General Notes

Son of Osberne de Crepon; guardian of young Duke William of Normandy; Osbern was murdered by William de Montgomery (his cousin). [Falaise Roll, p. 100]

MINOR LINE

!Part of the inner circle during William the Conqueror's reign.  Rewarded magnificently in England.  Given the Isle of Wight and Hereford for his part in the Norman Conquest.  Upon his death his estates were divided between his sons.

!Assigned the defence of occupied England south from Winchester during William's absence.  His and Odo's men behaved badly during William's absence.  The castellans oppressed rich and poor with unjust exactions and insults.  The commanders acted too savagely and refused to hear and judge equitably the complaints of the oppressed; they not only protected the soldiers who were looting and raping but also punished those victims who were foolish enough to complain. [William I and the Norman Conquest]

!When Baldwin VI, count of Hainault and Flanders, the brother of Queen Matilda and the cousin of Philip I of France, died in 1070, his heir, Arnulf III, was young and power remained in the hands of the widow, Richildis of Egisheim. Their rule quickly became unpopular and the boy's uncle, Robert the Frisian, invaded.  William I send William fitzOsbern, earl of Hereford, over to Normandy to help Matilda to cope with the problem, and when Philip raised an army to replace the fugitives, the earl joined the king with a contingent of 10 knights.  If Hereford thought, as Orderic suggests, that he was going to have some sport in Flanders, he was sadly mistaken, for on 20 February 1071 Robert the Frisian fell on the royal army at Bavinchove, near Cassel, drove Philip into flight, captured Richildis, and killed Arnulf and the earl.  William fitzOsbern's body was taken back to Normandy for burial in the monastery he had founded at Cormeilles.  [William I and the Norman Conquest]

!Seneschal of Normandy, he urged the assembled warriors, churchmen, burghers to assist Duke William in his claim to the English throne. [Knight's Popular History of England, Vol. 1, p. 204]

!FitzOsbern died in 1071, but by then, he had built Berkeley, Chepstow, Monmouth, Clifford, Guenta (either Winchester or Norwich) and Wigmore, and rebuilt Ewyas Harold as part of William the Conqueror's defensive system. Chepstow Castle was set up to open up the land route to south Wales, and placed on a natural leg-of-mutton shaped spur of sandstone overlooking a crossing point of the River Wye.  It also had a harbor, open to supplies from Bristol; and from it troops and materials could be pushed upriver, or along the coast. Most of FitzOsbern's half and basic defenses on the rock survive; but they are merely the nucleus for massive 13th century additions by William the Marshall and later, the Bigod earls of Norfolk.  He also built Skenfrith Castle, a substantial and well-designed castle on the west bank of the River Monnow in Gwent, which still commands one of the main routes from England into Wales. [Castles of England, Scotland and Wales, pp. 15, 22, 24, 40]

!Edric the Forester refused obedience to FitzOsbern, as Earl of Hereford, and with the aid of the British, held the district against him. [Knight's Popular History of England, Vol. 1, p. 216]

!Count of Bretville, William the Conqueror's lieutenant and steward in Normandy, first Earl of Hereford. [Magna Charta Barons, p. 262]

The Norman conquest of England owed much to William Fitz-Osbern, earl of Hereford, who died at the battle of Cassel in 1071. [The Norman Advantage, p. 85]

W.F.O. was for a time castellan of York as part of the overall military strategy of William the Conqueror. [The Norman, p. 87]

WFO was the son of Osberne de Crepon. Osbern was murdered when he was guarding the young Duke William in his bedchamber. [Falaise Roll, p. 41]

Breteuil was the caput of the Norman honour of William FitzOsbern, earl of Hereford. His elder son, who inherited the Norman lands, was known as William de Breteuil; Roger his younger son received the English lands and the earldom. [Anglo-Norman Families, p. 43]

WFO was seignior of Breteuil and Pacy, where were located strong fortresses opposing the frontier to France. WFO was the closest personal friend and chief officer of Duke William's household, having succeeded his father as dapifer. He was the first to advise Duke William to go to England and take vengeance on Harold, and later at the assembly of the barons of Normandy, whom Duke William had called together at Lillebonne, when they were demurring and making objections about crossing the sea, WFO contrived to be their spokesman to the Duke. To their utter astonishment he announced that they were unanimous in the determination to support the expedition and would so by doubling the number of knights which their feudal fealty required. WFO commanded the wing at Senlac which was composed of the men of Poix and Boulogne, for which he received as his reward the earldom of Hereford and the lordship of the isle of Wight, the manor of Hanley in Worcestershire and a number in Gloucestershire and elsewhere. In 1067 he was made governor of the recently built castle of Winchester, and he and Bishop Odo were vice regents of the realm during King William's absence in Normandy that year. After the defeat of Edgar Etheling at York in 1068, he was appointed governor of that city and in the following year, in conjunction with Count Brian of Brittany, slaughtered the Welsh before Exeter. King William sent him to Normandy in 1070 to assist Queen Matilda in the government of the duchy. Simultaneously war broke out in Flanders between Richilde, widow of Count Baldwin VI and Robert the Frison. Queen Matilda espoused the cause of Richilde and sent WFO to her support, who being a widower at that time, became a suitor for her hand. She married him and made him titular count of Flanders. He was killed on 22 Feb 1071 at Ravenchoven, near Cassel, by the forces of Robert the Frison, with the Young Count Ernulph, his stepson. The earl was buried in the abbey of Cormeilles of Normandy, which he had founded in 1060. He m.1. Adelina de Toeni, dau. of Roger de Toeni, by whom
he had 3 sons and 2 daus. [Falaise Roll, pp. 41-2]

