Marrying Mistress Merlay: how Mearley became one of my ancestral homes. Part 1.

Figure 1. Mearley from the Keep at Clitheroe Castle:

 the Merlay Vaccary was located on the slopes of Pendle.

[please click on this image, or any of the others for a larger image]

Like nearly everybody else researching one's family history, I was expecting to, and had found a peasant farmer at the end of each branch of my tree.  With the exception of one other surname, all of my other branches were stalling at a point shortly before the date when King Henry VIII's new registers of christenings and deaths were established.

For several years, for my Nowell's , I thought that I had found my founding peasant farmer, in the form of one John Nowell, who had died 1525. (my 13 x great grandfather, twice over [1])

He had lived at Read near Whalley in Lancashire.

This belief persisted until I discovered the works of the Revd Dunham Whitaker. (1759-1822).

Whitaker who was Vicar of Whalley was one of those indefatigable antiquarians, who had both the time and inclination to research the history of his family, and that of the community that he lived in.

For reasons that I can hardly fathom, nobody seems to have thrown anything away. Christopher Townley in the early 1600's had found a pile of documents several feet deep on the floor of a turret at Clitheroe, and other nearby houses seem to have had muniment rooms filled to bursting, all of which Whitaker was able read at his leisure.

Whitaker himself was by happy chance related by marriage to the Nowell's [2], and as a result Whitaker's two volume book "An History of the Original Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe.... " contains a great of material about about the Nowell's and all of their many relatives through marriage. 

Reading these volumes, was for me was like falling into a Black Hole, or going into a time warping machine, because suddenly I found myself speeding and tumbling back four hundred years on more.

Suddenly, I had almost a surfeit of information.

On the 23rd of August 1138, the Scots encountered the local army of Yorkshire levies commanded by William le Gros, Count of Aumale and Earl of York, who was supported by Ralph Nowell, Bishop of Orkney.

Ralph is credited with having given a rousing speech directly following Aumale's shortly before the start of the battle.

Figure 2. A map showing the border between England and Scotland in 1138.

Much to the surprise of the Scots, under King David I, it was the English who won.  This caused the Scots to retreat northwards, and allowed the English to regroup.

In many ways it is a misnomer to call these wars Anglo-Scottish Wars.  They were really civil wars being fought out under the command of two cliques made up from Norman warlords with land in England and Normandy, as well as Scotland.  They were contesting the rights to exploit the lands previously held by a much larger number of semi-autonomous tenants and other local inhabitants.

These tenants and locals, who had seen their rights to the benefits of these estates removed in most cases were now to be called up, often probably against their wishes, to become members of their local warlord's armies.

The families who ruled in the south of Scotland and the north of England, were almost all from Normandy. However, while some of them may have been in the boats which arrived at Pevensey in 1066, far more seem to have arrived at subsequent landings that took place in Holderness and the Humber Estuary during the period from 1100 until about 1135. [4]

It appears very likely that the Nowell's, the Stuteville's and the Merlay families originally arrived in Holderness, and initially saw service under the Count of Aumale, in the early 1100's having very probably campaigned in Normandy for the count many times previously.

Aumale is a frontier town on a strategic crossing of the River Bresle, at the northernmost point in the Norman territories. It was very exposed to the French kings forces, and was constantly being fought over.  It has changed hands many times over the years.  In future blogs I will explore, this in more detail.

It is not clear where the Merlay (also spelt Meslay) family came from, however it is very likely to have been from the villages a few miles south of Chartres.

Figure 3. Geoffrey de Meslay, Vidame to the Bishop of Chartres.

A Vidame was the leader of the knights in the service of a bishop.  During the 1100's it was quite usual for Bishops to have their own armies. Geoffrey, on the left is one of only two knights shown on all of the 176 stained glass windows in the cathedral.  While it is unlikely that Stephen Merlay was closely related to Geoffrey, they were contemporaries, and it is possible that they were cousins.

Figure 4. The older Motte at Morpeth Castle

The Merlay family initially seem to have been given lands a few miles inland of Scarborough on the northern limits of the count of Aumale's Holderness domain.  Through marriage they gained Burton Agnes Hall, where a crypt from the period still survives.  Roger de Stuteville, a younger son of the Roger de Stuteville who had fought in the battle of the Standard, was probably the builder of the earliest work at the Hall, in the basement of the building to the west of the present mansion. This Roger had a son Ancelm, who died without issue, and five daughters, Alice, Agnes, Isabell, Gundreda who was a nun.

