Baldwin I "Iron Arm", Count of Flanders

Baldwin married Judith in 862 in Flanders, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. Judith (daughter of Charles II "The Bald", Holy Roman Emperor and Ermentrude d'Orleans) was born on 16 Dec 843 in Orléans, Loiret, Centre, France; died in Apr 870 in Auxerre, Yonne, Bourgogne, France; was buried in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Baldwin (Baudouin) II "The Bald" Count of Flanders

Baldwin married Ælfthryth in 884 in Flanders, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. Ælfthryth (daughter of King of The West Saxons Alfred "The Great" and of the Gaini Ealhswith) was born in 877 in Wessex, Devon, England; died on 7 Jun 929 in Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium; was buried in Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Widnille married Count of Urgel and Barcelona I Wilfred about 877 in Flanders, France. I (son of Count of Urgel and Barcelona Sunifred and Ermesende) was born in 831 in of Urgel, Lerida, Spain; died after 21 Aug 897. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Waged war against William of Normandy, whom he defeated and slew.

Arnulf married Alix de Vermandois in 934 in East Flanders, Belgium. Alix (daughter of Herbert de Vermandois, Count of Vermandois Count of Meaux and Count of Soissons II and Adele Capet) was born about 910 in Vermondois, Neustria, France; died on 10 Oct 960 in Bruges, Aquitaine, France; was buried . [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Mathilde de Crequy. Mathilde (daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders II and Ælfthryth) was born in 891 in Artois, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died in 920 in Artois, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Adelolf de Boulogne. Adelolf (son of Baldwin, Count of Flanders II and Ælfthryth) was born about 892 in Boulogne, Pas-De-Calais, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France; died on 13 Nov 933 in Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; was buried in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Adelulf De Boulogne De Therouanne, I. Adelulf was born about 893 in Boulogne, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 1 Nov 933 in Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sunifred married Richilde de Rouergue in 920/925 in Spain. Richilde (daughter of Count of Toulouse Armengol and Countess of Toulouse Adelaide) was born in 902 in of Rouergue, Aveyron, France; died after 12 Nov 954; was buried before 26 Dec 954. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Lietgarde married Wickmann de Gand about 955 in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. Wickmann was born about 920 in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Baldwin married Mathilde von Billung Sachsen before 960 in Flanders, Belgium. Mathilde (daughter of Duke of Saxony Hermann "Conrad I" Billung and of Westerbourg Hildegardis) was born about 936 in Luneburg, Saxony, Germany; died on 25 May 1008. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Mathilde de Boulogne
• Name: Maud de Flanders

Maud married Malahuc Eysteinsson about 875 in Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. Malahuc (son of Eyestein "The Noisy" Ivarsson, Earl of More and Ascrida Rognvaldsdottir) was born in 845 in Mære, Steinkjer, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway; died about 900 in Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

II married Luitgarde de Toulouse about 960 in Barcelona, Spain. Luitgarde (daughter of Count of Toulouse III Raimond and Countess of Gascony Gersinde) was born in 934 in of Toulouse, France; died after 977. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

3123-p17(i4):;

Theodric married Hildegarde de Holland about 983 in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. Hildegarde (daughter of I Diedrich de Holland and Gerberge Vermandois) was born about 961 in Zuid Holland, Netherlands. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Arnulf married of Italy Rosele of Italy in 968. Rosele (daughter of King of Italy, Marquis of Ivrea II Berenger and of Tuscany Willa) was born in 955 in Ivrea, Torino, Piemonte, Italy; died on 26 Jan 1003 in Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium; was buried in Ghent, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Richard de St. Sauveur

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Raimund married Ermensinde de Carcassonne on 20 Jan 992 in Barcelona, Spain. Ermensinde (daughter of Count of Carcassonne Roger I de Comminges) was born about 975 in of Carcassonne, Aude, France; died on 1 Mar 1058. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

3123-p17(j4-k5):

