Geoffrey de Turville

He was holder of the lands of Odo the Bishop of Bayeaux after his death.

King Henry I put out Geoffrey's eyes for rebellion in 1123.

3I. GEOFFREY (ANSCHITIL 1, ROGER 2)

After Bishop Odo's forfeiture many of his lordships passed to Robert De Beaumont, Earl of Leicester and Count of Meulan. His son Waleran, Count of Meulan, whose fortunes Geoffrey would naturally follow, rebelled against the King in 1123, and was defeated at the battle of Rougemontier, where he and some 80 of his men-at-arms were taken prisoner. At Rouen in 1124 the King pronounced judgment on the captives and caused the eyes of Geoffrey De Turville and another knight named Odard du Pin to be put out. The Count of Flanders, who was then at the court, commiserated the lot of the condemned and said to the King, "my lord King, you are doing what is quite abhorrent to our usages when you mutilate captives taken in the service of their lords". To which the King replied, "Sir Count, I do what is right, and I will prove it by good reasons. Geoffrey and Odard became my liege men with the consent of their lords and, breaking their oaths of fealty, proved false to me and therefore incurred the penalty of death or mutilation."(1)

It is not known for certain if Geoffrey survived this terrible punishment. Either he or his son was in the King's favor in 1130 when he was pardoned £4/8/6 of geld (an amount close to the sum that would have been due on the Doomsday assessment) on his lands in Bucks.(2) At the same time smaller sums, representing the geld on 25 hides were remitted on his lands in the counties of Warwick, Northants, and Cambridge. These estates were probably of the Earl of Leicester's grant.(3) (Geld is an Old English term for an extraordinary tax based on the amount of land possessed.)

Geoffrey's son Geoffrey acknowledged in 1146 that with the consent of Gundred, his wife, he had given to the church of St. Mary of Missenden, for the souls of his father Geoffrey, his brother William, himself, his wife and his sons, all the land of "la Lega" that Ralf de Haltuna held.(4)

Issue-

• I. Geoffrey- m. Gundred, d. before 1177
• 4II. WILLIAM-
• III. Payn-

References

• http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~mainegenie/genealogy/TURVILLE.htm
• (1) "English Origins of New England Families"- First Series, Vol. II, p.669
• (2) Pipe Rolls- 31 Henry I
• (3) Ibid
• (4) Cartulary of Missenden Abbey- No. 201 (This charter from Harl. MSS 3688 is preserved in the Browne Willis Transcript at the Bodleian Library)
• ”English Origins of New England Families"- First Series, Vol. II, p.667-671 < AncestryImage > Section: “The Origin of the Putenhams of Putenham, Co. Herts., and Penn, Co. Bucks., England.”