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Bernard de Neufmarché

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Bernard de Neufmarché(c. 1050– c. 1125), alsoBernard of NewmarketorBernard of Newmarchwas the first of theNorman conquerors of Wales.[1]He was a minorNormanlord who rose to power in theWelsh Marchesbefore successfully undertaking the invasion and conquest of the Kingdom ofBrycheiniogbetween 1088 and 1095. Out of the ruins of the Welsh kingdom he created theAnglo-Normanlordship of Brecon.

Map of the kingdoms of Wales around the time of Hastings.

His toponymic byname comes fromNeuf-Marchéin Normandy. It wasLatinisedasde Novo Mercato(literally: "from the new market" ), and has sometimes been Anglicised as "Newmarket" or "Newmarch".

Coming to England

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Because Bernard's family had attachments to the monastery ofSaint-Evroul-sur-Ouche,the monkish chroniclerOrderic Vitalisof that foundation had special knowledge of him and his family, though this still does not reduce the general obscurity of his origins or his life when compared to the richerMarcher Lords,like the greatRoger of Montgomery.[2]Bernard was the son of the minor Norman baronGeoffrey de Neufmarchéand Ada de Hugleville, and he was born at the castle ofLe-Neuf-Marché-en-Lionson the frontier betweenNormandyandBeauvais.[3]His ancestors on his mother's side had founded the town ofAuffaysouth ofDieppeon theScie,while his paternal grandfather,Turquetil(possibly known as Turchetil d'Harcourt), had served the youngWilliam II of Normandyas a guardian and was killed in that capacity. On his mother's side he also descended from thedukes of Normandy.[4]

The question of Bernard's participation in theBattle of Hastingsand therefore in theNorman Invasionis subject to debate.[3]While Bernard had close family connections to the port ofSaint-Valery-sur-Sommefrom which William's invading fleet launched, Bernard himself was not the ruler of that city and need not have been in the fleet. He had later connections withBattle Abbey:he established a cell of that abbey in Brecon, but that may have been an analogous foundation intended to mark his conquest of Brycheiniog.[5]Bernard's peculiar absence from theDomesday Bookmore or less damns the case for his presence at Hastings, for it is impossible that a noble participant in the victorious battle should not have received land to be recorded in Domesday if he was still living in 1087.[5]

Rise to power

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Bernard was finally rewarded bythe king,then William II of Normandy, in 1086 or 1087. He received lands inHerefordshireand lands which had devolved to the crown with the deaths ofGilbert fitz ThoroldandAlfred of Marlborough.[6]Gilbert's lands were concentrated in Herefordshire and included the manors ofBach,MiddlewoodandHarewoodin theGolden Valleyand the castles ofDorstone,SnodhillandUrishayconnectingClifford CastletoEwyas Harold,which belonged to Alfred's lordship.[7]Among Bernard's acquisitions from Gilbert was thedomus defensabilisofEardisley.From Alfred he receivedPembridge,BurghillandBrinsop.[5]Of these Snodhill was not founded until the twelfth century and then became thecaputof thehonourof Chandos. Bernard was also established inSpeenandNewburyinBerkshireand Brinsop and Burghill in Herefordshire sometime before 1079. Both these lattervillswere held from his honour ofBreconin the twelfth century. Bernard's omission from Domesday is especially peculiar there. It is possible that he had some kind of exemption.

Probably as a consequence of his rapid rise in themarches,Bernard attracted the attention ofOsbern fitzRichard,who gave him his daughter, Agnes (Nest), whose mother was the Welsh princess Nest, daughter ofGruffydd ap LlywelynandEdith of Mercia,in marriage sometime before 1099.[8]She brought with her adowryof Berrington andLittle Hereford.