Alice became the wife of Roger de Merlay the I, son of the founder of Newminster Abbey in the County of Northumberland (1137). This Roger de Merlay was succeeded by a second Roger, and he again by a third Roger. [5]  This may be why so many of the eldest sons of the Nowell's were later to be called Roger.

Roger's Grandfather, William De Merlay had been given the tenancy of Morpeth, possibly as early as 1088, although the castle probably dates from a little later. [6]

Morpeth was a strategic crossing of the River Wansbeck, used by Scottish cattle dealers and drovers, and was the de facto frontier with Scotland for most of the 12th Century.  The De Merlay family built the castle on the south bank of the river at Morpeth from which to control and very probably tax the cattle trade as it came south over the bridge from the market that took place in a very wide street to the north of the bridge.

Figure 5. The Medieval bridge at Morpeth, on the road that the cattle took south.

The modern deck sits atop Medieval piers, and is barely

 wide enough for one mature beast at a time.

During the 1138 campaign, Morpeth was particularly badly damaged by the Scots, and the Merlay's new Abbey at Newminster, was sacked just a year after it been founded.

Figure 6. Map from M.A. Atkin, "Land Use and Management

 in the Upland Demesne of the De Lacy Estate of Blackburnshire c. 1300,

 showing the location of the 29 Vaccaries.

I believe that it was during the reorganisation, immediately following the Scottish invasion of 1138, that it was decided to send Stephen Merlay to Pendle.

It is not known how he fits into the wider Merlay family tree, however as he is one of my 23 x great grandfather's I would dearly love to hear from you if you know!

The lands upon which Mearley was founded, belonged ultimately to the De Lacy family, who owned Pontefract Castle together with many others.

In order to make the most of what was very poor and wet land in the Pendle Forest compared to their other lands in Yorkshire and Normandy, the De Lacy family decided to develop a series of deer parks and cattle ranches, called Vaccaries.

In 1189, Matilda de Percy had written about Sawley Abbey, just a short ride to the north of Mearley, when she said that it stood

"in a cloudy and rainy climate so that crops, already white in the harvest, usually rot in the stalk; and the convent, for forty years or more, has been oppressed by want and lack of all necessities through the intemperate weather." [7]

Although it is not certain how, if at all the Vaccarie at Mearley was connected or related to the De Lacy owned and operated Vaccary, it is clear that Mearley operated in a very similar way to those run by the De Lacy workforce, that M.A. Atkin believes were organised directly.

Perhaps De Lacy had originally planned to have 30 cattle farms, but found that he had a willing tenant for the one at Mearley. Perhaps the Merlay family were able to demand better terms than the other local farmers.

Figure 7. Map from M.A. Atkin, marked to show Mearley

 in relation to the other vaccarie.

These vaccarie were clearly substantial operations, with the De Lacy records showing that between £500 and £800 a year was being sent to the De Lacy coffers in Pontefract by 1300.

It is hard to estimate the stocking rate, but a report written in 1869 stated that land in the Pendle Forest was able to carry one cow per three to four acres.

Figure 8. The parish boundary of Mearley superimposed on a Google Earth image.

The red markers are Great Mearley, and the blue ones, Little Mearley

The 1910, 6" to the mile Ordnance Survey map states that Mearley encompasses 1509 acres.  If Atkin is correct, at 4 acres per cow, that would be  377 beasts, and at 3 acres per cow, 503.  It seems unlikely that such large numbers of animals were carried at any one time, not least because there appears to have been an element of arable farming going on, at the property judging from the ridge and furrow visible on the flatter land towards Clitheroe.

I expect that it might have been nearer 200 in Winter.  I would welcome an informed opinion from a local farmer.

Figure 9. Pendle and Mearley in winter, courtesy of Steve Wignall.

Atkins records that other De Lacy vaccarie holding between 80 and 230 animals over winter.

What is certain, is that the cattle must have lived on the upper slopes and on top of Pendle. It appears that they probably met very few people, and were probably almost wild.  This is brought out by the very large cattle crush, or funnel built of dry stone walls that lead down into the Great Mearley settlement.

