THE 'LANDS OF THE NORMANS' IN ENGLAND (1204 - 1244)

Person Search

Searching for People

You can enter as many or as few search criteria as you want. Leaving all text boxes blank and not making any selection from the drop-down list (leaving the default selection of 'Any') is the same as browsing all people. If your search returns more than 20 results, the results will be divided by the first letter of the surname.

* can be used as a wildcard character, to represent zero or more characters. It can be used in any text input box and can be used as many times as desired. For example, entering M* into the surname text box will result in a list of all surnames beginning with M, whilst entering *de* into the surname text box will result in a list of all surnames which contain the letters 'de', including William Arden, William Delamere and William de la Ferté. The wildcard character is particularly useful when searching the description and notes fields, as these are longer fields which are unlikely to generate an exact match - for example, entering *Enguerrand* into the description field will return a list of all people where Enguerrand is mentioned in the description.

If your search does not return as many results as expected, it may help to widen your search by removing some of search criteria - searching on surname only and not forename as well. It may also help to use wildcards as described above. Alternatively, you could try a search on a different criteria or search for a related person or place, and then view associated people.

The compilers of the database have attempted to ensure consistency in naming patterns wherever possible. They have followed the convention amongst historians of the Anglo-Norman period of using a modern anglicised first name if one exists (e.g. William rather than Guillaume or Willelmus). Toponymic (placename) surnames have mostly been rendered as "de + modern French placename" or "of + modern English placename", where this is identifiable. However, a few very familiar exceptions (e.g. "Hubert de Burgh", who took his name from Burgh in Norfolk) have been retained, and unidentified toponymics have generally been left in the original Latin. Patronymics (e.g. filius Erneisi) have been rendered as "fitz" where this was clearly a hereditable surname (e.g. "fitzErneis") or the usual practice in a particular family (e.g. Herbert fitzHerbert was the son of Herbert fitz Matthew, who was in turn the son of Matthew fitzHerbert), again following the conventions of Anglo-Norman historians, although in some cases it has seemed more appropriate to render them as "son of". There is no female equivalent of "fitz" in this period, so "filia" has always been rendered as "daughter".