Robert Fitzharding

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The memorial plaque to Robert FitzHarding , erected around 1742, is in the Lady Chapel of St. Augustine's Abbey, now Bristol Cathedral .

Robert Fitzharding (* around 1095, † 1170 ) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who was enfeoffed with the barony of Berkeley (Gloucestershire) . He rebuilt Berkeley Castle and founded the Berkeley family who still inhabit it today. He was a wealthy Bristol merchant and financier to Henry Plantagenet , Duke of Aquitaine and later King of England, during the period known as anarchy .

Fitzharding founded St. Augustine's Abbey, which was renamed Bristol Cathedral after the Reformation . Many members of the Berkeley family were buried in it and some of their portraits are still there.

As Horace Round wrote, he was one of the very few Anglo-Saxon nobles who could maintain their status in Norman England and successfully integrate, if not the only, into the Norman nobility.

origin

It is widely believed that Robert Fitzharding is the grandson of Eadnoth the constable who held this office under King Edward the Confessor and King Harold . held. Robert's father Harding of Bristol was the sheriff of Bristol and had a house on Baldwin Street. Robert later built a large house on Broad Street. He was a patrician of the town and apparently rich enough to buy expensive mansions south and west of Bristol, including Redcliffe, Bedminster, Leigh, Portbury and Billeswick , from Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester .

The Barony of Berkeley

Berkeley Castle
Berkeley Castle

During the conflict that came to be known as "The Anarchy", Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (illegitimate son Henry I), held Bristol Castle for the Plantagenets cause against King Stephen. In 1152 Roger de Berkeley was removed from the Plantagenets armed forces of Berkeley Castle, which he had received from King Stephen for refusing to pledge allegiance to the Plantagenets. Affiliated lands included Berkeley, Filton, Horfield, Almondsbury, and Ashleworth, as well as other English and Welsh possessions, including lands in Gwent and Glamorgan . Roger de Berkeley only kept a shrunken barony around Dursley . After the victory and coronation of King Henry II, Fitzharding was awarded a barony previously bestowed by King Stephen to Roger de Berkeley, including Berkeley Castle itself, which became the headquarters of the new barony, as a reward for his support. Fitzharding gave further foundations from these lands to the St. Augustin Abbey. In 1153/54 Fitzharding received a royal charter from Henry II with permission to rebuild Berkeley Castle. The previous castle was originally a motte (castle) with a walled outer courtyard, built by William FitzOsbern shortly after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and then renovated by Roger de Berkeley and his father. Fitzharding built the "Shell Keep" between 1153 and 1156 on the site of the former Motte. The curtain wall followed around 1160–90.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b David Verey, Alan Brooks: Pevsner Architectural Guide, Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean . Yale University Press, New Haven 2002, ISBN 0-300-09733-6 , pp. 176 (English).
  2. ↑ David Sivier: Anglo-Saxon and Norman Bristol . Tempus, Stroud, Gloucestershire 2002, ISBN 0-7524-2533-1 , pp. 151 (English).
  3. ^ John Rogan: Bristol Cathedral: History and Architecture . Tempus, Charleston 2000, ISBN 0-7524-1482-8 , pp. 138 (English).
  4. ↑ a b c Joseph Bettey: Bristol Cathedral: History and Architecture . Ed .: John Rogan. Tempus, Charleston 2000, ISBN 0-7524-1482-8 (English, 15-19 pp.).
  5. ^ A b c David Walker: Historic Churches and Church Life in Bristol . Ed .: Joseph Bettey. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Bristol 2001, ISBN 0-900197-53-6 (English, 12-18 pages).
  6. ↑ a b c David Sivier: Anglo-Saxon and Norman Bristol . Tempus, Stroud, Gloucestershire 2002, ISBN 0-7524-2533-1 , pp. 75-76 (English).
  7. ^ "SC4" at Berkeley Castle Muniments, Agreement Robert FitzHarding and Roger de Berckele
  8. ↑ Descriptive Catalog of Charters in the possession of The Rt. Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge, Berkeley Castle, Compiled with Introduction, Notes and Indices by Isaac Herbert Jeaves, of the Department of Manuscripts, British Museum. Bristol, 1892, Charter no.4; Transcript also in: Smyth, Lives of the Berkeleys, B. 3, pp. 325-326.
  9. ↑ a b c d Burke: Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, Vol . 1 . Burke's Peerage, Switzerland 1999, ISBN 2-940085-02-1 , pp. 254 (English).
  10. ^ A b Donald Jones: Bristol Past . Phillimore, Chichester 2000, ISBN 1-86077-138-6 , pp. 5 (English).
  11. ↑ Stacy, N. Henry of Blois and the Lordship of Glastonbury, in The English Historical Review, Oxford, vol CXIV, Feb. 1999, pp.13-14.
  12. ^ Sanders, 1960, "Certain" Barony of Berkeley, p.13
personal data
SURNAME Robert Fitzharding
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Saxon nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH around 1095
DATE OF DEATH 1170