Knight With Armour

Osbert fitz Ralph held the manor of Bodeham in Sussex from the Count of Eu. But in the winter of 1095 the Count was in the King’s prison, awaiting sentence for his unsuccessful rebellion last summer; his tenants in southern England, who had been too closely watched to dare to join in the rising, hoped they would soon hold direct from the King, after the land had been confiscated. Still, it would be blatantly unfaithful to go to the King’s court while their lord was his prisoner, so Osbert and his two sons, Ralph and Roger, kept that Christmas of 1095 at the new and half-built Abbey of Battle