r, succeeded to the earldom, and enjoyed it
during the latter part of the reign of King Ethelred, and through the
reigns of King Edmund and the Danish Kings. He married Ermenhild, the
sister of the famous Leofric, Earl of Coventry and Leicester in the time
of Edward the Confessor. His son, Ailwin, Earl of Warwick, was
contemporary with King Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror.
Turchil, son and heir[376] of Ailwin (Harleian MS., 853, says
"grandson"), was Earl at the Conquest. His first wife was the Countess
of Perche; his second, Leverunia, grand-daughter of Leofric. In the
Conqueror's Survey he is called _Vice-Comes_ rather than _Comes_, but
this seems to have arisen from the royal interest in the castle, and the
direct service he owed the King, though some authorities state that he
was under Leofric, Earl of Mercia. He fought with William against
Harold, and was ostensibly left in full possession of all his lands,
rights and privileges. He is called Turchil of Warwick by the Normans,
but Turchil of Eardene, or of the Woodland, by himself, being one of the
first to adopt the Norman habit of local names. In Domesday Book, begun
in the fourteenth year of the Conqueror, he is entered as in possession
of forty-nine manors in Warwickshire, among which were Curdworth,
Coughton, Rotley, Rodbourn, Compton (Winyate), Nuneaton. Warwick town
and castle were recorded as belonging to the King. He had but a
life-interest, however, his son, Siward, receiving none of them as his
heir, but by favour of the King.

The title of Earl of Warwick was given by William the Conqueror to Henry
de Novoborgo, or Newburgh, younger son of Roger de Bellomont, Earl of
Mellent, and William Rufus added to the gift the whole of Turchil's
lands, including even those given away by himself and his ancestors to
the Church. It was a hard lesson to friendly Saxon noblemen. A gloss of
justice, or at least of consideration, was shown in the marriage of
Henry de Novoborgo to Margaret, one of the daughters of Turchil, and
sister of Siward de Arderne.[377]

Turchil's sons were Siward de Ardena, Ralph of Hampton,[378] William,
and Peter the Monk of Thorney, by his first wife, and Osbert by his
second wife. Some of their lands were left to the Ardens by grace of the
Novoborgos, who became their overlords. These lands were gradually
diminished by devotion to the Church, by the increase of the family, and
division of the properties, though this was somewha