Lady Godiva in Profile
by
Charles Graves
The famous Lady Godiva is presented almost as an idol in her various representations in painting and statuary, or as a chocolate, and in general as a symbol of humanism in the face of oppression. But, usually, only events in the last stage of her life are mentioned – such as riding through the streets of Coventry in an undressed state seeking help for the poor being too heavily taxed.
In fact, however, her marriage to the Earl of Mercia, Leofric (who held the famous Coventry – source of Lady Godiva stories) was her third marriage, and she entered it about the age of fifty. The timing must have been about 1050, since Earl Leofric died 1057. Algar became Earl of Mercia 1057 and Earl Edwin became Earl in 1062; Morcar was Earl of Northumbria in 1065. But these were not Eddeva’s progeny. As for her holding Grayingham (Corringham wapentake) Lincs. Domesday Book 34/ 27, Earl Edwin of Mercia had held it.
Her first marriages shed new light upon her personality and her psychology. Scholars have shown us that Lady Godiva was also called ‘Eddeva the fair’ which name occurs in Lincolnshire Domesday Book (DB) as holding several lands under the name of Eddeva. But she lost most of them to incoming Norman lords after the ‘Conquest’ and before 1086.
One rather intriguing puzzle is the strange fact that in the 1086 Domesday Book (DB) the name of ’wife of Hugh Fitzgrip’ occurs often in texts about taxation for the various counties. In Dorset, she was listed as holding about 25 villages, with quite important Norman nobles as her vassals. And it turns out that the wife of Hugh Fitzgrip was Eddeva ‘the fair’ in her first marriage. We found that Hugh Fitzgrip (‘son of Grip’) was also named as Grinchil (child of Grimbold) and that Grimbold was a ‘thane’ close to the Earls of Boulogne (from which came the wife of William I ‘Conqueror’, Matilda). Thane represents those in Britain (of any origin: half-Norman, Saxon, Mercian, Viking or Scythian) who supported king William I ‘the Conqueror’.
Moreover, research tell us that Eddeva was the wife of Tururet, a very important landholder in Lincolnshire T.R.E. (the time of king Edward the Confessor). Studying Tururet’s family, we see clearly the context of Eddeva’s second marriage. Tururet’s family was descended from a Norman – Gamelin de Turretot – who (T.R.E.) married a Hwicce (Mercian) woman called Ulflet from Tibberton, Worcestershire, and had three rather famous English children: Odo of Winchester; Aldred, bishop of Worcester and later archbishop of York (1062-69); and Ulviet the huntsman (whose wife was daughter of Seward the huntsman who had been a Viking). We presented our article on archbishop Aldred in last year’s autumn issue of the Holy Trinity Church Magazine. He was the clergyman who consecrated, in a religious ceremony, William I ‘Conqueror’ and Matilda as king and queen of England (1066-8).
Tururet and Eddeva had a very interesting family. We see all the names of the male children in Domesday Book - probably born in Kesteven (south Lincolnshire) - since Tururet’s lands were mainly there (later most were taken by William I’s fellow Normans). The most famous of their offspring was Godric, the steward of the Malet family (Normans who had brought Gamelin de Turretot to England (T.R.E.). Godric was also responsible to king William for managing a portion of his lands in Norfolk. Another son was Edric of Laxfield (in Suffolk) who was helmsman of the bishop of Worcester’s boat and helped with creating the Domesday Book of Worcestershire. A third son was Alwi - perhaps the Alwi noted as sheriff of the northern part of Oxfordshire. Another son was Halden or Alden, a priest in the church (mainly in Lincolnshire). Finally, there was Ulf, ‘Tope’s son’ (i.e. son of Tururet). The sons were also listed as having held lands in various counties – in particular Lincolnshire and Worcestershire both before and after the time of Domesday Book 1086. Tururet as name of the father came from Tururet’s grandfather’s name - Gamelin of Turretot.