All of Bernard's estates lay in the valley of theRiver Wyeand along an oldRoman roadwhich led fromWatling StreettoY Gaerand on intoBrycheiniog.The military possibilities of that road could only have encouraged his subsequent ventures into Wales.[9]

Conquest of Brycheiniog

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Bernard joined therebellion of the marcher lordsagainstWilliam RufusatLentin 1088.[10]Bernard escaped without recorded punishment and the king probably conceded the marcher lords the right to expand their lands by conquest at the expense of the Welsh buffer kingdoms of Brycheiniog,MorgannwgandGwynllwg.[11]Shortly after the settlement with the king, Bernard spearheaded an invasion of Brycheiniog which was to lead eventually to its conquest. Before the end of the year, though, he had capturedGlasbury,for he issued a charter for lands near that place to the abbey of Saint Peter's atGloucester(autumn 1088).[5]

The chronology of events at this juncture is often confused. Bernard may well have already been in power in Brycheiniog by 1088 if he had already inherited a claim to it after the defeat ofRoger de Breteuil,Earl of Hereford,in 1075. In 1088 the king, William Rufus, confirmed a previous charter of Bernard's stating that he had already made an exchange "within his lordship of Brycheiniog" at Glasbury. He also already heldCastell Dinaswhich had probably been built by the Earl of Hereford before 1075.

After the initial conquest of 1088, Bernard continued warring with Brycheiniog until 1090, probably supported byRichard Fitz Pons,the lord ofClifford.[12]Talgarthwas captured early and a castle was constructed atBronllyswhere the riversDulaisandLlynfimeet, a site probably central to thellysof thetywysogof thecommoteof Bronllys.[12]By 1091 Bernard had reached the valley of theUsk,which was at the centre of the kingdom which was to become his own principality.

There is some discrepancy in this description of events also. Richard Fitz Pons was lord ofLlandovery,which he had reached probably throughGlamorgan,already by 1088. Bronllys Castle may not have been built until 1144, whenRoger Fitzmiles,Earl of Hereford, is first recorded granting it as a five-knight's-feemesne baronytoWalter de Clifford,son of Richard Fitz Pons.

According to much later accounts and reconstructions, of dubious accuracy but which contain some references to verifiable history, the king of Brycheiniog,Bleddyn ap Maenarch,allied with theking of Deheubarth,Rhys ap Tewdwr,in 1093 (or perhaps 1094) and tried to attack the forces of Bernard which were building a castle atBreconon the Usk andHondduin the centre of a great plain in his kingdom where several Roman viae met.[13]Bleddyn led a charge up the hill, but the Normans defeated the Welsh and Rhys was killed in battle.Brecknock Priory,which was later founded at the site of the battle, may have been built on the spot where Rhys supposedly fell.[14]Bleddyn died not long after and Bernard was able to advance over the whole of Brycheiniog.

Reliable historical records refer to no king of Brycheiniog after aTewdwr ab Elisewho died after 934. Certainly there is no contemporary reference to a Bleddyn ap Maenarch. The WelshBrutssimply state that "Rhys ap Tewdwr, king of Deheubarth, was slain by the Frenchmen who were inhabiting Brycheiniog." This passage lends evidence to the belief that the conquest of Brycheiniog was mostly finished byEastertide1093 and that the main effect of the battle of Brecon was to open the way to the conquest ofDeheubarth.

Pacification and administration of Brycheiniog

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He followed the Usk down toYstradywand took it, which incited thebishops of Llandaffto protest because the annexation of Ystradyw removed it from their diocese and brought it into the lordship of Brecon, which was under the episcopal authority ofSaint David's.[15]In Spring 1094, the southern Welsh rose in revolt against the Normans that had come to dominate them. Brycheiniog was unaffected and the Normans of that region launched a counterattack fromYstrad TywyandCantref Bychanwhich devastatedKidwellyandGowerbut did not put down the revolt.[15]In 1095 it spread to Brycheiniog and the Welsh of the countryside, allied with their compatriots of Gwynllwg andGwenttook back control of the province while the Normans were forced into their fortified centres.