Arnulf married Lietgarde De Cleves about 1003 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Lietgarde (daughter of Rutger De Cleves and Athela von Hamalant) was born about 987 in Cleves, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany; died on 14 May 1005 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Baldwin married of Luxemburg Otgive de Luxembourg about 1012. Otgive (daughter of Count of Luxembourg I Frederic and of Gleiberg Ermentrude) was born on 4 Sep 1000 in Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 21 Nov 1030 in Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Baldwin married Eleanora de Normandy in 1031. Eleanora was born about 1012; died after 1071 in Flanders, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Balso married Poppa de Valois in 970 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. Poppa (daughter of Count of Bayeux Gui Berenger de Senlis and Gunhilde de Vermandois) was born in 934 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ramon married de Castile Sancha Sanchez in 1021 in Spain. Sancha (daughter of King of Castile Sancho and Queen of Castile Urraca) was born in 995 in Castilla, Spain; died on 26 Jun 1026; was buried in Santa Maria, Ripoll, Gerona, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ramon married Guisle d'Ampurias about 1030 in Spain. Guisle was born about 1010 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ludolf Brunswick. Ludolf was born in 1006 in Brunswick, Germany; died in 1038. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Adalbert married of Flanders Ermengade in 1021 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Ermengade (daughter of Baldwin IV "Fair Beard", Count of Flanders and of Luxemburg Otgive de Luxembourg) was born in 1005 in Flanders, Belgium; died in 1071 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Entered into hostilities with Emperor Otho II and acquired from that
monarch Valenciennes and the Isles of Zealand. He subsequently further increased his territories by another rich accession, that of the citadel of Ghent.

Baldwin married Adèle Capet, Princess of France in 1028 in Amiens, Somme, Picardie, France. Adèle (daughter of King of France Robert II "The Pious" Capet and of Toulouse Constance d'Arles) was born in 1009 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrenees, France; died on 8 Jan 1078 in Monastere de Lordre de St Benoist, Messines, France; was buried in Mesen, Ieper, West Flanders, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ermengade married Adalbert de Gand in 1021 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Adalbert (son of I Arnulf de Gand and Lietgarde De Cleves) was born about 1004 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium; died in 1032 in Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ancitel married Poppa de Senlis in 1016 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. Poppa (daughter of Berengal de Senlis) was born in 1000 in Senlis, Oise, Picardie, France; died in 1026 in Longueville, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Raoul I de Toeni. Raoul (son of Ralph I de Toeni) was born in 975 in Toeni, Eure, France; died about 1018. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Roger married Adele Esproita de Bretagne in 964 in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France. Adele was born about 920 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; died in 1057 in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sibylle married Duke of Burgundy Henry Capet in 1056 in Burgundy, France. Henry (son of Robert I "The Old" Capet, Duke of Burgundy and Helie (Eleanor) de Semur) was born about 1036 in of Bourgogne, Marne, France; died on 27 Jan 1066 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

3123-p15(k5): 10177-p30:


Died:
Aalst Sint-Pieter, Ghent, Belgium

Ralph married of Luxembourg Gisele about 1046 in Aalst, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Gisele was born about 1028 in Flanders, Belgium; was buried in St Peters, Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ralph married Gisele de Luxembourg in 1046 in Aalst, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Gisele was born in 1028 in Flanders, Belgium; died in 1058 in Chapel St Lawrence, Ghent, Flanders, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Death: 13 Oct 1093, Kassel, Stadt Kassel, Hessen, Germany

Robert married Gertrud Wettin in 1063 in Flanders, Belgium. Gertrud (daughter of Duke of Saxony II Bernard and Elika von Schweinfurt) was born in 1028 in Schwaben, Kelheim, Bayern, Germany; died on 4 Aug 1113 in Kassel, Kassel, Hesse, Germany; was buried in Veurne, Arrondissement Veurne, West Flanders, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Hainault 1051-1070.

Baldwin married Countess of Hainault and Namur Richilda in 1055 in Mons, Hainaut, Belgium. Richilda (daughter of Count of Mons Renier and Maud) was born in 1030 in Mons, Hainaut, Belgium; died on 18 Mar 1086 in Mechelen, Antwerpen, Belgium; was buried . [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Matilda married William I "The Conqueror", King of England in 1053 in Cathedral of Notre Dame d'Eu, Normandy, France. William (son of 6th Duke of Normandy Robert I "The Magnificent", 5th Duke of Normandy and Officer of the Household Hariette de Falaise) was born on 14 Oct 1024 in Falaise, Normandy, France; died on 9 Sep 1087 in Priory of St. Gervais, Rouen, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Judith married Duke of Bavaria IV Welf about 1071 in Bavaria. IV (son of Duke of Bavaria II Azo and Duchess of Bavaria Cunigunde) was born about 1040 in Bavaria; died on 6 Nov 1101. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ranulf married Alix De Normandy on 1 May 1045 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. Alix (daughter of Richard III "le Bon", Duke of Normandy and Adèle Capet, Princess of France) was born on 14 Oct 1021 in Vire, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 3 Aug 1098 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Richard de Beauffoe. Richard was born in 1016 in Normandy, France; died in 1081. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Godehut (Goldehilde) Borrell. Godehut was born in 995 in Toeni, Normandy, France; died in 1077. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Belvoir: The Heirs of Robert and Berengar de Tosny.