Ulf, ‘Tope’s son’ was administrator under Torold, abbot of Peterborough abbey, for many of the abbey’s lands in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. He and his wife made a will before journeying to Jerusalem which the editors of the Lincolnshire DB use for discussing legal affairs in Lincolnshire before 1086. This couple had no children. Ulf was also interesting because it was he who provided three villages (in Northants. and Lincs.) for Gerard, son of archbishop Aldred. As we saw in our previous article on bishop Aldred, Gerard was called by various names in order to preserve his anonymity. His descendants are in England even today – in the Tryvet family (name from Gamelin de Turretot).
As mentioned above, ‘fair Eddeva’ had an earlier marriage (before Tururet) and a later one, as Lady Godiva (with Earl Leofric). After several years of research on the person of the ‘wife of Hugh Fitzgrip’ holding over 20 villages in Dorset and other counties (e.g. Wilts.) in DB, we concluded that she was Eddeva in a first marriage with Hugh, called also ‘Grinchil’ (child of Grimbald). Eddeva appears to be a Mortemer family member. In fact in the Yorkshire DB she is given the name Eddeua as holding, in 1086, several properties north of the Humber River near Hull, her lord being Ralf de Mortemer. Moreover, in Yarborough and Manley wapentakes (Viking word for division of a county) in Lincolnshire, three of her properties were, after 1086, under the care of the same Ralph de Mortemer.
It appears that Eddeva was the daughter of Thurstin de Mortemer, probable uncle of Ralf de Mortemer (cf. my Families of the Domesday Book, vol. II, pp. 128-141) and brother of Roger de Mortemer, supporter of William the Conqueror. Roger’s mother was the niece of Duchess Gunnora of Normandy.
Thurstin de Mortimer’s sister married Turketil of Montfort on the Risle (river)and Thurstin took the name of de Montfort for a time mainly because his brother Roger de Mortemer had once supported Robert Courthose of Normandy - William I Conqueror’s son and enemy - and for this treason lost his family seat at Mortemer sur Eaulne. Thurstin himself married the daughter of Alfred of Marlborough an important supporter of William Fitzosbern (Earl of Hereford and descendant of the Norman ducal family). Thurstin’s children were William Bertrand (Bertor in Lincs.), Hugh (noted as younger son of Thurstin de Bastenhure who died in a duel), Giselle (married to Girou of Eschauffou – Gleu in Lincs.) and Eddeva.
Thurstin was shown in DB as simply Turstin /Thurstin or as Thurstin of some village he held, e.g. Thurstin of Bastonhure. Bastonhure (noted in Essex Victoria County History under Reynes village) is not found in any list of English villages, but we have determined that it referred to Barton on Humber in North Lincolnshire. Two nearby villages - Thornton Curtis and Bonby (Yarborough wapentake) - had been taken from Eddeva by Ralf de Mortemer before 1086. These villages were linked to several villages north of the Humber (i.e. North Ferriby and Newsholm by Hasselwood in the East Riding of Yorkshire) which were held by Ralf and Eddeva in 1086. Moreover, the statement that Thurstin of Bastenhure had a son Hugh (apparently Eddeva’s brother) who was slain in a duel with Henry de Ferrières makes sense when we see that South Ferriby (in Lincs.) near Barton on Humber was held in 1086 by the de Ferrières family.
(...to be continued)
Part II
We continue with another note on Eddeva’s marriage with Hugh Fitzgrip
A final note on Eddeva’s marriage with Hugh Fitzgrip. They had a son Hacon or Acun, shown as holding lands in Lincs. 1086 and also as a vassal of the Count of Mortain (king William’s half-brother) in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1086. He is also shown as a vassal of Earl Leofric, Eddeva’s third husband. Hacon’s son William Turniant is listed in the Lindsey Survey (1115-1120) (L/3/ 7, 18); L 7/ 6, 10; L/ 11, 28) as son of Hacon. He was apparently a monk at Thorney abbey, Cambridge.
