THE LORDS OF ARDRES
In the History of the Norman Conquest (2nd ed.) we read of Eustace of Boulogne:
An incidental notice of one of his followers throws some light on the class of men who flocked to William's banners, and on the rewards which they received. One Geoffrey, an officer of the Abbey of Saint Bertin at Saint Omer, who had the charge of its possessions in the County of Guines, sent his sons, Arnold and Geoffrey, to the war ... and in the end they received a grant of lands both in Essex and in the border shires of Mercia and East-Anglia, under the superiority of their patron Count Eustace (iii. 314).
In an Appendix on 'Arnold of Ardres', which Mr Freeman devoted to this subject (iii. 725-6), he gave the 'Historia Comitum Ardensium' (of Lambert of Ardres) for his authority, and he verified, by Domesday, the Manors which Lambert assigns to 'these adventurers', holding that a Bedfordshire estate was omitted, while 'Stebintonia', which he identified with Stibbington, Hunts, was wrongly included, as it was 'held of Count Eustace by Lunen'.
The first point to be noticed here is that 'these adventurers' were the sons (as Lambert explains) not of any 'Geoffrey', a mere Abbey officer, but of a local magnate, Arnold, Lord of Ardres. The next is that Lambert was quite correct in his list of Manors.
In the fourth series of his historical essays Mr Freeman included a paper on 'The Lords of Ardres', for which he availed himself of Dr Heller's edition of Lambert in the Monumenta (vol. xxiv). In this edition the passage runs:
Feodum Stevintoniam et pertinencias eius, Dokeswordiam, Tropintoniam, Leilefordiam, Toleshondiam, et Hoilandiam (cap. 113, p. 615).
Dr Heller, on this, notes:
Secundum 'Domesday Book' recepit Ernulfus de Arda Dochesworde, Trupintone (com. Cantabrig.) et Stiventone (comit. Bedford) a comite Eustacio ... e contra Toheshunt [sic] Hoiland, Leleford recepit ab eodem comite Adelolfus de Merc (prope Calais).
This note enabled Mr Freeman to identify 'Adelolfus' (which he had failed to do in the Norman Conquest), though he must have overlooked the identification of 'Stevintonia' (namely Stevington, Beds.), for we find him still writing:
But of the English possessions reckoned up by our author two only ... can be identified in Domesday as held by Arnold ... The local writer seems to have mixed up the possessions of Arnold with those of a less famous adventurer from the same reign, Adelolf—our Athelwulf—of Merck (pp. 184-5).
And he again insisted that 'Arnold had other lands in Bedfordshire'.
We will now turn to an entry in the Testa de Nevill from the 'milites tenentes de honore Bononie':
Comes de Gines tenet xii. milites, scilicet—in Bedefordescire, in Stiveton et Parva Wahull iii milites, in Cantabr' in Dukesword, et Trumpeton iii milites ... in Essex, Tholehunt et Galdhangr' iii milites, in Hoyland' et Lalesford ibidem iii milites.
Here we have all the Manors mentioned by Lambert (with their appurtenances) assigned to the Count of Guines, the heir of Arnold of Ardres; and we can thus believe the Testa entry (p. 272) of Tolleshunt and Holland, 'quas idem comes et antecessores sui tenuerunt de conquestu Angliæ'. But the Testa does more than this; it informs us that Holland and Lawford were held of the Count by 'Henry de Merk'. Now, 'Adelolf' de Merk is found in Domesday holding many Manors direct from Eustace of Boulogne, and these Manors are divided in the Testa between his descendants Simon and Henry de Merk.[1] It is, therefore, possible that he held the three Essex Manors in 1086, not directly from Count Eustace, but, like his descendant, from their under-tenant (Arnold). This raises, of course, an important question as to Domesday.[2]
It is interesting to observe that the village of Marck in the Pas de Calais has, through Adelolf and his heirs, transferred its name to the Essex parish of Mark's Tey, though not to that of Marks Hall (so named in Domesday).
While on the subject of the Lords of Ardres, it may be convenient to give the reference to a letter of mine to the Academy (May 28, 1892), explaining that Lambert's 'Albericus Aper', who puzzled Dr Heller and Mr Freeman, was our own Aubrey de Vere, first Earl of Oxford, and that Lambert's statement (accepted by Mr Freeman) as to the parentage of Emma, wife of Count Manasses, had been disproved by Stapleton.
[1] An interesting charter belonging to the close of Stephen's reign shows us Queen Matilda compensating Henry 'de Merch' for his land at Donyland (one of these Manors)—which she was giving to St John's, Colchester—'de redditibus transmarinis ad suam voluntatem'. Another and earlier charter from her father and mother (printed by Mr E. J. L. Scott in the Athenæum of December 2, 1893) has Fulco de merc and M. de merc among the witnesses.
