ated about seven miles to the
south of Valognes, with a population of four thousand five hundred
inhabitants, a weekly market on Mondays, and several considerable fairs.
Its castle claims an antiquity, nearly, if not altogether, coeval with
the days of Rollo. When that Duke, on gaining peaceable possession of
Normandy, parcelled out the land among his companions in arms, the
portion that included Briquebec was one of the most considerable. The
lord of Briquebec held in the Norman exchequer the third place among the
barons of the Cotentin, the present department of La Manche.[157] His
services and his rank, to which may probably also be added, his
relationship to Rollo, entitled him to this proud distinction.

After the assassination of William Longue Epee, second Duke of Normandy,
in 942, Amlech, or, as he is sometimes called, Lancelot, of Briquebec,
was appointed one of the council of regency, during the minority of the
young prince, Richard, the son to the deceased, and heir to the throne.
In this capacity he was also one of those deputed to receive Louis
d'Outremer, King of France, at Rouen.--Amlech had a son, named Turstin
of Bastenburg, and he left two sons, one of whom, William, was lord of
Briquebec.--The other, Hugh, commonly called _the bearded_, was the head
of the family of Montfort, which produced the famous Count, Pierre,
slain at the battle of Evesham, while commanding the barons in revolt
against Henry III.--The line of the lords of Briquebec was continued in
the posterity of William, whose son, of the same name, attended the
Conqueror into England. Seven of his descendants successively bore the
name of Robert Bertrand, and successively possessed the barony of
Briquebec. The last died in the middle of the fourteenth century,
leaving his extensive domains, including this castle, to his eldest
daughter, Jane, with whom it passed in marriage to William Paisnel,
baron of Hambye.[158]

The name of Paisnel will be found, as well as that of Bertrand, in the
roll of chieftains engaged in the conquest of England. Duke William
recompensed the services of Ralph Paisnel, his companion in arms, with
various domains in different counties of his newly-acquired kingdom, and
particularly in Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Somersetshire. His
descendants, who were numerous in Great Britain, possessed, among other
distinguished lordships, those of Huntley and of Dudley.--In the
Cotentin, their family was equally extensive a