Arden family

rdf:langString Arden family

rdf:langString The Arden family is an English gentry family that can be traced back in the male line back to Anglo-Saxon landholders who managed to maintain status after the 1066 invasion of England by the Normans of France. The family takes its name from the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire. It has been claimed that the Ardens are one of only three families in England that can trace its lineage in the male line back to Anglo-Saxon times. The other two are the Berkeley family and the Swinton family). Modern scholars Parry and Enis have noted that the importance which investigations into the ancestry of the Ardens had in the 16th century because of the implications for the powerful Dudley family. They needed to either claim ancestry from Turchil, or that their prestigious ancestors had lied in their claims to descend from him, which were bound up with the famous legend of Guy of Warwick, who was supposed to be an ancestor of Turchil, who was the real ancestor of the Ardens at the time of William the Conqueror. Concerning Turchil Parry and Enis describe him as "the only Saxon magnate to increase his territories after the Norman conquest" and "the largest landholder in Warwickshire at the time of the Domesday survey". The Ardens have also often been discussed because of their connection to William Shakespeare, whose mother was an Arden.