Hasculf de Tany

Hasculf de Tany (sometimes Harscoit or de Tani;[1] died before 1140) was a nobleman in medieval England and castellan of the Tower of London.

Based upon his name, and that of his son Graelen, Hasculf's family probably originally was from Brittany. However they came to England from Tanis, in the Avranchin in Normandy, close to the frontier with Brittany.[1]

Hasculf married Matilda, whose parentage is the subject of different speculations. According to Katharine Keats-Rohan she was the daughter of Roger and her father's heiress for lands he had held of John fitzWaleran in Essex.[1] In contrast, I.J. Sanders thought she was possibly the daughter of the baron John fitzWaleran, and perhaps Hasculf was the son of Roger who held lands from John fitzWaleran. Sanders, unlike Keats-Rohan, understood Hasculf and Matilda to have held John's barony which had its caput at Aveley.[2] The historian Judith Green states that there are errors in Sanders' entry for Aveley, but does not give any corrections.[3]

By 1120 Hasculf de Tany was castellan of the Tower of London, succeeding Otuel fitzCount in that office.[1] Before 1130 Hasculf was involved in a dispute with Rualon d'Avranches over some lands in Essex, which was resolved after a court case in which was levied a fine of 60 marks and a warhorse on Rualon.[4] Around 1130 Hasculf was the witness on a royal charter of Henry I to London.[5] In late 1136 or 1137 Hasculf was tried before King Stephen of England and the Lord Chancellor Roger le Poer, accused by the Holy Trinity Priory in London of confiscating land belonging to the priory. In the end, the priory regained custody of their land. After Hasculf's death, his castellanship of the Tower went to Geoffrey de Mandeville, and was held to be hereditary.[6]

Hasculf de Tany and his wife Matilda gave lands to Bermondsey Priory, and also confirmed her father's gifts to that monastery in 1107.[1]

Hasculf was dead sometime before 1141, when his widow Matilda and their son Graelen made a grant to Bermondsey priory for his soul. He had contemporaries who were probably related, named Picot de Tanis, and Juliana de Tanis, and a probable second son, Gilbert de Tanis, who was father to a younger Graelen in subsequent generations.[7]

Citations
  1. Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants p. 730
  2. Sanders English Baronies p. 4
  3. Green Aristocracy of Norman England p. 129 footnote 15
  4. Newman Anglo-Norman Nobility p. 72
  5. Hollister "Misfortunes of the Mandevilles" History p. 25
  6. King King Stephen pp. 68–69
  7. Buttle p.155

References
  • Buttle, R. L. (1931). "The de Tanys of Stapleford Tawney". Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society. New Series. XX: 153–172.
  • Green, Judith A. (1997). The Aristocracy of Norman England. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52465-2.
  • Hollister, C. W. (February 1973). "The Misfortunes of the Mandevilles". History. 58 (192): 18–28. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1973.tb02130.x.
  • Keats-Rohan, K. S. B. (1999). Domesday Descendants: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents, 1066–1166: Pipe Rolls to Cartae Baronum. Ipswich, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-863-3.
  • King, Edmund (2010). King Stephen. The English Monarchs Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-11223-8.
  • Newman, Charlotte A. (1988). The Anglo-Norman Nobility in the Reign of Henry I: The Second Generation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-8138-1.
  • Sanders, I. J. (1960). English Baronies: A Study of Their Origin and Descent 1086–1327. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. OCLC 931660.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.