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Bernard of Neufmarche


Bernard of Neufmarché (c. 1050 – c. 1125) was "the first of the original conquerors of Wales." He was a minor Norman lord who rose to power in the Welsh Marches before successfully undertaking the invasion and conquest of the Kingdom of Brycheiniog between 1088 and 1095. Out of the ruins of the Welsh kingdom he created the Anglo-Norman lordship of Brecon. His byname comes from Neuf-Marché, from the Latin Novo Mercato, and has sometimes been Anglicised as "Newmarket" or "Newmarch".

Because Bernard's family had attachments to the monastery of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche, the monkish chronicler Orderic Vitalis of that foundation had special knowledge of him and his family, though this still does not reduce the general obscurity of his origins or his life when compared to the richer Marcher lords, like the great Roger of Montgomery. Bernard was the son of the minor and incompetent Norman baron Geoffrey de Neufmarché and Ada de Hugleville, and he was born at the castle of Le-Neuf-Marché-en-Lions on the frontier between Normandy and Beauvais. His ancestors on his mother's side had founded the town of Aufay south of Dieppe on the Scie, while his paternal grandfather, Turketil had served the young William II of Normandy as a guardian and was killed in that capacity. On his mother's side he also descended from Richard II of Normandy.


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