Family of Robert + FITZHARDING and Eve + FITZESTMOND

Husband:	Robert + FITZHARDING (1095-1170)
Wife:	Eve + FITZESTMOND (1099-1170)
Children:	Maurice FITZROBERT FITZHARDING (1120- )
	Helena + FITZHARDING (1130- )
Marriage	1119	England

Husband: Robert + FITZHARDING

Wife: Eve + FITZESTMOND

Name:	Eve + FITZESTMOND
Sex:	Female
Father:	Estmond + of MERCIA (1070- )
Mother:	Godiva + of NORMANDY (1076- )
Birth	1099	Gloucestershire, England
Occupation		Prioress
Title		Prioress
Death	12 Mar 1170 (age 70-71)	Bristol, Gloucestershire, England

Child 1: Maurice FITZROBERT FITZHARDING

Name:	Maurice FITZROBERT FITZHARDING
Sex:	Male
Birth	1120

Child 2: Helena + FITZHARDING

Name:	Helena + FITZHARDING
Sex:	Female
Spouse:	Roger IV + of BERKELEY (1131-1191)
Birth	1130	Bristol, Gloucestershire, England

Note on Husband: Robert + FITZHARDING

Robert Fitzharding (c. 1095–1170) was an Englishman from Bristol who rose to the feudal barony of Berkeley and founded the family which still holds Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, the castle whose construction he started.[1] He was also the founder of St Augustine's Abbey in Bristol, which later became Bristol Cathedral.[2]

 

Robert Fitzharding is believed to have been the grandson of Eadnoth, who had held the post of Staller under King Edward the Confessor and King Harold.[3] Robert's father Harding was the King's Reeve in Bristol, with a house in Baldwin Street. Robert later built a large house in Broad Street, on the River Frome. He became a burgess of the city and sufficiently wealthy to buy from Robert of Gloucester extensive manorial lands around Bristol to its south and west, including Redcliffe, Bedminster, Leigh, Portbury and Billeswick.[4][5][6]

 

[edit] St Augustine's AbbeyIn 1140 Fitzharding founded St Augustine's Abbey as a Victorine Augustinian monastery. The chosen site was in Billeswick, just across the River Frome from the medieval city of Bristol. He endowed the abbey with many lands, and the rights to revenues from many churches, in Bristol and within several counties. In 1148 he chose Richard of Warwick as the first abbot. In 1155 King Henry II also made endowments to the abbey and in 1159 Fitzharding confirmed his own endowments by charter. The abbey carried out a building programme during Fitzharding's lifetime which saw not only the building of a church but also the chapter house and gatehouse.[2][6]

 

[edit] Berkeley

Berkeley CastleIn the conflict of the Anarchy, Bristol was held by Robert of Gloucester for the Plantagenet cause. When they eventually prevailed, Fitzharding was rewarded by the Plantagenets for his support with the title and lands which had belonged to Roger de Berkeley. In 1152 Roger was dispossessed of the Lordship of Berkeley for refusing to give allegiance to the Plantagenets. These manorial lands included Berkeley, Filton, Horfield, Almondsbury and Ashleworth, and other English and Welsh possessions including land in Gwent and Glamorgan. Fitzharding would go on to make further endowments to the abbey from these territories.[4][2][3][6]

 

In 1153–54 Fitzharding received a royal charter from Henry II giving him permission to rebuild the castle at Berkeley.[3] The previous castle was originally a motte-and-bailey built by William FitzOsbern shortly after the Conquest, around 1067, and rebuilt in the 12th century by the dispossessed Roger de Berkeley and his father. Fitzharding built the shell keep during 1153–56, on the site of the former motte. The building of the curtain wall followed, around 1160–90.[1]

 

[edit] Later lifeAccording to the 13th century Norman verse The Song of Dermot and the Earl, Fitzharding acted as an intermediary between Dermot MacMurrough, the exiled King of Leinster, and Henry II in Dermot's attempts to raise Norman support for his planned recapture of Leinster. The song tells that Dermot was a guest in Fitzharding's house in Bristol.[7]

 

Some time before his death Fitzharding became a canon of the abbey he had founded. He died in 1170.[2]

 

The ancestry of Robert Fitzharding's wife Eva is not certain. She was founder and first abbess of the Augustinian nunnery of St Mary Magdalen on St Michael's Hill, Bristol, having endowed it with lands in Southmead.[4][2]

 

Eva was buried alongside her husband in the choir of St Augustine's Abbey.[2] They are commemorated with a 19th century stained glass window in the Cathedral, depicting them with Henry II.[8]

 

[edit] DescendantsRobert's first son, and heir, was Maurice fitzRobert fitzHarding, also known as Maurice de Berkeley, born c. 1120. In 1153–54 Maurice married Alice, the first daughter of the dispossessed Roger de Berkeley, who was now Lord of Dursley. The two families were united twice by marriage as Robert's first daughter Helen married Roger's heir, also called Roger.[3]