Bertram de Verdun

Bertram I de Verdun was a knight of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings (1066).

The Verdun family lived in Normandy where they were minor land holders, and after the Norman conquest in England they were granted land in England. Others sources say Bertram was probably a son of Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine. In the Domesday Book(1086), Bertram de Verdun holds the land and the manor of Farnham Royal in Buckinghamshire, held before by countess Goda.

Bertram's wife's name is unknown, but his son and heir was Bertram II de Verdun (? - abt 1129/30). His son continued to amass land in England, and by 1128 also had been granted land in Staffordshire and Leicestershire. Hagger suggests that he also had assumed an administrative position for Henry I, and was possibly sheriff of Yorkshire in 1100.

Bertram II's grandson was Bertram III de Verdun, who lived at time of Henry II. Bertram III built the medieval castle of Alton in 1176 and founded the Cistercian abbey of Croxden. Bertram was a deeply religious man accompanying king Henry on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in North of Spain. After the John's first expedition to Ireland, Bertram held the town of Dundalk and several castles in Louth.

After Henry’s death Bertram III remained an influential figure with Richard I and became his castellan. He went on the Third Crusade with Richard, was governor of Saint-John of Acre. He died at Jaffa in 1191.

Filiation

*Bertram I de Verdun, († v. 1100 ?)
*Bertram II de Verdun, sheriff of York, († v. 1120)
*Norman de Verdun, Chamberlain and treasurer of king Henry I of England, († v. 1153}
*Bertram III de Verdun, crusader and castellan of Richard I of England, ( † 1192)
*Nicholas de Verdun, (? - 1231)

References

*"Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines 70A-25, 70A-26, 70A-27.
*"The Fortunes of a Norman Family: the de Verduns in England, Ireland & Wales, 1066-1316", by Mark S. HAGGER, p. 34-57.
*"Cartulary of Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey", p.83 - 84.
*"Page about the De Verdun family" [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/weston/section%20one.html]