Piers (Valoignes) de Valognes

Born [date unknown] in Normandy, France

Descendants

Died about 1109 in Essex, Hertfordshire, England

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Biography

Keats-Rohan has an entry for him in Domesday People p.322 as "Petrus De Valonges", and building upon her summary:

• He was from Normandy, and his family continued to hold lordships there. (Further discussion below.)

• At the time of Domesday Book in 1086 he was a major tenant-in-chief in East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk) and the neighbouring counties (Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire).

Opendomesday.org profile: https://opendomesday.org/name/peter-of-valognes/

PASE profile: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=39540

• He was founder of Binham priory about 1107.

• He was sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1086, and apparently some unknown stretch of time before and after.

• "His wife Albreda was the sister of a Eudo married to a Rohais. It has been assumed that this refers to Eudo dapifer and his wife Rohais de Clare, but it is much more likely to refer to Eudo vicomte de Saint-Saveur (d.1103) and his wife (VCH Herts iii, 26; cf. ibid. 37, 86-7). Albreda's brother was mentioned in the Binham foundation charter, which was attested by Roger de Saint-Sauveur, Eudo's nephew and successor." (See below. It is surprising, but there were two ladies in this time who were named Rohais and were sister to a Eudo. See Albreda de St Sauveur and Albreda de Rie.)

• Keats-Rohan said that Peter was father of his heir Roger, William, Muriel, secondly the wife of Hubert I de Montcanisy, and a daughter who married an Englishman, Alfred of Athleborough. (See below.)

• He died about 1109. Note that the ODNB has his death date as 1158. This is the death year Keats-Rohan gives for his son Peter II.

• He was remembered on 20 March in the Belvoir necrology (Keats-Rohan cites Add. 4936, fol. 20r).

Origins

Peter's parents are unknown. However, as remarked in a frequently quoted 2003 SGM post of Rosie Bevan:

I have seen numerous statements that Peter de Valognes, Domesday holder of the barony of Benington [Sanders, 12], was "nephew of the Conqueror", but no sourced evidence for this has come to light. Various web sites show him (again without sources) as son of Adelaide of Normandy and Enguerrand de Ponthieu, but this seems extremely unlikely given the latter died in 1053 without a male heir.^[1]

Concerning his origins in France, the chief source is Loyd. He points to the obvious place which Peter seems to be associated with: Valognes in Normandy, a large town in the Contentin Peninsula, with modern postcode 50700.

Loyd pointed out that in a later generation in 1166 a Roger de Valeines, held half a knight's fee of the old feoffment in Kent of William d'Avranches. He argued that because "another under-tenant of William was Robert de Beseville, and there is a Beuzeville 15 kil. SE of Valognes, the case for the identification seems strong".

Issue

• Roger de Valognes, son and heir, who died about 1141 or 1142.
• William, mentioned in the foundation charter for Binham priory.
• Murial de Valognes apparently first married an lord of the honour of Bacton, which eventually therefore passed into Valognes hands. Secondly she married Hubert de Montcanisy.
• A daughter, who married Alfred of Athleborough.

Jim Weber's online genealogy also connects a son named Hamo, Domesday tenant of Parham. However, as the profile says:

Even though there is no proof, I am connecting these 2 lines together at the only likely place that they would connect. Their name (Valognes/Valoines/Valeines) gives a strong indication of their common origin in Normandy.

Research notes: wife

Peter's wife was named Albreda (Aubrey) and she had a brother named Eudo who was married to a Rohaise (Rose). However, there are two proposals! See Albreda de St Sauveur and Albreda de Rie.

Keats-Rohan's relatively recent position concerning the wife's family is different even from most recent scholarly sources. Charters from the time certainly show interactions between Eudo the dapifer and Peter. She also gives more discussion in the introduction to Domesday People, seeing it as an example of her concern that English historians sometimes don't consider a person's continental connections:

Peter de Valognes, to take more subtle example, is assumed to have married Albreda sister of Eudo dapifer, on the grounds that of his charter for Binham priory in Essex that described Albreda as sister of a Eudo married to a Rohais.[footnote 17] Eudo dapifer, married to Rohais de Clare, and a neighbour of Peter in Essex, appears to fit the bill perfectly.[footnote 18] Yet the charter was, remarkably, attested by Roger de Saint-Saveur, member of the family of the vicomtes of the Cotentin. According to Wace, Nigel II of the Cotentin was at Hastings, but it cannot be shown with certainty that any member of his family held land in England thereafter, though many of his tenants, including Peter, did.[footnote 19] Roger's great-uncle was the vicompte Eudo, husband of a Rohais, who died c. 1103, when he was succeeded by Roger's brother Nigel, grandson of Nigel II of the Cotentin.[footnote 20] It is highly likely that the context of Peter's marriage was West Norman and not East Anglian.

