nd powerful. William, son
of Jane Bertrand and of William Paisnel, succeeded his parents as lord
of Briquebec and of Hambye.--He, in his turn, was followed by another
William, who, by a marriage with his cousin, daughter of Oliver Paisnel,
lord of Moyon, united that great barony to a property, which was
previously immense. Upon the death of William, without children, Fulk
Paisnel, his brother, became his heir; and, as he likewise died
childless, the fortune devolved upon a younger brother, Nicholas. This
Nicholas, who was previously lord of Chanteleu, married Jane de la
Champagne, baroness of Gaie, and left an only daughter, by whose
marriage with Louis d'Estouteville, in 1413, the baronies of Gaie,
Moyon, Hambye, and Briquebec, passed at once from the family of Paisnel.

Briquebec, at the same time that it thus again changed masters, was
still possessed by a descendant of one of those powerful barons, who had
shared in the glory of the conquest of England.--Robert de Huteville,
one of the Conqueror's companions in arms, had received from that
sovereign a princely recompense, particularly in the county of York. But
after the death of William Rufus, he espoused the party of the eldest
brother, against Henry I. and was taken prisoner at the battle of
Tinchbray, when his property was confiscated, and given to Neel
d'Aubigny.--The name of his son, Robert, is to be found among the
Yorkshire barons, who defeated the Scotch army at North Allerton; and it
again occurs in the twentieth year of the reign of Henry II. at the
battle of Alnwick, where he made the King of Scotland prisoner.

To return to the possessor of Briquebec, who was destined to afford a
striking example of the mutability of fortune--scarcely had he become by
his marriage the most powerful lord in the Cotentin, or possibly in
Normandy, when Henry V. of England, invaded the duchy, gained the battle
of Agincourt, and shortly afterwards made himself master of the whole
province, except Mount St. Michael. In this trying emergency, Louis
d'Estouteville remained faithful to his sovereign, and was,
consequently, deprived of his possessions.

Henry immediately bestowed Hambye and Briquebec upon one of his favorite
generals, William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk,[159] who, in 1427, still
continued lord of Briquebec, in which capacity he confirmed to the abbey
of Cherbourg, a rent of fifty sols, that had been given by his
predecessor, Robert Bertrand, in 1329. The act of