General Notes

REFN: 4080AN
REFN: P4081
The Conqueror and His Companions
by J.R. Planché, Somerset Herald . London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874.
That one or more of the family of Aubigny (L atinised into De Albinio, and
better known in England as De Albini) "came ove r with the Conqueror," and
fought at Hastings, there can be no question; but Wace, who does not
specify the individual, but simply calls him "li boteillie r d'Aubignie,"
has been accused of an anachronism by Mr. Taylor, who consider s the
office of Pincerna, or butler, to have been first conferred upon the
grandson of William by Henry I circa 1100, when for his services to that
mona rch he was enfeoffed of the barony of Buckenham to hold in
grand-sergeantry b y the butlery, an office now discharged at coronations
by the Duke of Norfolk , his descendants possessing a part of the barony.
The companion of the Conqu eror he believes to have been William, the
first of that name we know of, or his son Roger, father of the second
William, and Nigel De Albini, of whom we have previously spoken (p.30).
M. Le Prévost votes for Roger, who made a donat ion to the Abbey of
L'Essai in 1084. There is no reason why he should not als o have been in
the battle.
In the absence of conclusive evidence I have head ed this chapter with
William De Albini, the earliest known of that name, whic h he derived from
the commune of Aubigny, near Periers, in the Cotentin, and with whom the
family pedigree commences.
This William married a sister of Gr imoult du Plessis, the traitor of
Valognes and Val-ès-Dunes, who died in his dungeon in 1047 (vol. i., pp.
25 and 31), and Wace may after all be right in styling him "Le
Botellier," as it is probable that he held that office in the household
of the Duke of Normandy. By his wife, the sister of Grimoult (I ha ve not
yet lighted on her name), he had a son, the Roger d'Aubigny aforesaid,
who married Amicia, or Avitia, sister of Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances,
an d of Roger De Montbrai, and is supposed by M. Le Prévost to have been
with hi s brothers-in-law in the battle.
Roger d'Aubigny, or De Albini, had issue by h is wife Avitia De Montbrai,
five sons: William, known as William De Albini "P incerna" (i.e., Butler),
ancestor of the Earls of Sussex, who married Maud, d aughter of Roger le
Bigod, and died 1139. Richard, Abbot of St. Albans, Nigel , Humphrey, and
Ruafon, or Ralph. Nigel, the third son, was heir of Robert De Montbrai,
or Mowbray, his first cousin, whose wife he married during the lif etime
of her husband by licence of Pope Paschal, and for some time treated he r
with respect out of regard for her noble parents; but on the death of her
brother Gilbert De l'Aigle, having no issue by her, he craftily sought
for a divorce on the ground of that very kinship which he exerted so much
influenc e to induce the Pope to overlook, and then married Gundred,
daughter of Gerra rd De Gournay, by whom he had Roger, who assumed the
name of Mowbray, and tra nsmitted it to his descendants, Dukes of Norfolk
and Earls Marshal of England ; and Henri, ancestor of the line of Albini
of Cainho.
To return to the firs t William, it is clear that his grandsons were mere
infants even if born in 1 066, and therefore I believe that it was the
William, then Pincerna, and prob ably also Roger, his son, who were
companions of the Conqueror in his expedit ion; Roger's eldest brother
William being in disgrace in Normandy at the time , and not restored to
favour, or allowed to enter England before the reign of Rufus, or it may
have been Henry I.
Of William De Albini, third son and suc cessor of William II, and Maud le
Bigod, a romantic story has been invented t o account for the lion rampant
subsequently borne by his descendants.
Having captivated the heart of the Queen Dowager of France by his gallant
conduct i n a tournament at Paris, she offered to marry him, an honour
which he respect fully declined, having already given his word an