Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Bertram :

"Robert Bertram ki estoit tort" (crooked), Lord of Briquebec, near Valognes, is mentioned by Wace: his younger brother William is also generally considered to have been present at Hastings, and appears on the Dives Roll. The Norman barony of Briquebec, consisting of forty knights' fees, is said to have taken its name from Brico, a Norwegian Viking, who was the ancestor of this family. "Aslac or Anslac, his son, filled a great part in Norman history. His brother Amfrid, the Dane, was ancestor of the Earls of Chester, and the barons of Bec-Crespin."—The Norman People. "A younger branch, from whom came the Mitfords, formed establishments, though not of much account, in England: it probably descended from the above-mentioned William, or from another William de Bertram, who stands in Domesday as a small holder in Hampshire."—Taylor. One of these Williams became Baron of Mitford and Bothall, in Northumberland, probably after the forfeiture of Robert Mowbray. He either founded or gave lands to the Augustinian priory of Brinkbourne, and married a daughter of Guy de Baliol, by whom he had two sons: Roger Bertram, baron of Mitford; and Richard Bertram, ancestor of the barons of Bothall.

The elder line, seated in its picturesque Border fortress on the Wansbeck, survived till 1311. A lineal descendant and namesake of the first Roger joined the rising of the Barons against King John, and, in retaliation, had his castle seized, and his town of Mitford destroyed with fire and sword by the savage Flemish hordes who then devastated Northumberland as the auxiliaries of the King. While still in. the custody of the Crown, the castle was besieged by Alexander of Scotland; it was afterwards granted to Philip de Ulcotes, and in the following reign restored to its rightful owner. The next Roger Bertram was one of the Northern barons summoned to march into Scotland to the rescue of the young King of Scots, Henry III.'s son-in-law, in 1258. Six years afterwards, unwarned by the sad experiences of his father, he was arrayed among the insurgents in the Baron's War, taken prisoner at Northampton, and his castle and barony again forfeited—this time for ever. He seems, indeed, to have speedily made his peace with the King, for in 1264 he was summoned to parliament as Baron Bertram—but Mitford knew him no more. He was succeeded by his son, who had no child except a daughter who died early, and on whose death the barony fell into abeyance between the Fitzwilliams, Darcys, and Penulburys, as the representatives of his three sisters.

Mitford Castle passed through various hands. In 1316 it harboured a freebooter "who," says Leland, "robby'd a Cardinal cominge out of Scotland," and was himself there captured by Ralph Lord Greystock, and carried to London for execution. Two years later, when it was taken and destroyed by the King of Scots, who left it in ruins, it was, with the entire barony of Mitford, the property of Adomar de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. It eventually came by different co-heiresses to Lord Brough, who, in 1557, granted it to a descendant of the original owners, Cuthbert Mitford. His ancestor, Richard, was a younger brother of the first Lord Bertram, and bore the name of De Mitford as that of the paternal barony. "The manor of Molesden was purchased by this branch 1369,^[32] and in allusion to it, they adopted three moles in their arms, the descent from the Bertrams being probably then forgotten through lapse of time, and so entirely has this been the case, that this, the legitimate male representative of one of the most illustrious Norman families, is now traced to imaginary Anglo-Saxon ancestors."—The Norman People. The castle and manor of Mitford came afterwards to the Crown, and were re-granted by Charles II. to Robert Mitford. From him are derived the present family; one of whom, a younger brother, was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland and created Baron Redesdale in 1802.

The junior line of Bertrams held their barony of Bothall from the King in capite by the service of three knight's fees. Their castle also stood on the brink of a rock washed by the brawling stream of the Wansbeck, surrounded by beautiful woods sloping down the banks, and in many places overhanging the water. Most of what yet remains of it is of a much later date than their time. Robert Bertram, Sheriff of Northumberland and Governor of Newcastle-on-Tyne in the reign of Edward III, who first obtained licence to castellate his manor-house of Bothall, proved the last of the family; and his daughter Helen carried the barony to the Ogles, and was the grandmother of the first Lord Ogle.

