Roger the Poitevin

Roger the Poitevin depicted in stained glass in Lancaster Priory

Roger the Poitevin or Roger de Poitou (mid-1060s – before 1140)[1] was an Anglo-Norman aristocrat possessing large holdings both in England and through his marriage in France during the early 12th century.

He was the third son of Roger of Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Mabel de Bellême. The appellation "the Poitevin" was for his marriage to an heiress from Poitou.[2]

Roger acquired a great lordship in England, with lands in Salfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Hampshire, and North Yorkshire.[3] The principal part of the lordship was in what was then called inter Mersam et Ripam, that is, "between the Mersey and the Ribble"[4] and is now divided between Lancashire, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester. After 1090, he also assumed the title 1st Lord of Bowland.

Before 1086, he had married Almodis, daughter of Count Aldebert II of La Marche in Poitou,[5] and sister and presumptive heiress of Count Boso III who was childless and unmarried.

  1. ^ Mason, J. F. A. (2004). "Roger de Montgomery". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23954. Retrieved 7 June 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Nelson, Christopher; Harper-Bill, Christopher J.; Holdsworth, Janet L. (1989). Studies in medieval history: presented to R. Allen Brown. Wolfeboro, N.H., USA: Boydell Press. p. 194. ISBN 9780851155128.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Roger of Poitou is associated with 632 places after the Conquest Open Domesday, The first free online copy of Domesday Book. Accessed March 2012.[dead link]
  4. ^ Morris, John, ed. (1978). Domesday Book: Cheshire. Phillimore & Co. pp. R1:1–45.
  5. ^ Keats-Rohan 1993, Table IV.