Table Of Contentfir
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GROUND PLAN
OF THE
AT
Vol. i,/. 50.
THE
BATTLE ABBEY ROLL
WITH SOME
ACCOUNT OF THE NORMAN LINEAGES.
BY THE
DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND
IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I.
LONDON
:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1889.
LONDON
:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
PREFACE.
No one can be more sensible than I am myself that the task of investigating
the Battle Abbey Roll should have been committed to more competent hands
than mine. My only excuse for attempting it is that it has in reality been un-
attempted hitherto, as Sir Bernard Burke, in his commentary on Holinshed's list,
has only dealt with two hundred and nine of the best-known names, passing
over the remaining four hundred and twenty without notice, and Sir Egerton
Brydges' brief and peremptory annotations were evidently made in haste, and
refer to an imperfect copy. From being a resident at Battle Abbey, and enter-
taining a higher opinion than is expressed by many of my contemporaries for
"the scum of Bretons and rags of France" that conquered and colonised
England, I have felt an interest in the subject, and a desire to do my best, at
all events, towards elucidating it For this purpose I have waded through
many county histories, peerages, and other volumes that are scarcely lively
reading, but I have received most assistance from 'The Norman People' and
the ' Recherches sur le Domesday.' Chartularies and public records appear to
be the only reliable guides in the study ofgenealogies, for the Visitations furnish
no dates,* and I own to havingbeen lost in amazement at some of the pedigrees
furnished by the heralds. Take one instance only. Is it not a cruel mystifica-
tion for an old county family to be led to believe that the son of their ancestor
Clement Cox (such a name for a Saxon noble !) received an Earldom from
Edward the Confessor, and that his descendant, who fell at the battle of
* " It is not a little singular,that whosoever shall inspect the old Visitations in the
College ofArms, will rarely find any that have a continuation ofdates in the descent.
Many are without any dates at all ; and very few, indeed, but what, in the respective
families, have blanks left for marriages, for the issue, and for Christian names.
Whereas, if these visitations had been correctly made, or faithfully transcribed, it
seems a matter to be greatly marvelled at, how the master or head of the family
should, in the account thereof ^iven by him, IK- i-norant of the name ofhis own wife,
or ofhis own children?" /><////..
if 2
THE BATTLE ABBEY ROLL.
iv
Naseby, is styled on his monument "the twenty-fourth titular Earl Cox"?*
This does not apply to Dugdale, who evolves no fictions from his inner
consciousness, but is invariably and scrupulously honest; and I may add that
Mr. Planche, in his ' Conqueror and his Companions,' aims only at being
impartial and truthful.
I think I can, with all due humility, say the same of myself. But I have
found the pursuit of truth a path bristling with thorns, and beset with pitfalls.
One ofthe chiefdifficulties to be met is the confusion caused by contradictory
statements that no ingenuity can reconcile; and in too many cases conjecture
alone is possible. Although I may conscientiously assert that I have taken all
imaginable pains to be accurate, I am aware that I must have made plenty of
mistakes. I shall be most grateful to be corrected.
From the great number of names of which I have endeavoured to give an
account, each account is necessarily brief and more or less imperfect, as in so
limited a space it would be utterly hopeless to trace out every collateral branch
in detail. Until I commenced this undertaking, I had no conception how deep
a root these ancient lineages had struck in the land, and how numerous and
widely spread their ramifications were.
I have retained the picturesque old legends that have been so long asso-
ciated with them as to form part of their history. What would De Vere be
without its meteor star, or De Albini without its conquered lion? I have also
given all the anecdotes that I could collect, partly to relieve the inherent dulness
ofa mere catalogue of descents, and partly because many of them incidentally
furnish vivid pictures ofmanners and customs long since passed away.
* It mustbe admitted, however, that themodern heralds areless imaginative than
their predecessors. The genealogy of the De Veres (quoted by Leland) derives them
directly from Noah, taking in Meleagar that slew the Caledonian boar, Diomedes who
was at the siege ofTroy, &c., till it reaches Verus, "so named from his true dealing,
and baptized byMarcellus A.D.4I," fromwhose second son descended Miles de Vere,
Duke ofAngiers and Mentz, thebrother-in-law ofCharlemagne, and progenitorof the
family. But the freest flights of fancy were those indulged in by the Elizabethan
heralds. Queen Elizabeth's pedigree, preserved at Hatfield, includes every sage and
hero ofantiquity, and gives herwhole descent fromAdam, with the coat-armourof all
the patriarchs ! I forget the one assigned to our first father, but I remember that
Noah very appropriately bears Vert, an ark naiant proper. Nor did the French
heralds lagbehind in the exuberance of their imagination. The De Levis are alleged
to represent the elderbranch of the Virgin Mary's family ; and in an old painting still
extant in the Chateau de Mirepoix, their ancestor is shown taking off his hat to the
Queen ofHeaven, as she sits enthroned in the clouds. "Couvrez-vous, mon cousin,''
says she,with all due deference to the head ofthe family. "C'est pourmacommodite',
ma cousine," responds he, willingto be courteous, but careful not to compromise his
dignity.
