Note 331 — Chapter XII · THE LATER REIGN OF WILLIAM IN NORMANDY.[159] 1051–1066.

The presence of Walter Giffard comes only from a late Chronicle (Bouquet, xi. 330), where he is prematurely called Count. But, as his lordship of Longueville lay hard by, nothing is more likely than that he should be there. He was the son of Osbern of Bolbec—a little town at the foot of a hill on the way to the more famous Lillebonne—by Avelina, one of the sisters of Gunnor (Will. Gem. viii. 37). A brother of Osbern was Godfrey, “pater Willelmi de Archis,” that is, of the Viscount. See Deville, p. 19. On Walter Giffard, afterwards Earl of Buckingham, see Ellis, i. 424, and Taylor, Wace, 169.