Robert D'Oyly (1st Baron Hocknorton)

Oxford Castle 225px-Wallingford_castle_ruins

Robert was born in 1038 in Ouilly-le-Vicomte.

• Birth Notes

  born 1038 in Lisieux, Normandie, France.

Robert's father was Walter D'Oyly (Seigneur de Oyly).  His paternal grandfather was Faulk d'Aulnay. He had two brothers named Nigel  and Gilbert.  He was the oldest of the three children.  He died at the age of 53 in 1091 in Hook Norton.

• Death Notes

  He died 1094 in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, England

• General Notes

  bur. Abingdon Abbey
  
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  The Lord Robert D’Oyly, who is said to have borne "Azure, a bend or. a label gules," and was created Baron of Hocknorton, in Oxfordshire, and Constable of Oxford Castle, by William the Conqueror, A. D, 1067. His daughter was a benefactress to the Abbey of Bec in Normandy.
  
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  The Lord Robert de Oyly or Oily (eldest son of the Seigneur de Oyly of Oyly, near Lisieux, in Normandy), accompanied by his brothers Nigell and Gilbert, followed in the train of Duke William of Normandy to England in 1066, and shared largely in the spoil of conquest; the great mass of the territories granted by the Conqueror to Robert D'Oyly lying in Oxfordshire; where D'Oyly, his kinsfolk and retinue, soon became permanently located. Oseney Abbey Register, both Leland's and Holinshed's copies of Battle Abbey Roll, and John Foxe's List of noble Normans who settled in England at the Conquest, alike attest D'Oyly's presence at Hastings, and his establishment in England;[34] and Thierri, the historian of the Norman Conquest, confirms every other authority on the subject. In consideration of his noble descent and good services, King William not only granted him large tracts of land, but had scarcely invaded England ere he gave to him (Robert D'Oyly) in marriage Aidgitha, only child and heiress of Wigo de Walingford, a noble Saxon under Harold the Second, and ante-conquestal proprietor of the castle and honour of Walingford, co. Berks; which Wigo from the first had acknowledged the supremacy of Duke William, and splendidly entertained him until Archbishop Stigand and the adherents of Edgar had Submitted to the Norman yoke; and it is said that Robert D'Oyly's marriage with his daughter was an affair of policy, to propitiate the Saxons, while rewarding her husband, the Norman.[35] The arms assigned to de Walingford are, "Argent, on a fesse gules, a lion passant of the field" (but very improbably were known to the Saxon Wigo); and there are pedigrees which seem to derive Wigo de Walingford from that celebrated Saxon hero, Guy Earl of Warwick.[36] Wigo de Walingford died soon after his daughter's marriage, and her husband D'Oyly then succeeded to all his estates, viz. the castle and honour of Walingford (including Beckley, co. Oxon,[37] High Wycombe, co. Bucks,[38] and Colham manor in Hillingdon,[39] co. Middlesex), in her right.[40] Meanwhile William the Conqueror had granted Robert D'Oyly in 1067 the city and barony of Oxford, and created him Baron of Hocknorton in Oxfordshire; likewise conferring upon him twenty-eight lordships in that county; viz. Watlington, Goring, Bicester, Chadlington, Eton, Hocknorton, Drayton, Shirburn, Wheatfield, Lewknor, Heyford, Bucknell, Fritwell, Elsfield, Hardwick, Stratton-Audley, Weston on the Green, Bletchington, Ducklington, Bampton, Pyrton, Rousham, Studley, Estcote, Cheneton, Kirtlington, Holwell, and Tew; as well as Chaddleworth, Letcumbe-Bassett, Shefford, and two baronies in Ardington, co. Berks, Iver or Eureham, co. Bucks, "Lalega" in Willey Hundred, co. Bedford, Rissington, Naunton, and Turkdean in Gloucestershire, Wicken, Thenford, and Purston in Northamptonshire, Thetchworth in Hertfordshire, and Lea Marston in Warwickshire.[41] Robert D'Oyly made Oxford Castle his chief seat, however, and, as Dugdale justly observes,[42] "was Constable of Oxford, had the government of the whole county, and was so potent that none durst oppose him. "On embarking in the Norman expedition, Robert D'Oyly contracted a sworn friendship with a noble Norman named Roger de Ivery,[43] and they had agreed by mutual oath to be sharers in the fortunes which might fall to the lot of either; as Thierri writes, "Robert D'Oyly and Roger D'Ivry came to the Conquest as brothers leagued together by faith and by oath. Their clothes and their arms were alike, and they shared together the lands which they conquered."