The seigniory of Pacy was in possession of William Fitz Osberne at the time of the conquest. His son William de Breteuil succeeded to this seigniory at the death of his father in 1074. [Falaise Roll, p. 72]

The fief of Ivry passed to William Fitz Osberne and then to his son, William de Breteuil. [Falaise Roll, p. 63]

Kinsman of William the Conqueror who was given the county of Hereford to protect from Welsh encroachment. The Welsh kingdom of Gwent was extinguished after an existence of almost 700 years by William Fitzosbern, who d. 1071, and his son was imprisoned for treason in 1075. He had no successor as earl of Hereford and thus the pressure upon SE Wales slackened. [A History of Wales, p. 105]

Earl of Hereford, he was the first Norman to plant towns in Wales. He gave to their inhabitants the privileges of the burgesses of Hereford, privileges which were based upon the carter of Breteuil, his home in Normandy; in terms of their charters, almost all the towns of Wales would be daughters and granddaughters of Hereford and Breteuil. [History ..., p. 115]

Archbishop Lanfranc accompanied WFO from England to Normandy in 1071 at which time he witnessed a confirmation and additional donation to the abbey of Lyre. [Falaise Roll, p. 141]

In 1086 the abbey of Cormeilles held the church of Anne in Andover Hundred, Hampshire, the manor of which was held by Goslin de Cormelies in chief. The abbey was founded by WFO; and it seems clear that Goslin had been a follower and tenant of his, his tenure becoming one in chief after the forfeiture of William's son, Roger earl of Hereford, in 1075. [Anglo-Norman Families, p. 33-34]

Earl of Hereford; son of Osborne de Crepon and Albreda de Bayeux; m. Adeliza de Toni. [Charlemagne & Others, Chart 3300b]

From the beginning of Carisbrooke Castle, the Crown had a close interest in the castle. William the Conqueror thought it so important that he gave it to his kinsman, William Fitzosbern, who began the task of turning the old Saxon burh into a Norman castle by building a campaign fort in one corner. He probably also built a great hall, the forerunner of the present building, for it was there that William the Conqueror arrested his own treacherous half-brother Odo in 1082 but there is now no trace of it.
    As the years passed and the Crown became all powerful, so the King was able to exert ever more direct control on this vital bulwark of southern England. The Fitzosberns lost the castle after an unsuccessful rebellion in 1078. [Carisbrooke Castle, p. 2]

'Earl William built the castle of Estriguil, so Domesday Book of 1086 records that the founder of Chepstow Castle was William fitz Osbern, lord of the small Norman town of Breteuil in Calvados, and a close political colleague and companion in arms of William the Conqueror. The Conqueror created him earl of Hereford a few months after the battle of Hastings and William built the first castle at Chepstow as a base for his conquest of the Welsh kingdom of Gwent. Outside the gates of his castle a small town of English and Norman settlers grew up, in which fitz Osbern founded a Benedictine priory--now the parish
church--as a cell of the monastery he founded at Cormeilles, north of Lisieux in Normandy. The town was known as Cheap-stow--the market town. In time, this English name came to replace the Welsh Ystraiggl -- the bend of the river -- sometimes anglicized as Strigoil as the name of the castle.
   William died in battle at Cassel in Flanders in 1071. Four years later his son, Roger of Breteuil, rebelled against the king and forfeited his lands. The castle must have been completed by then, if not by the time of his father's death. [Chepstow Castle, p. 4]