Figure 10. Little Mearley is situated in the trees below the deeply incised Clough,

 and Great Mearley below the sinuous track to the right 

Notice how the walls come down the slope from Pendle in a funnel shape, directly above the sinuous track into Great Mearley.

The sheer size of the cattle crush, for that's what I believe it is, and the substantial nature of the walls, suggest that some fairly large numbers of cattle were being brought down.

How did Adam Nowell secure his heiress?

How did he secure the land, and lay the foundations of his family's fortunes?

Both of these questions will probably always remain impossible to answer.

However writers including Christopher Norton [8] have studied the activities of Ralph Nowell, Bishop of Orkney, who we last met cheering on the Yorkshire levies as they fought off the Scots in the fields outside Northallerton in 1138.

In early Medieval times many clergy were married, and indeed Pope Benedict IX dispensed himself from celibacy and resigned in order to marry.

During 1074, Pope Gregory VII said that anyone who was to be ordained must first pledge celibacy, and that priests must first escape from the clutches of their wives, before they could be ordained.

By 1095, Pope Urban II was having priests wives sold into slavery, children were abandoned.

It is clear however that into the Twelfth Century, clergy were still getting married, or at least cohabiting, and having families.  In 1123-Pope Calistus II at the First Lateran Council decreed that clerical marriages were invalid, but in 1139, Pope Innocent II still felt it necessary for the Second Lateran Council to be asked to confirm the previous councils decree.

Yorkshire was a very long way from Rome, and it appears that Ralph Nowell must have been married [9] as Norton shows Ralph Nowell (still alive in 1154), having five sons, Gilbert canon of Ripon, Peter Priest of Wakefield, Adam the priest, Thomas and Paulinus of Leeds, who died circa 1202.

Intriguingly Alexander Nowell who became Dean of St Paul's immediately following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, was married, and probably ruined his chances of promotion thereby. The Queen would accept married priests, but preferred her Bishops celebate.

There is no mention of Ralph having had any daughters, but this may quite possibly be because they had no property of their own, and therefore don't appear in records.

Norton believes that Paulinus married a daughter of Lefwin de Marisco, and to have a daughter called Ralph Nowell who was alive in 1227.  Several other Nowell's are mentioned including John Nowell chaplain de Marisco.

All of these Christian names were frequently used in every generation of the Nowell family until well into the 18th Century, and often beyond that date.

Adam is very probably connected with one of these families. But how to find the connection is likely to be a challenge, although I have access to resources, and in ways that the Revd Thomas Dunham Whitaker could only have ever dreamed of.

In part 2, I will go on to discuss aspects of the landscape at Mearley that raise really intriguing questions, and also to look at how the estate evolved over time.

I will also discuss a hypothesis that is developing in my mind, about the type of cattle that were present on Pendle all of those years ago.

If you have anything to add to the above, or would like to ask a question, please contact me at balmer.nicholas@gmail.com

[1] John Nowell had two wives. The first in 1486 was Douse [3], daughter of Robert Hesketh of Rufford. From this marriage, many generations later, Dorothy Nowell, married James Barton at the Collegiate Church in Manchester on the 7th of January 1787 to become one of my 4 x great grandmother's. By his second marriage, before 1505 John Nowell married Elizabeth Kay, daughter of Robert Kay of Rochdale, gent. From this second marriage were descended Alexander Nowell, Dean of St Paul's, Laurence Nowell, Dean of Lichfield, Robert, of Gray's Inn, Christopher & Nicholas.  There were also several girls, including Isabella, who married John Wolton of Whalley (my 12 x gt grandparents.)  From John and Isabella Wolton, was born James & John Wolton, together with several other offspring. This John Wolton became Warden of Manchester College in 1575, and then went on to become Bishop of Exeter in 1579. His daughter Mary, married my 10 x great grandfather John Baber, D. D., Rector of Tormarton and Vicar of Chew Magna.  During the 1880's, my Great Grandfather Harry Baber, married Clara Barton at Ramsbury in Wiltshire, almost certainly completely unaware that they were both descended from John Nowell who had died 350 years earlier. See "Dunham Whitaker: "An History of the Original Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe" volume 2.
[2] One of the other daughters of John Nowell and Elizabeth Kay was called Elizabeth who became wife to Thomas Whitaker of Holme, ancestor to the Revd Dunham Whitaker.  See "The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell of Reade Hall, Lancashire, edited by the Rev Alexander Grosart, Vicar of St. George's, Blackburn, printed 1877.

