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

Barniuale :

from Barneville, a castle in the arrondissement of Valognes, on the seacoast adjoining Carteret. No remains of it now exist, unless the mound near the church on which it once stood may be so called; and from the nature of its position, it can only have been a poor and indefensible place. Yet it gave birth to the renowned crusader,

"Ruggier di Balnavilla infra gli egregi,"

whose praises have been sung by Tasso. He followed Robert of Normandy to the Holy Land in 1096, and is cited by the historians of the crusade as the best and bravest leader in the Christian army. All prized and honoured him—both friend and foe; for he won the respect and confidence of the Moslem, even while proving himself the most formidable of their adversaries. He signalized himself by his feats of arms at the siege of Nicea, and was one of the heroic band that scaled the walls of Antioch. But when, shortly after, the Christian host was itself beleaguered within them by a vast body of Saracens, Roger de Barneville, leading a successful sally, and in his headlong courage adventuring too far in the pursuit, fell into an ambuscade, and was slain. The funeral honours paid to him by his sorrowing comrades, and the mourning and lamentation that filled the whole Christian camp, are fully detailed in the Gesta Dei per Francos.

"We lose sight of this family," writes Sir Francis Palgrave, "in England, but they subsequently settled in the Scottish Lowlands." Yet William de Barnevile witnesses the foundation charter of Kirkham Abbey in the time of Henry I. (Mon. Angli.). We find them in Scotland in the following generation, for in a treaty made in 1175 between Henry II. and King William, Robert de Barnevile was one of the Scottish hostages. Henry de Barnevile held of the Bishop of Winchester 1189-90 (Rot. Pip.) and Richard Barnevile, 21 Ed. I. granted lands in Chale, Isle of Wight (County History).

One of the Barneviles—Burke calls him Sir Michael—crossed over to Ireland in the time of Henry II., took from the O'Sullivans Berehaven in the county of Cork, and founded one of the most powerful families of the English pale. The dispossessed clan had their revenge; they concerted a secret rising, fell upon their invaders unawares, and put all but one of them to the sword. Some say this rescued heir was absent in England; others that he was a posthumous child at that time unborn, whose mother had escaped the general slaughter; it is only certain that he was the sole survivor, and settled at Drumnagh, near Dublin, where some of his descendants remained till the reign of James I. His name has not been preserved; but he left two sons, Hugh, who died s. p. in 1237, and Reginald, the ancestor of the existing family. Fourth in descent from this Reginald was the Sir Ulfram, who first took up his abode at Crickston, co. Meath, for twelve generations the seat of his successors. From his eldest grandson, Sir Christopher, the families of Crickston and Trimleston both derived; from the second, John, of Frankston, came the Viscounts Kingsland.

Of these three lines, the elder alone is now represented. Sir Patrick Barnewall of Crickston, the head of the house, was created a baronet by Charles I. in 1622. His son took an active part against Cromwell; was "excepted from pardon for life or estate" by a special act of Parliament in 1652; and only lived long enough to see the Restoration, and recover his land. His posterity has never failed.

Sir Christopher's second son Robert married an Irish heiress, and was created Baron of Trimleston on the accession of Edward IV., "in consideration of the good and faithful service done by him in Ireland for that King's father." His grandson, John, third Lord, an eminent lawyer, was appointed in 1522 Vice Treasurer, in 1524 High Treasurer, and in 1534 High Chancellor of Ireland; and the fifth Lord was, according to Holingshed, "a rare nobleman, endowed with sundry good gifts, well wedded to the reformation of his miserable country." This title was borne for four hundred and eighteen years, only ending in 1879 with the sixteenth Lord Trimleston.

The Viscounts Kingsland, descended from John Barnewall of Frankston, had become extinct nearly fifty years before. Their title was conferred in 1645 on Nicholas Barnewall of Turvey, who, on the breaking out of the Great Rebellion, had been commissioned to raise forces for the defence of the city and county of Dublin, as a reward for his zeal and loyalty. His grandfather, Sir Patrick, who built the manor house of Turvey, and is called by Holingshed "a deep and a wise gentleman, the lanthorn and light as well of his house, as of that part of Ireland where he dwelt; of nature mild, rather choosing to pleasure where he might harm, than willing to harm where he might pleasure," could boast of a family of four sons and no less than fifteen daughters! The fourth and fifth Viscounts, as members of the Church of Rome, were disqualified from taking their seats in Parliament; but the fifth Lord Kingsland, "being early initiated in the principles of the Protestant religion as by law established," was admitted to the House of Lords in 1787. This line terminated with his son in 1833.