Holdings in Lincs. of Ulviet (Eddeva’s father-on-law) and Tururet (her husband) T.R.E. - when compared with those of a Leuric and Earl Morcar - show that they were living in the same or nearby villages in Yarborough, Winnibrigg, Beltisloe, and Aveland wapentakes / hundreds, Lincs. in T.R.E. In Yarborough bordering the Humber, Morcar held at Barrow on Humber next to Barton on Humber where Turstin de Mortemer / Thurstin de Bastenhure (father of Eddeva) held, and where Ralph de Mortemer held nearby with Eddeva at Thornton Curtis. Earl Morcar also held Goxhill next to Barrow on Humber and ‘gave it to Hugh’ (70 /5). ‘Hugh’ is not further explained in the text, and we presume it refers to Hugh Fitzgrip, Eddeva’s first husband. Grim had also held at Goxhill – it was either Grimbold or Hugh Fitzgrip (called Grinchil).
Morcar also held at North Stoke and Great Gonerby (Winnibrigg hundred) three miles in either direction from Little and Great Pontin where Tururet held before Countess Judith took it (56 / 7, 8). Tururet also held at Claypole (Winnibrigg). Morcar held Skillington and Colesworth as well as Burton Coggles in Beltisloe hundred. Skillington was one of the villages Ulf ‘Tope’s son’ (son of Tururet) procured for Gerard, son of Archbishop Aldred. Aldred was brother to Ulviet (father-in-law of Eddeva).
Later, Hacon (son of Eddeva and Hugh Fitzgrip) was a vassal of Earl Leuric, Eddeva’s third husband. (see Lindsey Survey (1115-1120) (Well wapontake) 6 / 6 where, under Stephen of Brittany, ‘Hacon son of Eluric’ holding Morton (Well wap.) refers to Hacon and his stepfather Earl Leuric, and to Willingham by Stow and Stow which ‘Hugh’s wife’ holds. This refers to Eddeva, wife of Hugh Fitzgrip (her first husband). The minster of Stow St. Mary (Well) was supported financially by Eddeva / Lady Godiva as the Wikipedia article on Lady Godiva informs us.
Eddeva lost lands in Lincs. by 1086 but kept one at Nettleton (Yarborough wap.) where it was said ‘she (Leueua) held half a team there as a thane’. But her property at Melton Ross, Kettleby and Brockleby had been taken by Erneis de Burun, a Norman. He also took her property at Grayingham (Corringham wap.) Erneis also took four lands of Grim in Yarborough wap. meaning the land of either Hugh Fitzgrip, Eddeva’s first husband, or of Hugh’s father Grimbold. But Erneis did not take Bonby (Yarborough) of Ralph de Mortemer (who kept it along with Hugh Fitzbaldric (who had become sheriff of Yorkshire).
Upon arriving at Coventry as holding lands of her husband Leuric, Earl of Mercia, Eddeva was not the only one of her family in Warwickshire. Ralph Mortemer (her brother or nephew) held land there by 1086 under Henry de Ferrières at Stretton Baskerville (an empty village today attached to Burton Hastings, 10 miles north of Coventry). A Turstin held of the same Henry Ferrières at Grendon (Coleshill hundred) and this might have been Thurstin de Mortemer. Eddeva herself (under the name of Countess Godiva) held six villages in Warwickshire outside Coventry. As for the Nicholas, crossbowman, who held some property in Coventry, he also held lands at ‘Aylstone’ in Atherstone in the north of the county.
In Coventry itself, Internet informs us that according to Domesday Book, Countess Godiva held the households of 50 villagers, as well as those of 20 smallholders, and those of 7 slaves. She also had 20 ploughlands, 3 lord’s plough teams, 20 men’s plough teams, a woodland, and a mill (worth 3 shillings). The lands were valued at 12 pounds in 1066 and the same 12 pounds in 1086. A ‘lord’ (owner) in 1066 was Lady Godiva and a lord (owner) in 1086 was Nicholas the bowman. The tenant in chief in 1086 was Lady Godiva.
