Family History 

Our family history (so far!) starts with influential figure Rollo of Normandy – a Viking born around 846 in Scandinavia.  He lived as a warrior raider in the in the area around Rouen (France) but, in exchange for ending his raiding and swearing allegiance, was granted land by the king and became the ruler of Rouen and eventually the first ruler of Normandy (France).  Rollo’s name is recorded in a charter written in 918.  He was succeeded by William Longsword, his son by Poppa of Bayeux, and the direct line of children/grandchildren then includes Richard I (b. 932), Richard II (b. 963) and Robert I (b. 1000), all rulers of Normandy with various titles (“count”, “prince”, “marquis” and “duke”) recorded in history.   This offspring of Rollo and his Viking followers were the result of intermingling with indigenous (local) people from the northern area of France they populated and the group became known as the Normans.   

 

The most famous Norman known to any history fan reading this website will undoubtedly be William the Conqueror.  He was born in c. 1028, the son of Robert I by Herleva de Falaise and he was the Duke of Normandy from 1035 onwards.  His childhood was marred by battles to secure control of his inheritance due to his young age and stigma caused by the fact that his parents were unmarried.  He emerged triumphant and strengthened his position in the 1050s through marriage to Matilda of Flanders.  He showed great skill in consolidating power which was to be very useful later following his invasion of England in 1066 after the death of the king Edward the Confessor.   At the conclusion of the infamous Battle of Hastings, Harold Godwinson (main contender for the throne) had been defeated (possibly by an arrow in his eye) and William was victorious.  His tactics on the battlefield included strong leadership and the trick of his troops pretending to run away – which caused Anglo-Saxons to desert their superior position on the hill and led to defeat.  William was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066, following which he secured his hold by building castles, introducing the feudal system and dealing with rebellions swiftly.    William was responsible for the Domesday Book - 

 

 

 

 

 

-an unprecedented comprehensive survey of all the land-holdings in England and parts of Wales so that William would know the annual value derived from land, workforce and livestock.  This scale of survey was not again attempted for 800 years so it is a valuable source of records for historians.  We are proud to know that we are great grandchildren of William I of England. 

 

William the Conqueror divided up his legacy upon his death, with Normandy going to his oldest son Robert and England to his second son William ‘Rufus’ II.  Henry’s 4th son, Henry Beauclerc (born c. 1068), our ancestor, was left with money but no lands.  You might expect that he would not amount to much, relative to his brothers, however he built up a power base in western Normandy and eventually allied himself with William Rufus in the ongoing battles against Robert.  He was in England at the time of William Rufus’ death in a hunting accident in 1100 (convenient one might think) and he promptly seized the throne!  He was crowned King Henry I of England on 5 August 1100.  In 1105/6, Henry invaded the Duchy of Normandy, whereupon he defeated Robert and imprisoned him, and became the Duke of Normandy.  He married Matilda of Scotland and our family is descended directly from their daughter Empress Matilda (b. 1102) 

 

The succession of Henry I was made difficult by the fact that his son and heir William was drowned at sea in the White Ship that sank near the Normandy coast on its way to England in 1120.  The ship carried many Norman nobles, although the one recorded survivor was a butcher from Rouen!  Despite Henry I re-marrying (to Adeliza of Louvain) to attempt to produce a male heir, this did not materialise, and he named Empress Matilda as his heir.  She was an Empress through her first marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Henry V.  Her second marriage was to Geoffrey of Anjou, a Plantagenet.  Upon the death of Henry I in 1135 Matilda and Geoffrey faced opposition from the Anglo-Norman nobility and the throne was taken by Matilda’s male cousin Stephen of Blois.  This led to years of civil war known historically as The Anarchy.   Matilda’s forces battled Stephen’s in England from 1139 to 1148, during which time Stephen was captured at the Battle of Lincoln (1141), Matilda had a failed coronation at Westminster Abbey and was instead titled “Lady of the English”, and, after a prisoner exchange which saw Stephen released, Matilda had to escape from a siege of Oxford Castle across a frozen river supposedly camouflage-dressed in white against the snow.  The eventual stalemate saw Matilda controlling the south-west and Stephen the south-east of England, not a very satisfactory position for a kingdom.  Eventually Matilda returned to Normandy (which her husband Geoffrey had secured), leaving their son Henry in England, where he was eventually declared Stephen’s heir to the throne of England in return for an end to the war.    

 

Our family’s history continues from Empress Matilda through her youngest son, William Count de Poitou, whose daughter Edith Plantagenet married William De Windsor of Stanwell, Middlesex (England).  Thereafter our family tree records 21 direct male descendants with the same surname (variously spelt Windsor or Winsor) born over a timespan of 500 years at Stanwell, Bradenlove and Bentworth.  Amongst these Winsors, Andrew 1st Baron Winsor, stands out.   Born in 1467, he was a Member of Parliament, Keeper of the Wardrobe (a medieval government position) and military commander.  This position took him to the Field of the Cloth of Gold for the famous meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France in 1520.  His father, Sir Thomas Winsor (b. 1440) was appointed Constable of Windsor Castle by King Richard III in 1485; his lands at Stanwell were briefly forfeit after the Battle of Bosworth but restored by Tudor King Henry VII.  The history of the manor of Stanwell dates to at least 1086 when it was held by William Fitz Othere, Constable of Windsor Castle (his descendants took the name Wyndsore which changed over time).  Sadly, the manor and estate at Stanwell was lost to the family following the dissolution of the monasteries during Henry VIII’s reign.  After hosting a magnificent reception of the King at his estate, Andrew Winsor was ordered to surrender it in exchange for alternative lands.   He pleaded with the King to no avail and received instead lands at Worcestershire.  He died at Stanwell a few days later. Fast forward many centuries and land that was previously owned by our ancestors is now the ground on which Heathrow Airport lies. 

 

The Winsor surname for our family tree ended with the Hon Peter Ford Winsor (b. 1781) who had a daughter Sarah (b. 1816) who married George Thomas Jones.  This point in history marks another turning point because Peter Winsor and his wife Sarah Payne, both born in Denbury, Devon (England) moved to Aquaforte, Newfoundland (Canada) where my grandfather, four generations later, was born in 1948.   

 

Years later, unaware of the history of our family we have enjoyed a second home in France that has taken us on multiple journeys through Rouen, Angers, Poitiers and Le Mans, with road signs to Caen, little knowing that this was the ground that for centuries are ancestors had lived, walked and died upon.