Roger Bigod of Norfolk
Roger Bigod | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Died | 9 September 1107 Thetford Norfolk England |
| Resting place | Thetford Priory Norfolk England |
| Spouse(s) | Adelais (Adelicia, Atheles) (1) Adelize de Tosny (Toeni, Toeny) (2) |
| Children | (1) William Bigod (2) Hugh Bigod (2) Humphrey Bigod (2) Gunnor Bigod (2) Cecily Bigod (2) Matilda Bigod |
| Residence | Thetford |
| Occupation | Norman knight |
Roger Bigod (died 1107)[1] was a Norman knight who travelled to England in the Norman Conquest. He held great power in East Anglia, and five of his descendants were earls of Norfolk. he appeared in a number of documents he was a witness to the Charter of Liberties of Henry I of England.
Biography
[edit]Roger came from a fairly obscure family of poor knights in Normandy. Robert Bigot, certainly a relation[2] acquired an important position in the household of William, Duke of Normandy (later William I of England), due, the story goes, to his disclosure to the duke of a plot by the duke's cousin William Werlenc.[3][citation needed]
Roger had at least two know siblings they are William and Matilda Bigod she married Hughes de Hosdenc.
Roger Bigod's base was in Thetford, Norfolk, then the see of the bishop, where he founded a priory which was later given to the abbey at Cluny. In 1101 he further consolidated his power when Henry, I granted him licence to build a castle at Framlingham, which became the family seat of power until their downfall in 1307. Another of his castles was Bungay Castle, also in Suffolk.
Roger built Framlingham Castle [4]. Henry I of England granted him a license to build this castle. [5]
In 1069 he, Robert Malet and Ralph de Gael), defeated the Dane Sweyn Estrithson's invasion attempt near Ipswich. After Ralph de Gael's fall in 1074, Roger was appointed sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk and acquired many of the dispossessed earl's estates. For this reason, he is sometimes counted as Earl of Norfolk, but he probably was never actually created earl. (His son Hugh acquired the title earl of Norfolk in 1141.) He acquired further estates through his influence in local law courts as sheriff and great lord of the region.
In the Rebellion of 1088 he joined other barons in England against William II, whom they hoped to depose in favour of Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. He seems to have lost his lands after the rebellion had failed but regained them after reconciling with the king.
In 1100, Robert Bigod (Bigot) was one of the witnesses recorded on the Charter of Liberties, King Henry I's coronation promises later to influence the Magna Carta of 1215.
In 1101 there was another attempt to bring in Robert of Normandy by removing King Henry, but this time Roger Bigod stayed loyal to the king.
Marriage and Issue
[edit]Roger married firstly Adelais (Adelicia, Atheles) (uxor rogeri) they had issue; he was succeeded by his eldest son.
- William Bigod, who drowned in the disastrous sinking of the White Ship
Married secondly Adelize de Tosny (Toeni, Toeny) they had issue:
- Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk who succeeded his brother William.
- Humphrey Bigod Royal Chaplin to Henry I of England.
- Gunnor Bigod, who married Robert fitz Swein of Essex, Lord of Rayleigh, mother of Henry of Essex she also married Hamnon de St Clair.
- Cecily Bigod, who married William d'Aubigny "Brito";
- Matilda Bigod, who married William d'Aubigny "Pincerna", and was mother to William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel. [6]
She was the sister and coheiress of William de Tosny, Lord of Belvoir. Their father was Robert de Todeni[7]
Death
[edit]He died on 9 September 1107 and is buried in Thetford Priory. Upon his death there was a dispute over his burial place between the Bishop of Norwich, Herbert Losinga and the monks at Thetford Priory, founded by Bigod. The monks claimed Roger's body, along with those of his family and successors, had been left to them by Roger for burial in the priory in Roger's foundation charter (as was common practice at the time). The bishop of Norwich stole the body in the middle of the night and had him buried in the new cathedral he had built in Norwich, this has no foundation.
See: Thetford Priory place of burial
See also
[edit]- House of Tosny
- Ida de Tosny (wife of Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk)
- Geoffrey Ridel (royal justice)
References
[edit]- ^ Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-22 for Roger Bigod Supplement (Vol 22)https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1981/records/103681
- ^ The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis by Ordericus Vitalis, 1075-1143 Publication date 1969 https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhi0000orde/page/170/mode/2up?q=bigod
- ^ mentioned by William of Jumièges in Gesta Normannorum Ducum.
- ^ Framlingham Castle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framlingham_Castle
- ^ Framlingham Castle Suffolk England https://www.castles-abbeys.co.uk/Framlingham-Castle.html
- ^ Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England, vol. 9.
- ^ Bigod Family Tree a Recorded in the Coel Database - K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, The Continental Origins of English Landholders 1066-1166 database and the COEL Database System on CDROM