Wikipedia tells certain stories of how Lady Godiva and Earl Leuric gave charitable gifts to certain religious institutions, including among them one to Leominster abbey in Herefordshire, and the manor of Woolthorpe as gift to the cathedral at Hereford. In that county the de Mortemer family had important holdings at Wigmore and ‘Richard’s’ Castle.
In Warwickshire Eddeva’s brother William Bertrand de Mortemer was probably the William who held land with Gerin (cf. Girou / Gleu, brother-in-law of Eddeva) who was tenant-in-chief with 5 hides at Binton, Warwicks. (near Stratford-upon-Avon).
Fortunately for Lady Godiva, Nicholas the arblaster would help her at Coventry. He is no doubt Nicholas de Burci - brother of Roger de Burci (who held widely in West Yorks. and Notts. in 1086). Burcei is a small place near Vire south of Bayeux in Normandy next to Estori (Astreium on old maps) the origin of Turold of Bucknall (Lincs.), sheriff of Lincolnshire, with whom Eddeva has been associated by scholars. Nicholas de Burci was an important landholder in Devon in 1086 and was overlord of Payne d'Aquillon who married the daughter of Odo of Winchester. Payne founded the Torrington family (progeny of Odo). In relation to Eddeva, this Odo of Winchester was the brother of Eddeva’s father-in-law Ulviet the huntsman, as well as brother of Aldred, archbishop of York.
We have not presented the whole story of Eddeva as Lady Godiva of Coventry but that is presented elsewhere at length. But ’fair Eddeva’ certainly had difficulties in Coventry as the myths about Lady Godiva inform us. One day she disrobed and rode about the town on her horse showing her ‘householders’ a dislike of her husband’s taxation policy. As feudal lord from Normandy she was sympathizing with English peasantry - that was enough to provoke an interesting myth about her ride which has lasted almost a thousand years.
Charles Graves
2024 for Holy Trinity Church
Magazine (in two parts)
In fact, however, her marriage to the Earl of Mercia, Leofric (who held the famous Coventry – source of Lady Godiva stories) was her third marriage, and she entered it about the age of fifty. The timing must have been about 1050, since Earl Leofric died 1057. Algar became Earl of Mercia 1057 and Earl Edwin became Earl in 1062; Morcar was Earl of Northumbria in 1065. But these were not Eddeva’s progeny. As for her holding Grayingham (Corringham wapentake) Lincs. Domesday Book 34/ 27, Earl Edwin of Mercia had held it.
Her first marriages shed new light upon her personality and her psychology. Scholars have shown us that Lady Godiva was also called ‘Eddeva the fair’ which name occurs in Lincolnshire Domesday Book (DB) as holding several lands under the name of Eddeva. But she lost most of them to incoming Norman lords after the ‘Conquest’ and before 1086.
One rather intriguing puzzle is the strange fact that in the 1086 Domesday Book (DB) the name of ’wife of Hugh Fitzgrip’ occurs often in texts about taxation for the various counties. In Dorset, she was listed as holding about 25 villages, with quite important Norman nobles as her vassals. And it turns out that the wife of Hugh Fitzgrip was Eddeva ‘the fair’ in her first marriage. We found that Hugh Fitzgrip (‘son of Grip’) was also named as Grinchil (child of Grimbold) and that Grimbold was a ‘thane’ close to the Earls of Boulogne (from which came the wife of William I ‘Conqueror’, Matilda). Thane represents those in Britain (of any origin: half-Norman, Saxon, Mercian, Viking or Scythian) who supported king William I ‘the Conqueror’.
