The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Pantolf : "Guillaume Pantou" is on the Dives Roll; and as William Pantolf, Baron of Wem, occurs in Domesday among the great feudatories of Shropshire. The history of this "William, surnamed Pantoul" (or Pantolf), "a gallant soldier, endowed with great talents," is told at considerable length by Ordericus Vitalis. He came to England in the following of Roger de Montgomeri, and was one of the chief officers entrusted with the administration of his earldom of Shrewsbury. In 1077 ne accompanied Robert de Grentemesnil, Bishop of St. Euphemia in Apulia, to the court of the celebrated Robert Guiscard, who "received him with distinguished honors, and tried to retain him in his service. He made him sit by his side at dinner on the feast of Easter, and offered him three towns if he would remain in Italy." Pantolf, however, would not be persuaded, and returned to England, but only to find himself involved in serious troubles. A violent hostility had long subsisted between him and the wife of his suzerain, Mabel de Belesme, who had forcibly taken possession of his castle of Perai; and when the tyrannical Countess was murdered by Hugh d'Ige in 1082, he was suspected, being a friend and associate of this Hugh, of having contrived her death. Earl Roger and his sons accused him of treason, seized his whole estate, and sought an opportunity of putting him to death. In this extremity he was harboured and protected by the monks of St. Evroult in Normandy, to whom he had been a benefactor; and at last, by the intervention of his friends, obtained permission to clear himself of the charge by undergoing the ordeal of hot-iron at Rouen. When he "carried the flaming iron in his naked hand, by God's judgment, there was no appearance of its being burnt, so that the clergy and all the people gave praise to God;" and he was acquitted. Earl Roger afterwards reinstated him in all his possessions. He then betook himself again to Apulia, this time in search of a relic of St. Nicholas, and having by good fortune obtained "the tooth of so great a man," enshrined it in a silver coffer, and brought it home in triumph to his domain of Noron in Normandy, where he had founded a cell for the monks of St. Evroult, gratefully bestowing it upon their church.[1] In his latter years we find him in arms against Robert de Belesme, third Earl of Shrewsbury, who had disinherited him, and given him "a sharp repulse" when he came to proffer his services. He thereupon went over to the King, at that time engaged in besieging De Belesme's stronghold of Bridgenorth; and it was chiefly through his negotiations that the fortress surrendered, and Henry succeeded in crushing the terrible Earl. His estates were given back to him by the King, and inherited by his son Robert, from whom descended the subsequent Barons of Wem. Another son, Philip, inherited his lands in Normandy. There were, it seems, two other sons; Philip being the eldest of the four; "none of whom," complains Ordericus, "were emulative of their parent's virtues in respect of the Church."
Robert, who succeeded to the English fief, "had acquired some notoriety previous to his father's decease. Soon after the death of King William I., a nunnery at Caen was pillaged, and Robert Pantulf's name figures among the marauders. This fact, which could not but be known to Ordericus, perhaps induced the contrast which he makes between the first and second generation of Pantulfs."—Eyton's Shropshire.
But Ivo, "probably the son and certainly the successor of Robert, who comes into notice before the death of Henry I." was a great benefactor of the Church, for he gave lands to Shrewsbury Abbey, Combermere Abbey, and Haughmond Abbey. His eldest son Hugh, fourth Baron of Wem, was Sheriff of Shropshire from 1179 to 1189. "This," says Eyton, "I doubt not was with reference to his connection with the Fitz Alans" (his wife was Christiana Fitz Alan) "for the office was quasi hereditary, though the Fitz Alan of that day was hardly old enough to undertake it." The next heir, William II., who succeeded his father about 1224, and "had served as a knight in King John's Irish campaign of 1210," proved the last of the line. He was dead before 1233, leaving two daughters, Matilda and Elizabeth; "but as we have no coeval mention of Elizabeth, we may presume that she died unmarried, and soon after her father." Matilda was the wife of Ralph Botiler of Oversley, to whom she brought the barony of Wem.
"There was another William Pantulf, one of the defenders of Carrickfergus, and who, on being taken prisoner by King John, was fined fifteen merks for his release. I doubt whether this was the same William Pantulf who, in 1215, was one of the insurgents who held Belvoir Castle against King John, but who was pardoned in December of that year (Rot. Pip.).
"The first of these persons was perhaps William Pantulf of Cublesdon and Hales; the second was perhaps a member of the family seated in Warwickshire and Leicestershire."—Ibid.
William Pantulf of Cublesdon was a younger son of Ivo, third Baron of Wem; and left an only daughter Roesia, "married to that Richard Trussell who was slain at Evesham in 1265." The name is often written Pauntou in Shropshire. One of the Norman manors held by the first Baron of Wem is still called Aubri-le-Pantou.
In Leicestershire, William Pantulf (whom I cannot attempt to identify), with his wife Burgia founded a Benedictine nunnery, known as Langley Priory. Burgia was a sister of Roger de Stuteville; and her son Sir Roger was enfeoffed by his uncle of Newbold-super-Avon—called from him Newbold Pantolf—in Warwickshire. "But these Pantulfs," adds Dugdale, "enjoy'd it not long:" for Roger's son William had no issue; and left his two sisters, Burgia and Emma, his co-heirs. Emma married Sir Robert de Waver; but Burgia gave her share to the monastery of Pipwell in Northamptonshire, where her late brother had betaken himself "to lead a retired life. He had a Chamber assigned him by the Monks there, where he determined to end his days, and to have been a good benefactor to them: but, on a time, the Monks removed him out of that lodging, in respect of an entertainment they gave to a great Judge, who travailed (it seems) that way; which caused him to take such distast, that he presently left the house, and came to Monkskirby, where he after dyed, giving to that Monastery what he intended for Pipwell; viz. the capital Mess or Manour house of this Newbold, with three carucates of land, and fishing in the Avon."