The Berkeley family is unique in having an unbroken male line of descent from a Saxon ancestor before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 to the present day. The family reputedly descends from Harding, the son of Eadnoth (Alnod), who as "Marshal" or "Staller" was a high official under King Edward the Confessor. The town of Berkeley is located in the county of Gloucestershire and is situated about five miles west of Dursley and eighteen southwest of Gloucester, and northeast of Bristol. It was chartered by King Edward I to be governed by a mayor and alderman, but the corporation was annulled in 1885. The place confers the title of Earl and Baron on the Berkeley family. The manor embraces nearly thirty parishes and is one of the largest in England; it was given by William the Conqueror to Roger de Berkeley, Lord of Dursley. From "The Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage of the British Empire", "The Earl of Berkeley", pp 70-71 (1882).
Most of Wikipedia's text and many of its images are licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA)