Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/380

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Bernard
376
Bernard

as a French monk of the ninth century. Unfortunately the same work also contains an article on an imaginary ‘Bernard of England, called the Wise,’ who is said to have visited Palestine in 970.

[Dempster's Hist. Eccl. Scot. arts. 171 and 181; Dempster's Menologium Scoticum, p. 17; Accolti De Bell. cont. Barb. (Dempster's preface and notes), 8 and 175; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, 827; Walter Cancellarius, in Migne's Patrologia, clv. 998; William of Tyre, ibid. cci. 587; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 97; L'Art de vérifier les Dates, ed. Migne, 570; Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. Bened. iv. 523; MS. Cotton, Faust. B. i. 192; Catal. Codd. MSS. Coll. Linc. Oxon. 46 (cod. xcvi. 118).

H. B.


BERNARD (fl. 1093), of Neufmarché (de Novo-mercatii), often called in English ‘of Newmarch,’ was the son of Geoffrey, son of Thurcytel, lord of Neufmarché by the forest of Lions, and of Ada, daughter of Richard of Hugleville, famous for his faithfulness to his duke, William, in the war of Arques, and a grandson of Richard the Good by his daughter Papia. Bernard came over to England with the Conqueror, and his name appears as a witness to two charters granted by William to his abbey of Battle. He married the daughter of Osbern, son of Richard Fitz Scrob, the Norman lord who built his castle in Herefordshire before the Conquest. This marriage led him to settle in Herefordshire. During the general rebellion of the Norman lords against William Rufus in 1088 he joined with Roger of Lacy, and Ralph of Mortemer, with the men of Earl Roger of Shrewsbury, and the confederate lords at the head of the forces of Herefordshire and Shropshire, and with a large number of Welsh allies harried Worcestershire and threatened to burn the city of Worcester, to plunder the minster and take the king's castle. Encouraged, however, by the exhortations of their bishop, Wulfstan, the men of Worcester attacked and routed the rebel army. Later in the reign Bernard invaded and settled in Brecheiniog, building his castle on the hill of Aberhonwy on the site where now stand the ruins of Brecknock Castle. In 1093 Rhys ap Tewdwr, king of Deheubarth, who attacked the intruders, was slain, and Bernard conquered and occupied the three ‘cantrevs’ of Brecheiniog. He married, probably as his second wife, Nest, the daughter of another Nest, daughter of Gruffydd ap Llewelyn and his English wife Ealdgyth, though it is possible that the elder Nest was the wife of Osbern, and that her daughter was the only wife of Bernard. The English called her Anneis, and hence her name sometimes appears as Agnes. In the reign of Henry I Bernard founded and liberally endowed the priory of St. John at Brecknock, without the walls of the castle, granting to it lands and tithes in Herefordshire, Staffordshire, and Somerset, as well as in Wales. He made his new foundation subordinate to Battle Abbey. His wife and his principal tenants joined him in this work. The date of his death is not known. He was a benefactor to St. Peter's, Gloucester, and Leland saw a stone in the chapter-house of that abbey purporting to mark his tomb. The monks of Brecknock, however, claimed to have the body of their founder. In spite of the pious benefaction made by Nest to her husband's priory, her wickedness caused her son Mahel the loss of his father's estates. Mahel caught her lover coming from her, and beat and mutilated him. In revenge Nest went to King Henry and swore that her son was not the son of her husband Bernard. The king, we are told, allowed himself to be swayed by his wishes rather than his judgment. He made Nest's daughter, Sibyl, whom she declared to be her husband's child, the heiress of all her father's wealth, and gave her in marriage to Miles Fitz Walter, constable of Gloucester, afterwards made earl of Hereford by the Empress Matilda.

[Giraldus Cambrensis, Itin. Kambriæ, i. 12; Orderic, 606; Florence, 1088; Anglo-Sax. Chron. 1088; Brut y Tywywsogion, 1091; Chron. de Bello, 31, 35; Monasticon, i. 545, iii. 264, 245; Freeman's Norman Conquest, iii. 132, v. 109. and William Rufus, i. 34, ii. 89-91.]

W. H.


BERNARD (d. 1333?), Bishop of Sodor, was chancellor of Scotland during the greater part of the reign of Robert Bruce. According to Crawford, this Bernard is identical with Bernard de Linton, parson of Mordington, near Berwick, who swore fealty to Edward I in 1296 (Instrum. Publica, Bannatyne Club, 152). If this be so, the local surname seems to point to Linton in Roxburgh as the place of his birth or origin. Crawfurd also states that he was appointed chancellor of Scotland in 1307; but, in any case, he held this office the next year, as his name is found in this capacity on a document dated 31 Oct. 1308, witnessing the oath of fealty taken by Earl of Ross to Robert Bruce. Before many years he was appointed abbot of Arbroath—probably in 1311, but he may have been performing the duties of this office for some time previously, as his predecessor, John of Angus, had in 1309 been deprived of his preferment for some misconduct, the details of which we are not told. A certain provision was made for the degraded abbot out of the monastic estates; but he seems not to have been content with this,