General Notes

REFN: 4389AN
REFN: P4390
The Conqueror and His Companions
by J.R. Planché, Somerset Herald . London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874.
"Le viel Hue De Gournai" may well have deser ved that venerable
distinction in the year 1066, since the same writer has be stowed it upon
him in 1054, when he was one of the commanders in the sanguina ry battle
of Mortemer (viDe vol. i., p. 234), and is even then spoken of as " De
Gornai le viel Huon." Moreover, he is presumed by M. De Gondeville, the
historian of the family, to be identical with the "Hugo Miles" who
authorised the gift of the land of Calvelville to the Abbey of
Montvilliers by William the Count, son of Robert Duke of Normandy, which
he considers must have been before the death of Robert in 1035. Allowing,
however, that he was of full ag e as early even as 1030, though children
scarcely in their teens were accusto med to witness charters when they had
a contingent interest in the property b estowed, still, admitting he was
one-and-twenty at that date, he would not ha ve been sixty at the time of
the Conquest, and though fairly to be described as an old man, the term
"le viel" may be held to signify simply "the senior," as it appears that
there were three of the family of Gournay present at Hast ings, viz., Hue
De Gournay, the Sire De Brai le Comte, and the Seigneur De Go urnay.
Hugh De Gournay, the second of that name, would be the Seigneur de
Go urnay at that period, and Hue De Gournay his son the third of the name,
who m arried Basilia, daughter of Gerrard Flaitel, sister of the wife of
Walter Gif fard, 1st Earl of Buckingham, and widow of Raoul De Gacé. Hugh,
his father, S eigneur De Gournay, is described by Wace as being
accompanied at Senlac by a strong force of his men of Brai, and doing
much execution on the English.
He is said by the Norman chroniclers to have been mortally wounded in a
battle at Cardiff in 1074, and carried to Normandy, where he died. There
is, however , considerable doubt about their account of this battle, as it
is clear that several persons said to have been engaged or slain in it
were either deceased long prior to it, or could not possibly have been
present; but more of that anon.
The first of the family of Gournay is presumed to have been a follower o f
Ralf or Rollo, to whom, after the settlement of the Norsemen in Neustria,
was allotted part of the district of Le Brai, the principal places in
which were Gournay, La Ferté, Lions, Charleval, and Fleury.
La Ferté was assigned to a younger branch of the house of Gournay before
the Conquest. Hugh, the son of Eudes, is reported to have been the first
to make Gournay a place of stren gth. The ancient records of the family
ascribe to him the erection of a citad el surrounded by a triple wall and
fosse, and further secured by a tower name d after him, "La Tour Hue,"
which was standing as late as the beginning of th e 17th century. Such was
the reputed strength of this fortress that a rhyming chronicler (William
De Brito) declares it was able to resist a hostile attac k undefended by a
single soldier. A description magnificent enough to take ra nk amongst the
most amusing exaggerations of our transatlantic brethren.
Hug h was succeeded by a Renaud De Gournay, the first of the family
mentioned in any charter, who by his wife Alberada had two sons, Hugh and
Gautier, the eld er becoming Lord of Gournay, and the younger of La
Ferté-en-Brai, of which he founded the Priory circa 990, by command or
request of his brother Hugh, and for the health of the souls of Renaud
and Alberada, their father and mother.
This division of the great fief was according to a Norman custom called
Par agium, from the younger son being put "pari conditione" with the
elder. The o ld "Coutume De Normandie" gives this definition of it: "La
tenure par parage est quand cil qui tient et cil De qui il tient sont
pers es parties De l'héri tages qui descend De leurs ancesseurs." The
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