Thurkil (Warwick) de Arden (abt. 1040 - abt. 1095)

Born about 1040 in Warwickshire, England

Husband of Unknown (Unknown) Warwick — married [date unknown] in England

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Medieval Project WikiTree [send private message]

Turchil (Warwick) de Arden is managed by the Medieval Project. Pre-1500 certified? Join: Medieval Project Discuss: Medieval

NOTE: Wikitree has a special page about some of the genealogical complexities of the Arden family.

Biography

"Turchil was the only Saxon magnate to increase his territories after the Norman conquest and was the largest landholder in Warwickshire at the time of the Domesday survey."^[1]

Turchil of Warwick and Arden has long been recognized as a rare case of an Anglo-Saxon who managed to continue holding significant lands in the area where his family had been important before 1066. Nevertheless, although he was still a tenant-in-chief in 1086, a "feudal baron", he (or perhaps his heir) were later "demoted" to holding fewer lands, and holding them under the new French Earl, Henry "of Newburgh".

This history is not only interesting to genealogists and antiquarians. In the 16th century Turchil was the subject of intense investigation and dispute because of the implications for the claims of the powerful Dudley earls,^[1] and in recent generations historians specialized in this period have paid special attention to Turkil and his family, including Ann Williams^[2][3], Katharine Keats-Rohan^[4], David Crouch, and Peter Coss. The great pre-WW1 genealogist J. H. Round commented on him at length in the VCH edition of Warwickshire Domesday Book (p.283ff).

For future research it is interesting to note that during this exact period (about 1056-1086) there was an important man who was also called Thurcil of Warwick who is known in numismatics as a moneyer.^[5] Could they be the same person? It might explain his success with the Normans!

Primary records and name-form

First name. Ignoring spelling-method differences, Turchil and Turkil can be thought of as medieval French attempts at his real English name Thurkil (Þurcil in Old English letters). In Latin he was Turchillus or Turkillus, as in French, but with the variable grammatical endings.^[6]

The French spellings are the only ones found in writing. In Domesday Book Warwickshire, he is called "Turchil de Warwic" (of Warwick) where he has his own section as one of the tenants-in-chief.^[7]

An earlier record from 1072, in which he appears with his father and one brother, calls him "Turkil filius Agelwini" (son of Agelwinus) which represents the same pronunciation.^[8]

Two later charters concerning Chesterton and Hill, dated 1066-1087 and 1087-1100, call him (in Latin) "Turkillus" de Ardene or Eardene (of Arden), which again represents the same pronunciation.^[9] The second one, importantly, refers to the fact that King William II "Rufus" had granted all the lands of Turkil to Earl Henry of Warwick. Williams (1988 p.291) believes this happened about 1088.^[2]

Confirming the nature of the connection to Arden, another about the same Chesterton and Hill, from the same monastery, describes Turkil as a great noble of the English who dwells in the area of Arden. (It also mentions his son Siward.)^[10]

Turchil or Turkil is a name which appears many times in Domesday,^[11] It was an Anglo-Norse name, which had been common since at least King Cnut's time and was an imported contraction of an older imported name "Thorketil", which was itself also still in use in many countries including Normandy.^[12]

Turchil's brothers also have Norse-style names, and Williams proposed that Alwin his father had a wife with Norse ancestry.^[2]

Some modern historians "correct" his name to Norse forms with such spellings as "Thorkell" (Ann Williams), or "Thorkil" (Keats-Rohan, Open Domesday website).^[13]

Second name. Like most people at the time, he probably was not seen as having a family name. However:

• In Domesday, he is named after the whole county or its chief place, "Warwick". It must also be him who appears as "Turchil de Warewicscyre" (of Warwickshire) in a list of "seniores et nobiles" (senior and high-ranking people) in a charter involving Worcester.^[14] The name could indicate that his family had been sheriffs of Warwick. J.H. Round believed that it was a regular practice for sheriffs to derive, like the new Anglo-Norman earls, their bynames from the capital town of their shire.^[15]
• If we trust the above documents concerning Chesterton and Hill he was, as described above, referred to with what became a new family name among his descendants: Arden.