[3] Also Dowse.

[4] See Paul Dalton, Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship, Yorkshire, 1066-1154. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_I_of_Scotland

[5] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Boynton_family_and_the_family_seat_of_Burton_Agnes/The_Early_Owners_of_Burton_Agnes.  See also Early Yorkshire Charters: Volume 9, The Stuteville Fee, edited by William Farrer, Charles Travis Clay. The Merlay's also appear in many of the other volumes of this work, as well as in Hodgkinson's Northumberland.

[6] https://actswilliam2henry1.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/h1-ranulf-de-merlay-2016-1.pdf

[7] M.A. Atkin, "Land Use and Management in the Upland Demesne of the De Lacy Estate of Blackburnshire c. 1300.

[8] Christopher Norton, St William of York, published 2006.

[9] Norton, pages 229 to 237. See Genealogical Table 4.  The family tree of Ralph Nowell and Paulinus of Leeds.

The Invasion of Normandy August 1417, Landing at Torques

Figure 1. Trouville Beach, the site of the landings on the 1st August 1417. The north shore of the Bay of the Seine can be seen in the distance.

“King Henry of England, accompanied by his brothers the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, a number of other nobles, and a numerous army, landed at the port of Touques in Normandy, with the intent to conquer the whole of that duchy.  The royal castles at Touques was speedily invested on all sides, which caused the governor, Sir John d’Engennes [1]to surrender it within four days on condition that he and the garrison should depart with their effects.  Within a short time afterwards, the following towns and castles surrendered to king Henry without making any resistance:  Harcourt, Beaumont-le-Roger, Evreux, and several others, in which he placed numerous garrisons.”[2]

Amongst those who landed were two members of the Nowell family, the first was Robert Nowell, a household servant of Richard Beauchamp of Bergavenny, (1397-1421/22) [3] Earl of Worcester, and later Lord Bergavenny.

The second member of the Nowell family to land was John Nowell, who was an archer in the contingent of William Swinburne. [4] Sir William Swinburne, who came from Essex, had previously been appointed as the Captain of Marck, a castle forming part of the outer defences of the Pale of Calais, located in marshland very close to what is now the main motorway into the modern port of Calais, in 1408, and who had become an M.P. during 1414. Swinburne’s indenture in 1417 required him to provide four men at arms and fourteen archers.[5]

Sir William Swinburne was the son of Sir Robert Swinburne, by his second wife. He had an elder half brother called Sir Thomas Swinburne (1357-1412), who was the offspring of Sir Robert Swinburne's first wife, and who had served in Calais in 1395.

Amongst Sir Thomas's archers in 1395 was Richard Nowell of Read in Lancashire, so that it is entirely possible that John Nowell was following in the footsteps of earlier generations of his family by taking service with the Swinburne family. [6]

Most of us are aware of the Battle of Agincourt fought in 1415 by King Henry V and his army of archers. Few people today however are aware of the later campaigns fought in Normandy in the aftermath of the victory at Agincourt.

Thanks to the work of Professor Anne Curry of Southampton University and her Medieval Soldier Project [7], which has developed a database containing the names of several thousand individuals who took part in those events, and which are recorded in the indentures and musters that survive in the National Archives at Kew, and in Paris and Normandy to this day, I am finding that I can track the activities of many of these men from 1370 until 1444.

The records become particularly revealing after 1417, and this has led to my visiting many of the locations that they campaigned over during this summer, the 600th anniversary of the original landings.

In the projects database are at least 164 entries that refer to the Nowell family including about ten individuals from Read in Lancashire.  Some of whom I am descended from, or closely related to.

There are approximately 25 separate individuals listed, however because several appear in more than one entry, and a "John Nowell", for instance may be from one or more families or generations, it is not possible to be absolutely sure who is who, or how many John's there were.

At present, I am unable except in a few cases clearly linked to Read to determine exactly which ones are my direct ancestors, and who are the more distant ones.

