Geoffrey Ridel (judge)

Geoffrey Ridel (also Goisfrid ) († November 25, 1120 near Barfleur ) was an Anglo- Norman judge. He was one of the leading judges during the reign of King Henry I and drowned when the White Ship sank .

origin

The origin of Geoffrey Ridel is unclear, but presumably he came from a Norman noble family. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a Ridel family belonged to the noble Norman families in Sicily , and a Geoffrey Ridel served as a henchman to Robert Guiscard between 1061 and 1084 . According to the Domesday Book of 1086, a Geoffrey Ridel came to England from Apulia with a brother of Roger Bigod . It is uncertain whether these persons named are related to the judge Geoffrey or identical. In addition, in the 11th century other persons were named by the same name, but they were probably not Normans. Geoffrey's brother Matthew , who was a monk in Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey , became abbot of Peterborough Abbey in 1102 , and Geoffrey leased the Pytchley estate from the abbey . Matthew died in October 1103. The return of the property later led to a dispute with Petersborough Abbey, but Geoffrey Ridel kept it until his death.

Rise as judge under Heinrich I.

Around 1105, Ridel was first mentioned as a witness to documents from King Heinrich I. Before 1106 he owned the lands of Robert de Buci , the center of which was Great Weldon in Northamptonshire . 1106 he was first appointed as a member of a court, appeals against Osbert , the Sheriff of Yorkshire to consider. In 1109 he took part in a royal council meeting in Nottingham . He then served repeatedly as a judge, including in Winchester . Since he ruled in financial disputes, he is considered one of the judges at the forerunner of the later Court of Exchequer . The chronicler Heinrich von Huntingdon later referred to him as a judge for all of England, which he probably only wanted to differentiate him from judges who only worked in one county. Ridel, however, probably did not have the same significance as the judge Ralph Basset , but rather was primarily active in the Midlands . He also accompanied King Henry I to Normandy , although he did not attest to any documents there. He drowned in 1120 when the White Ship sank while it was en route from Normandy to England.

Family and inheritance

Ridel had married Geva, daughter of Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester . Allegedly she was just an illegitimate daughter, but there is no evidence of this, even if she did not inherit her father's title or possessions after the death of her brother Richard in 1120. As a widow, Geva founded Canwell Priory in Staffordshire . Ridel's heiress became his daughter Maud, who married Richard Basset . Maud's son Geoffrey took the name Ridel again. The chancellor of the same name and later Bishop Geoffrey Ridel was probably a great-nephew of the judge Geoffrey Ridel.

Web links

• Judith A. Green: Ridel, Geoffrey (d. 1120). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ^ Katherine Keats-Rohan: Domesday People. A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents , 1066–1166. Boydell, Woodbridge 1999, ISBN 0-85115-722-X , p. 230.