Bernard de Neufmarché

Bernard de Neufmarché , also Bernard of Newmarket or Bernard of Newmarch was the first of the Norman conquerors of Wales. He was a minor Norman lord who rose to power in the Welsh Marches before successfully undertaking the invasion and conquest of the Kingdom of Brycheiniog between 1088 and 1095. Out of the ruins of the Welsh kingdom he created the Anglo-Norman lordship of Brecon.

His toponymic byname comes from Neuf-Marché in Normandy. It was Latinised as de Novo Mercato (literally: "from the new market"), and has sometimes been Anglicised as "Newmarket" or "Newmarch".

Coming to England Because Bernard's family had attachments to the monastery of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche, the monkish chronicler Orderic Vitalis of that foundation had special knowledge of him and his family, though this still does not reduce the general obscurity of his origins or his life when compared to the richer Marcher Lords, like the great Roger of Montgomery. Bernard was the son of the minor Norman baron Geoffrey de Neufmarché and Ada de Hugleville, and he was born at the castle of Le-Neuf-Marché-en-Lions on the frontier between Normandy and Beauvais. His ancestors on his mother's side had founded the town of Auffay south of Dieppe on the Scie, while his paternal grandfather, Turquetil (Turchetil d'Harcourt), had served the young William II of Normandy as a guardian and was killed in that capacity. On his mother's side he also descended from the dukes of Normandy.

The question of Bernard's participation in the Battle of Hastings and therefore in the Norman Invasion is subject to debate. Bernard's peculiar absence from the Domesday Book of 1086 more or less damns the case for his presence at Hastings, for it is impossible that a noble participant in the victorious battle should not have received land to be recorded in Domesday if he was still living in 1087. Gilbert's lands were concentrated in Herefordshire and included the manors of Bach, Middlewood and Harewood in the Golden Valley and the castles of Dorstone, Snodhill and Urishay connecting Clifford Castle to Ewyas Harold, which belonged to Alfred's lordship. Among Bernard's acquisitions from Gilbert was the domus defensabilis of Eardisley. From Alfred he received Pembridge, Burghill and Brinsop. She brought with her a dowry of Berrington and Little Hereford.

All of Bernard's estates lay in the valley of the River Wye and along an old Roman road which led from Watling Street to Y Gaer and on into Brycheiniog. The military possibilities of that road could only have encouraged his subsequent ventures into Wales.

Conquest of Brycheiniog Bernard joined the rebellion of the marcher lords against William Rufus at Lent in 1088. Bernard escaped without recorded punishment and the king probably conceded the marcher lords the right to expand their lands by conquest at the expense of the Welsh buffer kingdoms of Brycheiniog, Morgannwg and Gwynllwg. Shortly after the settlement with the king, Bernard spearheaded an invasion of Brycheiniog which was to lead eventually to its conquest. Before the end of the year, though, he had captured Glasbury, for he issued a charter for lands near that place to the abbey of Saint Peter's at Gloucester (autumn 1088). Talgarth was captured early and a castle was constructed at Bronllys where the rivers Dulais and Llynfi meet, a site probably central to the llys of the tywysog of the commote of Bronllys. Bleddyn led a charge up the hill, but the Normans defeated the Welsh and Rhys was killed in battle. Brecknock Priory, which was later founded at the site of the battle, may have been built on the spot where Rhys supposedly fell. Bleddyn died not long after and Bernard was able to advance over the whole of Brycheiniog. Battle Of Brecon

Reliable historical records refer to no king of Brycheiniog after a Tewdwr ab Elise who died after 934. Certainly there is no contemporary reference to a Bleddyn ap Maenarch. The Welsh Bruts simply state that "Rhys ap Tewdwr, king of Deheubarth, was slain by the Frenchmen who were inhabiting Brycheiniog." This passage lends evidence to the belief that the conquest of Brycheiniog was mostly finished by Eastertide 1093 and that the main effect of the battle of Brecon was to open the way to the conquest of Deheubarth.

Pacification and administration of Brycheiniog He followed the Usk down to Ystradyw and took it, which incited the bishops of Llandaff to protest because the annexation of Ystradyw removed it from their diocese and brought it into the lordship of Brecon, which was under the episcopal authority of Saint David's. In Spring 1094, the southern Welsh rose in revolt against the Normans that had come to dominate them. Brycheiniog was unaffected and the Normans of that region launched a counterattack from Ystrad Tywy and Cantref Bychan which devastated Kidwelly and Gower but did not put down the revolt. What followed was the complete encastellation of Brycheiniog. Among the castles possibly built during Bernard's lordship to defend the entrances to Brycheiniog from the southeast were Tretower, Blaen Llyfni (not attested before 1207–1215), and Crickhowell.

Bernard also extensively enfeoffed his followers with Welsh land. The Normans lived predominantly in the valleys and lowlands in an agrarian society while the Welsh kept to the hills and mountains living pastorally, thus creating an overall economic gain. Among Bleddyn's sons, Gwrgan received Blaen Llyfni and Aberllyfni while Caradog received an unnamed hill country, and Drymbenog, Bleddyn's brother, was given land neighbouring that of Richard Fitz Pons.

Death and succession

Bernard died around 1125 and was buried at Gloucester Abbey. By then he had established a flourishing borough around his castle of Brecon. Henry I had married Bernard's daughter Sibyl to Miles Fitz Walter, the High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, in 1121 and passed a significant portion of Bernard's honour to him as a dowry, including Hay-on-Wye Castle. According to Giraldus Cambrensis this was because Mahel de Neufmarché, the son and heir of Bernard, had mutilated the paramour of his mother. In vengeance his mother, Nesta, swore to King Henry I that her son was illegitimate. Henry was therefore able by law and custom to pass over Mahel and give the land to his friend and confidant Miles Fitz Walter with Bernard's legal heiress in marriage.