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Brian Fitzcount
Brian fitz Count (also Brian of Wallingford) was descended from the Breton ducal house, and became an Anglo-Norman noble, holding the lordships of Wallingford and Abergavenny. He was a loyal adherent of Henry I, King of England, and a staunch supporter of his daughter, the Empress Matilda, during the Anarchy (1135–1153). Brian would go on to become one of the most notable knights to have sided with Empress Matilda and the Angevin faction. As a result, he is consistently mentioned in contemporary sources. Life Brian fitz Count was an illegitimate son of Alan IV, Duke of Brittany, and thus the half-brother of Conan III, Duke of Brittany.C. Warren Hollister, ''Henry I'' (Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2003), p. 314 He was sent to be raised at the court of King Henry I of England.Henry's patronage of Brian fitz Count, the illegitimate son of his brother-in-law Alan Fergent, could be seen as patronage to a nephew and his presence at court could be the result of having ...
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Wallingford, Oxfordshire
Wallingford () is a historic market town and civil parish located between Oxford and Reading on the River Thames in England. Although belonging to the historic county of Berkshire, it is within the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire for administrative purposes (since 1974) as a result of the 1972 Local Government Act. Wallingford is north of Reading, south of Oxford and north west of Henley-on-Thames. The town's population was 11,600 in the 2011 census. The town has played an important role in English history starting with the surrender of Stigand to William the Conqueror in 1066, which led to his taking the throne and the creation of Wallingford Castle. The castle and the town enjoyed royal status and flourished for much of the Middle Ages. The Treaty of Wallingford, which ended a civil war known as The Anarchy between King Stephen and Empress Matilda, was signed there. The town then entered a period of decline after the arrival of the Black Death and falling out of favou ...
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Abergavenny Castle
Abergavenny Castle ( cy, Castell y Fenni) is a ruined castle in the market town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, established by the Norman lord Hamelin de Balun . It was the site of a massacre of Welsh noblemen in 1175, and was attacked during the early 15th-century Glyndŵr Rising. William Camden, the 16th-century antiquary, said that the castle "has been oftner stain'd with the infamy of treachery, than any other castle in Wales." It has been a Grade I listed building since 1952. Location The castle is located immediately to the south of the town centre. It was built by the Normans to overlook the River Usk and its valley, and so guard against incursions into the lowland areas south and east of the town by the Welsh from the hills to the north and west. Description The castle, now in ruins, had a stone keep, towers, and ditch as fortifications. It also housed the family and army of the lord and had cellars, kitchens, a great hall, gatehouse, and a chapel, although it ...
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Austin Lane Poole
Austin Lane Poole, FBA (6 December 1889 – 22 February 1963) was a British mediaevalist. Poole came from an academic lineage, being the son of Reginald Lane Poole (archive keeper at the University of Oxford), the nephew of Stanley Lane Poole (professor of Arabic at Trinity College Dublin), and the great-nephew of Reginald Stuart Poole (professor of archaeology at Cambridge University). Austin Poole studied at Magdalen College School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He later taught at Selwyn College, Cambridge and St John's College, Oxford. He became a Fellow and subsequently President of the latter and was also a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. During the First World War, Poole served as a lieutenant in the Gloucestershire Regiment. Austin Poole contributed the third volume of the ''Oxford History of England'', ''From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087–1216'', published 1951. He also edited collections of poetry by Thomas Gray. He delivered the Ford Lectures in 1944. P ...
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Wallingford Castle
Wallingford Castle was a major medieval castle situated in Wallingford in the English county of Oxfordshire (historically Berkshire), adjacent to the River Thames. Established in the 11th century as a motte-and-bailey design within an Anglo-Saxon ''burgh'', it grew to become what historian Nicholas Brooks has described as "one of the most powerful royal castles of the 12th and 13th centuries". Held for the Empress Matilda during the civil war years of the Anarchy, it survived multiple sieges and was never taken. Over the next two centuries it became a luxurious castle, used by royalty and their immediate family. After being abandoned as a royal residence by Henry VIII, the castle fell into decline. Refortified during the English Civil War, it was eventually slighted, i.e. deliberately destroyed, after being captured by Parliamentary forces after a long siege. The site was subsequently left relatively undeveloped, and the limited remains of the castle walls and the considerable ...
