 1020 - 1086 (66 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has more than 100 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.
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| Name |
Gilbert de Venables |
| Nickname |
the Hunter |
| Birth |
1020 |
Venables, Andelys, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
1086 |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
12 May 2009 |
SEATT |
| FamilySearch ID |
L56H-TJ3 |
| Person ID |
I172229 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Eudes de Blois, II count of Blois, Chartres, Châteaudun, Beauvais and Tours, b. 983 d. 15 Nov 1037, Bar-le-Duc, Bar-le-Duc, la Meuse, Lorraine, République française (Age 54 years) |
| Mother |
Ermengarde de Auvergne, b. Abt 987, Auvergny, d'Evreux, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française d. 10 Mar 1040, Auvergny, d'Evreux, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française (Age 53 years) |
| Marriage |
Abt 1008 |
Auvergny, d'Evreux, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française |
| Family ID |
F6866 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Constance de Arles, b. 1050, Venables, Andelys, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française |
| Marriage |
Abt 1079 |
Venables, Andelys, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française |
| Children |
| + | 1. Lord William de Venables, b. 1090, Venables, Andelys, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française d. 1150, Venables, Andelys, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française (Age 60 years) |
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| Family ID |
F42987 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
21 Nov 2024 |
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| Notes |
- Gilbert de Venables, also referred to as Venator, Veneur, Hunter, was fr o m Venables, in the modern Department of Eure, near Rouen and Evreux i n Hi gh Normandy. The Barony of Le Veneurs was so named because they wer e here ditary huntsmen to the Dukes of Normandy .
On the death of Odo / Gudo,/ Gules or Theobald III, Count of Blois and C h artres, his eldest son Theobald / Stephen Henry inherited the title an d l ands. Gilbert had little hope of getting anything. At this time, afte r th e death of Mauger, the fief of Venables had no lord. Gilbert’s uncl e (? ) Roger of Blois, Bishop of Beauvais, whose chapter owned the platea u o f Madrie, gave Venables to Gilbert .
Gilbert, then aged about twenty, left Blois and followed the Loire Vall e y until it reached Chartres, of which his father was count, and the Eu r e Valley. Perhaps he was disappointed on reaching Venables, to find th a t his fief only comprised of the village, whilst the remaining lands st il l belonged to the chapter of Beauvais .
Evidence of his life may be seen in La Motelle .
Below the level ground of church and the village hall of Venables lie s a n impressive mound, overlooking the river cliffs of the Seine. Thoug h the re is no obvious moat and a section has been excavated from it give s ever y appearance of being a castle motte, similar to those in England , and th e possible home of the lord of Venables and therefore of Gilbert .
‘The whole of the centre of the village (probably from the road to the g u lly which is in the wood and from the church to the village hall) hold s t he remains which are an important part of the region’s history and th at o f the genesis of the present day village, and therefore should be pr otect ed, studied and brought to light. The motte called La Motelle was t he mai n element of the fortress, probably built in the eleventh century . Enclos ed by a moat, these fortifications included a more defensive ele ment: th e motte. The other element was the bailey in which most of the a ctivity w as centred (servants’ quarters, stores, etc). In Venables the r elativel y well preserved motte (with moats filled in and south-west sid e dug up) , because of its small size, seems only to have had a watch tow er, probab ly made of wood. The masonry which was discovered by the excav ation at th e beginning of this century could be part of a later modifica tion (constr uction of a stone donjon [keep] for example) or of an earlie r constructio n (making the motte by surrounding a building with earth) . The bailey goe s from the motte to the road; it is difficult to give th e exact dimension s because of the disappearance of the moat. However, i t is possible tha t the well, which can be seen there, is Medieval and wa s in the bailey. T he defensive system was strengthened by a double moat , perhaps borderin g a ravelin or a narrow courtyard to the north-west (t owards the wood). T he area of the castle seems to have been saved from c onstruction, excep t on the south-west side where the village hall stand s and towards the ro ad by the Presbytery (which must have replaced earli er buildings). It i s also possible that Venables was protected by a vill age wall.’
