Regenbald

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Not to be confused with Regimbald.
Regenbald
Royal chaplain and clerk
Personal details
BuriedPossibly Cirencester
ChildrenEdward

Regenbald (sometimes known as Regenbald of Cirencester)

King William I or King William II. After his death, some of his lands became part of the endowment of Cirencester Abbey
in 1133.

Early life

His origins are unknown, but he was probably not a native Englishman. He may have been German or Norman. The historian Katharine Keats-Rohan suggests that he was possibly the nephew of Peter, who was the Bishop of Chester and a Norman.[2] His name was a German or French name, which suggests that Regenbald was one of the foreigners who gained favour with King Edward the Confessor.[3]

Service to Edward the Confessor

Regenbald first appears in the historical record in 1050, when he witnesses a charter of King Edward.[3] King Edward gave him large estates as a reward for his service to the king as a royal chaplain.[4] The Domesday Book of 1086 records him owning at least seven churches, but only two of them have any indication that he performed any ecclesiastical services personally.[5] Another royal reward was the grant to Regenbald of the status, without the actual office, of a bishop.[6] He probably was unable to be promoted to a bishopric, either because he was married or because his style of life was known to be unchaste.[1]

In royal charters he is often given the title "royal chancellor",

Norman Conquest. One school of thought, led by Pierre Chaplais, argues that no such office existed prior to the Conquest. Another group argues that there was, and among this group is the historian Simon Keynes.[15] In Regenbald's case, a number of the documents that give him the title "chancellor" either are forgeries or have been altered in the copying process. Others, however, are not easily shown to be spurious.[16]

Besides his scribal duties, he also served as a royal judge, as he is recorded as passing judgement in a case late in Edward's or early in William's reign, along with

dean of the church at Cirencester during William's reign.[18]

Regenbald remained at the royal court throughout Edward's reign and into the reign of King

Harold in the period after King Edward's death is unknown, as no royal charters and only one royal writ survive from Harold's reign.[19]

Regenbald's lands are recorded in a charter from the reign of King Henry I of England which dealt with the gift of those lands after Regenbald's death. This charter lists a number of estates as owned by Regenbald that were also listed in Domesday Book as Regenbald's, but there are a few other possessions that did not get recorded in Domesday.[3] The lands listed include lands in Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Northamptonshire, Worcestershire, and Dorset. Domesday lists the value of Regenbald's lands at £40 per year.[20] His estates totalled about 90 hides, although some of the estates were given to him after the Norman Conquest.[1]

Death and legacy

Presumably, he died either during the reign of William I or during the following reign of William II. Possibly, he was buried at Cirencester, where a stone tomb in the crypt of the Saxon-era church still exists and may be his.[18] After his death, a group of his lands became the basis for the foundation of Cirencester Abbey by King Henry I of England in 1133.[18] Regenbald's brother held land near him in Cirencester. Regenbald had a son named Edward who also held lands in Gloucester.[1]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Barlow English Church 1000–1066 pp. 134–135
  2. ^ Keats-Rohan Domesday People p. 351
  3. ^ a b c Keynes "Regenbald" Anglo-Norman Studies X p. 195
  4. ^ Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 150
  5. ^ Evans "Cirencester's Early Church" Transactions p. 116
  6. ^ Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 179
  7. ^ Barlow Edward the Confessor p. 164
  8. ^ Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 121
  9. ^ a b Douglas William the Conqueror pp. 292–293
  10. ^ a b Loyn Governance p. 185
  11. ^ a b Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 129
  12. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 82
  13. ^ Bates William the Conqueror p. 173
  14. ^ Chrimes Introduction pp. 16–17 footnote 2
  15. ^ Keynes "Regenbald" Anglo-Norman Studies X pp. 185–187
  16. ^ Keynes "Regenbald" Anglo-Norman Studies X pp. 197–198
  17. ^ Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 147 footnote 4
  18. ^ a b c Evans "Cirencester's Early Church" Transactions pp. 117–118
  19. ^ Keynes "Regenbald" Anglo-Norman Studies X p. 217
  20. ^ Keynes "Regenbald" Anglo-Norman Studies X p. 196

References

  • ISBN 0-520-01671-8
    .
  • ISBN 0-582-49049-9
    .
  • ISBN 0-7524-1980-3
    .
  • Chrimes, S. B. (1966). An Introduction to the Administrative History of Mediaeval England (Third ed.). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
    OCLC 270094959
    .
  • Douglas, David C. (1964). William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact Upon England. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Evans, A. K. B. (1989). "Cirencester's Early Church" (PDF). Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. 107: 107–122. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  • Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
    ISBN 0-521-56350-X
    .
  • ISBN 0-85115-722-X
    .
  • ISBN 0-85115-502-2
    .
  • ISBN 0-8047-1217-4
    .

External links

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