Ernulf de Hesdin

[6] Engelram and his wife, Matilda,[7] emulated and continued the work of Walter and immediately set about rebuilding the monastery at Auchy-lès-Hesdin, which had been destroyed by the Normans.

Ernulf must have come to maturity under the rule of Walter I but he had close links with Engelram and they appear at a number of points as allies and as benefactors of religious establishments.

[14] It is likely Arnulf served William the Conqueror with some distinction at some stage during the Norman conquest of England, as it would otherwise be difficult to account for his great wealth and power at the time of Domesday Book.

The Liber Monasterii de Hyda, the chronicle and cartulary of Hyde Abbey, was to describe him in later life as statura procerus, industria summus, possessionibus suffultus[15]—"tall in stature, outstanding in activity, well-supported by possessions"—which accords with a successful military career.

In 1081 his gift of an estate to Gloucester Abbey was witnessed at Salisbury by the Conqueror himself, Queen Matilda, Princes Robert and Henry, the two archbishops, two further bishops, and other dignitaries:[17] signalling great prestige.

[18] Probably later that year he was at Hastings to witness royal confirmation of St Osmund's establishment of Salisbury Cathedral as a collegiate church of secular clergy.

[19] Ernulf was involved in the king's attempts to conquer Normandy, which was largely under the rule of the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose.

Engelram and his vassals, including Ernulf, mobilised for war and it seems that part of their preparations involved religious donations, primarily to the Priory of St George, very near Hesdin.

Count Robert gladly agreed to guarantee these gifts during the coming conflict and permitted the priory to be made subject to Anchin Abbey.

[21][22] William's invasion fleet was delayed until March 1094[23] and his campaign was then stalled by the intervention of King Philip I of France on the side of Robert Curthose.

[15] The main group of participants were brought to trial by combat at Salisbury in January 1097[27] and some received brutal justice, William II, Count of Eu, being castrated and blinded.

Although Ernulf's lands, like those of the great territorial magnates, were widely dispersed, a distribution maps show a marked concentration running south west along the Cotswolds, through Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, then continuing to the Mendip Hills in Somerset and across to central Wiltshire.

The T. R. E. or Tempore Regis Eduardi values represent the Domesday estimate of an estates worth "in the time of King Edward", that is on the eve of the Norman conquest.

seven Gloucester burgesses, but the bulk of the income came from the 62 village households[33] and agricultural resources, including four mills, ample pasture and dairying, which produced sheep's cheese.

However, Ruislip, not far from the capital had seen a fall in value since 1066, although its 53 households included four French colonists,[34] possibly among Ernulf's own retainers, and its woodland provided food for 1,500 pigs.

Download coordinates as: Ernulf also held estates as a tenant and vassal, but only of the very greatest landholders, including Odo, Earl of Kent, who was the Bishop of Bayeux and the king's estranged half-brother.

Here the value of the manor had risen from only £9 at the time of Edward the Confessor to £24 at Domesday, which seems to be connected with the growth of the town as a centre of trade under Ernulf's control.

[36] Download coordinates as: Barkly, commenting on the account of Ernulf's last year in the Liber de Hyda, points out: "This entire renunciation of his lands, however, can hardly be reconciled with the known facts.

Emmelina, his wife, and Avelina, his daughter, continued to confirm his grants and, thirty years after his death, his son and namesake still held some of the same manors.

[39] Despite some outstanding issues, however, it seems that a large proportion of Ernulf's estates passed through the normal channels of inheritance and it is unlikely his family were ever left landless by a grand gesture.