Taken from website http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/ihr/nine.html.

K. S. B. Keats-Rohan.

Succession to the fee of Belvoir has been discussed as a problem several times over the years, but perhaps the issue is actually straightforward once one has identified the key players.1 Domesday's Robert de Tosny of Belvoir was a collateral of his contemporaries Ralph and Roger. By c. 1050+ he had a first-born son Berengar who could expect to succeed his father in Normandy.2 Around the time of Domesday Book, a few years before his death, Robert founded Belvoir priory with his wife Adelais. Early charters of Belvoir mention their sons William and Geoffrey and their daughter Agnes.3 At his death, Robert's lands were divided between Berengar, his eldest son and Norman heir - co-incidentally an English tenant-in-chief in his own right - and his next son and English heir, William. Presumably some provision was made for the third son Geoffrey. As it happened, all three sons were to die without issue, which meant that rights of succession passed to Robert's daughters.

Initially, the sole right of succession passed to Robert's eldest daughter Albreda, who inherited the tenancies-in-chief of both her eldest brother Berengar and her younger brother William before the date of the Lindsey Survey, which shows her husband Robert de Insula in charge of both honours.4 It has always been assumed that Albreda was the widow of Berengar who took his land to a second husband, but the idea is clearly untenable once the full story of the Belvoir succession unfolds. The references in confirmation charters of the Lincolnshire abbey of Newhouse to 'the fee of Albreda de Tosny'' is an indication that the wife of Robert de Insula was a blood relative and heiress of Berengar, rather than his widow.5 This view is confirmed by the necrology of Belvoir priory, where the anniversaries of Berengar and Albreda uxor eius, deo sancta (a phrase always referring to a religious in this document) were kept on 29 June.6 All doubt is removed by a charter of c. 1147/52 in which Hugh Bigod made a grant to Kirkstall abbey for the soul of Albrede de Insula amite mee, a phrase that can only mean that Albreda was his mother's sister.7 The phrase also usefully confirms that Albreda de Tosny and Albreda (wife of Robert) de Insula were the same.

Robert de Tosny had two other daughters, of whom the youngest was Agnes. She confirmed her father's grant of land at Aslackby, Lincolnshire, to Belvoir priory as being part of her marriage portion on her first marriage to Ralph de Beaufour of Hockering (fl. 1086/1100).8 Widowed in the early twelfth century, she married secondly Hubert I de Ryes, castellan of Norwich, to whom the tenancy-in-chief of Hockering was given by Henry I. She occurs in the 1129/30 Pipe Roll (p. 93) charged with a debt of 35 silver marks because her son was with the count of Flanders. At a similar date she attested the charter which William de Albini pincerna gave for Wymondham priory on the day his wife Matilda Bigod, Agnes's niece, died. Agnes follows her sister Adelisa Bigod in the witness list, where she was accompanied by her daughter Almud and a niece or granddaughter (nepta) Muriel.9 Her dower lands at Aslackby and at Seaton, Northamptonshire (then in Rutland), were held in 1166 by her son or grandson Ralph de Beaufour from her grandson Hubert II de Ryes.10

The elder of Robert de Tosny's younger daughters was Adelisa, wife of Roger Bigod at his death in 1107. It is probable that Roger was married only once, although he is usually credited with two wives of the same name on the inconclusive evidence of a pro anama clause in a charter of his son William.11 Roger and his wife Adelisa gave charter for Rochester priory which referred to their sons and daughters and was attested by their children William, Humphrey, Gunnor and Matilda.12 This charter tellingly refers to King Henry, making it highly unlikely that Roger acquired a second wife and second family before his death in 1107. It is likely that Rogers' children were born from the late 1090s onwards, and that the youngest of them were Hugh and Cecilia.13 Roger's daughters Gunnor and Matilda were married soon after 1107. Gunnor's marriage to Robert fitz Swein of Essex had perhaps been arranged by her father. Matilda was married to William de Albini pincerna by Henry I who bestowed 10 Bigod fees on her as a marriage portion. The marriages certainly took place before Adelisa de Tosny became the heiress to Belvoir on the death without issue of her eldest sister Albreda, some time between 1115/18 and 1129, when Adelisa, as widow of Roger Bigod, accounted for her father's land of Belvoir.14

