A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE which four centuries after the Conqueror's time gave a queen to England in the person of Elizabeth, wife of Edward IV. The description of the tenant of Galby and Braunstone as ' the son of Robert Burdet (misspelled Burdel in the latter entry) is interesting, for we know on the authority of the foundation charter of Monk's Kirby Priory " that Robert Burdet himself was alive in 1077, and it is probable that his son was only a minor in 1086. Doubtless the Hugh Burdet who held land in Welby, Rearsby, and Sysonby of the Countess Judith was a member of the same family, and Hugh de Grentemaisnil's tenant in Croft is entered as ' Robert's wife,' which is noteworthy, for land was rarely sublet to females. Probably we may connect the Ivo of Cadeby, Evington, and Ashby de la Zouch, if the same person is meant in each case, with the Ivo who is described as the knight of Hugh de Grentemaisnil in the Monk's Kirby charter, but the rest of Hugh's tenants remain mere names. Four of them, however, were probably men of English birth, namely Ulf of Willoughby Waterless, and Enderby ; Edwin of Cotesbach ; Alwin (/Elfwine), who held one carucate in Glen ; and Suain the tenant of Syston. The Leicestershire manors of Henry de Ferrers fall geographically into two divisions, the first lying in the neighbourhood of the Upper Wreak and the Rutland border, the second in the extreme west of the county, being connected with Henry's lands in South Derbyshire. The latter district was perhaps the very poorest part of the county at the time of Henry's first possession, and six manors from his fief were selected by Professor Maitland to illustrate the difficulties presented by the Leicestershire ' valuit.' Until quite recently Leicestershire and Derbyshire were closely intermingled in this quarter, and Linton, Stretton en le Field, Donisthorpe, Appleby, and Ravens- thorpe are surveyed in part in each county. But the chief interest of Henry de Ferrers's Leicestershire fief lies in the accidental circumstance that we possess slightly more information about his undertenants here than is commonly the case. Henry himself had founded some years before Domesday a priory at his seat of Tutbury in Staffordshire, and his son Robert de Ferrers, the first earl of Derby, in a charter confirming his father's foundation, specifies the various gifts which the latter's tenants had made to the same. 88 In this way we are enabled to identify the Robert who was the Domesday undertenant of Henry at Burton Lazars with the ' Robertus Venator ' of the charter, and to distinguish him from the Robert FitzWidelin who held Over and Nether Seal, Bogthorpe, and one carucate in Appleby. We may also recognize the Roger de Livet who gave to the priory two-thirds of his demesne tithes in Somerby and Little Dalby in the ' Roger ' who appears as the Domesday undertenant there and at Burrough, and it is quite possible that the ' Wazelinus' who held Smockington on the Warwickshire border was the same as the ' Vasolinus' who is represented in the charter as possessed of land at Chesterton and Harbury in the latter county. The Leicestershire Survey proves the Nigel who was the undertenant at Linton to be identical with Nigel of Stafford, who was himself a tenant in chief in South Derbyshire and the founder of the family of Gresley, which still continues his descent in the male line. No other record, however, has been preserved of the two Englishmen who appear in the list of Henry's undertenants, namely Godric of Houghton on the Hill and Ardulf of Osgathorpe. a Man. Angl vii, 996. " Ibid, iii, 392. 2 9 2