Williams even suggests that Thorkil himself may have been sheriff of Warwickshire, although she also points out that there is no direct evidence for this, and even his father's shrievalty was not necessarily of Warwickshire. She writes (1988 p.290) that "the fact that Domesday Book refers to Thorkil as Thorkil of Warwick, though elsewhere he is known as Thorkil of Arden, is surely crucial".^[2]

Estimation of birth and death years

Birth. 1040 is an approximation on the following basis:

• As mentioned already, Thurkil appeared as signatory in an important Staffordshire document in 1072.^[8] He was therefore already an adult and had some standing.
• It is also generally agreed that Domesday shows him not only as a significant 1086 tenant-in-chief, but also as the lord of some of Warwickshire lands before 1066. In Ashow and Brandon for example, Turchil held in the time of King Edward (1066) and also Turchil holds in 1086.^[16]
• The Abingdon charter mentioned above, estimated to be from 1066-1087, mentions his son and heir Siward as "adolescente", who must thus at least have been born significantly before Domesday, if not before Hastings.^[10]

Death. 1095 is an approximation on the following basis:

• The Abingdon charter mentioned above estimated to be from 1066-1087 appears to be the last dateable mention of him.^[10]

Parents

In the Warwickshire Domesday "Aluuin" (or Alwin) is several times described as a father of Turchil, and predecessor of him at some of his lands. In an entry for Barston, it is specified that he was both father of Turchil and sheriff.^[17] (There is also an Alwin who is a tenant of Turchil, but no sign that the father is still alive in 1086.)

Apart from Domesday Book, as mentioned already, Thurkil appears in a charter of 1072.^[8] This charter names him as the son of Agelwinus the sheriff. Agelwinus and Alwin are both standard ways in which the Old English name Æthelwine was rendered in Anglo-Norman documents.

Concerning the ancestry of Thurkil's father, see his father's article.

Siblings

Williams and Keats-Rohan agree that Thorkell of Warwick had brothers named Guthmund (who is named as a brother in Domesday) and Ketelbjorn (Ketelbearne) (who is named as a brother in the 1072 charter). Williams notes that both Guthmund and Thorkell held land of William fitzAnsculf.^[3]

Marriage

Despite popular ideas to the contrary there does not appear to be any clear evidence about who Thurkil married. Nevertheless, since at least Dugdale, it has generally been believed that Thorkel had two marriages.

The first surviving record of any wife is from centuries later, at the end of the middle ages in the so-called "Rous Roll" by John Rous (late 15th century Warwickshire).^[18]

The first wife described by Rous was a french countess of Perche. Keats-Rohan (1989) defends Rous and the records he left as a potentially helpful source for some other facts, but says concerning this first marriage that "Rous's assertion that Thorkil's first wife was the widow of Arnulf count of Perche and mother of his daughter Margaret, wife of Earl Henry of Warwirk, is not accepted by historians".

The second wife is referred to as Leverunia or Leveruna with whom Thorkil supposedly had a younger son named Osbert.^[19] Keats-Rohan in her 1989 article found Leveruna also in Rous "a daughter of Earl Algar and Ælfeva, sister of Earls Edwin and Morcar and of Aldith, and second cousin of Thorkil himself".^[4][20]

Like Dugdale before her, Keats-Rohan in her 1999 Domesday People continued to accept that there were two wives, and especially that the second one was named Leveruna, because of surviving legal evidence from some generations later, concerning Kingsbury.^[21]

Williams called this interpretation of the legal records into question. According to her, the second wife supposedly named Leveruna (which could correspond to English Leofrun), daughter of Earl Aelfgar, is dubious: "the earliest evidence for a wife of Thorkell of this name comes from an inquest of 1208, in which she is described as the mother of Osbert of Arden. (Curia Regis Rolls, v, p. 241). Osbert of Arden, however, was the grandson, not the son of Thorkell; his father was Siward of Arden and his mother was probably Siward's wife Cecilia (PRO E13/76 m 71r). "^[3]

See the profile for Thurkil's wife.

1066 invasion

Domesday Book shows that Turchil was already holding land before the Battle of Hastings in Warwickshire, although his father was still alive. The PASE and OpenDomeday websites interpret Baddesley Ensor as such a manor, and it is used as an example on the internet. However the entry only says two of Turchil's men, apparently referring to their status in 1086, held it, along with Wolfhamcote. Instead, Warwickshire manors of a Turchil in 1086 which were held by Turchil in 1066 are Ashow and Brandon. As Round (1904, p.283) points out out he also held property in the town of Warwick itself.