The footnotes are important:

• [footnote 17] Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. W. Dugdale, new edn, 6 vols (1817-30), iii, 345-6. The fact that the property of Eudo dapifer's brother Adam in Hertfordshire passed to the Valognes family is adduced as proof of the affiliation, but the argument falls down when one realises that Peter de Valognes acquired a great many Hertfordshire manorsafter 1086, mostly previously held by persons to whom he cannot have been related; cf VCH Herts, iii, 26, 37, 86-7. Little enough of Eudo's own property passed to his surving [sic] heirs, his daughter Margaret de Mandeville and sister Muriel's son Walcher.
• [footnote 18] Farrer, HKF iii, 393.
• [footnote 19] Roman de Rou de Wace, ed. A. Holden, Société des Ancien Textes Français, 3 vols, Paris, 1970-73, lines 8353-62, 8493. Robert of Mortain had a tenant in Suffolk named Eudo fitz Nigel; it is possible that he was the vicomte Eudo fitz Nigel, great uncle of Roger de Saint-Saveur.

Further complications arise if we consider recent scholarship concerning the vicomtes of Cotentin, although they do not necessarily cause a problem for Keats-Rohan's position. Van Torhoudt explains differing positions concerning the exact relationship between the 3 members of the family mentioned above, Nigel who was Hastings, Nigel who married Rohais, and Count Roger who d. 1138.^[2]

Perhaps the bigger concern is that it all comes down to one witness in a very long list, named Rogerus de Sanctus Salvator. It does not, for example, specify that he was a vicomte.

Sources

1. ↑ 2003 SGM post by Rosie Bevan.
2. ↑ Van Torhoudt, Eric, (2006) "Les Sièges du Pouvoir des Néel, Vicomtes dans le Cotentin" in Flambard Héricher ed. Les lieux de pouvoir au Moyen Âge en Normandie et sur ses marges google books (see for example p.9)

• Dodwell, B. (1960) "Some Charters Relating to the Honour of Bacton", A Medieval Miscellany for Doris Mary Stenton, p.147.
• Keats-Rohan, Domesday People p.7, p.322.
• Loyd, Anglo-Norman Families, p.108.
• Sanders, English Baronies, pp.12-13.

See also:

• Records of the Anglo-Norman House of Glanville from A.D. 1050 to 1880, by WM. URMSTON S. GLANVILLE-RICHARDS, publ. 1882 by Mitchell and Hughes, London, England
• Jim Weber's profile for Peter: https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I07483

Temporary storage of old Day/Weber notes

• ref name="weber"> Jim Weber. The Phillips, Weber, Kirk, & Staggs families of the Pacific Northwest Piers de Valognes Updated June 11, 2016. Accessed February 8, 2018 jhd
• ref name="webernote1"> William Henry Turton. The Plantagenet Ancestry, 1968, Page: 106. Cited by Jim Weber. The Phillips, Weber, Kirk, & Staggs families of the Pacific Northwest Piers de Valognes Updated June 11, 2016. Accessed February 8, 2018 jhd
• ref name"webernote2"> Paul McBride, Ancestors of Paul McBride" Cited by Jim Weber. The Phillips, Weber, Kirk, & Staggs families of the Pacific Northwest Piers de Valognes Updated June 11, 2016. Accessed February 8, 2018 jhd Weber says that McBride's information is usually reasonably accurate.
• ref name="hofemann"> Curt Hofemann. Email to Jim Weber. Cited by Jim Weber. The Phillips, Weber, Kirk, & Staggs families of the Pacific Northwest Piers de Valognes Updated June 11, 2016. Accessed February 8, 2018 jhd