This Richard Fitz-Gilbert Came
Into England With William The Conqueror, And Received From Him Great
Advancement In Honour And Possessions.
On the death of the
Conqueror, favouring the cause of Robert Curthose, he rebelled
against William Rufus, but when
That king appeared in arms before
his castle at Tunbridge, he submitted; after which, adhering to
Rufus against Robert, in 1091, he was taken prisoner, and shortly
after the death of king Henry I., was assassinated, on his journey
through Wales, in the manner already related.
{67} Hamelin, son of Dru de Baladun, who came into England with
William the Conqueror, was the first lord of Over-Went, and built a
castle at Abergavenny, on the same spot where, according to ancient
tradition, a giant called Agros had erected a fortress. He died in
the reign of William Rufus, and was buried in the priory which he
had founded at Abergavenny; having no issue, he gave the aforesaid
castle and lands to Brian de Insula, or Brian de Wallingford, his
nephew, by his sister Lucia. The enormous excesses mentioned by
Giraldus, as having been perpetrated in this part of Wales during
his time, seem to allude to a transaction that took place in the
castle of Abergavenny, in the year 1176, which is thus related by
two historians, Matthew Paris and Hollinshed. "A.D. 1176, The same
yeare, William de Breause having got a great number of Welshmen into
the castle of Abergavennie, under a colourable pretext of
communication, proposed this ordinance to be received of them with a
corporall oth, 'That no traveller by the waie amongst them should
beare any bow, or other unlawful weapon,' which oth, when they
refused to take, because they would not stand to that ordinance, he
condemned them all to death.
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