A question about the Norman Invasion.

[gordonartist]

From where, in France, did the invading fleet sail?

The reason I ask is that on the night before sailing, quite a few knights spent the night in contemplation and prayer in the nearby church. Somewhere I read the list of names of those knights and they included a near relative of Osmond, Count of Seers.

Thanks,

Gordon.

[spot]

From St. Valeri-sur-Somme on 29th September 1066.

Read http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Orderic.html for an account of the fleet's movements.

But that might not be what you're looking for, though. The fleet was based previously on the mouth of the river Dives and only moved to St. Valeri-sur-Somme on 12th September after the English fleet was withdrawn from blockade.

"The Dives Roll 1866 - compiled by a committee of French scholars, includes 485 names which were inscribed on the west wall of the church at Dives where William and his army heard mass before embarking." - perhaps that's the list you're after.

"The Dives Roll. This was compiled by Leopold [de Lisle] in 1866 and inscribed on a memorial in Dives Church. It seems to be generally agreed that [de Lisle] was a genuine scholar but he left no record of his researches. As far as can be ascertained his research derived from landholdings recorded in the Doomsday Book drawn up in 1085."

The inscription on the wall at Dives-sur-Mer, according to Annie Natalelli-Waloszek, reads:

"Monsieur de Magny, dans son Nobiliaire de Normandie pour 1862, nous fournit une liste des compagnons de Guillaume le Conquérant, ayant pris part Ã* la conquête de l’Angleterre en 1066. Elle paraît honnête dans son effort d’authenticité. M. de Magny indique que l’année de la parution de son ouvrage, c’est-Ã*-dire 1862, une liste, dressée par la Société française d’Archéologie, fut inaugurée dans l’église de Dives-sur-Mer, lieu de départ de l’expédition pour la conquête de l’Angleterre. M. de Magny, dans son avant-propos, cite les ouvrages qui lui ont servi de référence pour établir cette liste. Les voici" :

1. Musorum britannicum, Bibliothèque Harleienne, n° 293, p. 35
2. Le Livre Pelut
3. DUMOULIN, Histoire et chronique de Normandie
4. HOLINGSHEARD, Histoire d’Angleterre
5. THIERRY (Augustin),Histoire de la Conquête
6. DU CHESNE André (writing abt 1738)
7. BROMPTON
8. Le Domesday-Book
9. HEARNE,Collectionnae de rebus Britannicis
10. DEPPING, Histoire de Normandie
11. Rotuli Normaniae in turri londinensi.

And she quotes, from the Church at Dives:

Aug 17, 1862, an International Academic meeting inaugurated the list of William’s Companions; Monsieur de Caumont, chairman of the French Archeological Society, with the approval of Mgr Didot, Bishop of Bayeux, Monsieur Renier, Vicar of Dives, Copunt Foucher de Careil, member of the Conseil General, Monsieur Arnet, Mayor of Dives, presiding. Two other lists have been carved: one on the flagstones of Battle Abbey in Hastings, another in the Chapel of Falaise Château (Calvados).

I've rather hesitantly attached a list of 470 names from the Dives Roll, but you'd do well to find a library copy on paper and work from that if it's what you need.