I certify that I have read this thesis and have ... - Bilkent University

steward and may have been a chamberlain as well. 80 The latter’s tenants in England
mainly came from areas such as Émalleville, Colleville, Conteville, and Claville that
were close to Graville-Sainte-Honorine. 81
The Malet family had ties with some prominent families of their time.
William Malet’s English mother was probably related to the Countess Godiva, wife
of Earl Leofric of Mercia, mother of Earl Aelfgar and grandmother of the earls
Edwin and Morcar. William Malet’s daughter married Turold who was sheriff of
Lincoln by the 1070s and was the mother of the Countess Lucy. 82 According to W.
J. Corbett’s classification of 1086 tenants-in-chief, Robert Malet was at the top of
Class B (land valued at between £650 and £400). 83 As we have seen, at least a third
of that was in eastern Suffolk. Most of the rest of his lands were either elsewhere in
Suffolk or other neighbouring eastern counties. 84
In William I’s reign, Robert Malet was addressed as sheriff (in one case,
probably as sheriff) in two of the king’s charters, one to Bury St Edmunds and the
other to the bishopric of Rochester, concerning a manor in Suffolk. In another
charters he was recorded as holding soke in the five and a half hundreds that
belonged to the abbey of Ely. Another recorded a grant by Robert of a mill in
Normandy to the abbey of Bec. Robert also witnessed two charters. 85
Count Alan “Rufus” was the son of Eudo, the younger brother of Alan III,
duke of Brittany. 86 It is known that Count Alan “Rufus” was given more than four
80
Green, Aristocracy, p. 309; Barlow, William Rufus, p. 151.
81
Douglas, William, p. 270.
82
Keats-Rohan, “Antecessor Noster: The Parentage of Countess Lucy Made Plain”; Williams,
English and the Norman Conquest, p. 27; Green, Aristocracy, p. 91.
83
Corbett, “Development of Duchy of Normandy and Norman Conquest”, pp. 510-11.
84
Green, Aristocracy, p. 84.
85
Regesta (Bates), nos. 41, 117, 145, 166, 226, 253, 341.
86
Everard, Brittany, pp. xv, 12. Apart from a grant to Count Alan in and near York, Count Alan
occurs frequently as a witness to William I’s charters: Regesta (Bates), nos. 8, 30, 39, 46, 54, 150,
220, 253, 290, 305, 318-19.
33