One of these Lords of Bothall was the Hermit of Warkworth, whose pathetic story, long handed down by tradition, has been preserved and elaborated in Bishop Percy's ballad. He loved his neighbour, Isabel de Widdrington, and was loved in return: but, like a true daughter of

"These northern counties here,
Whose word is snaffle, spur and spear,"

she chose to put his mettle to the test before giving him her hand. She sent him a helmet as her love-token, with a message desiring him to try its temper "wherever blows fell sharpest;" and Bertram, obedient to her behest, rode with his brother-in-arms Lord Percy on a raid into Scotland, where he was wounded nearly to the death in a desperate fray. The tidings were brought to Isabel, who, struck with horror and remorse, at once set out to go to him; but on her way was seized by some prowling moss-troopers, and carried off to one of their secret fastnesses beyond the Border. Thus, when, "at the dewfall of the night," her rescued knight was carried home on the shields of his followers, he found his lady gone, and all traces of her lost. He made a vow never to rest till he had found her, and his brother promised to help him in the quest. As soon as his strength permitted, they went forth together in a "humble disguise:" and the better to conduct their search, agreed to separate, the brother going Northwards, and Bertram himself to the West. For many weary days and weeks he wandered "over moss and moor" in vain; till at length, when he had well-nigh lost heart, a compassionate pilgrim directed him to a distant peel-tower, in which a lady's voice had been heard lamenting. Bertram found the place, and recognised the voice; but watched the tower for two successive nights without obtaining a glimpse of his Isabel. On the third night, however, that he lay crouched in his hiding place, he saw her descend a ladder of ropes thrown from an upper window, assisted by a man muffled up in a cloak, who bore her across the little stream, and led her away, clinging fondly to his arm. Bertram, maddened at the sight, rushed after them with his naked sword, and attacked his rival, who defended himself manfully; but after a stubborn conflict Bertram succeeded in bringing him to the ground, and stabbed him to the heart with the words, "Die, traitor!" Then, when she heard his voice, the wretched Isabel for the first time knew who he was, and sprang forward to arrest the blow, shrieking "It is thy brother!" She was too late, for the deed was done, and in the struggle to throw herself between them, she slipped against Bertram's sword, and fell pierced by his brother's side.

For that night's bloody tragedy, the unhappy Bertram did penance to the end of his days. He renounced every tie that bound him to the world. His sword and spear were hung up in his hall; his inheritance passed on to others, and his goods given to the poor; while he himself, clad in monastic garb, took refuge in the rocky recesses of Coquetdale, near Warkworth Castle. No more ideal retreat could be devised for an anchorite than this lovely sequestered glen, where the hurrying Coquet stays its "troubled current" beneath precipitous cliffs, clothed with trees that spring from every chink and crevice of the stone; and from an overhanging grove of stately oaks above, a runlet of the purest water comes rippling down. Here his dwelling-place, scooped out of the living rock, remains almost as perfect as when he left it. It can only be reached from the river, by a long flight of steps. Over the entrance linger the traces of the original inscription, Sunt mihi lachrymae meae cibo inlerdiu et noctu. The first cell is a miniature chapel, complete in all its details, with a raised altar at the East end; and on a recessed altar tomb beside it the effigy of a woman, "very delicately designed," but now broken and time-worn, lying with her head towards the East, and her arms slightly raised, showing that her hands have been folded in prayer. At her feet, in a niche cut in the stone, the figure of the Hermit kneels in eternal penitence, his head resting on his hand. Beyond this, reached through a doorway, bearing on a shield the Crucifixion and the emblems of the Passion, is a still smaller oratory, used by the Hermit as a sleeping place; with a similar altar at the farther end, and near it, a narrow ledge hewn out of the rock for his couch. Neither by night nor by day3 did he ever lose sight of the beloved effigy in the adjoining chapel; for at the altar a window is contrived through which he could see it as he knelt at his devotions; and when lying on his bed, a niche cut slant wise through the partition wall still enabled him to rest his faithful eyes upon it. No one knows for how many sorrowful years he lived here "in penance and contrition," nor when Death came to his release.^[33] His early friend Lord Percy honoured his memory by maintaining a chantry priest to sing mass in the chapel, and inhabit the Hermitage, whose allowance was continued down to the suppression of the monasteries. "The patent is extant which was granted to the last hermit in 1532 by the sixth Earl of Northumberland."—Hutchinson.

Buttecourt, for Botetourt. John de Botetourt is first mentioned in 1281, when he was made Governor of the Castle of St. Briavel in Gloucestershire, and Warden of the Forest of Dean by Edward I.; and two years later, when he had summons to serve in Gascony, he was Admiral of the King's fleet. He was in most of the Scottish wars, and appears on the Roll of Carlaverock.

"Cil ke a tout bien faire a cuer lie,
Au sautoir noir engreelie
Jaune baniere ot e penon,
Johans Boutetourte ot a noun."

The year after Edward II.'s accession he was summoned to parliament as a baron: and "being with the King at Bolein," says Dugdale "(that being the time when he married Queen Isabel) he joyned with the rest of the Nobles, then there, in signing an Instrument dated ult. Jan. under their Hands and Seals; whereby they mutually obliged themselves, to serve him faithfully, and to support his Honour." It was in accordance with the true spirit of this obligation, that four years afterwards, he was among the first to declare himself against Edward's unworthy favourites, and a confederate of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in taking prisoner Piers Gaveston. At that time he was Constable of Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, and in 1315 is again spoken of as Admiral of the Fleet. He died in 1324. By his wife Maude, who, as the daughter of one of the co-heiresses of William de Beauchamp, Baron of Bedford, had brought him a great estate, he had four sons. The elder followed his father's example by marrying another wealthy heiress, Joane de Someri, sister of the last Baron of Dudley, but died before him, and a grandson succeeded. This second Lord Botetourt 16 Ed. III. attended the King to France in the train of the Earl of Warwick, and was constantly engaged in the subsequent French wars. He was twice married, and had, besides six daughters, an only son and heir; but he survived both this son and a grandson, and his granddaughter, Joyce Burnell, inherited the barony. She left no children, and at her death it fell into abeyance between her aunts. Singularly enough, it was the youngest of all, Katherine, married to Maurice de Berkeley, in favour of whose descendants it was revived after the lapse of three centuries and a half. Norborne Berkeley was summoned as Lord Botetourt in 1764, but died s. p. in 1776. His only sister Elizabeth married Charles, fourth Duke of Beaufort, and their son, the fifth Duke, obtained a fresh patent of the barony in 1803.

A knight of this family was honoured by a special interposition of Our Lady of Walsingham on his behalf. Every monastery was then an inviolable sanctuary: no criminal, who had found refuge within its precincts, could be touched under pain of sacrilege; and crosses were even set up at a certain distance on the roads leading to an abbey or priory, to mark the boundaries within which no capture could be effected, except by payment of a fine to the monks. The shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham was in such high esteem as a place of pilgrimage, that in those days, when it was generally believed that the Milky Way "was appointed by Providence to point out the particular place and residence of the Virgin, beyond all other places," it came to be called in the country the Walsingham Way, and was so known in Norfolk up to the latter end of the last century. On the north side of the close of the priory was a very low and narrow wicket door, through which it was difficult for any one to pass even on foot, being "not past an elne high, and three-quarters in breadth. And a certain Norfolk knight, Sir Raaf Boutetourt, armed cap-a-pee and on horseback, being in days of old, 1314, pursued by a cruel enemy, and in the utmost danger of being taken, made full speed for this gate; and invoking this Lady for his deliverance, he immediately found himself and his horse within the close and sanctuary of this priory, in a safe asylum, and so fool'd his enemy." A memorial of this miracle, engraved on a plate of copper, was seen by Erasmus, nailed to the gate of the Priory.—See Bloomfield's Norfolk.

These Norfolk Botetourts had settled on some lands granted by Hugh de Gourney in the time of Henry III.; and 3 Ed. I. Sir Guy de Botetourt "held Uphall manor of Lord Bardolf as part of the honour of Gournay." Sir John de Botetourt was Admiral of the Norfolk coast in the same reign, and in "high favour" with the King. The line failed 40 Ed. III. with another John.