However it is possible to show that Gilbert Nowell, a Man-at-Arms, who served at the Siege of Harfleur in the contingent of Sir John, Lord Harrington, (1384-1418) was a younger brother of John Nowell of Read from who I am descended. ( -d 1433)

It is clear from the database that Lancashire provided a substantial number of the archers and men-at-arms who served in Normandy. In some cases like the Banastre family, these are closely related by marriage, while others must have known each other from attendance at Manor Courts, or the cattle fairs or markets in Clitheroe or Burnley.

There is a clear pattern that emerges across many of the families associated with these campaigns of that it is the younger sons going off to war, and not the heirs to the family estates.

In most cases the eldest son stayed in Lancashire to run the family farms and estates. The younger sons who would not stand to inherit the estates from their father's were expected to make their own way in life.

This often meant going into the church, which many members of the Nowell family did, or into the in the case of the ones listed, into the army.  In some cases the families appear to have invested in giving these younger sons a head start in their new profession.

It appears that Gilbert Nowell was set up as a man-at-arms by the family at some considerable expense, as the equipment for a man at arms must have cost the family a considerable amount of money to provide.

Other less well heeled individuals like Robert and John Nowell landing on Touville beach had less fortunate, and had had to take less exalted roles in the army as archers or servants.

When King Henry V's army had landed at the mouth of the Seine on the late afternoon of the 13th August 1415, after its two day passage from Southampton, they had landed at Chef-de-Caux.  The English soldiers, like many of their descendants in more recent wars struggled with the local pronunciation, calling it Kidecaws.[8]

Figure 2. Chef-de-Caux foreshore, site of the 1415 landing. [9]

On that occasion between 900 and 1000 ships had made the crossing. The very largest was the Trinity Royal, of some 540 tonnes. Most were much smaller, often 30 tonnes or less.  Approximately 12,000 men, plus horses and supplies had had to be landed.  This took three anxious days to achieve, with the King very conscious for all time that at any moment the French forces might arrive atop the adjacent hills.

Having landed the King had then marched his army to Harfleur, which he had hoped to capture quickly, giving him a defended port from which to mount operations deep into France.

However, the siege of Harfleur had turned into a protracted event lasting until early October, by which time many of his men had become invalids from illnesses caught in the trenches and from the insanity conditions in the camps surrounding Harfleur. Many had to cut away the seats of their hose, such was their condition.

For the 1417 operation King Henry V decided not to repeat his landings on the north shore of the River Seine, but to land to the south shore at the mouth of the River Touques.

Figure 3. Oblique image of the landing site at Trouville and the Bay of the Seine; courtesy of Google Earth

This made considerable tactical sense, as the main French forces in the area were stationed in the Harfleur area and upstream towards Rouen.

Planning for the landing had been underway for at least a year, and possibly longer.  When King Henry had returned to London from Calais following the battle at Agincourt, he had left a beleaguered garrison of 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers under the Earl of Dorset at Harfleur that controlled only a very limited area around Harfleur.

By early in 1416 the town was besieged  by the Armagnac forces under the command of Bernard of Armagnac, the newly appointed Constable of France. The only way to procure rations locally was to mount raids into the local countryside bypassing the local French garrisons at Montivillers only four miles from Harfleur, as well as in nearby villages and monasteries.

Soon:

"A wretched cow’s head was sold for 6s 8d sterling, and the tongue for 40s and [there] died of English soldiers more than 500, in default of sustenance." [10]

France was however a deeply divided country, with the Burgundian and Armagnac's at each others throats fighting a savage civil war, and each represented a far more serious threat to each other, than did the forces of King Henry V.  The war with the English, was only a sideshow, or a distraction from a far greater threat.

This meant that the Armagnac's could only afford to divert a small proportion of their forces to defeating the English.  The other contingents had to be deployed to the Paris Basin to fight against the forces of John the Fearless.

The Armagnac's realised that the best way to force the English out of Harfleur was to cut off their supplies by land and sea.  To cut off the 150 mile sea route to Southampton, the French hired 20 galleys from Genoa as well as others from Castile with which to mount a blockade during the summer of 1416.  Individual English ships attempted to run the gauntlet to Harfleur.  Most were captured, however one succeeded by flying the French flag in bluffing its way into the town.

