Walter Giffard (abt. 1010 - abt. 1084)

Born about 1010 in France

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

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Because different historians have different opinions about how many Walters there were, it is important to note that this profile is about the Walter who was alive for Domesday Book in 1086. Whether he lived any longer, and whether he was also at Hastings, is subject to disagreement.

Keats-Rohan, for example, has an entry for the subject of this profile in her book about in Domesday Book.^[1]

Norman from Longueville-sur-Scie, Seine-Maritime, arr. Dieppe (Loyd, 45), Domesday tenant-in-chief. Son of Walter Giffard of Bolbec. Married a daughter of Gerard Fleitel, by whom he had issue Walter II Giffard, William, bishop of Winchester, and Rohais, wife of Richard I de Clare. He died soon after 1086.

Before Hastings

The historian Judith Green notes:^[2]

Bolebec was the original head of the Giffard lordship but when Walter Giffard obtained Longueville he moved his headquarters there and Bolebec because the chief estate of a minor vassal family.

According to the older accounts where William is not split up, for example the 19th-century writer Planche, Walter must have been very old indeed in Hastings, though he is described as being in the fighting:^[3]

We first hear of him in 1035, as a companion of Hugh de Gournay in the abortive attempt of Edward son of King Ethelred to recover the crown of England, and next in 1053, when he was left by Duke William in command of the forces blockading the Castle of Arques, and at that period was Lord of Longueville, and already past the prime of life, judging by his account of himself only thirteen years afterwards. In the following year he was entrusted by the Duke with the defense of the district of Caux, in which Longueville is situate, on the occasion of the invasion of Normandy by Henry, King of France. Subsequently he appears to have made a pilgrimage to St. lago de Compostella, in Spain, or may perhaps have been sent there by the Duke on some mission to Alfonso, King of Galicia, to whom William afterwards affianced his daughter Agatha, after the breaking off of the match with the Saxon Prince Edwin.

Hastings and after

At the Battle of Hastings, one of the few men who scholars consider certain to have been present was a Walter Giffard, who was described as declaring himself to old to carry the standard.

Sanders believes the old Water at Hastings was already awarded what would become the barony of Long Crendon, but like other authors since Round et al, he believed he was dead before Domesday book in 1086.^[4]

Doubts about lifespan

In various works written in recent centuries, readers will find a series of 1, 2, or even 3 generations of Walter Giffards in the 11th century (followed by one more in the 12th). There appears to be no record of them dying from the Battle of Hastings when an elderly Walter appears in records, to 1102, when a Walter finally is known to have died. Researchers have decided first that there has to be more than 1, and more recently they seem to be most often thinking there were 3.

In 19th century works such as Freeman and Burkes one Walter from Hastings until 1102, so that as Round wrote with his normal sarcasm: "Surprised? We are indeed; for, if he was 'an aged man' half a century before, what must he have been when he joined the rebels in 1101?" Wace for example claims that he turned down the honour of carrying the standard: "look at my white and bald head; my strength has fallen away, and my breath become shorter".^[5]

After Round, for example in Complete Peerage^[6] and Charles Cawley of the MEDLANDS project^[7] authors tend to have two Walters. Generally they propose that an earlier death must have happened before 1086.

But the chronological concerns go beyond Walter's white hair at Hastings and what Round mentions in that passage. As pointed-out by Todd Farmerie on SMG in 2004, Walter was supposedly son of a sister of William the Conqueror's great grandmother, and yet fought in battle in 1066 and lived well into the 1080s:^[8]

"numerous authors have suggested that Robert of T[origny] may have commited the same error he appears to have done with the Montgomerys and the Warennes - compressed two generations of the same name into the same individual, such that two successive Walters became one really old one".

Keats-Rohan for example therefore adds one more Walter than most other writers. Keats-Rohan does not mention any direct documentary evidence, or whether the first Walter died before or after Hastings. Her understanding seems to be based on the chronology.

Some old sources referred to there being a older and younger Walter, but that does not tell us if there were more than two.

The Geneajourney website mentions an alternative approach to the same problem, which is to have two generations of Osberns, instead of one, preceding the three generations of Walter.^[9] So it seems there is a general consensus that there must be a generation still missing, but maybe not on how to resolve it.

Death

As stated above there is no record of the death dates of any of the Walter Giffards who died in the 11th century.

Historians seem to presume that one death happened around the time of Domesday Book in 1086. Keats-Rohan says it was just after. Sanders, for example, gives 1084.

Doubts about whether he was first Earl of Buckingham

Complete Peerage and many other sources believe the last Walter who died 1102 was most likely the 1st earl.

