Roger I le Bigod

Abt 1045 - 1107  (~ 62 years)

• Name	Roger I le Bigod  [1]
  Birth	Abt 1045  [2]
  Gender	Male
  Alternate birth	Abt 1050  [3]
  Death	8 Sep 1107	Earsham, Norfolk, England   [2, 4, 5, 6]
  Alternate death	10 Sep 1107	Earsham, Norfolk, England   [2]
  Alternate death	15 Sep 1107	Earsham, Norfolk, England   [4]
  Alternate death	Bef Aug 1221  [3]
  Burial	Norwich Cathedral, Norwich, Norfolk, England   [2, 7]
  Person ID	I10398	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of DDB, Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of EK, Ancestor of GFS, Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of LDN, Ancestor of LMW, Ancestor of TNH, Ancestor of TSW, Ancestor of TWK, Ancestor of UKL, Ancestor of WPF
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2020

  
  

  Family	Adeliza de Tosny   d. Aft 1136
  Children	+ 1. Maud le Bigod   d. Bef 1139 + 2. Cecily le Bigod + 3. Jane Bigod + 4. Hugh I le Bigod,   b. Abt 1095, of Earsham, Norfolk, England d. Bef 9 Mar 1177 (Age ~ 82 years)
  Family ID	F1365	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	16 Jun 2018

  
  

• Notes

  Earl of Norfolk. "Roger Bigod was one of the tight-knit group of second-rank Norman nobles who did well out of the conquest of England. Prominent in the Calvados region before 1064 as an under-tenant of Odo of Bayeux, he rose in ducal and royal service to become, by 1086, one of the leading barons in East Anglia, holding wide estates to which he added Belvoir by marriage and Framlingham by grant of Henry I. His territorial fortune was based on his service in the royal household, where he was a close adviser and agent for the first three Norman kings, and the propitious circumstances of post-Conquest politics. Much of his honour in East Anglia was carved out of lands previously belonging to the dispossessed Archbishop Stigand, his brother Aethelmar of Elham, and the disgraced Earl Ralph of Norfolk and Suffolk. Under Rufus -- if not before -- Roger was one of the king's stewards. Usually in attendance on the king, he regularly witnessed writs but was also sent out to the provinces as a justice or commissioner. Apart from a flirtation with the cause of Robert Curthose in 1088, he remained conspicuously loyal to Rufus and Henry I, for whom he continued to act as steward and to witness charters. The adherence of such men was vital to the Norman kings. Through them central business could be conducted and localities controlled. Small wonder they were well rewarded. Roger established a dynasty which dominated East Anglia from the 1140s, as earls of Norfolk, until 1306. Roger's byname and the subsequent family name was derived from a word (bigot) meaning double-headed instrument such as a pickaxe: a tribute, perhaps to Roger's effectiveness as a royal servant; certainly an apt image of one who worked hard both for his masters and for himself." [Christopher Tyerman, Who's Who in Early Medieval England, 1996]

  
  

• Sources

  [S1016] Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2001. [S80] Peter Stewart, "Origin and Early Generations of the Tosny Family," July 2009, rev. March 2012. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998. [S2780] Early Yorkshire Charters: Volume 1, edited by William Farrer. Edinburgh: Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., 1914., year only. [S4384] George Eldridge, Hydrographer, and Eliza Jane His Wife: Their Ancestors and Their Descendants by Henry James Young. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: 1982., month and year only. [S4384] George Eldridge, Hydrographer, and Eliza Jane His Wife: Their Ancestors and Their Descendants by Henry James Young. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: 1982.