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Arundel
Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much larger Chichester in its number of listed buildings in West Sussex. The River Arun runs through the eastern side of the town. Arundel was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835. From 1836 to 1889 the town had its own Borough police force with a strength of three. In 1974 it became part of the Arun district, and is now a civil parish with a town council. Name The name comes from the Old English ''Harhunedell'', meaning "valley of horehound", and was first recorded in the Domesday Book. Folk etymology, however, connects the name with the Old French word ''arondelle'', meaning "swallow", and swallows appear on the town's arms. Governance An electoral ward of the same name exists. This ward stretches north to Houghton ...
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River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn. The river rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea near Tilbury, Essex and Gravesend, Kent, via the Thames Estuary. From the west it flows through Oxford (where it is sometimes called the Isis), Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor. The Thames also drains the whole of Greater London. In August 2022, the source of the river moved five miles to beyond Somerford Keynes due to the heatwave in July 2022. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its long tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. Its tidal section includes most of its London stretch and has a rise and fall of . From Oxford to th ...
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Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. The hills are at their widest. In 1965 almost half of the Chiltern Hills was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The northwest boundary is clearly defined by the escarpment. The dip slope is by definition more gradual, and merges with the landscape to the southeast. The southwest endpoint is the River Thames. The hills decline slowly in prominence in northeast Bedfordshire.The Changing Landscape of the Chilterns
Chilterns AoNB, Accessed 19 February 2012

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Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the northeast and Berkshire to the east. The county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the county town of Trowbridge. Within the county's boundary are two unitary authority areas, Wiltshire and Swindon, governed respectively by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys. Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles (which together are a UNESCO Cultural and World Heritage site) and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its medieval cathedral. Swindon is the ...
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Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berkshire in 1957 because of the presence of Windsor Castle, and letters patent were issued in 1974. Berkshire is a county of historic origin, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. The county town is Reading. The River Thames formed the historic northern boundary, from Buscot in the west to Old Windsor in the east. The historic county, therefore, includes territory that is now administered by the Vale of White Horse and parts of South Oxfordshire in Oxfordshire, but excludes Caversham, Slough and five less populous settlements in the east of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. All the changes mentioned, apart from the change to Caversham, took place in 1974. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot, Far ...
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Miles De Gloucester, 1st Earl Of Hereford
Miles FitzWalter of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford (died 24 December 1143) (''alias'' Miles of GloucesterSanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, p.7) was a great magnate based in the west of England. He was hereditary Constable of EnglandIn some sources Miles's name is not translated from the Latin Milo and Sheriff of Gloucestershire. He inherited vast landholdings in Wales from his wife Sibyl de Neufmarché (whose father had conquered the independent kingdom of Brycheiniog (Brecknockshire, modern: Breconshire) in South Wales, which became the Lordship of Brecknock, and other lands in Gloucestershire from his father (the nucleus of which were the Domesday Book holdings of his great-uncle Durand of Gloucester) and acquired other large landholdings himself, including the extensive Lordship of Abergavennny in South Wales, and St Briavel's Castle and the Forest of Dean in the west of Gloucestershire. These combined lands became ...
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Walter De Hereford
Walter of Hereford was a holder of the feudal title Baron Bergavenny or Lord Abergavenny in the Welsh Marches in the mid twelfth century. Lineage Walter of Hereford was a son of Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, and Sibyl of Neufmarche, cites and the brother of Roger Fitzmiles, 2nd Earl of Hereford and Mahel of Hereford and William de Hereford. Offices Walter of Hereford held the post of King's Constable in the region under King Henry I of England and became lord of Brecon and Abergavenny from circa 1155. In 1155 he was also made hereditary Sheriff of Gloucestershire, a post he held for two years, and Sheriff of Herefordshire This is a list of Sheriffs and, since 1998, High Sheriffs of Herefordshire The position of Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in each county, but over the centurie ..., a post he held until 1159. cites . He departed for the Holy Land on Crusade about Mich ...
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Grosmont Castle
Grosmont Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Grosmont, Monmouthshire, Wales. The fortification was established by the Normans in the wake of the invasion of England in 1066, to protect the route from Wales to Hereford. Possibly commissioned by William fitz Osbern, the Earl of Hereford, it was originally an earthwork design with timber defences. In 1135, a major Welsh revolt took place, and in response King Stephen brought together Grosmont Castle and its sister fortifications of Skenfrith and White Castle to form a lordship known as the "Three Castles", which continued to play a role in defending the region from Welsh attack for several centuries. King John gave the castle to a powerful royal official, Hubert de Burgh, in 1201. During the course of the next few decades it passed back and forth between several owners, including Hubert, the rival de Braose family, and the Crown. Hubert rebuilt the castle in stone, beginning with a new hall and then, on regaining the p ...
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