Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/304

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296


NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. APRIL 12, 1902.


Henry FitzCount (sometimes FitzHenry) who became in after years also Earl of'Corn wall. Thus we have at least two illegitimate grandsons of Henry I. bearing the name of FitzCount. As the two holders of this surname were not brothers, but only cousins it would seem that the name had some refer euce to their relationship to the king, for why should they both have taken a name which certainly did not belong to either o* their fathers? The name cannot be ex plained by the statement that it merely indicated they were the sons of counts or earls, for it was certainly not the genera custom for the sons of earls to take the surname of FitzCount.

It is interesting to note the marriages oi the children of William FitzCount, second Earl of Gloucester. His daughter Hadwisa the great-granddaughter of Henry I. by Nest, married her second cousin, King John, who was the great-grandson of Henry I. by his wife and queen Matilda. Robert of Gloucester, son of William FitzCount, and also the great-grandson of Henry I. by Nest, married his second cousin Hadwise de Redvers, of Devon, who was the great- granddaughter of Henry I. by Sibyl Corbet.

It is worthy of note that Joan, natural daughter of King John, married in 1204 Lewellen, son of Jorworth, Prince of North Wales, by his wife, who was the daughter of Roger Corbet- also that David ap Owen Prince of North Wales, and elder brother of this Jorworth, married Emma, the natural daughter of the Earl of Anjou, grandfather of King John.

So great was the profligacy of the period that the above Joan, natural daughter of King John and wife of Lewellen, son of Jorworth, was detected by her husband in a connexion with her and his near relation William de Braose, grandson of William Brewer and his wife Beatrix de Valle (former ?L i e n 8 ?. f 1{e 8 lnald > ^n of Henry I. and Sibyl Corbet), and was put to death.

Charles II and his Court bear a bad reputation m history, but many other of the T K En H nd and ^eir Courts appear betted ' r m a m ral


no


- not mention that the -"wwiiwi ui ixooerc le Fitz le Rov Earl of

Hfewaf ""' Wa3 f N f *> the ^agedy rf whose bulent tim" 6 Sh greatest in those tur-

'93. bhe married her cousin Einion, who


combined with FitzHamon in defeating her father near Cardiff and driving him to the neighbourhood of Bristol to die. She was carried off by another cousin, Owen ap Cadogan, but Gerald of Windsor, Constable of Pembroke, met the party and slew Owen and his men, and captured Nest in his turn. She attracted the attention of Henry I , and, after the birth of Robert le Fitz le Roy, Earl of Gloucester, she became the wife of Gerald of Windsor. Her brother Griffith, or Gruf- fydd, after having several times endeavoured to throw off the Norman yoke, was finally overcome and crushed by his own sister's husband, Gerald of Windsor. Finally, Nest's son, Robert le Fitz le Roy, married Mabel, the daughter of Robert FitzHaraon, the man who had assisted to destroy her father Jestyn.

RONALD DIXON. 46, Maryborough Avenue, Hull.

COL. PJRIDEAUX may like to know that my authority for the statement that the Duchy of Berwick is a^ Spanish title is a late H.M. Ambassador in Spain, who is well acquainted with the family.

The Marquisate of Jamaica is given as an English titular title amongst the Jacobite creations in G. E. C.'s 'Complete Peerage.'

The Earldom of Tankeryille, to which MR. PICKFORD refers, was originally one of those created by Henry V. during his tenure of Normandy. Tancarville is on or near the Seine, below Rouen.

If the Marquisate of Ava is to be included amongst the titles derived from foreign places, I would include those of Lord Milner of Capetown, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, and Lord Napier of Magdala.

It is curious that Canada was a French possession when Sir William Alexander was created Viscount Canada by Charles I. Nova Scotia certainly belonged to England when the Nova Scotia baronets were in- stituted in 1625, and was only handed over to France in 1629. The list of foreign knights is most valuable.

Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, Lord Vlount Stephen, and Baroness Macdonald of H.arnscliffe also bear colonial titles. H.

H. is quite right at p. 130: "The prefix

r itz is by no means a sign of illegitimacy."

Inere are many instances of peerages with

'his prefix to be found in Burke's 'Extinct

D eerage. }

At Middleham, in Wensleydale, co. York, ialph FitzRibald had confirmation of lands 'here, and his son by his wife Agatha, named Robert FitzRalph, founded and built the oastle there. Several of the benefactors of