Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/166

Fitzhamon mention of him in 'Domesday Book,' despite the appearance of the two Hamons, his kinsmen. When the feudal party under Odo of Bayeux revolted in 1088, Robert is mentioned among the select band of 'legitimi et maturi barones' who supported the royal cause ( ed. Le Prévost, iii. 273). His Kentish connections may have given him special grievances against Odo as earl of Kent, ward for his services William assigned him great estates, particularly the lands mostly in Gloucestershire, but partly in Buckinghamshire and Cornwall, which had passed from Brictric to Queen Matilda (Cont. in, ii. 55, and Chron. Angl. Norm. i. 73, which is manifestly wrong in making William I grantor of Brictric's lands to Fitzhamon ; see , Norman Conquest, iv. 762-3). These Rufus had for a time allowed his brother Henry to possess, but about 1090 he transferred them to Fitzhamon ( iii. 350). It is possible that the Gloucestershire estates were now erected into an honour (, Monasticon, ii. 60). Robert's marriage with Sibyl ( iii. 118), daughter of Roger of Montgomery and sister of Robert of Bellême [q. v.], must have still further improved his position on the Welsh marches. The next few years were marked by the definitive Norman conquest of South Wales. But while authentic history records the settlements of Bernard of Neufmarché in Brecheiniog, and of Arnulf of Montgomery in Dyfed and Ceredigion, the history of Fitzhamon's conquest of Glamorgan has to be constructed out of its results, and the untrustworthy, though circumstantial, legend that cannot be traced further back than to fifteenth or sixteenth century pedigree-mongers. In 1080 the building of Cardiff, subsequently the chief castle of Fitzhamon's lordship, was begun (Brut y Tywysogion, sub anno, Rolls Ser.), and this event may mark the beginning of Fitzhamon's conquests. If we can rely on the authenticity of the charter of 1086 (Hist. Glouc. i. 334), by which William I confirmed to Abbot Serlo Fitzhamon's grant of Llancarvan to the abbey of Gloucester, there can be no doubt but that the end of William's reign saw the beginning of the conquest. But probability suggests that it was not until after he had obtained the honour of Gloucester that he was able to win so large a territory as Glamorgan. The legend fits in with this, for it tells us how about 1088 Eineon [q. v.], son of Collwyn, went to London and 'agreed with Robert Fitzhamon, lord of Corbeil in France and cousin of the Red King, to come to the assistance of Iestin, prince of Morganwg.' 'Twelve other honourable knights' were persuaded by Robert to accompany him. Uniting his forces with Iestin, Robert defeated and slew Rhys ab Tewdwr at Hirwaun Wrgan, received from Iestin his recompense in sterling gold, and returned towards London. But Eineon, disappointed by Iestin's treachery of Iestin's daughter, besought them to return. At Mynydd Bychan, near Cardiff, Iestin was put to flight and despoiled of his country. 'Robert Fitzhamon and his men took for themselves the best of the vale and the rich lands, and allotted to Eineon the uplands.' Robert himself, 'their prince,' took the government of all the country and the castles of Cardiff, Trevuvered, and Kenfig, with the lands belonging to them. The rest of the valley between the Taff and the Neath he divided among his twelve companions. Such is the story as told in the so-called Gwentian 'Brut y Tywysogion,' the manuscript of which is no older than the middle of the sixteenth century. The same story is repeated, with more detail and with long genealogical accounts of the descendants of Fitzhamon's twelve followers, in Powel's 'History of Cambria,' first published in 1584, on the authority of Sir Edward Stradling, described as 'a skilful and studious gentleman of that country,' but whose more than doubtful pedigree it was a main purpose of the story to exalt. There is in some ways a still fuller account in Rhys Meyrick's 'Book of Glamorganshire Antiquities' (1578). The 'Gwentian Brut's' authority is singularly small, and the details of the pedigrees in the later versions are of no authority at all. Rhys ab Tewdwr was really slain by Bernard of Neufmarché and the French of Brecheiniog (Brut y Tywysogion, sub anno 1091 ; but the date of (ii. 31), 1093, is better; cf., William Rufus, ii. 91 ). But his death was followed by the French conquests of Dyved and Ceredigion, which must surely have succeeded the occupation of Glamorgan. Fitzhamon's grants to English churches and the inheritance which his daughter brought to her husband equally prove Fitzhamon to have been the conqueror of Glamorgan. There is almost contemporary proof of the existence of some at least of his twelve followers, and for their possession of the lordships assigned to them in the legend (e.g. Liber Landavensis, p. 27, for Pagan of Turberville, Maurice of London, and Robert of St. Quentin ; cf. Hist. Glouc. passim). We can gather from the records of the next generation that Glamorgan was organised into what was afterwards called a lordship marcher, with institutions and government based on those of an English county ('Vicecomes Glamorgansciræ,' Hist. Glouc.