Roger de Busli

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Roger de Busli (c.1038 – c.1099) was a Norman baron who accompanied William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy) in his successful conquest of England in 1066.

Roger de Busli was born in or around 1038. His surname comes from the town of Bully-le-Vicompte in Normandy, and he may well have been born there. After the Conquest, Busli was given lands in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Strafforth wapentake of Yorkshire. These had previously belonged to a variety of Anglo-Saxons, including Edwin, Earl of Mercia.^[1]

By the time of the Domesday survey de Busli was tenant-in-chief of 86 manors in Nottinghamshire, 46 in Yorkshire, and others in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, plus one in Devon. They became the Honour of Tickhill, and within it, de Busli erected numerous castles, at Tickhill, Kimberworth, Laughton-en-le-Morthen and Mexborough.^[1]

Much of the de Busli's family's leverage came from their familial relationships with the Crown through the Counts of Eu. Roger de Busli's wife Muriel was in favor with the Queen, to whom she was probably a lady-in-waiting or a kinswoman, evident in the Queen's grant to de Busli of the manor of Sandford upon his marriage.^{[citation needed]} The de Buslis had one son, also called Roger, who died as an infant.^[2] Beatrix, probably Roger's daughter (or possibly his sister), married William, Count of Eu.

De Busli died in the last years of the eleventh century without an heir. His lands were given to Robert de Belleme, but de Belleme lost them in 1102 after he led a rebellion against Henry I. Ernulf de Busli, probably Roger's brother, may then have inherited some of the lands; these were then passed to his son Jordan and grandson Richard de Busli.^[1]

The male line of the de Busli family ran out in 1213, and the de Busli family holdings passed into the family of Vipont through the marriage of Idonea de Busli with Robert de Vipont (Vieuxpont).^[3]^[4]