[44] In 1068 Robert D'Oyly gave the said Ivry a barony in Oxfordshire (afterwards called Ivry's, and subsequently St. Wallery's,) of which Beckley was the capital seat and manor. Robert D'Oyly also granted lands at Bucknell, co. Oxon, to Gilbert de Amori; this grant for services at Hastings, it is said.[45]—In 1071, Robert D'Oyly was commanded[46] by William the Conqueror to build (or rebuild) and fortify a castle at the west end of Oxford: he commenced the undertaking, and completed it the following year, 1072,[47] and thenceforth D'Oyly and his immediate successors made it their chief abode.[48] About the same time Robert D'Oyly erected the walls and bridge48 at Oxford, and in fine, soon made that city one of the strongest forts in the kingdom. A plan of his foundation has appeared in various works.[49]— Like the majority of the Norman adventurers, D'Oyly long held a sad character for rapacity; Thierri says, "At Oxford there was Robert D'Oyly, who spared neither rich nor poor;"[50] but at length his plunders were even extended to church property; which soon led the way to his humiliation, and effected a total reformation in his conduct. According to the legend, having seized to his own use (with King William's sanction) a large meadow near Oxford Castle, which belonged to the Monks of Abingdon, co. Berks, those holy men were so much exasperated, that prostrating themselves before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, they prayed unceasingly that she would avenge their injury. In consequence, a terrible sickness fell upon Robert D'Oyly. Still he continued impenitent, and remained so, till warned in a dream of the certain punishment for his misdeeds that was awaiting him in the world to come (nay, even beheld two Abingdon monks, whom he knew, telling tales of him to the Virgin Mary in Heaven), which, with the pious exhortations of his wife, soon produced an ample apology to the monks; he went to Abingdon Abbey, and standing before the altar in the presence of the abbot, the whole convent, and many of his friends, gave them Tadmerton, a lordship of 10l. per annum, 100l. towards the rebuilding of their monastery, and protested that he would never again meddle with any of their possessions.[51] After this he became a great benefactor to the church, and very charitable to the poor. In 1074, with the aid of his friend Roger D'Ivry, he founded the collegiate church of St. George at Oxford[52] for secular Augustin canons, and endowed it with two baronies of the D'Oylys and Ivrys, and, with the consent of Aldith his wife, and his brothers, Nigell and Gilbert, gave it the church of St. Mary Magdalen, in the suburbs of Oxford, and three hides of land in Walton, lying in Beaumont fields; as well as two parts of the tithes of his demesnes in Bicester, Bucknell, Beckley,[53] and several neighbouring parishes, and land and wood at Arncott and Studley.[54] He founded also Holywell Church in Oxford, and the priory of Walingford,[55] co. Berks, and made the latter a cell appendant to St. Alban's Abbey in Hertfordshire; to which abbey of St. Alban's also he was a benefactor; and in consequence thereof, the Monks (of St. Alban's) painted a portrait of him in their Coucher book, exhibiting the full front of an old man's face, with grey hair, beard, and forelock,[56]—Robert D'Oyly stood in high esteem with William the Conqueror, and was probably one of his most intimate friends; he attests many of the King's charters to abbeys (especially his foundation of Selby Abbey, co. York, and his confirmation of the grant of Count Leoffric and Godiva his wife to the Church of St. Mary at Eynsham, co. Oxon,)[57] and long before was appointed by him Constable of Oxford Castle. In 1084 Robert D'Oyly sumptuously entertained the King at Abingdon, who had kept his Easter there that year; and on leaving Abingdon his Majesty left his youngest son, afterwards King Henry I. to be educated in the convent there, under the inspection of Robert D'Oyly.—Says Lysons, " The Royal youth profited so much under his tutor, that he obtained the appellation of Beauclerc."[58] — This Robert D'Oyly is said to have borne for arms, "Azure, a bend or, a label gules." He survived his King, companion, and patron, only three years, for, dying in Sept.1090,[59] he was buried at the north side of the high altar of Abingdon Abbey, and Aldgitha his wife was interred at his left side, at her decease. Robert D'Oyly, the first Baron of Hocknorton, and Constable of Oxford Castle, left no male issue, and thus on his decease those domains, granted to him by the Conqueror, devolved by royal favour in his brother Nigell. By the said Aldith he left issue, however, an only child, a dau.

Details of Robert's family with Algitha de Wallingford