Moreover, research tell us that Eddeva was the wife of Tururet, a very important landholder in Lincolnshire T.R.E. (the time of king Edward the Confessor). Studying Tururet’s family, we see clearly the context of Eddeva’s second marriage. Tururet’s family was descended from a Norman – Gamelin de Turretot – who (T.R.E.) married a Hwicce (Mercian) woman called Ulflet from Tibberton, Worcestershire, and had three rather famous English children: Odo of Winchester; Aldred, bishop of Worcester and later archbishop of York (1062-69); and Ulviet the huntsman (whose wife was daughter of Seward the huntsman who had been a Viking). We presented our article on archbishop Aldred in last year’s autumn issue of the Holy Trinity Church Magazine. He was the clergyman who consecrated, in a religious ceremony, William I ‘Conqueror’ and Matilda as king and queen of England (1066-8).
Tururet and Eddeva had a very interesting family. We see all the names of the male children in Domesday Book - probably born in Kesteven (south Lincolnshire) - since Tururet’s lands were mainly there (later most were taken by William I’s fellow Normans). The most famous of their offspring was Godric, the steward of the Malet family (Normans who had brought Gamelin de Turretot to England (T.R.E.). Godric was also responsible to king William for managing a portion of his lands in Norfolk. Another son was Edric of Laxfield (in Suffolk) who was helmsman of the bishop of Worcester’s boat and helped with creating the Domesday Book of Worcestershire. A third son was Alwi - perhaps the Alwi noted as sheriff of the northern part of Oxfordshire. Another son was Halden or Alden, a priest in the church (mainly in Lincolnshire). Finally, there was Ulf, ‘Tope’s son’ (i.e. son of Tururet). The sons were also listed as having held lands in various counties – in particular Lincolnshire and Worcestershire both before and after the time of Domesday Book 1086. Tururet as name of the father came from Tururet’s grandfather’s name - Gamelin of Turretot.
Ulf, ‘Tope’s son’ was administrator under Torold, abbot of Peterborough abbey, for many of the abbey’s lands in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. He and his wife made a will before journeying to Jerusalem which the editors of the Lincolnshire DB use for discussing legal affairs in Lincolnshire before 1086. This couple had no children. Ulf was also interesting because it was he who provided three villages (in Northants. and Lincs.) for Gerard, son of archbishop Aldred. As we saw in our previous article on bishop Aldred, Gerard was called by various names in order to preserve his anonymity. His descendants are in England even today – in the Tryvet family (name from Gamelin de Turretot).
As mentioned above, ‘fair Eddeva’ had an earlier marriage (before Tururet) and a later one, as Lady Godiva (with Earl Leofric). After several years of research on the person of the ‘wife of Hugh Fitzgrip’ holding over 20 villages in Dorset and other counties (e.g. Wilts.) in DB, we concluded that she was Eddeva in a first marriage with Hugh, called also ‘Grinchil’ (child of Grimbald). Eddeva appears to be a Mortemer family member. In fact in the Yorkshire DB she is given the name Eddeua as holding, in 1086, several properties north of the Humber River near Hull, her lord being Ralf de Mortemer. Moreover, in Yarborough and Manley wapentakes (Viking word for division of a county) in Lincolnshire, three of her properties were, after 1086, under the care of the same Ralph de Mortemer.
It appears that Eddeva was the daughter of Thurstin de Mortemer, probable uncle of Ralf de Mortemer (cf. my Families of the Domesday Book, vol. II, pp. 128-141) and brother of Roger de Mortemer, supporter of William the Conqueror. Roger’s mother was the niece of Duchess Gunnora of Normandy.
Thurstin de Mortimer’s sister married Turketil of Montfort on the Risle (river)and Thurstin took the name of de Montfort for a time mainly because his brother Roger de Mortemer had once supported Robert Courthose of Normandy - William I Conqueror’s son and enemy - and for this treason lost his family seat at Mortemer sur Eaulne. Thurstin himself married the daughter of Alfred of Marlborough an important supporter of William Fitzosbern (Earl of Hereford and descendant of the Norman ducal family). Thurstin’s children were William Bertrand (Bertor in Lincs.), Hugh (noted as younger son of Thurstin de Bastenhure who died in a duel), Giselle (married to Girou of Eschauffou – Gleu in Lincs.) and Eddeva.
