Bernard de Neufmarché

The Brecon Castle founded by Bernard de Neufmarché

Bernard de Neufmarché , also Novo-mercatii or of Newmarch († around 1125) was a Norman nobleman. He conquered the Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog towards the end of the 11th century .

origin

He was a son of Geoffrey, a son of Thureytel, Lord of Neuf-Marché , a village in what is now the department of Seine-Maritime in the region Haute-Normandie and his wife Ada, a daughter of Richard of Hugh Ville.

Participation in the Norman Conquest

Bernard presumably took part in the conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings . He married a daughter of Osbern, who had built a castle in Herefordshire before the Norman conquest , and bought property in Herefordshire after 1086. In the uprising of the Norman barons against William Rufus led by Odo von Bayeux in 1088, he attacked the city of Worcester together with other lords from Herefordshire and Shropshire and with the support of Roger de Montgomerie and a large number of Welsh allies . However, with the help of the Bishop of Worcester, Wulfstan, the residents were able to repel the attack. Despite his involvement in the attack, Bernard, like most other barons, was not punished by the king after the rebellion was put down.

Conquest of Brycheiniog

Unlike his father Wilhelm I , who after paying homage to Rhys ap Tewdwr in 1081 prevented attacks by the Norman barons on the Welsh principalities, Wilhelm Rufus tolerated attacks by the Norman barons on Welsh territory . Bernard de Neufmarché conquered the Welsh rule Glasbury in the Wye Valley around 1088 . In the following years he was able to conquer other areas of the small kingdom of Brycheiniog and supported several attacks by other Welsh princes on the kingdom of Deheubarth . Faced with the threat of Bernard's growing Norman rule on the eastern border of Deheubarth, Rhys ap Tewdwr, the king of Deheubarth, allied with Bleddyn ap Maenarch, the king of Brycheiniog. In the Easter week of 1093 there was a battle between the Welsh and the Anglo-Normans at Brecon , in which Bernard was able to defeat the Welsh decisively. Both Rhys ap Tewdwr and Bleddyn ap Maenarch fell and as a result Bernard was able to conquer all of Brycheiniog. As the center of his new rule Brecknockshire he built Brecon Castle , other castles built by himself and his followers to secure Norman rule were Tretower , Crickhowell , Llandovery and Hay . When the uprising against the Norman conquest, begun in North Wales in 1094 under the leadership of Gruffydd ap Cynan and Cadwgan ap Bleddyn , reached Brecknockshire in 1095, the Welsh could not conquer the Norman castles and Bernard was able to regain control of the land.

In the following years he secured his rule by giving two sons and the brother of the killed Bleddyn ap Maenarch small sublords. In the fertile valleys, he settled Norman and English settlers, while the native Welsh population was able to keep the pastureland for their cattle on the mountain slopes. In Brecon he founded the Benedictine Priory of St John around 1100, today's cathedral. He made a rich donation of real estate to his foundation, but it is controversial whether he was buried in St Peter's Abbey in Gloucester or in its founding in Brecon.

Family and offspring

He left no descendants from his first marriage. In his second marriage he married Nest, a daughter of Osbern FitzRichard and of Nesta, a daughter of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn . He had at least two children with her, a son Mahel and a daughter Sibyl. Nesta later claimed, however, that Bernard was not Mahel's father, which is why King Heinrich I appointed Berndard's daughter Sibyl as heiress. Sibyl married the Constable of Gloucester , Miles FitzWalter , around 1121 .

literature

• William Hunt: Bernard (fl.1093) . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 4, Macmillan, Smith, Elder & Co., London and New York 1885, p. 376.
• Lynn H. Nelson: The Normans in South Wales, 1070-1171 . University of Texas Press, Austin 1966.