Top of page Name Summary Distribution Map Property List Profile Bibliography Bottom of page

Eadwulf 62

Name

Summary

Eadwulf 62 was a small landowner in south Herefordshire whose two manors were assessed at around 3 hides and worth in the order of £2 10s.

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire	Phil. ref.	Vill	DB Spelling	Holder 1066	Lord 1066	Tenant-in-Chief 1086	1086 Subtenant	Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value	Conf.	Show on Map
Shire Herefordshire	Phil. ref. 15,1	Vill Hope Mansell	DB Spelling Edeulf	Holder 1066 Eadwulf 'of Bickerton'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William fitzBaderon	1086 Subtenant Salomon 'of Ruardean'	Fiscal Value 2.00	1066 Value 1.00	1086 Value 1.00	Confidence B	Map
Shire Herefordshire	Phil. ref. 15,5	Vill Bickerton	DB Spelling Adulf	Holder 1066 Eadwulf 'of Bickerton'	Lord 1066 -	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 William fitzBaderon	1086 Subtenant Geoffrey 'of Lower Hampen'	Fiscal Value 1.00	1066 Value 1.50	1086 Value 1.50	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

Despite the different spellings, these two estates must surely have belonged to the same Eadwulf, since they were only 7 miles apart in south Herefordshire and in the hands of the same tenant-in-chief in 1086. The spellings might be accounted for by the fact that the manors were in different hundreds. William fitzBaderon’s fief, mainly in south Herefordshire and adjoining parts of Gloucestershire, was not constructed from the lands of any one single pre-Conquest landowner, though some blocks of land in individual hands may have passed together. The transmission of the estates may have been complicated by the fact that his base at Monmouth castle (and perhaps the whole fief) had passed through several hands before it reached him: the castle was built by Earl William fitzOsbern (d. 1071); his son Earl Roger de Breteuil and his men held it until 1075, then the Breton Wihenoc until perhaps 1081 (he had certainly gone by 1083), then an obscure Ranulph de Colville, before fitzBaderon took over as Wihenoc’s nephew (LL: 277–8; Bates 1998: no. 268).

Eadwulf held Bickerton, of 1 hide worth 30s., alone and with power of alienation; his stake in Hope Mansell, which Leofric  and he held as two manors, is unknown. Leofric seems not to have held any other land. The vill as a whole was assessed at 4 hides and worth 40s. During the Domesday proceedings the men of Herefordshire testified that a third of it belonged to Gloucester abbey in 1066, but the abbey’s own return does not mention the place.

These rather small estates lie some 45 miles from the nearest manor belonging to Eadwulf 60 and clearly did not belong to him.

Bibliography

Bates 1998: Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I (1066–1087), ed. David Bates (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998)

LL: The Text of the Book of Llan Dâv, reproduced from the Gwysaney Manuscript, ed. J. Gwenogvryn Evans (Oxford: privately published, 1893)