THE ABOVE SHOWS RELATIONSHIP OF FAMILY GENERATIONS MENTIONED BELOW.

ORIGINS OF THE LE STRANGES

11th Century A.D.
Following the Norman settlement of William [I] the Conqueror in 1066, fiefs of land were administered between his vassals up and down the country. It proved an effective measure in both sustaining the land and ensuring his protection against mass demonstration. Cushioned by this, his 1085 survey for a new tax system recorded Roger Bigod as being overlord of Hunstanton, Ringstead & Tottington, [Norfolk]. His land holding tenant of Hunstanton was Ralph fitz Herluin who assumed the name Ralph de Hunstanton. He was contemporaneous with 3 le Stranges; Siward of Litcham and Bernard (a crusader) who were his neighbours, and Roland a Frenchman from Brittany.

Ralph acquired an impressive number of additional holdings, and with the legendary Guy being lost to history, perhaps the earliest known founder of any le Strange branch is Siward le Strange of Litcham. Among the most eminent of religious houses that sprang up across the land were those of Castle Acre (left), Binham and Sporle Priories (church shown right), where the earliest deeds of Roland, Siward, and Alan, were executed.

..... the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries.... [David] ^{1 Chron. 22:5}  

 ...also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to god by Jesus Christ.. ^{1 Pet. 2:5}  

The 12th Century
The Crusades to the holy land (Jerusalem) in which Bernard le Strange was made governor of Asia Minor, had begun in 1096, with the first collection of men from France. The holy city was captured in 1099, and following this, in 1100 A.D., William II died while hunting in the New Forest [Wiltshire]. That year marked the new reign of Henry I, who had been born a Frenchman who remained in England to strengthen his hold on the sceptre, and his rule was marked by his efficiency in running the government, and also the b&w chequered cloth that figured in their tax accounting. By this, his memory lives on in the modern title given to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.  His coronation was immediate and shortly afterwards, his friends arrived from the Western corner of France.

The attraction of the Norfolk County was its resourcefulness best described by Thomas Fuller; 

"Here are fens and heaths, and light and deep, 
and sand and clay-ground, and meadows and pasture, 
and arable and woody. . ."
 [Thomas Fuller]   

Also came his youthful comrades, Roland Extraneus and Alan fitz Flaald, with Faald, his father, the Steward of Dol. They came as noblemen and became affluent new members of this society. First, Alan received the Honour of lands in Mileham [Norfolk] in 1101 and was made Sheriff of Shropshire in 1102 when the Earl of Shrewsbury was exiled, obtaining all his estates. But he also founded the Priory of Sporle in the early years he was there, and with his appointment in Shropshire his connections aborad and in Norfolk also fluctuated. In France, the monks at the Abbey of St. Florent [Saumur] had received his notification of their allowance from his ferm at Sporle, signed by Roland. With further additions of British cells to the Abbey, the religious constitutions were allowed to flourish. Their kinship was to demonstrate further possibilities when the King gave generous portions of land to his vassals in their warfare between the Welsh. The le Stranges were thus later sent across to occupy a major position in frontline defence along the Shropshire March, which defines England.

But prior to this, in 1112, Roland Extraneus had married Matilda le Brun, daughter of Ralph de Hunstanton, and on his death Roland assumed his father-in-law's position at Hunstanton. If the House of le Strange had been fused with Siward, then Roland was the more affluent member of the Norfolk branch. The relationship between Extraneus and the Dol Stewards had flourished with their descendants, the le Stranges and fitz Alans (sons of Alan). It is said that the le Stranges lived in the shadow of that prominent family though like many other noble families that emerged they had also been overlords in their own right. Each of their sons continued the ritual set forth by administering land between religious houses, which was central to their partnership in Shropshire, where Roland's sons John, Hamon, and Guy and Ralph were based.  

John le Strange [I] succeeded to his extensive Norfolk estates. His loyalty to the Empress Matilda who fought for her son Henry's eventual rule, brought him further fiefs, some of which he granted to his fourth brother Ralph, before surfacing at Great Ness in Shropshire as a Lord Marcher. 

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