Nigel Fossard

Nigel Fossard (sometimes Niel Fossard; died after 1120) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman who held the honour of Mulgrave in Yorkshire and by virtue of that is considered the feudal baron of Mulgrave.

Life

Fossard came from the western part of Normandy.

Fossard held lands of Robert, Count of Mortain in the Domesday survey of 1086. Throughout all three ridings of Yorkshire, Fossard's holdings amounted to over 500 carucates. His landholdings were only in Yorkshire, however. Fossard and another tenant of Robert of Mortain, Richard de Sourdeval, held the majority of the count's lands in Yorkshire. Although the count was a large landholder in Yorkshire, his two tenants effectively controlled all his lands and this weakened the comital power in the county.

When Robert of Mortain rebelled and lost in 1088, Fossard became a tenant-in-chief of the King. Under King Henry I of England, Fossard worked to concentrate his holdings around Lythe Castle, an act that was encouraged by the king in order to secure royal authority in Yorkshire.

Fossard gave gifts to St Mary's Abbey in York, It also mentions King William the Conqueror, the queen Matilda of Flanders, and the king and queen's eldest son, Robert Curthose. This relationship was, according to the historian Janet Burton, "a spiritual union with the community" of the monastic house, effectively making them like a member of the community.

The name of Fossard's wife is not known. In 1129, his lands were controlled by the king, and his heir had to pay a fine to recover his inheritance. Why the lands were in the king's control is not recorded.