Planché concedes that the 2nd Walter (d. 1102) is ordinarily said to be the 1st earl, but disagrees.

This question is of course affected by the above question of how many Walters there were.

Complete Peerage:^[10]

There appears to be some charter evidence for the existence of the

Earldom of Buckingham under William Rufus, but the main authority is that of Ordericus. His statement that the Conqueror conferred that Earldom is believed not literally to bear that meaning, and Walter Giffard was, by that name, a Domesday Commissioner, nor is he recognised as an Earl in Domesday (1086). But the description by Ordericus of him as 'Comes Bucchingehamensis' in 1097, and again at his death in 1102, outweighs any description of him, elsewhere, by the writer as 'Gualterus Giffardus' merely; yet the fact that this latter is his (Qy. his son's) style in the Charter of Liberties of Henry I (1101) further complicates the question. His son is referred to in the Cartulary of Abingdon (vol. ii, pp. 133-134) as Walterus Comes, Junior, cognomine Giffardus; on the other hand, in the same work (vol. ii, p. 85) writs of Henry I are addressed to him merely as c Walter Giffard. At the battle of Brenneville (1119) he is distinctly mentioned by Ordericus as one of the three Earls on the side of Henry I, (ex inform. J. H. Round).

Surname

Giffard was an early example of an inheritable surname which a whole family used. Planchet wrote:

Instances of the practice are familiar to the veriest schoolboy; hence the complimentary suggestion of "Free-Giver," which I should be happy to leave undisputed could it be borne out by etymology. The family, however, was Norman, not Saxon; and it is in the Norman-French, or Low-Latin of the eleventh century, that we must look for its derivation. The word occurs in both those dialects. In Roquefort's Dictionnaire de la Langue Romane, "Giffarde" is rendered "Joufloue, qui a des grosses joues — servante de cuisine," the word being derived from giffe "the cheek," giffle also signifying in the same language "un soufflet," or blow on the cheek. An old French poet, Gautier cle Coisiny, complains that women of every class paint themselves, even the torchepot, "scullion," and the Giffarde, " kitchen maid or cook." So in the new Dictionnaire Franco-Normand, by M. George Métivier, we have "Giffair, rire comme un jouflou." And, to my great satisfaction, I find that this esteemed philologist has come to the same conclusion as myself, for under that word he has " Giffe, Giffle, Joue. Telle est l'origine de l'illustre famille Normande de Giffard, nom répandu très au-delà de cette Province (Jersey, of which Mons. Métivier is a native) et de nos îles." Vide also Ducange, sub voce "Giffardus," who has a similar interpretation, "Ancilla coquina." It is almost impossible to resist the conviction that Giffard, in the language of that day, signified a person with large cheeks, and was in consequence applied to a cook, who is popularly represented as fat and rubicund.

Sources

1. ↑ Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, p.456. She cites Le Maho (1976) and Keats-Rohan (1992).
2. ↑ Green, J The Aristocracy of Norman England p.45
3. ↑ Planché, The Conqueror and his Companions Vol I, pp.160-6.
4. ↑ Sanders, English Baronies, p.62
5. ↑ Round, Feudal England, p.296. Gautier/Walter is mentioned in various accounts of the Battle of Hastings (1066) as elderly.
6. ↑ Cokayne et al, Complete Peerage, 2nd ed, Vol II, p.386 under "Buckingham"
7. ↑ Cawley, VICOMTES d’ARQUES, SEIGNEURS de LONGUEVILLE (GIFFARD) in MEDLANDS, version of Sep 2018
8. ↑ See also G.H.White, "The Sisters and Nieces of Gunnor, Duchess of Normandy," Genealogist, n.s. 37 (1921), 57-65, 128-132
9. ↑ http://geneajourney.com/giffrd.html See footnote a.
10. ↑ Cockayne, Gibbs, et al. Complete Peerage, 2nd ed. Vol.2 p.386

• J. Le Maho (1976) "L'apparition des seigneuries châtelaines dans le Grand-Caux a l'époque ducale", Archéologie Médiévale 6, pp. 31ff; https://www.persee.fr/doc/arcme_0153-9337_1976_num_6_1_1307
• K.S.B. Keats-Rohan (1992) "'The prosopography of post-Conquest England : four case studies'", Medieval Prosopography 14., pp. 12-22. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44946150
• Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, p.995

Also see

• Wikipedia: Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville Also see French version which cites Le Maho, who is cited by Keats-Rohan
• Weis, Frederick Lewis, (1992 Sheppard Jr. ed.), Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, Edition: 7th ed. Walter Lee Publication: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD,
• https://www.geni.com/people/Gautier-Giffard-I-Seigneur-de-Longueville/6000000003154347767 (long extracts)