Source: From a report by M. Romain Verlut of CARMEN (Archaeological Rese a rch Centre of East Normandy), quoted in Oger page 31 7
Gilbert’s serfs, bound to the soil, had neither civil nor financial free d om. They belonged to Gilbert whose land they cultivated and to whom th e y paid rent for the patch of land they cultivated around their hovel .
The continued frontier wars influenced life around the fiefdom of Venabl e s, which returned on the death of Robert II the Devil, then the Magnifi ce nt, Duke of Normandy from 1027-1035. Despite being enthroned by the Ar chb ishop of Rouen the cousins of William the Bastard, then aged seven, s eize d power, backed by the great lords.
Henry I of France invaded the duchy and besieged Evreux. Though the to w n resisted Henry ransacked the countryside. By the time he was twenty W il liam had been ruling over a duchy ravaged by continuous war. In 1047 G u y de Brionne, his cousin and friend, led a revolt which cause Willia m t o flee to Falaise and then to the court of Henry I of France. In Marc h, a t the battle of Val-les-Dunes, William was victorious and the ‘bloo d of t he felons turned the river Orne red as far as Caen’ .
Geoffrey Martel, Count of Anjou, invaded the Vexin region and the Sein e V alley of Normandy with a coalition of Gascons, Burgundians, Auvergant s, A ngevins and the royal army, taking Mantes and Evreux. In 1054, the w hol e of France had banded against the Normans. After a drunken orgy, th e Nor mans fell on their opponents without mercy .
Gilbert of Venables probably therefore spent more time waging war on t h e borders of Normandy than looking after his modest domain. Then when t h e Duke called for him, he joined the army at Varaville.
From 1057, William’s thoughts had been on England, whose throne he alleg e d to have a right being the cousin of Ethelred II. After the death of E dw ard the Confessor on 5 January 1066, Harold foreswore on his oath to W ill iam, his son-in-law. Determined to take the throne promised to him Wi llia m called on the regulars and retainers of the Norman nobility to hi s cam p at Varaville, with the promise of castles, farms, herds and eve n youn g Saxon girls.
At the beginning of August 25 000 men and 4 000 knights were ready to em b ark at Dives-sur-Mer, in 3 000 boats including 680 large sailing boats.
Finally, on 27 September 1066 the fleet set sail towards England to la n d in Pevensey Bay to meet and defeat, on 14 October 1066, Harold of Wes se x on Senlac Hill. On that autumn day ‘they walked on mutilated corpses , t hey stepped in streams of blood in which the fighters slipped and fel l. ’
After Duke William was crowned King of England on 25 December 1066 he sh a red with his captains, amongst who was Gilbert de Venables, his conques t . William did all he could to keep his Norman lords in England by shari n g the land in to 62 500 fiefs of 120 acres. The Domesday Book of 1087 s ho wed that Gilbert of Venables owned some important fiefs in Cheshire.
Engraved on the west nave wall of Dives church are 521 names of those al l eged to have sailed with William. Oger records that 'there were about t we nty five names of lords whose fief were within a radius of twenty fiv e ki lometres around Venables. This shows just the high percentage of loc al pe ople who took part in the English conquest: six lords of Toeni, [d e Tosny ] two lords of La Mare and of course Gilbert (of Venables). Mos t of the m settled in Great Britain.' (Oger 1977, p.344) They were:
Berenger de Toeni, Guillaume de Toeni, Ilbert de Toeni, Iuhel de Toeni , R aoul de Toeni and Robert de Toeni
Hugue de la Mare (I can identify only one La Mare on the Dives wall phot o graph).
The prosopographical1 work of Katherine SB Keats-Rohan, on 'Domesday Peo p le', records that Gislebert De Venables was:
'Norman, Domesday tenant of Earl Hugh. From Venables, Eure, canton of Ga i llon. A Malger de Venables attested a confirmation for Saint-Ouen of Ro ue n by Roger de Clères circa 1050/66 (Fauroux, 191 2) A second Gilbert a tte sted a charter of Warin de Vernon (Chester Charters, 160)' and list s a fu rther 62 Domesday names identified as having their origins in th e departm ent of Eure. Of these thirteen are from a close proximity to Ve nables plu s two from nearby Vernon.
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