Robert Fitzharding
Encyclopedia
Robert Fitzharding was an Englishman
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 from Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 who rose to the feudal barony
English feudal barony
In England, a feudal barony or barony by tenure was a form of Feudal land tenure, namely per baroniam under which the land-holder owed the service of being one of the king's barons. It must be distinguished from a barony, also feudal, but which existed within a county palatine, such as the Barony...

 of Berkeley
Berkeley, Gloucestershire
Berkeley is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It lies in the Vale of Berkeley between the east bank of the River Severn and the M5 motorway within the Stroud administrative district. The town is noted for Berkeley Castle where the imprisoned Edward II was murdered.- Geography...

 and founded the family
Berkeley family
The Berkeley family has an unbroken male line of descent from a Saxon ancestor before the Norman conquest of England in 1066 to the present day.-History:...

 which still holds Berkeley Castle
Berkeley Castle
Berkeley Castle is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, UK . The castle's origins date back to the 11th century and it has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.The castle has remained within the Berkeley family since they reconstructed it in the...

 in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, the castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 whose construction he started. He was also the founder of St Augustine's Abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 in Bristol, which later became Bristol Cathedral
Bristol Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity is the Church of England cathedral in the city of Bristol, England, and is commonly known as Bristol Cathedral...

.

Early life

Robert Fitzharding is believed to have been the grandson of Eadnoth
Eadnoth the Constable
Eadnoth the Constable, also known as Eadnoth the Staller, was an Anglo-Saxon landowner and steward to Edward the Confessor and Harold II, mentioned in Domesday Book as having 30 holdings in Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire before the Norman conquest. He may also have been the same person as...

, who had held the post of Staller
Staller
Staller was a royal official in Norse culture, equivalent to a constable or standard bearer. It may also refer to:*Eric Staller , an American artist who uses light and architecture...

 under King Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....

 and King Harold
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...

. Robert's father Harding
Harding of Bristol
Harding of Bristol was sheriff reeve of Bristol, with responsibility for managing a manorial estate and perhaps similar duties to those of a magistrate. He was the son of Eadnoth the Constable, an Anglo-Saxon thane who served as steward to Edward the Confessor and Harold II...

 was the King's Reeve
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

 in Bristol, with a house in Baldwin Street. Robert later built a large house in Broad Street, on the River Frome
River Frome, Bristol
The River Frome is a river, approximately long, which rises in Dodington Park, South Gloucestershire, and flows in a south westerly direction through Bristol, joining the former course of the river Avon in Bristol's Floating Harbour. The mean flow at Frenchay is The name Frome is shared with...

. He became a burgess of the city and sufficiently wealthy to buy from Robert of Gloucester
Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester
Robert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was called "Rufus" and occasionally "de Caen", he is also known as Robert "the Consul"...

 extensive manorial
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...

 lands around Bristol to its south and west, including Redcliffe
Redcliffe, Bristol
Redcliffe, also known as Redcliff, is a district of the English port city of Bristol, adjoining the city centre. It is bounded by the loop of the Floating Harbour to the west, north and east, the New Cut of the River Avon to the south...

, Bedminster, Leigh
Abbots Leigh
Abbots Leigh is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, about west of the centre of Bristol.-History:The original Middle English name was Lega and the village became Abbots Leigh in the mid 12th century when Robert Fitzharding , who acquired the village as Lord of the Manor, gave the...

, Portbury
Portbury
Portbury is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England within the Unitary Authority of North Somerset.The parish includes the hamlet of Sheepway which is situated on the moorland at the northern edge of the Gordano valley, between the Gordano services on the M5 motorway and Portishead, near...

 and Billeswick.

St Augustine's Abbey

In 1140 Fitzharding founded St Augustine's Abbey as a Victorine Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

 monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

. The chosen site was in Billeswick, just across the River Frome from the medieval city of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

. He endowed the abbey with many lands, and the rights to revenues from many churches, in Bristol and within several counties
Counties of England
Counties of England are areas used for the purposes of administrative, geographical and political demarcation. For administrative purposes, England outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly is divided into 83 counties. The counties may consist of a single district or be divided into several...

. In 1148 he chose Richard of Warwick as the first abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

. In 1155 King Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

 also made endowments to the abbey and in 1159 Fitzharding confirmed his own endowments by charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...

. The abbey carried out a building programme during Fitzharding's lifetime which saw not only the building of a church but also the chapter house and gatehouse.

Berkeley

In the conflict of the Anarchy
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...