Round (1904, p.283) believed it "may not impossibly have been Turchil 'of Warwick' himself" who was listed as one of the English magnates who submitted to William at his coronation.^[22]

Because they maintained so much status, scholars have tended to propose that Aelfwine and his son Turchill must have been relatively quick to either support William the Conqueror, or at least not support the controversial king Harold, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. But there are no records which refer clearly to any such actions or support.

There has even been a tendency starting in the 19th century to speculate in a romanticized and patriotic way. Turchil, said Freeman, was a traitor, "as he would be called in the mouths of his more stout-hearted countrymen", who "reaped his reward".^[23]

Round as usual was sceptical of such remarks and pointed-out the possibility, now widely accepted (for example by Williams and Keats-Rohan), that Turchil was a supportive and successful representative of his local kin during the Norman consolidation of power, and that Warwickshire seems to be a shire where English land-holders maintained more status than elsewhere, even though they often became sub-tenants (as Turchil himself also did eventually).^[24]

It should be kept in mind however that Turchil's tenancy-in-chief was apparently taken and given to the Beaumont family, who William II assigned as the new Earls of Warwick. His family continued as mesne lords in a reduced, but still important position.

1086 Named in Domesday

(Also see discussion above.)

Thurkil was a common name, but in 1086, Thorkil of Warwick is associated with at least 52 places in Warwickshire where he was tenant-in-chief, meaning he had no landlord above him except the king. He was also a sub-tenant in more places, and had holdings in Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, and possibly more places. Thurkil's Domesday holdings (including maps):

• PASE project website profile: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=39188
• OpenDomesday website profile: https://opendomesday.org/name/thorkil-of-warwick/
• Also see the detailed Warwickshire Domesday transcriptions in VCH Warwickshire Vol.1 p.320 and p.323.

Issue

He had at least one son:

• Siward, born England well before 1087 (see Abingdon charter of William II). Thorkell's son Siward of Arden continued to hold of the new earl, Henry de Beaumont, who was brother of Robert of Meulan, and who was made earl of Warwick in 1088. ^[3] Married Cecelia. Living Henry I. son Henry living 12 Henry II.

Older accounts

One grandson is sometimes described as a son:

• Osbert de Arden. See his article. (He is sometimes proposed to be a son of Thurkil based on a legal case which ended in 1208, Curia Regis Rolls, v, p. 241).^[3] Dugdale simply asserted that there must have been two Osberts,^[25] However, the son of Siward is the one found in contemporary records and the legal case describes Osbert's father being alive when Henry I died, which Turkil certainly wasn't.

Children according to William Dugdale (17th century)^[25]

Marriage 1:

• Siward de Arden. Heir.
• Peter de Arden, a Monk in the Abbey of Thorney
• (uncertain) Ralph de Arden, of Hampton in Arden

Marriage 2 to "Leverunia":

• Osbert de Arden , of Kingsbury [actually apparently a grandson], although his descendants claimed otherwise]

Daughter according to John Rous (15th century). Rous made Margaret, daughter of the Count of Perche in France, and the wife of the first Norman Earl of Warwick into Thurkil's wife (as daughter of the Count of Perche) and daughter (wife of the Earl of Warwick), effectively splitting her into two generations. As Keats-Rohan (1989) says, this is rejected by modern historians.

Alleged children who have been de-linked from Thurkil. No basis has been found that the following persons are sons of Turchil and his alleged de Perche mother, and they therefore have been disconnected from this family:

• Detrus Deardena; William Deardena; Roger d'Arderne
• Margaret Deardena; Radulphus Deardena might possibly represent duplicates of the Margaret mentioned by Rous and the Ralph mentioned by Dugdale?

