ERRAND DE HARCOURT.

This family is one of the most illustrious in both France and England. Wace (l. 13769) reads "sire de Herevourt was there also, riding a very swift horse." Turquetil, seigneur de Turqueville, and de Tanqueraye, c. 1001, appears in several charters concern-ing the abbeys of Fecamp and Bernay. He was lord of Neufmarche-en-Lions, governor of the boy duke, William, and was treacherously assassinated between 1035 and 1040 by hirelings of Raoul de Gace. Turquetil was the second son of Torf, the son of Bernard the Dane, which latter was governor and regent of Normandy in 912, from whom descended the sires de Beaumont, comtes de Meulent, the barons of Cancelles and Saint-Paer, the lords of Gournay and Milly, the barons of Neubourg, the vicomtes of Evreux, the earls of Leicester, and many other noble French and English houses. Turquetil married Anceline, sister of Toustain, seigneur de Montfort-sur-Risle, and had issue Anchetil, and Walter de Lescelina who married Beatrice, abbess of Montivilliers, natural daughter of Richard I, duke of Normandy, as well as Leceline de Turqueville, the wife of William, comte d'Exmes (later d'Eu), an illegitimate son of the same duke. Anchetil was the first to assume the name of Harcourt from the bourg of Harcourt, near Brionne, and married Eve de Boessey-le-Chapel, by whom he had seven sons and one daughter. The eldest was Errand, who predeceased his father, and was succeeded by Robert as head of the house. Jean, Arnoul, Gervais, Yves, and Renauld were the other sons. Errand de Harcourt commanded the archers of Val de Ruel at the battle of Hastings, but returned to Normandy in 1078 and probably died soon after. His younger brother, Robert, who accompanied him to the conquest, was the ancestor of this distinguished house.

--(This name appears on the Falaise Roll)