Raids were mounted on Portland, the Isle of Wight, and into Southampton Water by the French and their allies in an effort to prevent English shipping operating across the Channel to Harfleur.

Figure 4: The Mayor of Southampton's Seal showing a single masted English ship. The Geneose ships were believed to have included some two masted Carracks. [11]

The King's brother John Duke of Bedford was ordered to assemble a fleet for the relief of Harfleur, and on the 15th of August 1416, a six or seven hour battle in the mouth of the bay resulted in a significant victory for the English, who were able to capture or sink several of the Genoese vessels, which were much larger than the English vessels.

Losses were heavy on both sides, with the English losing around 20 ships. Three of the large Genoese Carracks were captured, and another destroyed, as well as a French coq being secured.  The English believed that they had killed about 1,500 French and captured about 400 more. They themselves lost about 700 men-at-arms and 2,000 archers, however they claimed victory because they were able to break the blockade and to take much needed supplies into Harfleur.

It must have been clear however to King Henry and his advisers, that another relief effort would become necessary before too long if the garrison at Harfleur was not ultimately to fall, but that this further operation would have to take place in the following year, 1417, as the winter gales would rule out any substantial effort before then.

By February 1417 messages were being sent out to the County Sheriff of Kent as well as many others, instructing them to begin assembling their forces.

Rex Vicecomiti Kantiae, Salutem.

Cùm, in propria Persona nostra, simus, cum Dei adjutorio, versus partes Franciae, pro Recuperatione &; Adeptione Jurium &; Haereditatis Coronae nostrae, ut cunctis satis liquet, à diu per Adversarium nostrum Franciae injuriosè detentorum &; occupatorum, in proximo profecturi, Nos, considerantes qualiter, inter Gratiarum Donationes, Nobis à Deo, nuper, dum in partibus illis ex hac causa eramus, variè collatas, idem Deus Nobis, non nostris Meritis, set suâ ineffabili Bonitate, inter caeteros, per Sagittarios nostros, suis Sagittis, Gratiam atque Victoriam Inimicorum nostrorum multipliciter infudit, Ac proinde de sufficienti Stuffura hujusmodi Sagittarum, cum ea celeritate, qua commodè fieri poterit, &; pro meliori expeditione praesentis Viagii nostri, provideri volentes,

Tibi Praecipimus, firmiter Injungentes, quòd statim, visis praesentibus, per Ballivos tuos ac alios, quos ad hoc nomine tuo duxeris ordinandos & deputandos, in singulis Villis &; aliis Locis Comitatûs tui, de quacumque Auca (praeter Aucas Brodoges vulgariter nuncupatas) Sex Pennas Alarum suarum, pro Sagittis ad opus nostrum de novo faciendis magis congruas &; competentes, pro Denariis nostris, de Exitibus Comitatûs tui praedicti provenientibus, in hac parte rationabiliter solvendis, cum omni festinatione possibili capi &; provideri, ac Pennas illas usque Londoniam, citra Qartumdecimum Diem Martii proximò futurum, duci &; cariari facias,

Et Nos tibi inde, in Compoto tuo, ad Scaccarium nostrum, debitam Allocationem habere faciemus.

Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium decimo die Februarii.

Per ipsum Regem.

Consimilia Brevia diriguntur Vicecomitibus subscriptis, sub eadem Datâ; videlicet,

Vicecomiti Wilts.

Vicecomiti Sur. Sussex.

Vicecomiti Midd.

Vicecom. Lincoln.

Vicecom. Cantebr. Hunt.

Vic. Essex. Hertford.

Vic. Sutht.

Vic. Bedf. Buck.

Vic. Oxon. Berk.

Vic. Norff.  Suff.

Vic. Somers. Dors.

Vic. Northampton.

Vic. Rotel.[12]

By March 1st, William Collyng and Richard Skall had received orders for 1,000 sides of bacon.

Presumably many hundreds of similar orders for victuals and supplies were being carried across England.

By July 1417 approximately 1500 ships had been assembled at Southampton, including many from countries including the Low Countries, Venice and Genoa. Genoa had agreed to provide six transports for £1667, despite their long standing agreements with France to whom they generally hired their warships.

