The legend of the liberation of Guernsey by Samson d'Anneville
The Legend
In the year 1061, Guernsey is stated to have been attacked by a new race of pirates, who, according to Berry, issued from the southern parts of France bordering the Bay of Biscay, and committed great ravages on the neighbouring coasts of Britany. Duke William was at Valognes when he received information of this attack, and he immediately dispatched troops under the command of his esquire, Sampson d'Anneville, who landed at the harbour of St. Sampson. Being joined by the inhabitants, who had sought refuge in the castle of the Vale and other places of retreat, he defeated the invaders with much slaughter. Duke William is also said to have made large concessions of land in Guernsey to d 'Anneville, as a reward for his valour ; and in the thirty-ninth year of queen Elizabeth, (1597,) six royal commissioners were appointed to examine the feudal tenures or manors existing in the island, when Thomas Fachion, laid claim to the fief d'Anneville, producing an extract from the Rolls of the Exchequer of Rouen, dated in 1061, which certified that duke William had granted, in fee farm, to the abbot of Mont St. Michel, in Normandy, and to Sampson d'Anneville, one half of the island of Guernsey, to be taken out of the western side of the said island, and to be equally divided among them. That such an extract was produced is certain ; it is also true that, during the dukedoms of Robert and his son Wilham, Guernsey was divided (a titre de fief) between the powerful vicomtes of St. Sauveur and Bessin, (the latter better known as vicomte de Bayeux,) who would not quietly have submitted to this spoliation of their manorial rights. But it is also true that many years stay unattested and effectively a Seigneur d'Anneville existed and was contemporary of William and fought in its troups.