Humphrey with the Beard

Who is Humphrey with the Beard?

Humphrey with the Beard was a Norman soldier and landed aristocrat, the earliest known member of the Bohun family who took part in the Norman conquest of England as one of the original companions at Hastings.

Humphrey may have been a relative of William the Conqueror, probably through one of Humphrey's marriages. He was married three times, as his donation of a plow and garden to the nuns of Abbaye Saint-Amand at Rouen states, but the names of his wives are unknown. This donation is witnessed by William as comes, indicating that he had not yet succeeded to the throne of England and was still only Duke of Normandy. This suggests that Humphrey was advanced in age by 1066, which corroborates the description of him given at line 13,583 of the Roman de Rou of Wace: De Bohun le Vieil Onfrei. His nickname, "with the beard", was a distinguishing one in eleventh-century Normandy, where the custom was to shave the face and back of the head.

At the time of the Conquest Humphrey possessed the honour of Bohun in western Normandy. After the Conquest he received an honour with its seat at Tatterford in Norfolk, as recorded in Domesday Book. The small size of his reward in England, despite his relations with William's family, may be a result of his age. He later donated the church of Saint-Georges-de-Bohon to the Abbey of Marmoutier. By his wives he left three sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Robert, predeceased him unmarried, and his second son, Richard, was the progenitor, in the female line, of the Bohuns of Midhurst. His youngest son and namesake is commonly numbered Humphrey I because by his marriage he was "the founder of the fortunes of his family".