, Bristol was held by Robert of Gloucester for the Plantagenet
House of Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet , a branch of the Angevins, was a royal house founded by Geoffrey V of Anjou, father of Henry II of England. Plantagenet kings first ruled the Kingdom of England in the 12th century. Their paternal ancestors originated in the French province of Gâtinais and gained the...

 cause. When they eventually prevailed, Fitzharding was rewarded by the Plantagenets for his support with the title and lands which had belonged to Roger de Berkeley. In 1152 Roger was dispossessed of the Lordship of Berkeley for refusing to give allegiance to the Plantagenets. These manorial lands included Berkeley, Filton
Filton
Filton is a town in South Gloucestershire, England, situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Bristol, about from the city centre. Filton lies in Bristol postcode areas BS7 and BS34. The town centres upon Filton Church, which dates back to the 12th century and is a grade II listed building...

, Horfield
Horfield
Horfield is a suburb of the city of Bristol, in southwest England. It lies on Bristol's northern edge, its border with Filton marking part of the boundary between Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Bishopston lies directly to the south. Monks Park and Golden Hill are to the west. Lockleaze and...

, Almondsbury
Almondsbury
Almondsbury is a large village near junction 16 of the M5 motorway, in South Gloucestershire, England.-Description:The village is split by a steep hill, part of the escarpment overlooking the Severn floodplain. At the bottom of the hill is Lower Almondsbury where a pub and hotel, The Bowl Inn, is...

 and Ashleworth
Ashleworth
Ashleworth is a village and civil parish in the Tewkesbury district of Gloucestershire, England, with a population of 553 , about six miles north of Gloucester...

, and other English and Welsh possessions including land in Gwent
Gwent (county)
Gwent is a preserved county and a former local government county in south-east Wales. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was named after the ancient Kingdom of Gwent....

 and Glamorgan
Glamorgan
Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...

. Fitzharding would go on to make further endowments to the abbey from these territories.

In 1153–54 Fitzharding received a royal charter from Henry II giving him permission to rebuild the castle at Berkeley. The previous castle was originally a motte-and-bailey
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...

 built by William FitzOsbern
William Fitzosbern, 1st Earl of Hereford
William FitzOsbern , Lord of Breteuil, in Normandy, was a relative and close counsellor of William the Conqueror and one of the great magnates of early Norman England...

 shortly after the Conquest
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

, around 1067, and rebuilt in the 12th century by the dispossessed Roger de Berkeley and his father. Fitzharding built the shell keep
Shell keep
A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte.In English castle morphology, shell keeps are perceived as the successors to motte-and-bailey castles, with the wooden fence around the top of the motte replaced by a stone wall...

 during 1153–56, on the site of the former motte. The building of the curtain wall
Curtain wall (fortification)
A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....

 followed, around 1160–90.

Later life

According to the 13th century Norman
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...

 verse The Song of Dermot and the Earl, Fitzharding acted as an intermediary between Dermot MacMurrough
Dermot MacMurrough
Diarmait Mac Murchada , anglicized as Dermot MacMurrough or Dermod MacMurrough , was a King of Leinster in Ireland. In 1167, he was deprived of his kingdom by the High King of Ireland - Turlough Mór O'Connor...

, the exiled King of Leinster
Kings of Leinster
The following is a provisional list of the kings of Leinster who ruled the Irish kingdom of Leinster up to 1632 with the death of Domhnall Spainnach MacMurrough-Kavanagh, the last legitimately inaugurated head of the MacMurrough Kavanagh royal line...

, and Henry II in Dermot's attempts to raise Norman support for his planned recapture of Leinster
Leinster
Leinster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled...

. The song tells that Dermot was a guest in Fitzharding's house in Bristol.

Some time before his death Fitzharding became a canon of the abbey he had founded. He died in 1170.

The ancestry of Robert Fitzharding's wife Eva is not certain. She was founder and first abbess
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....

 of the Augustinian nunnery of St Mary Magdalen
St Mary Magdalen Nunnery, Bristol
St Mary Magdalen Nunnery was a priory of Augustinian canonesses in Kingsdown, Bristol, England. It was founded c. 1173 and dissolved in 1536...

 on St Michael's Hill, Bristol, having endowed it with lands in Southmead
Southmead
Southmead is a northern suburb and council ward of Bristol, in the southwest of England. The town of Filton , and the Bristol suburbs of Monks Park, Horfield, Henleaze and Westbury on Trym lie on its boundaries....

.

Eva was buried alongside her husband in the choir of St Augustine's Abbey. They are commemorated with a 19th century stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 window in the Cathedral, depicting them with Henry II.

Descendants

Robert's first son, and heir, was Maurice fitzRobert fitzHarding, also known as Maurice de Berkeley, born c. 1120. In 1153–54 Maurice married Alice, the first daughter of the dispossessed Roger de Berkeley, who was now Lord of Dursley
Dursley
Dursley is a market town in Gloucestershire, England. It is under the North East flank of Stinchcombe Hill , and about 6 km South East of the River Severn. The town is adjacent with Cam which, though a village, is a community of double the size...

. The two families were united twice by marriage, as Robert's first daughter Helen married Roger's heir, also called Roger.

External links

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