Before March 1067, William the Conqueror appointed William Fitzosbern as earl of Hereford. He was probably not granted the office by written charter, in any case no charter of investiture survives, but there is strong evidence that he received very extensive powers. In a charter of the year 1069 he is styled 'comes palatii,' with clear reference, however, to his post of 'dapifer' at the court of the Norman duke. He had considerable legislative authority, under which he modelled the customs of Hereford upon those of his French town of Breteuil, and enacted that the French burgesses settled in the city should be purged from all transgressions on payment of a fine of 12 pence, except from three reserved offences. There is also strong reason for assuming that he received the whole of the revenues of his earldom, and not merely the third pennies of the city and county. As Domesday Survey was taken after the forfeiture of the earldom it is impossible to ascertain the extent of the crown lands or the number of tenants in chief in his time. But on the whole the evidence shows that Herefordshire should be included among the palatine earldoms, and its important frontier position supports this conclusion. Like most of the great Norman lords, Fitzosbern had a large military retinue, whom he attracted to him by liberal pay, and in whose favour he employed his
legislative powers in limiting the pecuniary penalties incurred by misconduct to a fine of 7 shillings. Fitzosbern's appointment in March 1067 as joint viceroy during William's absence prevented him at first from paying particular attention to the affairs of the shire, where the great opponent of the Normans was Edric the Wild, nephew of Edric Streona, a powerful thegn, who held lands in Herefordshire and Shropshire. On his refusal to submit, the castlemen of Hereford and Richard Scrupe wasted his lands, but in return he allied himself with the Welsh kings, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, Gruffydd's successors, and in August devastated the country as far as the Lugg, returning with a mighty booty. In consequence Earl William hastened to guard the frontier. In his capacity of viceroy charged particularly to secure the north and west he was instructed to erect 'castella' to establish his hold on the country.
   In Hereford itself Earl William established a castle and garrison, the castle being the successor of the fortress destroyed by the Welsh in 1055. Three border castles in the county also owe their undoubted origin to him. In the NW commanding the valley of the Teme and guarding the plains of Herefordshire from attack from that quarter, he built the castle of Wigmore on land called Merestone that had already been devastated. In the extreme west of the county on the southern bank of the Wye, where the valley narrows between the Black Mountains and the hills of Radnor, he built Clifford Castle on devastated ground, shielding the shire from attack from the west, and granted it to Ralph de Todeni, whose dau. Margaret brought it by marriage to Walter de Clifford, Fair Rosamond's father. Although it was within the shire it was not placed in a hundred nor subjected to custom. At Ewyas Harold he rebuilt a former fortification, probably identical with Pentecost's Castle of 1052. It secured the country to the SW, closing the entrance from Monmouthshire and Glamorgan. Before 1086 there existed also a fortified house at Eardisley, some 5 miles NW of Clifford, in the possession of Roger de Lacy, while Overton Castle, in the parish of Richard's Castle, on the Shropshire border, may, like Wigmore, indicate a fortress erected to check the ravages adn control the power of Edric the Wild, who made his final submission in the summer of 1070.
   Earl William, however, once the country was secured behind him by the campaigns of the conqueror, was no longer content to act on the defensive, but began in earnest the conquest of South Wales, ably supported by Walter de Lacy. His sphere of action and authority extended from the boundary of Shropshire to the shores of the Severn. In 1070 he slew Maredudd ab Owain, who had risen to power in Deheubarth after Rhiwallon had fallen in battle in 1068. He extended the confines of his earldom into Wales. At the junction of the Monnow and the Wye he built Monmouth Castle, while at the time of Domesday Caerleon Castle was also included in Herefordshire, with that part of Monmouthshire between the Wye and the Usk, besides Radnor in mid-Wales. In this warfare the men of Archenfield were especially renowned as warriors, and had the privilege of forming the van in advance, and the rear in retreat.
   The whole of the conquests recorded in Domesday ought not, however, to be ascribed to Earl William, for towards the close of 1070 he was sent to Normandy to assist Matilda in the government of the province, and early in 1071 he was slain in battle in Flanders. He was succeeded in his earldom and English estates by his younger son, Roger de Breteuil, to whom William of Malmesbury gives a bad character. [The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Herefordshire, p. 354-6]

Berkeley, Bristol, Hereford, Gloucester, and Chepstow were given to William FitzOsbern, Earl of Hereford and hereditary Steward of Normandy (d. 1071), to hold as the western defences of the new kingdom against the Welsh across the river Severn.
   FitzOsbern, recognising the stratagic value of a site on a dominating hill, naturally strengthened Berkeley's position by building up the existing mound, surrounding it by a ditch, adn setting a stout wooden stockage around the top. Defence was very primitive in those days, and FitzOsbern's castellulum or little castle probably resembled something we now think of as 'native' in terms of an African or Indian stronghold. It certainly bore no resemblance to Berkeley Castle as we see it today; but it does mean that it formed the foundation of the present Keep, and thus must be regarded as the original parent of the existing structure.
   All other trace of FitzOsbern's elementary little fortress has disappeared. It seems likely that it was demolished in 1088 when there was rebellious trouble in the Vale of Berkeley. But so important a site could not be allowed to fall into disuse, and we may fairly presume that FitzOsbern's representative or provost, Roger, calling himself Roger de Berkeley, was charged with supervising a new construction. [The History of Berkeley Castle<http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tydes/cashist1.htm]

In 1067, Norwich Castle was placed in the trustworthy hands of William Fitz Osbern, half-brother to William I. This was of the motte-and-bailey type, standing some 40 feet above the surrounding town and with a deep ditch in between, differing from many others in that the constable's house was erected insdie the palisade at the top of the mound and not in the bailey area as in other castles. [Castles of East Anglia: Norwich Castle]

William FitzOsbern decided to build Chepstow on the narrowest point of a promontory between the river Wye and a ravine, and only to the west and to the east was there any space for a ward or bailey. It was the rigid limitation of the site which gave it its defensive nature, and resulted in the elongated outline of the castle. [The Castles of Wales, p. 79-83]

A motte castle was raised at Berkeley, Gloucestershire on rising ground overlooking the plains between the Severn and the Cotswolds, probaby by William FitzOsbern, one of the Conqueror's commanders at Hastings, who led the invasion of south Wales by the Normans. [Castles of Britain and Ireland, p. 126]