The Crusades by David Nicolle

Author:David Nicolle
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: The Crusades
ISBN: 9781472809667
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Portrait of a soldier

Brothers in arms; two crusaders; two fursan

An Anglo-Norman crusader

Pagan Peverel was an Anglo-Norman knight who took part in the First Crusade, but like so many other participants this formed only a small part of his career. Pagan was probably the third son of Ranulph Peverel who, according to one story, made his fortune by marrying one of Duke William of Normandy’s Saxon concubines. His eldest brother may even have been the Duke’s illegitimate child. While Pagan’s brothers made good marriages and became important men, he became a soldier and accompanied Duke Robert of Normandy on Crusade. He probably took over as one of Robert’s standard-bearers following the death of Roger de Barnevilla outside Antioch. Pagan may also have participated in the Duke’s raid on the Fatimid headquarters during the battle of Ascalon.

Pagan then returned to England, where he found favour with King Henry I, though probably more for his loyalty to the Norman ducal family than for his prowess on Crusade. According to the Liber Memorandum Ecclesie de Barnewelle, Pagan Peverel was ‘a member of the King’s household, an oustanding soldier … and praiseworthy above all the nobles of the kingdom in matters of warfare’. In 1105 he was granted the manor of Shefford in Berkshire but five years later had a serious quarrel with Ramsey Abbey over the possession of two villages, Stowe and Gretton. The King ordered a public trial of the two claims. Pagan lost and, according to the somewhat biased Miracles of St Ivo, he and his companions subsequently suffered a number of divinely ordained accidents. Pagan Peverel died after 1133, his son William then going on Crusade and dying in Jerusalem in 1147.

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