lthough there are some 629 names on the Battle Abbey Roll, purported to be a list of combattants at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, several are duplicates. The following three sources constitute the only generally-accepted, reliable, contemporary evidence containing the names of participants at the Battle of Hastings. Between all three sources (1: Gesta Guillelmi II Ducis Normannorum ["The Deeds of William II, Duke of the Normans"] by William of Poitiers, written between 1071 and 1077,2: Historia Ecclesiastica ["The Ecclesiastical History"], by Orderic Vitalis, written between 1110-1142, and 3: the Bayeux Tapestry, an annotated pictorial representation of the Norman Conquest, believed to have been made at Bayeux, shortly after the Battle of Hastings), only 15 names appear within the three. Of these 15 "proven" companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, I am able to trace direct descent from the following 13: (click to view)

Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester

Eustache II, Count of Boulogne

Geoffrey of Mortagne

William FitzOsbern

Aimeri, Viscount of Thouars

Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville, later 1st Earl of Buckingham

Hugh de Montfort

Ralph (Raoul) de Tosny, Lord of Conches

Hugh de Grandmesnil

William de Warenne

William Malet, Lord of Graville

Odo, Bishop of Bayeux (a.k.a. Eudes Odon de Conteville), later Earl of Kent, half-brother of William the Conqueror

Engenulf de Laigle


A 14th = William of Evreux, died without progeny, but I can trace direct descent from his sister Agnès d'Evreux

Of the 15th = Turtsin FitzRolf, too little is known to determine a line of descent.



The above descents were traced using a single gateway ancestor, Anne Couvent. Hundreds of thousands of French Canadians would be able to show these same direct descents, as would thousands of people with British ancestry.