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Glyn Parry and Cathryn Enis (2020). "The Ardens", in Shakespeare Before Shakespeare: Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and the Elizabethan State https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198862918.001.0001
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Williams (1988) "A Vice-Comital Family in Pre-Conquest Warwickshire", in R. Allen Brown, ed., Proceedings of the Battle Conference Anglo-Norman Studies, xi, pp.279–295. google books
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} Williams, Ann (1995) The English and the Norman Conquest, The Boydell Press, p.104
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Keats-Rohan, K.S.B. (1989) "The Making of Henry of Oxford: Englishmen in a Norman World", Oxoniensa 54, pp.287-309 pdf
5. ↑ See for example Ebsworth, N.J. (1965) "The Anglo-Saxon and Norman Mint of Warwick" British Numismatic Journal Vol.34 pdf; and Symons, D.J. (2006) "The moneyers of the Worcester mint, 1066-1158: some thoughts and comments" in Coinage And History in the North Sea World, C. AD 500-1250: Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald, p.582
6. ↑ Two challenges for the writers were first that French had no "th" sounds like English, and second although they could pronounce a hard "k" sound, which they normally spelled as "c", as still in most modern Latin-derived words and languages, a "c" before an "i" or "e" would always be "soft" (originally a "ts" sound, but evolving to an "s" sound in French and English). "K" was thus a Greek letter brought in to help in such cases, or sometimes adding an "h" could keep the sound "hard" as in "chi" or "che" (as still in modern Italian).
7. ↑ Detailed translated Domesday entries are given in VCH Warwickshire Vol.1. See especially p.318ff.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2} Eyton, R.W. (1881) "The Staffordshire Cartulary" in Collections for a History of Staffordshire, William Salt Archaeological Society, 2, p.178
9. ↑ Chronicon monasterii de Abingdon p.8 (bottom) dated 1066-1087, and pp.20-21, 1087-1100.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Chronicon monasterii de Abingdon p.8 (middle) also dated 1066-1087.
11. ↑ The PASE website shows almost 100 Turchils in Domesday.
12. ↑ Fellows-Jensen, Gillian (1990) "Scandinavian Personal Names in Foreign Fields" Annales de Normandie Année 23 pp.149-159 Persée link
13. ↑ Open Domesday. Site by Anna Powell-Smith. Domesday data created by Professor J.J.N. Palmer, University of Hull. Thorkil of Warwick
14. ↑ Transcriptions can be found in Hearne, Hemingi Chartularium, p.82; and Monasticon Anglicanum p.602.
15. ↑ Round, (1895) "The Knights of Peterborough" in Feudal England, pp.157.
16. ↑ Domesday Warwickshire, Victoria County History (VCH) of Warwickshire, Vol.1, p.323
17. ↑ Domesday Warwickshire, VCH Vol.1 p.320.
18. ↑ Rous Roll (Add MS 48976). Summary. (The summary mentions number 29: "Thurkill, in chain-mail, holding a battle-axe in his right hand and a tower in his left hand, with a bow, arrows and a club at his feet. (30) Margaret, daughter of Thurkill, with a building alongside." Scans of the roll can also be seen there. Thurkill is on f.4ar.) The caption itself on the roll starts, "Alwinus a noble lord succedid to lord wygode to whom in hys tyme was reteyned att the coñte of warwik". Keats-Rohan also looked at a Latin version of Rous's account which may be earlier. A coloured printed version of 1859 can be found on hathitrust For an extended discussion about Rous's work see Yin Liu (2011) "Romances of Continuity in the English Rous Roll" in Medieval Romance, Medieval Contexts pp.149ff
19. ↑ Dugdale Antiquities of Warwickshire, under Kingsbury, p.760
20. ↑ Katherine S. B. Keats-Rohan, (1999) Domesday People, p.429.
21. ↑ See for example Coss, (1987) "Knighthood and the Early Thirteenth-Century County Court" Thirteenth Century England II, p.56
22. ↑ This Turkil is mentioned by Orderic Vitalis, Book 4, Ch.1. See for example p.4 of Vol.2 of Forester's 1854 edition.
23. ↑ Freeman, The Norman Conquest Vol.4 p.189. See also Appendix AA.
24. ↑ Round (1904) "Introduction to the Warwickshire Domesday" in Victoria County History of Warwickshire, Vol.1, p.283-4
25. ↑ ^{25.0 25.1} Dugdale, Sir William. The Antiquities of Warwickshire 2nd ed. Vol. Vol. II. J. Osborn and T. Longman, 1730, p.925

See also:

• Victoria County History for Warwick, Vol.6, Knightlow Hundred. Parish of Wolfhamcote. Originally published 1951, British History Online
• Burke, John, A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, 1833, pp. 637-640. (caution, not reliable)
• Wikipedia: Arden family
• Wikipedia: Wikipedia: Ælfwine of Warwick