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From: Sandy McDougall <>
Subject: WALTER GIFFARD-BUCKINGHAM
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 09:58:12 -0800

For David Collyer:

WALTER GIFFARD of Longueville in Normandy (where he held a substantial
fief) was with the Conqueror at Hastings and received from him a large fief
in England, mainly in Buckingham, but of this there is no proof (he is
recorded in Domesday as holding one of a group of ten fiefs aggregating
L5,000 per annum. Orderic II. 49 says "Walter Giffard was given the Earldom
of Buckinghamshire by the Conqueror." The relative dates in Orderic's
record, if these be properly placed, are 1071-1080, which would be within
the lifetime of Walter I. When Orderic wrote of this period Walter Giffard
II was an Earl, and the original grant may have been antedated by the
annalist). He is said to have died late in the Conqueror's reign, leaving a
son and heir Walter II.

WALTER GIFFARD II spent much of his time in Normandy and at first took the
side of Duke Robert against the King. He succeeded to his father's Norman
and English fiefs. He is said to have made his peace with the King and to
have been created Earl in 1097. He does not appear as an Earl in Domesday.
Twice Orderic styles him only as "Walter Giffard", but recording his death
speaks of him as "Earl of Buckingham." In a charter of Henry I to Lewes he
is described as "Walter Giffard Comes". Both Round and the C.P. are
cautious about any definite creation, but the R.D.P says "he was not an Earl
on the accession of Henry I, but may have had that dignity afterwards". ("In
Domesday, 1086, he is Walter Giffard only...Walter Giffard 'comes' so
described in a charter of King Henry I to Lewes." His son Walter was an
Earl, and on assessing an aid for marrying Henry II's daughter he certified
96 knights' fees, ample for an Earl's fief). He died in 1102, leaving an
infant son his heir who was brought up by his widowed mother at Longueville.
Both this Giffard and his father seem to have spent most of their time in
Normandy.

WALTER GIFFARD III fought at the battle of Bremule in 1119, and was steadily
on King Henry's side throughout his reign (Orderic writes of three Counts
with the King-Compte d'Eu, William de Warenne and Walter Giffard-at the
Battle). On reaching his majority he seems to have been fully accepted as
Earl. He lived through the reign of Stephen and died in 1164 without issue.
His heirs were the heirs of his aunt Rohese, sister to his father. The
eventual distribution of his fief may have been due to the absence of heirs
of the body of the first Earl, the King therefore resuming the fief and
making such allotments as he thought fit.

Of this earldom in general a note in Stubbs regards it as obscure in
origin and probably created by William Rufus (i.e. for Walter Giffard II).
The earldom in fee was not again created until two centuries later and then
for a stranger in blood.

Nearly a generation after Earl Giffard's death William Marshal, Earl of
Pembroke, paid the King 2,000 Mks. to have the Longueville estates of the
Giffards. The Earl of Hertford had the English estates (Gilbert de
Tunbridge d. 1136 was the heir of Rohese, from whom descended as heir
general Richard, 3rd Earl of Hertford. This seems to indicate, since
neither the Marshal nor his Pembroke wife were in the line of heirship, that
King Henry II considered both the Giffard earldom and fiefs had returned to
the Crown.

Shall cont. with the Domesday LAND OF WALTER GIFFARD...........

Sandy

This thread:

• WALTER GIFFARD-BUCKINGHAM by Sandy McDougall <>