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

Trousbut :

or Trossebot. "Botevilain et Trossebot" are coupled together in the Roman de Rou as companions-in-arms that fought in the front rank at Hastings. Both of these are sobriquets. Trossebot, to my thinking, has some analogy with Talbot (Tail-le-bot): but this does not help to explain its meaning. Botte (coup-de-fleuret), means a pass or thrust (whence perchance we derive "bout"); and Taille-botte might very aptly designate a skilful swordsman, while Bouttevilain would be one that inflicted ugly wounds. But so many different meanings belong to Trousse that I cannot even hazard a conjecture as regards Trossebot; and in any case this is mere idle speculation. Their coat of arms, Trots bouts d'eau (three water-bougets) was obviously a rebus.

M. le Prevost is unable to trace the origin of this family in Normandy. The Troussebots are, however, "supposed to have been resident in the north-western part of the district of Neubourg, near the domain of Robert de Harcourt, whose daughter Albreda became the wife of William Troussebot."—J. R. Planche. This was the grandson of Pagan Trossebot, "in all probability the combatant at Senlac," and the son of Geoffrey Fitz Payne, who was seated at Wartre in Holderness before the time of Henry I., and there founded a Priory. Yet Orderic Vitalis contemptuously describes him as one of the men of low origin, whom, for their obsequious service, that sovereign exalted to the rank of nobles, raising them, as it were, from the very dust under his feet, heaping riches upon them, and setting them above Earls and Lords of castles (lib. xi. cap. 2). William Trossebot's services to the King were probably of a very different kind, as he was a stalwart soldier; but the only exploit recorded of him dates from the ensuing reign. "In 1138, being then castellan (munio) of Bonneville, he was successful in putting to flight Count Geoffrey of Anjou and his Angevine troops, having first set fire to the adjacent bourg of Touques, in which they had taken up their quarters for the night."—T. Stapleton. He married Albreda de Harcourt, the daughter of one of the two co-heirs of Pain Peverell, Baron of Brunne, and the heiress of the other, Maud de Dover, who had remained childless. They had, according to Dugdale, three sons, Richard, Geoffrey, and Robert (Mr. Stapleton adds another named William); and three daughters: Rose, married to Everard de Ros; Hillaria, to Robert de Boilers; and Agatha, to Hamo Meinfelin. None of the sons left heirs; and all Dugdale can tell us of them is that they were great benefactors to the religious houses. Geoffrey, the second, "did adde so much to what his grandfather had given to the Canons of Wartre that he thereupon had the repute to be the first Founder." The last of them died in 1195, and their sisters became co-heiresses of the great barony of Wartre. All three lost their husbands in early life, and neither Rose nor Hillaria would ever consent to marry again. Hillaria lived a widow close upon forty years, and rivalled her brothers in her munificence to the Church. Agatha, on the other hand, re-married William de Albini, Earl of Sussex, one of the barons in arms against the Crown. Blomfield recounts how "on Tuesday after the Feast of St. Dennis," eight days before King John died, Agatha came to his chamber at Lynn, and there paid the fine of one hundred marks of silver, which her husband had incurred for his rebellion. Of these three wealthy sisters, only Rose, the eldest, left surviving descendants, and to them the whole inheritance eventually accrued; but her two younger sisters both attained such a patriarchal age that her grandson was the first to enjoy it.

The name apparently did not die out with the baronial line. There were Trusbuts settled at Titleshall in Norfolk, "a family of good account," that survived for several centuries. Richard Trusbut lived under Henry III.; and his son John was seated at Shouldham in the succeeding reign. Another John, grandson of the above, was Captain of the Hobelers in the Scottish wars, 16 Ed. III. The last of the line was again John, whose heiress Jane married Nicholas Colt, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Privy Councillor of Edward IV.—Blomfield's Norfolk.

These Trusbuts did not bear the water-bougets of the Barons of Wartre, but Gyronny of eight, Azure and Ermine.