FROM THE YEAR 1000

We are in the 11th century. The name of Venables appears in 1055 when Mauger de Venables witnesses a charter by which Roger de Clères gives St Ouen de Rouen the Dimes de Blainville-Crevons. The years preceding this charter were crucial for the creation of the stronghold of Venables knowing that the seigneury of Ailly and the future lands of Venables form a single territorial unit controlled by two powerful families.

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The first character who comes into the ancestry of Gilbert de Venables is Roger de Blois. The latter will become from 995 Chancellor of King Hugues Capet and Advisor to his son Robert (future Robert 1st). Roger was appointed bishop of Beauvais (1002-1022) with the influence of the counts of Blois and Chartres. Roger acquires in Neustria the County of Sancerre, secular offices on Nogent the King and becomes abbot of the abbey of Coulomb and alleux on the Mantois coming to him from his probable brother Hugues de Beauvais assassinated in 1008. He will return in possession on the country of Madrie of the seigneury of Ailly probably coming from his grandmother Leutgarde de Vermandois 1 who died in 977.

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In 1018, Roger de Beauvais separated the seigneury of Ailly which he ceded to the bishopric of Beauvais and created the stronghold of Venables which he ceded to one of his relatives. In 1022, when Roger died, it was his probable sister Héloïse Countess of Pithiviers and Mantes who came into possession of land in the country of Madrie 2 . The available sources of this time give for Roger two ancestries which are the subject of an in-depth study 3 on the bases of a new history of feudalism.

• A parentage related to the house of the Counts of Blois and Chartres. A family which controls a vast principality on the Loire and Champagne and very influential geopolitically.

• A parentage related to the Counts of Vermandois, an important family descending directly from Charlemagne. It is a house whose influence extends over the whole of Picardy, Champagne, Vexin, Mantois and Pagus Madriacensis.

On the death of Mauger de Venables Gilbert receives the fiefdom of Venables around 1058. Gilbert will spend little time on his land. At the call of Guillaume, Duke of Normandy, Gilbert enlisted in 1066 in the Normandy host in the company of Guillaume and Hugues de la Mare, little lords of the current hamlet. For their good and loyal services and following the Duke's promises, they will be endowed with land in the county of Cheshire attributed to Hugues d'Avranches. Gilbert will take root there and his grandson will become the first baron of Kinderton. We find the Earl of Kinderton in 1093 with Saint Anselm archbishop of Canterbury signatory of the charter of Ste Vereburge of Chester. Hugues whose brother Guillaume died during the battle of Hasting, will be named Hugh of Delamere. The parish of Venables will come under the patronage of the Abbey of the Croix St Leufroy, confirmed by a bull from Pope Louis III in 1181.

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The historical summary of this period comes from the work carried out by Patrick Lequette on the genealogical ancestry of Gilbert de Venables.  

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  1  Auguste Le Prévot: Dictionary of municipalities of the Eure Volume 3

  2   Madeleine Arnold-Tetart: The Counts of Meulan

  3   Patrick lequette: Study on the ancestry of Gilbert de Venables