Thurstin was shown in DB as simply Turstin /Thurstin or as Thurstin of some village he held, e.g. Thurstin of Bastonhure. Bastonhure (noted in Essex Victoria County History under Reynes village) is not found in any list of English villages, but we have determined that it referred to Barton on Humber in North Lincolnshire. Two nearby villages - Thornton Curtis and Bonby (Yarborough wapentake) - had been taken from Eddeva by Ralf de Mortemer before 1086. These villages were linked to several villages north of the Humber (i.e. North Ferriby and Newsholm by Hasselwood in the East Riding of Yorkshire) which were held by Ralf and Eddeva in 1086. Moreover, the statement that Thurstin of Bastenhure had a son Hugh (apparently Eddeva’s brother) who was slain in a duel with Henry de Ferrières makes sense when we see that South Ferriby (in Lincs.) near Barton on Humber was held in 1086 by the de Ferrières family.
(...to be continued)
Part II
We continue with another note on Eddeva’s marriage with Hugh Fitzgrip
A final note on Eddeva’s marriage with Hugh Fitzgrip. They had a son Hacon or Acun, shown as holding lands in Lincs. 1086 and also as a vassal of the Count of Mortain (king William’s half-brother) in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1086. He is also shown as a vassal of Earl Leofric, Eddeva’s third husband. Hacon’s son William Turniant is listed in the Lindsey Survey (1115-1120) (L/3/ 7, 18); L 7/ 6, 10; L/ 11, 28) as son of Hacon. He was apparently a monk at Thorney abbey, Cambridge.
Holdings in Lincs. of Ulviet (Eddeva’s father-on-law) and Tururet (her husband) T.R.E. - when compared with those of a Leuric and Earl Morcar - show that they were living in the same or nearby villages in Yarborough, Winnibrigg, Beltisloe, and Aveland wapentakes / hundreds, Lincs. in T.R.E. In Yarborough bordering the Humber, Morcar held at Barrow on Humber next to Barton on Humber where Turstin de Mortemer / Thurstin de Bastenhure (father of Eddeva) held, and where Ralph de Mortemer held nearby with Eddeva at Thornton Curtis. Earl Morcar also held Goxhill next to Barrow on Humber and ‘gave it to Hugh’ (70 /5). ‘Hugh’ is not further explained in the text, and we presume it refers to Hugh Fitzgrip, Eddeva’s first husband. Grim had also held at Goxhill – it was either Grimbold or Hugh Fitzgrip (called Grinchil).
Morcar also held at North Stoke and Great Gonerby (Winnibrigg hundred) three miles in either direction from Little and Great Pontin where Tururet held before Countess Judith took it (56 / 7, 8). Tururet also held at Claypole (Winnibrigg). Morcar held Skillington and Colesworth as well as Burton Coggles in Beltisloe hundred. Skillington was one of the villages Ulf ‘Tope’s son’ (son of Tururet) procured for Gerard, son of Archbishop Aldred. Aldred was brother to Ulviet (father-in-law of Eddeva).
Later, Hacon (son of Eddeva and Hugh Fitzgrip) was a vassal of Earl Leuric, Eddeva’s third husband. (see Lindsey Survey (1115-1120) (Well wapontake) 6 / 6 where, under Stephen of Brittany, ‘Hacon son of Eluric’ holding Morton (Well wap.) refers to Hacon and his stepfather Earl Leuric, and to Willingham by Stow and Stow which ‘Hugh’s wife’ holds. This refers to Eddeva, wife of Hugh Fitzgrip (her first husband). The minster of Stow St. Mary (Well) was supported financially by Eddeva / Lady Godiva as the Wikipedia article on Lady Godiva informs us.