In 1129 the sole surviving issue of Robert de Tosny were his younger daughters Adelisa Bigod and Agnes de Beaufour, who was then already married to Hubert de Ryes. At that date his Bigod granddaughter Matilda de Albini was probably already dead and her sister Gunnor not long removed from her second marriage to Haimo de St Clair. Of their siblings, only Hugh Bigod and Cecilia, then wife of William de Albini Brito, survived. The Carta returned by Hugh Bigod in 1166 shows him holding the fee of his aunt Albreda de Insula.15 At the same date William de Albini Brito II held the fee of Belvoir. The conclusion from this must be that Adelisa succeeded Albreda in the fees of both Berengar and Robert de Tosny as next surviving sister. When she in her turn died she left issue of both sexes. Her sole surviving son Hugh succeeded his aunt Albreda - and by extension, her eldest brother Berengar - as heir both to Berengar's tenancy-in-chief in Lincolnshire and the Norman lands of Robert de Tosny of Belvoir. His tenancy of Robert's Norman lands is shown in a Norman record of 1172 where he is named as holding land of the fee of Conches and Tosny.16 More important in terms of size in England, the lordship of Belvoir was nonetheless the lesser of the two Tosny lordships because it as not associated with their Norman heritage. As the inheritance of a woman married to an important tenant-in-chief it could be expected to pass to one of her younger children and not her husband's principal male heir. Since she had no surviving younger sons after 1120, the devolution of Belvoir to one of her daughters was inevitable. Gunnor and Matilda had long since been provided for from their father's inheritance by the time, after c. 1115/1118, that Adelisa succeeded to Belvoir. Consequently it was the youngest daughter Cecilia - quite probably a mere infant at her father's death in 1107 - who became her mother's heiress. She was, of course , an heiress whose marriage could advantageously be used to reward one of the king's loyal new men. Cecilia's marriage to William de Albini Brito has been said to have occurred as early as 1107 on the basis of a Belvoir charter given by Ralph de Raines and attested by Roger Bigod, but it certainly took place much later. The Belvoir charter just mentioned probably begins to the early 1140s . It was attested by William de Albini senior and his wife Cecilia, their son William junior, Roger Bigot, Robert de Toteneio, Ralph de Albeneio and others.17 Since William, Robert and Ralph were certainly sons of William and Cecilia it is clear that Roger Bigod was also, as is confirmed by the order of their sons William, Robert, Roger, listed in the Thorney Liber vitae (BL Add, 40,000, fol. 2r)

The prosopography of Domesday Book which is part of the COEL research project will be published later this year by Boydell and Brewer as Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166. Volume I. Domesday Book.

It is hoped that the COEL database will be published in November/December. Final details are still to be decided, but a network copy will probably cost around Ãii600. A few screen shottttts frommm theeeee database are available on the Unit website, http;://www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/prosop/home.stm (or, if that proves troublesome, www.linacre.ox.ac.uk, then click on Unit).

Inquiries can be sent be e-mail to katherine.keats-rohan@linacre.ox.ac.uk

Footnotes
1 Cf. J. Green, Government of England Under Henry I, 228-9.
2 Named after his father's brother Berengar Spina, all three occur in a Marmoutier charter of 1063, when Berengar , probably then still an adolescent, authorised an agreement made by his father (Faroux, Recueil...de Normandie, 157).
3 Mon. Ang. ii, 288-9.
4 Lindsey Survey (Lincoln Record Soc. Vol. 19) L3/8, 4/3, 6/5, 7/5, 10/1.
5 Stenton, Danelaw Charters, nos. 238-9.
6 BL Add. 4936, fol. 27.
7 Coucher Book of Kirkstall (Thoresby Soc. Vol. 8, 1904), no. cclxvi, pp. 188-9.
8 Mon. Ang. ii, 290, no. vii.
9 Mon. Ang. iii, 330-1.
10 RBE, 401.
11 Mon. Ang. iii, 330-1.
12 BL Cotton Domitian A x, fol. 201v-2r.
13 The view that all his children were minors at his death in 1107 was expressed in A. Wareham,'Motives and politics of the Bigod family c.1066-1177', Anglo-Norman Studies 17 (1995).
14 Pipe Roll 31 Henry I, 114.
15 RBE 397.
16 At Guerney and Vesley, Eure, cant. Gisors; RBE, 642; cf. Loyd, Anglo-Norman Families, 74.
17 Mon. Ang. ii, 289, no. 111.

