Note: As with many post-1066 founders of old families in this period, there are popular stories in 19th-century bestsellers such as Burkes, which are still spread by the internet and do not reflect modern research. Therefore:
Please do not add stories of Harding being a member of the Danish royal family unless new evidence and argument lead to a new consensus.[1]
Relevant to some such discussions: As Williams mentions (p.120), Harding (the single name on its own) was not an unusual name in England at the time. For this reason, other sightings of Hardings do not prove or disprove anything. As she writes: "Harding of Wilton is probably not identical with Harding son of Eadnoth, since the latter, who was alive and active c.1120, is unlikely to have been old enough to hold land before 1066."
Biography
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Harding appears as a living landowner, but his father appears in the records as someone who had held much more land before the Norman conquest.
Keats-Rohan's entry for Harding is called "Harding Filius Alnod":[2]
Englishman, son of Alnoth or Ednoth the Constable, also called Harding de Meriet in the Tax Return for Crewkerne Hundred, Somerset, from the manor of Merriot, his principal holding in 1086. Although his descendants of the FitzHarding and Meriet families were persons of substance in the twelfth century, Domesday book reveals that in 1086 Harding had lost most of the lands previously held by his father, much of which had gone to Hugh of Chester. He was obviously a young man at that date; his second son lived until the 1170s. Father of Nicholas, Robert, a daughter Cecilia (Earldom Glocs. Chh., 28), a daughter who was a nun of Shaftesbury, and probably a son Baldwin (Buckland Cart, Som. Rec. Soc. 25, pp. 184-5). See Williams, The English, 119-20; R. Patterson, "Robert fitz Harding of Bristol...", Haskins Society Journal 1 (1989).
Parentage
Williams, and other authors, point out that the connections between Harding and his father are confirmed in two directions:
Ednoth was named by a contempotary Norman of an English general who died fighting in 1068 for the Normans against English rebels who he says retreated to Ireland and Denmark. (From other sources we know the fight was in Somerset, an area with connections to Ireland, and near Bristol.) He specifically names Ednoth's son Harding as still living and active, more as a hard talker than a hard fighter.[3]
Harding is described in the Domesday Book as the son of Alnod, a typically distorted Anglo-Saxon name in such documents in this period.
Concerning the specific lands he held in 1086, as Williams says (p.120) "All these Somerset lands went to Harding's son Nicholas, brother of Robert fitzHarding of Bristol, whose family claimed descent from Eadnoth the staller." (Robert's holdings were apparently built up strategically as discussed in Patterson's article cited by Keats-Rohan. His starting point was apparently the city of Bristol.)
Notes
supposed to have gone on the First Crusade 1095-1099 [find source]
Sources
↑ An example of a 19th-century popular book which starts many trees at "family stories" is John Burke, History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. I., R. Bentley, London, 1834-1838, p. 469, Berkeley, of Spetchley
Alleged involvement in the First Crusade may tie in wiht the statement by Albert of Aix who reports the arrival of a fleet of 200 ships at Jaffa in July 1102. Albert gives the names of three leaders of the expedition, including one Hardinus de Anglia . My source for this is the introduction by Jonathan Phillips to the reissue of Charles Wendell David's translation " The Conquest of Lisbon" published by Columbia University Press. Phillips cites Liber Christianae expeditionis pro ereptione emundatione, restitutione sanctae Hierosolymitanae ecclesia in HC, Historiens occidentaux IV, 596.
The pedigree chart only shows one Elias, but no birth date. This profile shows two Elias, one born about 1086 and the other in 1089. Should theses be merged? To which date?
Similarly, pedigree chart also shows one Jordan. This profile has a Jurden b. 1091 and a Jordan b. 1100. Should these be merged? To which date?
This profile has been identified as within the scope of the Berkeley family clean-up I am undertaking, under the umbrella of Project: British Isles Royals and Aristocrats 742-1499. Significant changes may be made to the biography (in particular) or other areas where details are disputed or unsupported. Please refer to Berkeley Family clean-up for further details.
Similarly, pedigree chart also shows one Jordan. This profile has a Jurden b. 1091 and a Jordan b. 1100. Should these be merged? To which date?
edited by Andrew Hill