Eddeva lost lands in Lincs. by 1086 but kept one at Nettleton (Yarborough wap.) where it was said ‘she (Leueua) held half a team there as a thane’. But her property at Melton Ross, Kettleby and Brockleby had been taken by Erneis de Burun, a Norman. He also took her property at Grayingham (Corringham wap.) Erneis also took four lands of Grim in Yarborough wap. meaning the land of either Hugh Fitzgrip, Eddeva’s first husband, or of Hugh’s father Grimbold. But Erneis did not take Bonby (Yarborough) of Ralph de Mortemer (who kept it along with Hugh Fitzbaldric (who had become sheriff of Yorkshire).
Upon arriving at Coventry as holding lands of her husband Leuric, Earl of Mercia, Eddeva was not the only one of her family in Warwickshire. Ralph Mortemer (her brother or nephew) held land there by 1086 under Henry de Ferrières at Stretton Baskerville (an empty village today attached to Burton Hastings, 10 miles north of Coventry). A Turstin held of the same Henry Ferrières at Grendon (Coleshill hundred) and this might have been Thurstin de Mortemer. Eddeva herself (under the name of Countess Godiva) held six villages in Warwickshire outside Coventry. As for the Nicholas, crossbowman, who held some property in Coventry, he also held lands at ‘Aylstone’ in Atherstone in the north of the county.
In Coventry itself, Internet informs us that according to Domesday Book, Countess Godiva held the households of 50 villagers, as well as those of 20 smallholders, and those of 7 slaves. She also had 20 ploughlands, 3 lord’s plough teams, 20 men’s plough teams, a woodland, and a mill (worth 3 shillings). The lands were valued at 12 pounds in 1066 and the same 12 pounds in 1086. A ‘lord’ (owner) in 1066 was Lady Godiva and a lord (owner) in 1086 was Nicholas the bowman. The tenant in chief in 1086 was Lady Godiva.
Wikipedia tells certain stories of how Lady Godiva and Earl Leuric gave charitable gifts to certain religious institutions, including among them one to Leominster abbey in Herefordshire, and the manor of Woolthorpe as gift to the cathedral at Hereford. In that county the de Mortemer family had important holdings at Wigmore and ‘Richard’s’ Castle.
In Warwickshire Eddeva’s brother William Bertrand de Mortemer was probably the William who held land with Gerin (cf. Girou / Gleu, brother-in-law of Eddeva) who was tenant-in-chief with 5 hides at Binton, Warwicks. (near Stratford-upon-Avon).
Fortunately for Lady Godiva, Nicholas the arblaster would help her at Coventry. He is no doubt Nicholas de Burci - brother of Roger de Burci (who held widely in West Yorks. and Notts. in 1086). Burcei is a small place near Vire south of Bayeux in Normandy next to Estori (Astreium on old maps) the origin of Turold of Bucknall (Lincs.), sheriff of Lincolnshire, with whom Eddeva has been associated by scholars. Nicholas de Burci was an important landholder in Devon in 1086 and was overlord of Payne d'Aquillon who married the daughter of Odo of Winchester. Payne founded the Torrington family (progeny of Odo). In relation to Eddeva, this Odo of Winchester was the brother of Eddeva’s father-in-law Ulviet the huntsman, as well as brother of Aldred, archbishop of York.
We have not presented the whole story of Eddeva as Lady Godiva of Coventry but that is presented elsewhere at length. But ’fair Eddeva’ certainly had difficulties in Coventry as the myths about Lady Godiva inform us. One day she disrobed and rode about the town on her horse showing her ‘householders’ a dislike of her husband’s taxation policy. As feudal lord from Normandy she was sympathizing with English peasantry - that was enough to provoke an interesting myth about her ride which has lasted almost a thousand years.
Charles Graves
2024 for Holy Trinity Church
Magazine (in two parts)
Photograph: ‘rock painting’ in Australia photographed by Graeme Churchard, Bristol (UK)
