Miles Crispin (died 1107), also known as Miles or Milo of Wallingford, was a wealthy Norman landowner, particularly associated with Wallingford Castle in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). The Domesday Book records Miles as a major landowner with holdings in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, Wiltshire and two other neighbouring counties as well as being Tenant-in-chief in a lengthy list of places.
Miles is believed to be a member of the Crispin family of Neaufles in France: suggestions include son of William Crispin, part of William the Conqueror's invading force, and a relation of Gilbert Crispin, abbot of Westminster, but this is uncertain.
Miles married Matilda, daughter of Robert D'Oyly, in 1084. While D'Oyly is generally credited with building Wallingford Castle, it has also been suggested that Miles Crispin was its first castellan of Wallingford, and owner of the lands of Wigod. Matilda later married Brien FitzCount.
Famous quotes containing the word miles:
“And my spirit is grown to a lordly great compass within,
That the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of
Glynn
Will work me no fear like the fear they have wrought me of yore
When length was failure, and when breadth was but bitterness sore,
And when terror and shrinking and dreary unnamable pain
Drew over me out of the merciless miles of the plain,—
Oh, now, unafraid, I am fain to face
The vast sweet visage of space.”
—Sidney Lanier (1842–1881)