Hasculf de Tany


Hasculf de Tany was a nobleman in medieval England and castellan of the Tower of London.
Hasculf's family originally was from Brittany, but came to England from Tanis, in the Avranchin in Normandy.
Hasculf married Matilda, whose parentage is disputed: according to Katharine Keats-Rohan she was the daughter of Roger and her father's heiress for lands he had held of John fitzWaleran in Essex. According to I. J Sanders, Matilda was possibly the daughter of John fitzWaleran, and perhaps Hasculf was the son of Roger who held lands from John fitzWaleran. If Matilda was the daughter of John fitzWaleran, she was heiress to Aveley in Essex, and that holding was considered a barony: Sanders states that Hasculf was thus baron of Aveley. The historian Judith Green states that there are errors in Sanders' entry for Aveley, but does not give any corrections.
By 1120 Hasculf de Tany was castellan of the Tower of London, succeeding Otuel fitzCount in that office. Before 1130 Hasculf was involved in a dispute with Rualon d'Avranches over some lands in Essex, which was resolved after a court case in which was levied a fine of 60 marks and a warhorse on Rualon. Around 1130 Hasculf was the witness on a royal charter of Henry I to London. In late 1136 or 1137 Hasculf was tried before King Stephen of England and the Lord Chancellor Roger le Poer, accused by the Holy Trinity Priory in London of confiscating land belonging to the priory. In the end, the priory regained custody of their land. After Hasculf's death, his castellanship of the Tower went to Geoffrey de Mandeville, and was held to be hereditary.
Hasculf de Tany and his wife Matilda gave lands to Bermondsey Priory, and also confirmed her father's gifts to that monastery in 1107.
Hasculf was dead sometime before 1140, and left a minor son Graelend as his heir. According to Keats-Rohan, Gilbert de Tany may also have been the son of Hasculf.

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