It's cold,very cold and the snow is thick on the ground when I fly back into Paris from Hong Kong. As the aircraft circles the city on its approach to Charles de Gaulle airport I catch my first glimpse of the snowy grey landscape beneath.The wooded hills to the west of the city are white, the outline of the bare trees stark against the snow; it resembles a scene from the northern U.S or Canada. In the streets people walk, their muffled heads down against the bitingly cold east wind coming straight off the tundra of eastern Europe I have just flown across.
After a few days layover to get over my jet lag and a quick trip back home to check all is O.K, I decide to head back to the U.K. before Paul and I leave for Andalucia in March.
I arrive at my friend Jeff's in Wales a few days later.It's cold but at least here on the coast of the Bristol Channel I escape the snow. There's rain and lots of it but that's not unusual for Wales.
Jeff and I share a passion for history and over one one of his famous breakfasts next day we discuss something which has been intriguing him for some time.
A while ago he had read an historical novel set in the reign of Henry V, his siege of Harfleur and the long march northwards to Calais which resulted in the encounter with the massed French forces at the battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the novel, a young knight, Sir Gilbert d'Umphreville appears in the march northwards and is killed in the ensuing battle.
The name d'Umphreville was familiar to Jeff as the lords of the castle of Penmarc near Rhoose in the Vale of Glamorgan not far from the modern Cardiff airport. Jeff lives not far from Penmarc and had decided earlier in the year to visit the village and to try to locate the remains of the d'Umphrevilles' castle. Unfortunately, he had taken the wrong road and had up in a narrow, muddy lane unsuitable for two wheeled drive vehicles. He decided to abandon his search for the time being.
Following our discussion over breakfast,we decided on a Google search in order to fill in the details on the d'Umphrevilles and then to visit the castle by a better route. What follows is an account of an interesting day we spent tracking down the d'Umphreville family and their connection with South Wales.
Gilbert d'Amphreville raised a castle consisting of a wooden motte and bailey at Penmarc in the 12th century. Given that the battle of Agincourt took place in 1415 then clearly this Gilbert could not have been the same Gilbert who built Penmarc castle. Research showed that the Gilbert who built the motte and bailey castle, an early form of fortification popular following the Norman conquest, was a follower of Robert Fitzhamon a crony of William Rufus the son of William the Conqueror.After being awarded the lordship of Gloucester, Fitzhamon embarked upon an invasion of South Wales with his companion knights one of whom was Gilbert d'Umphreville.
Gilbert was apparently the son of Robert d'Amphreville one of the Norman knights who accompanied William the Conqueror on his conquest of England in 1066. For his services to the Conqueror, d'Amphreville senior was rewarded with lands in Northumberland in the north east of England.The young Gilbert who was born in the early 1060's was, in turn, rewarded with lands around Penmarc for his services to Fitzhamon. The chief seat of the d'Amphreville family however seems to have been around Redesdale, Northumberland, the lands won by his father Robert after the battle of Hastings.Although the castle of Penmarc in Glamorgan remained in d'Amphreville hands until late in the 15th century, it changed hands following the marriage of one of the daughters.The d'Amphrevilles or d'Umphrevilles as they appear to be calling themselves by the late Middle Ages, continued to be a force majeur in the north of England and Scotland where they became minor royalty through marriage. The Gilbert we were trying to trace, the one present at Agincourt in 1415, ( not an easy job since Gilbert seems to have been a favourite family first name for centuries) had an uncle who was implicated in a plot to depose Henry V but seems himself to have been a loyal supporter of the king.
We were interested in finding out if the Gilbert of Agincourt was a member of the Welsh branch of the family. Further research however revealed this not to be the case. He was in fact one of the Northumberland d'Umphrevilles, a high ranking knight who was not killed at Agincourt but who, after the battle, was awarded the title of Marshal of France and appears as such in Shakespeare's play, Henry V. He seems to have been instrumental in Henry's marriage to the French princess but was later killed at the disastrous battle of Baugés in 1421.So there you go, an historical mystery solved. Later that day we visited Penmarc castle and the adjoining church. Little remains of the castle as the photo shows but the village is charming and retains its Anglo-Norman character.
Further research led us to Gileston,a small village on the coast near Penmarc. Gileston church is dedicated to St.Giles but the village takes its name from the Giles family who held the manor in 1350. The present church dates from the 15th century as does its door which is decorated with six carved heraldic coats of arms of local aristocratic families.There we found the arms of the d'Umphrevilles of Penmarc-six flowers of five equal petals.The door dates from the period between 1450 and 1480 and still retains the original hinges and handle.It's well worth a visit and the vicar's wife who showed us around is a charming lady!
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