Category: Matilda

Death of Robert, Earl of Gloucester

31/10/2017

On the 31st October 1147 occurred death of Robert, Earl of Gloucester the illegitimate son of Henry I and a chief supporter of his half-sister Matilda during the Anarchy.

Robert of Gloucester was a proposed candidate for the throne of England. In the Gesta Stephani it is written:

"Among others came Robert, Earl of Gloucester, son of King Henry, but a bastard, a man of proved talent and admirable wisdom. When he was advised, as the story went, to claim the throne on his father's death, deterred by sounder advice he by no means asserted, saying it was fairer to yield it to his sister's son than presumptuously to arrogate it to himself."

But because of his illegitimacy, he was ruled out, however, in 1139 Matilda was heading for England to enforce her right to the throne of England. On the death of her father Matilda was in Anjou with her husband, but on hearing that Stephen had usurped the throne she left there for Normandy. She, along with Gloucester, set out for England.

On the 2nd February 1141 Ranulf, Earl of Chester seized control of Lincoln Castle and fortified it against attack, the people of Lincoln appealed to the King for help. Stephen responded, riding to Lincoln at the head of his army, it is said that he placed his bowmen and siege machines on the west front of Lincoln Cathedral, which faces the castle across Castle Hill, but soon after the arrival of Stephen, Gloucester came to Matilda’s aid. The inhabitants of the city joined Stephen's forces against Gloucester's army, but the royal army was overwhelmed. The city itself suffered for its support of King Stephen many of its inhabitants killed by the victorious army under Gloucester. Eventually, the King was taken prisoner imprisoned at Bristol.

Six months later the tables were turned and Gloucester was himself captured on a bridge in the Hampshire village of Stockbridge following a rout at Winchester and imprisoned. Matilda later escaped from her guards at Devizes by disguising herself as a corpse and being carried out for burial.

Robert of Gloucester died five years later at Bristol Castle, the very castle in which the king was held. He was buried in the St James' Priory, Bristol, which he had founded.

A year later, following Gloucester's death, Matilda and her son Henry, the future Henry II returned to Normandy.

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Matilda of Scotland

10/11/2016

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On the 11th November 1100 Edith, or as history knows her Matilda, married Henry I of England.

Their marriage followed the death of Henry's brother William Rufus in the New Forest just three months before.

It is unknown if Henry had met Matilda before their marriage, but the suggestion is that he may have first seen her at William's court. Previous to her marriage, Matilda had resided in Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, living there under the guidance of Christina, her 'wicked' aunt. Christina had been Abbess of Romsey since 1086 and was Matilda's mother, Margaret of Scotland's sister. Following this Matilda lived at Wilton Abbey, a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, where she was well educated.

Because Matilda's home for the previous fourteen years had been a convent there was a worry that she had taken vows and was a nun, however any objections to the marriage came to nothing and the marriage went ahead.

Matilda gave Henry two children, William, whose death in 1120 plunged the country into what has become known as The Anarchy in which Matilda's daughter, also Matilda was embroiled in power struggle with her cousin Stephen over the empty throne of England.

Henry I was, to put it politely, a bit of a ladies-man, having numerous illegitimate offspring and as many mistresses, I have often wondered if Henry's philandering was the reason Matilda's children were born in the first four years of their eighteen
year marriage. However, it is more than likely that the lack of other children was a result of a difficult birth.
Another thought is that following her fourteen years in a convent she believed, as she was taught, that sex was for the procreation of children and not for pleasure and returned to a life of celibacy or was it the other way around, maybe Matilda's
lack of interest in the bedroom was part of the reason Henry went looking else where.

Of course, a wife of a king had to accept that his affections were often given to other women and the medieval woman didn't
necessarily see sex as a sin, whatever the real reason by her death in 1118 Matilda had only one surviving child but
was regarded by her people as a good and saintly woman.

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Mohun, Norman Lords of Dunster.

