The titles given to Harding Fitzeadnoth as Prince of Denmark are
unlikely according to most researchers and available
documentation. See Freeman's logic below. That
is not to diminish the importance of this family but also points out
the confusion that surrounds records of this era. Harding's
father, Eadnoth, was a "Staller" or minister in the courts of Edward
the Confessor, Harald and William the Conqueror. Many researchers
have include him in the royal lines of Denmark without
documentation. I put the connection up as an interesting history
but doubt the connection.
The families with a "Fitz-" prefix go back to some of the supporters
and soldiers of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of
England. It is an Anglican adulteration of the French phrase of
"fils
de" meaning "son of". This is typical naming technique found in
Scandinavia and Scandinavian settlements such as in Scotland or Ireland
where "Mac" is used. This prefix identifies the family with
associations to early Scandinavian invaders and settlements of
Normandy, France and England. Normandy was the home of Viking families
and supporters of the Edward the Confessor, Harold and William the
Conqueror.
Earliest connections go back to some of the first Danish
kings, Gorm the Old of about 936 was succeeded by his son, Harald
Bluetooth. Harald went off each season for raiding and pillaging from
Denmark to Normandy.[wikipedia.com]
"The ancient family of de Berkeley
deduces its descent from Hardinge, a younger son of one of the kings of
Denmark, who came over to England with William the Conqueror, and
fought at the battle of Hastings. His son, Robert FitzHardinge,
obtained the Castle of Berkeley for his fidelity to King Henry II.
[John Burke,
History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. I., R.
Bentley, London, 1834-1838, p. 469, Berkeley, of Spetchley]
- [Wikitree for Harding (Fitzharing) Fitseadnoth by Gordon
Stewart]
I believe there is little doubt that Harding fitz Elnodi/Eadnoth was
the son of Eadnoth "the Staller". Numerous documents in the
Doomesday Book that was created by William the Conqueror for taxation
purposes listed thirty pieces of land for Eadnoth. However, the
land of Eadnoth "The Staller", who died in 1067 fighting for Edward the
Confessor and Harold against the Vikings, was taken away by William the
Conqueror and later redistributed to more loyal subjects. Harding
Fritzeadnoth eventually was able to reclaim some of his father's
holdings which became the basis for the Berkeley estate. "Eadnoth
and Harding together held the sixteenth largest non-earlish estate in
England in 1066, having estates in Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset,
Gloucestershire and Berkshire."
[Foundation
for Medieval Genealogy]
Harding fitz Elnodi was one of the
Justices Itinerant in Devon and Cornwall and Exeter to investigate the
Royal Pleas in Lent, 9 Will. II. 1096 [Cartulary of Tavistock Priory,
as quoted in Notes and Queries, 6th S. ii. 11]. 'It is
abundantly clear,' writes the late Rev. R. W. Eyton in N. and Q.,
5th
S. xii. 362, 'that Harding fitz Ealnoth was
succeeded at Merriott and other Somersetshire estates by his eldest son
and heir Nicholas fitz Harding.'
~Genealogy of the Somersetshire Family of Meriet, pp. 5-6
on the "Origin of the Berkeley
Family."
"Mr Urban, -- Is there
anything authentic to be found anywhere about Harding, the father of
Robert Fitzhardihng, founder of Berkeley Castle and the family of
Berkeley? The local tradition calls him, somewhat ludicrously, Mayor of
Bristol. and son of the King of Denmark, a description as old as Bishop
Godwin. (See his Catalogue of the Bishops of Bristol.) This is
generally accompanied by the addition that this Harding had made
himself in some way useful to William the Conqueror, by fighting
at Senlac or otherwise. I have seen all this over and over again
in local books, and heard it as often from local mouths. The
singular incongruity of a Danish Prince being either Mayor of Bristol
or in favour with William the Conqueror does not strike the local
mind. If you as what King of Denmark is meant, you get no answer;
it was " the King of Denmark," and that is enough. One local
authority, Smyth, does venture (Lives of Berkeleys, p. 70) to suggest
that "he was probably the sone of Harold or Hardicanute," but this does
not add much to our knowledge. No son of Harold the First or of
Harthacnut is mentioned in history, and had any such existed, he would
have had a fair chance of being not Mayor of Bristol but King of
England. Nor need I stop to shew that the reigning King of
Denmark at the time of the Conquest was Svend Estrithson, that he was
the kinsman and all of our Harold, and that therefore no son of his was
likely to be in favour with William. Nor among the many sons of
Svend (see William of Malmesbery, lib. iii. c.261, pa. 438, ed. Hardy;
Aso Grammaticus, p. 208, ed. Sorae, 16440 do I find any of the name of
Harding.
Unless the Danish origin of
Harding is confirmed by some authority which has escaped me, I would
suggest the following theory as more probable. There was a
certain Eadnoth, "Stallere" to King Harold, who appears to have
submitted to William and to have been received to favour. He was
a large landowner in many counties --- that is if all the entries in
Domesday belong to the same Eadnoth (see Ellis, Introduction to
Domesday, ii. 85) -- including those with which we are most
concerned, Gloucester and Somerset. It was in Somersetshire too
that we find him acting in the only recorded exploit of his life, when,
in the service of the invader, he helped to drive back the son of his
old master from the shores of England. (See Chron. A. 10067; Flor. Wig.
A. 1068; Will. Malms. ii. 254.) Notwithstanding this service, he seems,
like other Englishmen, to have secured William's favour only by the
surrender of a portion of his property, as his son, Harding, appears in
Domesday as a landowner on a much smaller scale. ( see Ellis, i.
432, 4; and the new Somersetshire Domesday, p. xxvii.) He is called one
of the King's Thanes, and in one entry he is distinguished as "F. Alred
(should be Alnod as corrected in a further note), " which marks him
clearly enough, and identifies him with Harding who is also described
by William of Malmesbury as a son of Eadnoth. William, after
speaking of Eadnoth and his warlike exploits, goes on to call him,
"pater Kerdingi qui adhue superest, magi consuetus lingnam n lites
acuere, quam arma in bello concuture." A Somersetshire and
Glouscestershire landowner, of tastes so unusual in that age, would be
more likely than the son of a Danish King to take to the municipal line
and to rise to the dignity of Mayor, or whatever was the proper title
of the Chief Magistrate of Bristol in those days.
If, then, there is no distinct evidence the
other way, I would suggest that in this Harding the son of Eadnoth we
have lighted on the real patriarch of the house of Berkeley. If
so, we have a distinct case of an English family, important before the
Conquest, preserving part of its property amid William's confiscations,
rising in the second generation after the Conquest to still higher
honours and possessions, and retaining its place in the peerage down to
our own times. To be sprung in the direct male line from Harold's
"stallere" who fought against Harold's son is not quite like being
sprung from Hereward or Waltheof; still it is a pedigree which it is
hardly wise to exchange for a mythical-- and, if real,
illegitimate (see Saxo u. s. ) -- descent from a foreign royal house.
I am , &c.
Edward A. Freeman. Somerleas, Wells, July 16, 1863.
[printed in The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle,
for the Year, Vol., 215, July - Dec., 1863. John Henry and James
Parker, 1863. London]