There remained one serious impediment to the success of the operation.  Nine Genoese galleys, as well as a number of French vessels were known to be operating out of Honfleur, and these had the ability to seriously disrupt an invasion fleet made up very largely of very small fishing and merchant ships, with only a limited escort of warships to cover them.

John, Earl of Huntingdon, a 22 year old, veteran of Agincourt, was dispatched with a force which was successful in defeating and destroying nine Genoese galleys, off the Cap-de-la-Heve, which was the most north westerly point of the Bay of the Seine on the 29th of June 1417. This left the way clear for Henry's invasion fleet so that it was able to set sail for France on the 30th of July 1417.

The King appears to have originally planned to go to Harfleur, but then to have changed his mind, which intentionally, or otherwise helped to keep the French forces north of the river Seine.

Figure 5: An extract from an early 18th Century Map of the Trouville area, showing the location of Bonneville  Castle. Notice how the river channel of the Touques was much wider than it is today. Carte de l'élection du Pont-L'Evêque, généralité de Rouen, placée en la vicomté d'Auge.. [Please click on for larger version] [13]

The beach at Trouville offered a good location for the landing, as the range of wooded hills to the east screened the location from the nearest substantial French forces at Honfleur. The English could easily march to cut off and destroy the French shipping based at Honfleur, or push on towards Harfleur further up the estuary and just across the river from Honfleur. With both banks of the Seine secured, pushing supplies into the beleaguered garrison at Harfleur would be much easier.

Figure 6: The river Touques at low tide, approximately one kilometre inland of the current beach. [14]

Henry appears to have learned a number of lessons from his first landings, because this time he planned for, and was able to disembark his force in a day. The landing took place on the 1st of August 1417, on the long shallow beach shown in Figure 1.  The area along the shore is heavily built up today with the seaside towns of Deauville and Trouville.  This has dramatically changed the sea shore.

When Trouville was first developed in the 1880's as a seaside resort, considerable filling and reclamation took place along the water meadows and river flats in the river valley.

It is very probable that the estuary was much wider in 1417 than it is today, and because the ships used in those days would have been much smaller than today's vessels, and in most cases little different in draught to the yachts and small fishing vessels that use the port today, they were probably able to enter the river over the coastal bar, and then to pass up it for more than a mile at high tides.

The first serious obstacle to the King's further advance was the castle at Bonneville-sur-Touques.

In 1417, this castle which stands on a steep hill, just inland of the modern town of Trouville, may have dominated the landing area, at the head of the tidal zone. It was probably located at the first practical crossing of the river, which is much silted up today.

Figure 7: Bonneville-sur-Touques Castle.

On about the fourth of August the English forces commenced moving inland, and their first objective was to attack Bonneville-sur-Touques castle.  The castle is reported to have held a garrison of 500 men, however this figure seems very high for what is an otherwise fairly small castle.

Bonneville has a distinguished history going back to the days of William the Conqueror, who is believed to have supervised preparations for his invasion of England from it.

Figure 8: A Google Earth image showing the massive ring ditch surrounding the castle, as well as the surviving structures within it.

The Chroniclers give no indication of which of King Henry's troops it was that assaulted the castle, so we have no way of knowing what if any part  Robert and John Nowell played in these events.

The castle is situated on the side of a steep bluff, so that the top of the ditch nearest the church is considerably higher than the side to the south that faces the river. As such, the ditch can have held little if any water.

Figure 9: Showing the location of the castle in relation to the Touques River.

A very good article on the castles history, containing many old photos from the early 1900's can be found at http://www.normandythenandnow.com/the-very-private-castle-of-william-the-conqueror-at-touques/

The castle suffered extensive damage in the course of the 1939-45 War when it has used by the German Todt organisation as a local headquarters. Today it is in private hands, and is only open on a few occasions every year.

On the day, I visited there was no opportunity to visit the interior, and lacking an army to lay siege to it, I was reduced to scouting it out. However, I did discover that a footpath led down from close to the modern entrance to the castle into the moat.

Figure 10. The upper section of the moat.

As you go down the path, it soon disappears into dense stinging nettles and other vegetation, but I was rewarded as the original stone revetting inside the bank becomes visible in many places.

Figure 11. Deep nettles proving a highly effective defences to today's intruders.

