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Hamon Dentatus (died 1047) was a Norman
baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...
who was killed while rebelling with other Norman barons against
William II, Duke of Normandy
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 108 ...
(r. 1035–1087) at the
Battle of Val-ès-Dunes
The Battle of Val-ès-Dunes was fought in 1047 by the combined forces of the Norman duke William II and the French king Henry I against the forces of several rebel Norman barons, led by William's cousin Guy of Brionne.
As a result of winning t ...
. The
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
"Dentatus" or "Dens" was probably given to Hamon because he was born with
teeth
A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, tear ...
. Little is known about Hamon's life.
Hamon's name appears in historical texts under several different spellings.
William of Poitiers
William of Poitiers ( 10201090) (LA: Guillelmus Pictaviensis; FR: Guillaume de Poitiers) was a Frankish priest of Norman origin and chaplain of Duke William of Normandy (William the Conqueror), for whom he chronicled the Norman Conquest of Engla ...
(c. 1020–1090), in an early account of the battle, rendered Hamon in Latin as "Haimonem agnomine Dentatum."
Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern historia ...
(1075–c. 1142) said
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
explicitly recalled "Haymon-aux-Dents" as having been among the rebels.
Wace
Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his care ...
's account of the battle, written around 1174, called "Hamon-As-Dens" the lord of "Thorignie," "Mezi," and "Croillie." The locations of those lordships roughly correspond to present day
Torigni-sur-Vire
Torigni-sur-Vire (, literally ''Torigni on Vire'') is a former commune in the Manche department, Normandy, northwestern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Torigny-les-Villes.Grandcamp-Maisy
Grandcamp-Maisy () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.
Geography
Grandcamp-Maisy is located on the coast, northeast of Isigny-sur-Mer and west of Pointe du Hoc. It is an active fishing port, ...
, and
Creully
Creully () is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Creully sur Seulles.
The town square is named after Canadian Lieutenant Bill McCormic ...
.
Benoît de Sainte-Maure
Benoît de Sainte-Maure (; died 1173) was a 12th-century French poet, most probably from Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine near Tours, France. The Plantagenets' administrative center was located in Chinon, west of Tours.
''Le Roman de Troie''
His 40,000 ...
, (d. 1173) called him "Hamun" and characterized him as an "
antichrist
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...
" for rebelling against his lord the duke. Both Wace and Benoît said that Haimo used the name of
Saint Amand
Amandus ( 584 – 679), commonly called Saint Amand, was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and one of the great Christian missionaries of Flanders. He is venerated as a saint, particularly in France and Belgium.
Life
The chief source of details ...
as his battle cry. Saint Amand was the patron saint of Hamon's fiefdom of Thorigny, which was sometimes called "Saint Amand of Thorigny."
Pezet's history of the barons of Creully, claimed that "Haimon-Az-Dentz" was made the first baron of Creully. Pezet stated that the fiefdom of Creully was originally established in 912, according to a text that was destroyed in the French Revolution.
Early in the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes,
King Henry I of France (r. 1027–1060), who had sided with the duke, was knocked off his horse by Hamon. However, French forces killed Hamon before the baron could further harm their king. According to another source, it was not Hamon, but his uncle, Guillesen, who unhorsed the French king.
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a ...
(c. 1095–1143) wrote that King Henry commanded his men to give Hamon an honorable burial "in admiration of his valour." Wace said that Hamon was buried near the
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
of
Esquay-Notre-Dame.
Family
He left one known son,
Hamo Dapifer
Hamo DapiferHollister ''Henry I'' pp. 363–364 (died c. 1100) (''alias'' HaimoBarlow ''William Rufus'' pp. 188–189) was an Anglo-Norman royal official under both King William I of England (r. 1066–1087) and his son King William II of England ...
[Hollister ''Henry I'' pp. 363-364] (died ''circa'' 1100) (''alias'' ''Haimo''
[Barlow ''William Rufus'' pp. 188-189]) an
Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to:
*Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066
* Anglo-Norman language
**Anglo-Norman literature
* Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...
royal official under both King
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
(1066-1087) and his son King
William Rufus
William II ( xno, Williame; – 2 August 1100) was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third so ...
(1087-1100). He held the office, from which his
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
derives, known in Latin as ''dapifer'' and in French ''
seneschal
The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...
'', in English "steward", as well as the office of
Sheriff of Kent
The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (prior to 1974 the office previously known as sheriff)."Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instrum ...
. This younger Hamo was the father of
Robert Fitzhamon
Robert Fitzhamon (died March 1107), or Robert FitzHamon (literally, 'Robert, son of Hamon'), Seigneur de Creully in the Calvados region and Torigny in the Manche region of Normandy, was the first Norman feudal baron of Gloucester and the Norma ...
(d. 1107), the conqueror of
Glamorgan
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
.
Grenville family tradition
A seventeenth century pedigree of the Grenville or Granville family of
Stowe
Stowe may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
*Stowe, Buckinghamshire, a civil parish and former village
**Stowe House
**Stowe School
* Stowe, Cornwall, in Kilkhampton parish
* Stowe, Herefordshire, in the List of places in Herefordshire
* Stowe, Linc ...
claimed that Hamon Dentatus had two sons:
Richard de Grenville, who founded the Grenville family, and Robert Fitzhamon. This contradicted the chronicle of William of Malmesbury, which said that Hamon Dentatus was Robert Fitzhamon's grandfather (''avus''). The Grenville pedigree also claimed that Hamon Dentatus was a younger son of
Mauger, Count of Corbeil
Mauger, (c.988-1032) '' jure uxoris'' Count of Corbeil was the third son of Richard I of Normandy, and ruled as Count of Corbeil through his wife Germaine, either a daughter or granddaughter of Aymon, Count of Corbeil. "Corbeil" is thought to be th ...
and thus grandson of
Richard I, Duke of Normandy
Richard I (28 August 932 – 20 November 996), also known as Richard the Fearless (French: ''Richard Sans-Peur''; Old Norse: ''Jarl Rikard''), was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996.Detlev Schwennicke, ''Europäische Stammtafeln, Europäische S ...
. Historian and genealogist
J. Horace Round contended that the Granville family had "hatched
he connectionin the seventeenth century... wishing to exalt Hamon Dentatus," whom they claimed as their ancestor.
[Round, p.155] The Grenville family commissioned a depiction of Haimo Dentatus on a stained glass window that was installed in 1860 in the Granville Chapel of the Church of St. James the Great,
Kilkhampton
Kilkhampton ( kw, Kylgh) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
The village is on the A39 road#Atlantic Highway, A39 about four miles (6 km) north-northeast of Bude.
Kilk ...
, Cornwall, near the family mansion
Stowe House
Stowe House is a grade I listed country house in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust who have to date (March 2013) spent more than £25m on th ...
. Likewise, Mauger himself was either a nephew or an in-law of the first attested count of
Corbeil Corbeil may refer to:
Places
* Corbeil, Ontario, Canada
* Corbeil, Marne, a commune in the Marne département in north-eastern France
* Corbeil-Cerf, a commune in the département of Oise in northern France
* Corbeil-Essonnes, a commune in the so ...
, Haymon de Corbeil, who would appear to be Hamon Dentatus' namesake, and thus adding a side of credibility to the claims.
Sources
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamon Dentatus
1047 deaths
11th-century Normans
Anglo-Normans
Norman warriors
Year of birth unknown
William the Conqueror