[2] The non-appearance of Arnold's brother, 'Geoffrey', in Domesday which has been deemed a difficulty, is accounted for by Lambert's statement that he made over his English possessions to Arnold.
EARLY IRISH TRADE WITH CHESTER AND ROUEN[1]
The eighth report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts speaks of the records of the city of Chester as 'beginning with Henry the Second's writ of licence to the citizens of Chester to trade in Durham [sic] as they were wont to do in the time of Henry the First' (p. xv). The records themselves are similarly described in the actual report on them (pp. 355-403) as 'beginning with a curious writ, addressed by Henry the Second to his bailiffs of the city of Durham' [sic]. This, which is among those items spoken of as 'especially interesting and important', figures thus as the head of the calendar:
(1) Henry II. Licence to the burgesses of Chester to buy and sell at Durham [sic] as they were wont to do in the time of Henry I—'Henricus Dei gratia Rex Anglie et Dux Normannie et Aquitanie et Comes Andegavie balluis [sic] de Dunelina [sic] salutem:—Precipio quod Burgenses Cestrie possint emere et vendere ad detaillum [or doraillum] apud Dunelinam [sic] habendo et faciendo easdem consuetudines quas faciebant tempore Regis Henrici avi mei et easdem ibi habeant rectitudines et libertates et liberas consuetudines quas tempore illo habere solebant, teste, Willelmo filio Ald' dapifero Apud Wintoniam.
Durham is not only a most improbable place for such a writ to refer to, but is also an impossible rendering of the Latin name. The interest and importance of this 'curious writ' has, in short, been obscured and lost through the ignorance of Mr J. C. Jeaffreson, to whom the report was entrusted. The charters which follow the writ, and which are printed on the same page, refer to this writ as relating to Ireland; and the town, of course, to which it refers is not Durham but Dublin (Duuelina).
We have, therefore, in this writ an almost, if not quite, unique reference by Henry II to Dublin in the days of his grandfather, and a confirmation of the 'libertates', etc., which the men of Chester had then enjoyed there, just as if his grandfather had been in his own position. Secondly, we have here record evidence, not merely of a recognized connection, but of what might be termed treaty relations between the traders of Chester and the Ostmen of Dublin, long previous to the Conquest of Ireland, thus confirming Mr Green's observation, 'the port of Chester depended on the trade with Ireland, which had sprung up since the settlement of the Northmen along the Irish Coasts'.[2] And this has, of course, a bearing on the question of 'a Danish settlement' at Chester. Thirdly, we learn from this document that at the date of its issue Dublin was governed by bailiffs of the King (ballivi sui).
What, then, was its date? The clue, unfortunately, is slight; but it may not improbably belong to the close of 1175 or early part of 1176. This brings us to the interesting question, why was such a writ issued? Remembering that during his stay at Dublin (November 1171-January 1172) Henry II had granted that city to his men of Bristol, we may hold it in accordance with the spirit of the time, and, indeed, a matter of virtual certainty, that Bristol would have striven on the strength of this grant to exclude 'its rival port' (Conquest of England, p. 443) from the benefits of the Dublin trade. Chester would, therefore, appeal to the King on the strength of its antecedent rights, and would thus have obtained from him this writ, recognizing and confirming their validity.
The Domesday customs of the city (i. 262b) contain a curious allusion to its Irish trade:
Si habentibus martrinas pelles juberet prepositus regis ut nulli venderet donec sibi prius ostensas compararet, qui hoc non observabat xl. solidis emendabat ... Hæc civitas tunc reddebat de firma xlv. lib et iii. timbres pellium martrinium.
There is nothing to show where these marten skins came from, or why they are mentioned under Chester alone. But on turning to the customs of Rouen, as recorded in the charters of Duke Henry (1150-1) and King John (1199), we find they were imported from Ireland.
Quæcunque navis de Hibernia venerit, ex quo caput de Gernes [Guernsey] transierit, Rothomagum veniat, unde ego habeam de unaquâque nave unum tymbrium de martris aut decem libras Rothomagi, si ejusdem navis mercatores jurare poterint se ideo non mercatos fuisse illas martras ut auferrent consuetudinem ducis Normanniæ, et vicecomes Rothomagi de unaquaque habeat viginti solidos Rothomagi et Camerarius Tancarvillæ unam accipitrem aut sexdecim solidos Rothomagi.
Giraldus Cambrensis, it may be remembered, alludes to the abundance of martens in Ireland,[3] and describes how they were captured. We thus have evidence in Domesday of the Irish trade with Chester, even in the days of Edward the Confessor.
[1] The error as to the Chester writ was explained by me in a letter to the Academy (No. 734).
[2] Conquest of England, p. 440.
[3] 'Martrinarum copia abundant hic silvestria' (Top. Hib., i. 24).