15/5/2015

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The Mohun Family of Dunster
The Mohun family story from 1050 to 1268 can be viewed here:
http://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/mohun-of-dunster.html

Nevertheless, William was named in this work as “Le Viel Willame de Moion” where it is stated “Ont avec li maint compagnon," which roughly translated means “to have many comrades.” There is little mention of William in books I have read but the main concentration of interest in William via the internet is the meaning of the above quote.“Ont avec li maint compagnon." The term Viel in our own language means old and therefore implies that he is the elder of two William Mohuns.

The early Mohuns were landlords under Robert Count of Mortain, half brother to the conqueror and the biggest land owner in the south-west. The Mohuns prospered under the reigns of the first Norman kings and with the county of Somerset ‘settled’ they were able to fund the building of religious houses. William's son, also William was the most prominent of the Mohuns becoming infamous in the west country during the power struggle between Matilda and Stephen. Mohun sons and grandsons found themselves caught up in the troubles that Richard I, King John and the Barons Wars brought to the country. Dynastic marriages into the FitzPiers/deClare family and later the de Ferrers see the family hovering on the fringe of England’s power base with a connection to the family of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, regent of England. The Mohun line continues past my direct ancestor Alice Mohun, who married into the Beauchamp family, to her nephew John Mohun. By the middle of the fortheenth century the last male Mohun had died childless and his wife left in control of the estate, eventually Joan Mohun passed Dunster into the hands of Elizabeth Luttrell whose descendants held the castle and manor for the next 600 years.

Today the castle is run by the National Trust, it was bequeathed to them in 1976 by the last Luttrell one Geoffrey Walter Fownes Luttrell. It is now graded by the trust as a Grade 1 listed building

Dunster Castle by Stephen Biesty

Robert Wace presents Le Roman de Rou to Henry II

Medieval Gatehouse of Dunster Castle

Today I begin the story of the Mohuns, Norman Lords of Dunster in the county of Somerset.

This family were eleventh to thirteenth century feudal barons and my 22nd to 28th great grandparents. My direst ancestry within the Mohun’s lasted six generations through the main male line from 1050 to 1257. My direct line ends about 1212 with the birth of a daughter.

The Mohuns, pronounced Moon, owned Dunster Castle which proudly stands on what is known locally as The Tor, which is in fact a very steep hill. The arrival of the Normans saw these lands given to William de Mohun who built a timber castle here to keep an eye on the rebellious English in the West Country. It was a motte and bailey castle, the motte being built at the beginning of the twelth century. The Mohuns lived in and owned the castle until it passed from them to the family of Luttrell.

The progenitor of this ancient family was one William de Moion whose name probably derives from the French village of Moyon which lies just south of St Lo in Normandy, and it seems that this family had considerable land and possessions there. In 1027 these lands formed part of the dowry of Adela, Duchess of Normandy. Mohun descendant's flourished in the west country and their names can be seen in such villages as Ottery Mohun, Tormorham and Grange Mohun in Ireland.

It is more than likely that the first mention of a Mohun is a William whose name is found in “Le Roman de Rou” a work by Wace, a Norman poet. This work covered the history of the Duchy of Normandy at the time of Rollo until the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106, it was written two centuries after the event and therefore must be treated with scepticism.

Dunster Castle as it is today

The castle seen today by visitors is the house as it would have been seen in the seventeenth century, all remains of the medieval castle is the gatehouse and towers in the lower part of the house.

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Death of Robert, Earl of Gloucester

Matilda of Scotland

Mohun, Norman Lords of Dunster.

The Mohun Family of Dunster
The Mohun family story from 1050 to 1268 can be viewed here:
http://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/mohun-of-dunster.html

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Death of Robert, Earl of Gloucester

Matilda of Scotland

Mohun, Norman Lords of Dunster.

The Mohun Family of DunsterThe Mohun family story from 1050 to 1268 can be viewed here: http://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/mohun-of-dunster.html

Archives

Categories

The Mohun Family of Dunster
The Mohun family story from 1050 to 1268 can be viewed here:
http://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/mohun-of-dunster.html