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 Abt 1056 - 1070 (14 years)
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| Name |
William Fitzosbern |
| Birth |
Abt 1056 |
Normandy, France  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
20 Feb 1070 |
Hertford, England |
| Burial |
Cormeilles Abbey, France |
| Person ID |
I52815 |
Cecilie Family |
| Last Modified |
27 Sep 2002 |
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| Notes |
Chepstow Castle
built by William Fitzosbern. |
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Clifford Castle
in the village of Clifford, Herefordshire, England
founded by Earl William Fitz Osbern. |
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Hereford Castle
Turret |
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- his family had long served the Dukes of Normandy. He was steward to William the Conqueror, fought with the king at Hastings in 1066, and was rewarded with large estates in England shortly thereafter. The Welsh Marches, were one of many areas of concern to King William. Although Welsh kings had done homage to the Saxon kings of England, the country retained a stubborn sense of independence.
King William gave Fitz-Osbern wide powers along the southernmost portions of the Welsh Marches. From here, Fitz-Osbern built a formidable force of fighting men, including close relatives and powerful magnets, with Hereford as his focal point. He established castles and garrisons at Monmouth, Clifford and Wigmore, but his greatest work was the magnificent Chepstow Castle, on the mouth of the river Wye. Chepstow became a springboard for westward Norman expeditions and the focal point of Norman settlement in Wales. Construction of Chepstow's "Great Hall," was begun by Fitz-Osbern in 1067 and still stands today, the oldest surviving stone castle of its type in Britain.
Clifford Castle stands on an eastward flowing section of the River Wye near to the current boundary between England and Wales. The castle was founded by Earl William Fitz Osbern in the period between his being made earl of Hereford soon after Christmas 1066 and his death at the battle of Cassel in Flanders on 22 February 1071. In that time it is likely that his engineers found the natural knoll lying alongside the steep drop to the River Wye near a ford. This gave the site its later name, the cliff by the ford or Clifford. Fitz Osbern's men scarped and ditched the knoll they found into what is today a motte with a secondary platform to the West. The land of Clifford was at that time waste, but under the earls of Hereford and their successors this waste was brought to blossom with castle, borough and church. After Earl William's death, his son, Earl Roger, held the castle for four years until his revolt in 1075. Then, on Roger’s imprisonment, the castle passed to his father's brother-in-law, Ralph Tosny (d.1102), and he and his descendants held the castle until the wars of Stephen and Matilda between 1138 and 1154.
Hereford Castle was designed and built by William Fitz Osberne ( Earl of Hereford in 1066) around the time of the conquest. It is suggested that the castle was to replace an even older castle that was built by Ralph, son of the Count of Vixen (Earl of Hereford in 1046) which was destroyed by the Welsh in 1055. The first reference to the castle being complete and running was by 1140 as there are documents detailing the king being beseiged by Geoffrey Talbot.
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| For more information see the Our Folk - Hart family Web Site |
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