A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



larger portion of his land at Flecknoe of Bishop Wulfstan, ' but the 

 bishop failed him when the plea was held (in placito)^ and he found 

 himself, therefore, at the king's mercy. 1 



There are numerous cases in Warwickshire in which purchase is 

 spoken of, and some in which land is entered as held in pledge (in vadi- 

 mom'o), that is, for money advanced. The abbot of Coventry is asserted 

 to have bought his land at Binley which had formerly belonged to 

 Ealdgyth, daughter of ./Elfgar, and wife of Griffith of North Wales of 

 Osbern Fitz Richard ; and it is a singular fact that, although this land 

 is entered in Domesday under his fief, not under Osbern's, Binley is 

 found long afterwards feudally dependent on Richard's Castle, the head 

 of Osbern's fief. 3 In Domesday itself there is nothing to show that 

 Broom (in Bidford) had been the subject of a similar transaction between 

 Osbern and jEthelwig, abbot of Evesham. But Dugdale has a curious 

 story, 'ex Coll. H. Ferrers,' that Bishop Odo, having obtained it, gave it 

 to Osbern Fitz Richard, who mortgaged it to Abbot ./Ethelwig for four 

 marks of gold, parting with it afterwards for good, as he could not repay 

 the money. It is added that, after the death of Odo and of /Ethelwig, 

 Osbern seized it again ' and withheld both the land and the money.' 

 The whole story is probable enough, but one cannot well reconcile it 

 with the evidence in Domesday Book. The Evesham chronicle only tells 

 us that Broom was one of the manors acquired by Abbot ./Ethelwig and 

 seized after his death by Odo. 3 It is possible that what really happened, 

 as to these manors, is that Odo contended they had been acquired by the 

 abbot * for his personal possession only. 



Of the abbot of Abingdon's acquisition of Hill and Chesterton 

 I have already spoken. 8 An estate at Barston " is recorded to have been 

 sold by ' Ailmar,' its former holder, with the king's permission, to 

 ' Alwin ' the sheriff, father of Turchil ; as the king must here be 

 William, this entry strengthens the evidence that ' Alwin ' was sheriff 

 under him. Of Radford we read that Ermenfrid, its under-tenant in 

 1086, had bought it of Chetelbert 7 and held it of the king in fee as 

 the king's writ testifies. This seems to imply that he claimed to hold the 

 land in capite, not as an under-tenant, on the ground that he had bought 

 it himself. It is on Turchil's fief also that we meet, at Myton, with 

 a somewhat similar difficulty ; the Count of Meulan is entered as 

 holding the land ' of Turchil's fee,' but it is added that ' R. Halebold 

 bought this land.' Robert d'Oily gave as his title to the only Warwick- 

 shire manor he held in chief that he had bought it ' by leave of King 

 William ' from ./Elfric its former holder. Robert must have had money 

 at his disposal, for we find him holding two manors of Turchil de Warwic 



See also p. 296 below. 



> Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 604, and Testa de Nevlll. In the latter the monks of Combe, not 

 of Coventry, are shown as holding at Binley of the Richard's Castle fief, which is wholly at variance with 

 all the history of the place as given by Dugdale. Nor, indeed, is it easy to understand what interest 

 Osbern and his heirs retained there. 



* See p. 274 above. Compare p. 275 above. 6 See p. 276 above. 



See p. 296 below. * Brother of Turchil the over-lord (see p. 278). 



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