Two expeditions fromGlamorgancame to the rescue of the garrisons of Brycheiniog. The first was crushed in battle atCelli Carnant,but the second defeated the rebels atAber Llech.[16]What followed was the completeencastellationof Brycheiniog. Among the castles possibly built during Bernard's lordship to defend the entrances to Brycheiniog from the southeast wereTretower,Blaen Llyfni(not attested before 1207–1215), andCrickhowell.

Bernard also extensively enfeoffed his followers with Welsh land.[16]Richard Fitz Pons may have been enfeoffed atCantref Selyffon the western border of Brycheiniog and immediately he began in miniature the process whereby Bernard had come to rule Brycheiniog.[16]However, Richard's son Walter is the first recorded landholder at Cantref Selyff. Furthermore, Bernard enfeoffed the sons of the king he had displaced in the less habitable land, thereby creating a loyal Welsh aristocracy and extracting more out of his land than the Normans otherwise knew how to do.[17]The Normans lived predominantly in the valleys and lowlands in anagrarian societywhile the Welsh kept to the hills and mountains livingpastorally,thus creating an overall economic gain.[18]Among Bleddyn's sons, Gwrgan received Blaen Llyfni andAberllyfniwhile Caradog received an unnamed hill country, and Drymbenog, Bleddyn's brother, was given land neighbouring that of Richard Fitz Pons.

Death and succession

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Bernard died around 1125 and was buried atGloucester Abbey.By then he had established a flourishing borough around his castle of Brecon.Henry Ihad married Bernard's daughterSibyltoMiles Fitz Walter,theHigh Sheriff of Gloucestershire,in 1121 and passed a significant portion of Bernard's honour to him as a dowry, includingHay-on-WyeCastle.[19]According toGiraldus Cambrensisthis was becauseMahel de Neufmarché,the son and heir of Bernard, had mutilated the paramour of his mother. In vengeance his mother, Nesta, swore to King Henry I that her son was illegitimate. Henry was therefore able by law and custom to pass over Mahel and give the land to his friend and confidant Miles Fitz Walter with Bernard's legal heiress in marriage.

References

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Notes

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  1. ^Nelson, 123.
  2. ^Nelson, 83.
  3. ^abNelson, 84.
  4. ^Nelson, 83. He was not, as sometimes claimed, a half-brother of theConqueror,but, rather, a distant cousin.
  5. ^abcdNelson, 85.
  6. ^Nelson, 86. Barlow, 321.
  7. ^Nelson, 86.
  8. ^Nelson, 86. There has been confusion in the past regarding Bernard's wife's identity. He had only one wife and Nest was not his second wife but rather his mother-in-law.
  9. ^Nelson, 87.
  10. ^Nelson, 81.
  11. ^Nelson, 88.
  12. ^abNelson, 89.
  13. ^Nelson, 82.
  14. ^Nelson, 90 and n25.
  15. ^abNelson, 90 and n26.
  16. ^abcNelson, 91.
  17. ^Nelson, 92.
  18. ^Nelson, 93.
  19. ^Holt, 7.

Bibliography

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  • Barlow, Frank.William Rufus.1983.
  • Holt, J. C."Presidential Address: Feudal Society and the Family in Early Medieval England: IV. The Heiress and the Alien."Transactions of the Royal Historical Society,5th Ser., Vol. 35. (1985), pp 1–28.
  • Hunt, William (1885)."Bernard (fl.1093)".InStephen, Leslie(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 4. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  • Maund, K. L.. "Neufmarché, Bernard de (d. 1121x5?)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Nelson, Lynn H.The Normans in South Wales, 1070–1171.University of Texas Press: Austin, 1966.
  • Remfry, P. M.Hay on Wye Castle, 1066 to 1521.ISBN1-899376-07-0.
  • Remfry, P. M.Castell Bwlch y Dinas and the Families of Fitz Osbern, Neufmarché, Gloucester, Hereford, Braose, Fitz Herbert.ISBN1-899376-79-8.
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