Withenoc

Withenoc or Guihenoc de La Boussac (also spelled in other ways, including Wihenoc, Gwethenoc and Withenock) (c. 1035 – after 1101) was a nobleman and monk of Breton origin, who was lord of Monmouth between 1075 and 1082 and was responsible for founding Monmouth Priory.

Life Withenoc was the son of Caradoc de La Boussac, a nobleman with estates near Dol in Brittany. He first appears in the records as an adult in 1055. He married a daughter of the Archbishop of Dol, and had a younger brother, Baderon, and a son, Ratier (or Raterius), who both became monks.

Following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, William fitzOsbern was appointed Earl of Hereford, and established the first castle at Monmouth, overlooking the rivers Wye and Monnow at the southernmost tip of the area then known as Archenfield in the Welsh Marches. William fitzOsbern was killed in battle in 1071, and his son Roger was disgraced in 1075. King William then gave the lordship of Monmouth to Withenoc.

One of Withenoc's first acts at Monmouth was to found a Benedictine priory in the town. In so doing, he called upon William of Dol - perhaps a relative - who had been appointed in 1070 as abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Florent de Saumur. This was a great abbey on the banks of the Loire, which was destroyed in the sixteenth century. William sent a prior and monks to inaugurate the new priory at Monmouth, and, in turn, the priory and its endowments were granted to the abbey of Saint Florent. This arrangement continued until the fourteenth century, with the priors of Monmouth coming from Saumur, and part of its revenue, as an alien priory, being sent back to France.

After about seven years at Monmouth, Withenoc gave up his secular responsibilities in 1082 and retired, as a monk, to the abbey at Saumur. He was succeeded as lord of Monmouth by his brother's son, William fitzBaderon. Withenoc returned to visit Monmouth in 1101, when the priory which he had established was formally consecrated. It has been suggested that he may have been related to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was born in the town in about 1100, the son of another Breton nobleman, Arthur, but there is no confirmation of this.