Figure 12.  The steep wall to the castle embankment.

Figure 13. Reaching the lower part of the moat.

At this point the ground under foot becomes much damper, and there appear to be springs feeding from the adjacent fields into the moat, and flowing down towards the bottom.

Figure 14. The village laundry.

At the bottom the springs combine into a small stream, that feeds the old village laundry site.

Did the garrison us the site for their washing I wonder?

There is a fine church on top of the hill, that in its current form is believed to post date the siege, and to incorporate stone recovered from the castle, when it subsequently fell out of use.  The church yard offers commanding views back over the river estuary, and must have featured as the jumping off point for any assault on the castle.  Old photos show that the main gate of the castle faced down towards the estuary, providing the castles principle means of defence.

Figure 15. The Church at Bonneville sur Touques.

Unfortunately during August this year the trees have been especially verdant, and these effectively block the view towards the castle from the churchyard.

Figure 16. The castle from the north west, and from the site of the church.

Was John Nowell one of those trying to beat the defenders from the ramparts, firing his arrows up over the walls?

From Bonneville, the King split the army into three contingents, and then proceeded to march to the south and west. This move was unexpected by the French, and very probably also by most of his own soldiers, but would lead to a series of stunning successes that led to the capture of almost all of Normandy within two years, and was to take him and many of his men on to Paris.

In subsequent posts, I will explore some of the other locations in Normandy with which I can associate my Nowell ancestors, who were to fully exploit many of the opportunities presented by the King's new colony in Normandy.

For most, the welcome sun, and richness of the countryside, must have made a great change from the cold and wet associated with herding cattle from Pendle and Whalley over the Pennines and down to Wakefield and beyond, which was the lot of their brothers and cousins back home in Read, Little Mearlay and the nearby villages in Lancashire.

If you are aware of any additional information that you feel might aid my research, I would be most pleased to hear from you at balmer.nicholas@gmail.com.  Although my written and spoken French is not particularly good, I can read French and would be very pleased to hear from local historians in these communities in France.

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[1] Sir John d’Engennes, then made his way to the castle at Cherbourg, where he was made governor. The Duke of Gloucester then laid siege to the city of Cherbourg, which fell to the English after ten weeks. Sir John d’Engennes had agreed with Gloucester to give up the place in return for receiving a sum of money. He was given a passport to go wherever he pleased by the English, and went to Rouen which had recently fallen to the English. He stayed beyond the expiry date of his passport and was seized by the English, who on orders of King Henry had him beheaded. Monstrelet, The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Volume II, page 380.
Jean de Bonenfant and Michel le Comte, subordinate commanders under Sir John d'Engennes, secured their release from the English, where unfortunately their fellow Frenchmen took a poor view of their having surrendered the castle. They were arrested and then decapitated in Paris. Nouveaux essais historique sur la ville de Caen et son arrondissement by Gervase de la Rue, page 264, published in 1842.
[2]  Monstrelet, The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Volume II, page 370.

[3] Richard Beauchamp of Bergavenny, (born c. 1397-d. 1422) earl of Worcester, TNA, E101/51/2, m5.
He had married Lady Isabel la Despenser on the 27^th July 1411. He would die at the siege of Meaux in 1422.

[4] Muster Roll TNA, E101/51/2, m25, also http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/swinburne-william-1422

[5] La Normandie et l'Angleterre au moyen âge: Colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 4-7 ... By Véronique Gazeau, page 304.
[6] http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/swinburne-sir-thomas-1357-1412
[7] http://www.medievalsoldier.org/ E101/44/30, no1, no1_m13
[8] Chef-de-Caux is now built over by the modern town of Sainte-Adresse. Kidecaws, Gesta Henrici Quinti, page 13.
[9] From Gallica http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53010783t
[10] William Worcester’s Boke of Noblesse, given in http://www.chivalryandwar.co.uk/Resource/THE%20BATTLE%20OF%20THE%20SEINE.pdf
[11]From the British Library Blog.  See http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/battle-seine-henry-vs-unknown-naval-triumph/ for a very good description of these events. Catalogue Reference: E 329/430
[12] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rymer-foedera/vol9/pp433-437
[13] http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55005096t/f1.item
[14] Photos by the author.