot be ‘proven’ to be the one the Malets donated to Bec Abbey, it is suggested that they were, as a lack of ‘proof’ is often inferior to sense.

1.1.1.2.1.2.1. … Malet  (b. ca. 1075), m. Rainald de Queniborough/Gainsborough, b. ca. 1060, tenant of Geoffrey de la Guerche/Wirce, who received Durand Malet’s 5 carucates of land in Burton-on-the-Wolds, as dower. *Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Folio: 369r. Great Domesday Book. Domesday place name: Gainesburg. People mentioned: Geoffrey de la Guerche. (E 31/2/2/8263).

“Gainsborough is supposed to mark the site of the camp of the Ganii, a tribe whose chief’s daughter became the wife of King Alfred; but probably, it would be on the Castle Hills, now planted in the hamlet of Thonock above Morton. Sweyn, the father of Canute, is said to have died at Gainsborough, and to have been buried here or at York. Canute came up the Trent with his ships, the Humber and its tributaries being the usual scenes of the attacks of the Danes on the eastern coast. In Domesday, Gainsborough was part of the land of Geoffry de Wirce, but it does not appear to have been more than a village till the decay of Torksey, which was in Saxon times a considerable place with many burgesses”. (Charles Anderson, The Lincoln pocket guide, p. 72, 1880). “After the Norman Conquest, the manor of Gainsborough was given by William the Conqueror to Geoffry de Wirce, one of his followers, from whom it passed, in the reign of Henry I., to Nigel di Albini, whose son assumed the surname of Mowbray, and succeeded him in his possessions“. (William White, History, gazetteer, and directory of Lincolnshire, p. 165, p. 1856).

1.1.1.2.1.2.1.1. Thurstan de Queniborough.
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.2. Ralf de Queniborough, b. ca. 1100. Roger de Mowbray (who possessed confiscated Malet lands), gave Queniborough to Ralph de Queniborough and his heirs to hold for the service of one knight (1166).
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.3. m. Hugh de Berghes, probably the son Hugh de Berghes/Avilers. He gifted 3 carucates to Garendon abbey in Burton-on-the-Wolds, later confirmed by son Ansketil together with Ansketil’s uncles, Thurstan, and Ralf.
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.3.1. Ansketil de Berghes, of Burton-on-the-Wolds.
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.3.1.1. Hugh de Berges (Hugh de Prestwold). “Averia autem ipsius Aumarici et hominum suorum, que Hugo de Berghes, ballivus hundredi de Framel, cepit occasione secte predicti hundredi , ei deliberari faciat. (Rotuli Curiae Regis Rolls, 1199). That is, Hugh de Berges was the bailiff in Frameland.
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.3.1.2. Geoffrey le Despenser, of Ranulf, Earl of Chester. “Gaufrido dispensatore et Ivone fratre suo” witnessed a charter of Ranulf, ca. 1150.
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.3.1.2.1.Thomas Dispensator, filius Gaufridi Dispensatoris” (Nichols iii, 2: 815, 817). Dispensator of Ranulf, Earl of Chester. Thomas Despenser, son of Geoffrey Despencer granted and confirmed to Garendon abbey, 10 bovates in Burton with the consent of his overlord for this land, Ansketil de Berges. “Thomas Dispensator, filius Gaufridi Dispensatoris, salutem … x bovatas terre, cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, in campo de Burtona, concessu Asketilli de Berges domini mei de eadem terra “.
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.3.1.2.2. Henry. Confirmation by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, to the church of the Blessed Mary of Norton, and the regular canons there, of whatsover William son of Nighel, Constable of Chester, and his heirs gave them. Witnesses: Philip de Horrebi, Justiciar of Chester, Gwar’ de Vernon, John de Preaus, Thomas Despenser, Henry his brother. (E 40/203).
1.1.1.2.1.2.1.3.1.3. Ivo de Alspath, Constable of Coventry Castle, for Earl Ranulf of Chester.

Thus, a stream of ancestry is suggested, which linked Earl Ranulph with his “despensers”.

It is all about identifying tributaries of blood, by thinking outside a handed-down box (mental tomb). It is not enough to repeat.

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“John, son of Bartholomew de Aveyleres or D’Avillers, held a certain serjeanty in the town of Shelfhanger in the County of Norfolk, and Brome and Erwarton in the County of Suffolk, by the service of being Marshal of the Foot Soldiers of the Counties of Norfolk and Suffolk in the King’s army in Wales, when the King should happen to go thither with his army at the costs of the counties aforesaid”. (Walter Arthur Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, p. 15, 1905).

A facet of medieval and post-medieval life was the often large differences in age between half-siblings. It was quite common for a man to marry at age 25, and remarry to a second wife at age 45 to 55; this second wife being either very young, or a widow. It was also common for there to be a 20 year age gap between full siblings, born over a period of 20 years or so.