Hasculf de Tany (sometimes Harscoit or de Tani; died about 1140) was 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 ...
nobleman who lived in medieval England, in the region of London. He is believed to have been castellan of the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
.
Family connections and marriage
Based upon his name, and that of his son Graelen, Hasculf's family may have had ancestry in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
. However they came to England from
Tanis
Tanis ( grc, Τάνις or Τανέως ) or San al-Hagar ( ar, صان الحجر, Ṣān al-Ḥaǧar; egy, ḏꜥn.t ; ; cop, ϫⲁⲛⲓ or or ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the ...
, in the
Avranchin
Avranchin is an area in Normandy, France corresponding to the territory of the Abrincatui, a tribe of Celts from whom the city of Avranches, the main town of the Avranchin, takes its name.
In 867, by the Treaty of Compiègne, Charles the Bald gave ...
in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, close to Mont Saint-Michel and the frontier with Brittany.Keats-Rohan ''Domesday Descendants'' p. 730 It has been proposed that he was a close relative, perhaps even son, of Otuel fitzCount, whose father
Hugh d'Avranches
Hugh d'Avranches ( 1047 – 27 July 1101), nicknamed ''le Gros'' (the Large) or ''Lupus'' (the Wolf), was from 1071 the second Norman Earl of Chester and one of the great magnates of early Norman England.
Early life and career
Hugh d'Avra ...
was viscount of that region, and that they were both related to the Suligny family, who were also from there. He had contemporaries in England with the same second name who were probably related, named Picot de Tanis, and Juliana de Tanis.
Hasculf married Matilda (or Maud), whose parentage is the subject of different speculations, and she was the mother of Hasculf's son and heir Graelen. Charles Travis Clay demonstrated that Matilda was almost certainly also the mother, apparently from an earlier husband, of Edward of Salisbury the younger, who was noted to be the elder brother of Graelen de Tanys in a 1202 legal case concerning claims by Edward's descendants to be heirs to lands in the barony of
Crich
Crich is a village in the English county of Derbyshire. The population at the 2001 Census was 2,821, increasing to 2,898 at the 2011 Census (including Fritchley and Whatstandwell). It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway V ...
. On this basis Clay believed she was a co-heiress of Ralph fitz Hubert, the lord of the feudal barony of Crich in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086.Farrer and Clay (eds) ''Early Yorkshire Charters'', vol. 9, pp. 49–51 Because of his name, her earlier husband is often believed to be Edward of Salisbury the elder, an older man of the same name as her son.
Further indications of family connections might be implied by the grant, after his death, made by Hasculf de Tany's widow Matilda and son Graelan of the church of Fyfield in Essex to Bermondsey Priory. They also confirmed the gift of Roger the knight of John fitzWaleran who had given the tithes of Fyfield to that monastery.
Castellan in London
In about 1115–1117, "Asciulus de Taneyo" was a witness together with Otuel fitzCount in a concord involving Gilbert, abbot of Westminster.
A man named Aschuill and described as the successor of Otuel fitzCount as custodian of the tower, is believed to have been Hasculf de Tany. This would mean he became castellan of the Tower of London after the death of Otuel in 1120. In late 1136 or early 1137 this Aschuill was tried before King
Stephen of England
Stephen (1092 or 1096 – 25 October 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 22 December 1135 to his death in 1154. He was Count of Boulogne '' jure uxoris'' from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 ...
and the Lord Chancellor
Roger le Poer
Roger le Poer was a medieval Lord Chancellor from 1135 until 1139 for King Stephen of England. The son of a powerful bishop, Roger owed his position to his family connections. He lost his office when his father and other relatives lost power. Ar ...
, accused by the
Holy Trinity Priory
The Holy Trinity Priory, also known as Christchurch Aldgate, was a priory of Austin canons ( Black Canons) founded around 1108 by the English queen Matilda of Scotland near Aldgate in London.
In the 1129/30 Pipe Roll, Hasculf appears several times. He was pardoned from paying
Danegeld
Danegeld (; "Danish tax", literally "Dane yield" or tribute) was a tax raised to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the ''geld'' or ''gafol'' in eleventh-century sources. It ...
in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
and
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
. This record also indicates that before 1130 Hasculf was involved in a dispute with Rualon d'Avranches over some lands in Essex, which was resolved after a court case in which was levied a fine of 60
mark
Mark may refer to:
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s and a warhorse on Rualon.Newman ''Anglo-Norman Nobility'' p. 72
Also around 1130 Hasculf de Tany was a witness on London's first royal charter of liberties, granted by
Henry I Henry I may refer to:
876–1366
* Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936)
* Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955)
* Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018)
* Henry I of France (1008–1060)
* Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...
.Hollister "Misfortunes of the Mandevilles" ''History'' p. 25 footnote 33Hollister "London's first charter of liberties" ''Journal of Medieval History''
After Hasculf's death, the castellany of the Tower went to Geoffrey de Mandeville, the 1st Earl of Essex, and was held to be hereditary.King ''King Stephen'' pp. 68–69
Death and legacy
Hasculf was dead sometime between 1136/7, when he was involved in the legal case against Holy Trinity Priory, and 1141 when the empress Maud granted Geoffrey de Mandeville, the fief and serjeantry lands which Hasculf de Tani held in England on the day when he had died, which Graelan and his mother were then said to be holding.
Graelan thus became a tenant lord under Mandeville holding seven and a half knights' fees, but by 1166 he once again held these lands directly from the king as a feudal baron. As noted by Stacy, the most recent editor of the 1166 baronial charters, the Tany barony, "with its caput at Aveley (Essex), comprised lands in Essex and Cambridgeshire" and its subordination under Mandeville by King Stephen and Empress Matilda "is unlikely to have survived the earl's revolt in 1143-4".Stacy ''Cartae Baronum'' p. 186
Graelen was succeeded by his son Hasculf and then his grandson Gilbert, who died in 1221 with no male heir. The barony was subsequently divided.Buttle "de Tanys of Stapleford Tawney" ''Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society'' pp. 154–156
Hasculf also appears to have had a second son, Gilbert de Tanis, who was father to a younger Graelen in subsequent generations.