Family/Spouse: Adeliza. Adeliza was born about 1050. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Said by some to be the widow, not the sister of Roger. This is not possible as Roger did not die until 1038.

Family/Spouse: Richard d'Evereaux. Richard (son of Count of Evreux and Archbishop of Rouen Robert d'Evereaux and Havlive de Rouen) was born about 986 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; died on 13 Dec 1067 in Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Countess of Bretange Hedwige. Hedwige was born about 1004 in Brittany, Bretange, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Niel married Adela d'Eu in 1040 in St Sauveur, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France. Adela (daughter of William, PERSON Comte de Eu & Hiesmes and Lesceline de Harcourt) was born in 985 in Eu, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; died in 1025. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Fredistina de Bayeaux. Fredistina (daughter of Balso de Bayeux, Count of Bayeaux and Poppa de Valois) was born in 974 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died in 1015 in Guerny, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Eudes married Sibylla Burgundy in 1080. Sibylla (daughter of William I "The Great", Count of Burgundy and Macon and Stephanie de Longwy) was born in 1065 in Bourgogne, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France; died on 23 Mar 1102 in Brosse, Seine-et-Marne, Ile-de-France, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Eudes married of Burgundy Matilda in 1077/1098 in Burgundy, France. Matilda (daughter of William I "The Great", Count of Burgundy and Macon and Stephanie de Longwy) was born in 1065 in Dijon, Cote d'Or, Bourgogne, France; died on 23 Mar 1103 in Dijon, Cote d'Or, Bourgogne, France,. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married of Castile, Queen of Portugal Teresa before 24 Aug 1092. Teresa (daughter of King of Leon and Castile Alfonso VI Fernandez and Agnes de Blois) was born in 1070; died on 1 Nov 1130. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Friend and companion of William the Conqueror.
He was made Lord of Folkinghan, Lincolnshire & held 172 English manors.

Gilbert married Alice de Montfort about 1070 in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England. Alice (daughter of Hugh de Montfort and Alice de Beauffoe) was born about 1052 in Montfort-sur-Risle, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gertrude married Duke of Alsace-Lorraine II Thierry in 1095 in Alsace, France. II (son of Count of Alsace-Lorraine Gerard, Count of Metz and Chatenois Duke of Lorraine I and of Namur Hedwig) was born about 1044 in Bar-le-Duc, Meuse, Lorraine, France; died on 23 Jan 1115. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Count of Leuven Henry III de Leuven. Henry (son of Count of Leuven Henry de Leuven, Count of Lorraine II and Adele, Countess Beteau) died in 1095 in Tournai, Hainaut, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Drowned in Marne River

Robert married Ida De Namur in 1096 in Flanders, Belgium, Netherlands. Ida (daughter of William I "The Great", Count of Burgundy and Macon and Stephanie de Longwy) was born in 1073 in Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France; died on 22 Nov 1117 in Nottinghamshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Baldwin married Alix (Ida) de Louvain in 1084. Alix (daughter of Count of Lorraine II Henri and Countess of Beteau Adele (Alix)) was born in Mar 1062 in Leuven, Brabant, Flanders, Belgium; died in Apr 1139 in Mons, Hainaut, Belgium; was buried in Mons, Hainaut, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Became a Nun at Cluniac Priory in widowhood.

Adela married Count of Blois Stephen Henry II (Etienne Henri) "The Sage" about 1081 in Chartres Cathedral, France. Stephen (son of Count of Blois and Champagne III Theobald and of Maine Garsende) was born about 1045 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, France; died on 19 May 1102 in Ramula, Holy Land. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

CHAPTER II: THE FAMILY OF THE CONQUEROR
The Conqueror and His Companions
by J.R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874........

I introduce here the few observations I have to make on the uncertain and disputed points in the history of William the Conqueror, his queen and family, to which I alluded at the commencement of the former chapter, in lieu of placing them as an appendix at the end of the volume, as they principally turn on questions of date, and those who care to discuss them would naturally desire to do so before passing to other subjects. The less curious reader can "skip and go on."

The first and most important date open to controversy is that of the birth of William-most important because it affects all the rest...

The latest investigators place it in 1027 or 1028, and one (Mons. Deville) endeavours to fix it exactly to the month of June or of July in the former year.

Were it a question of only a few weeks or a few months I should not have thought it necessary to moot it here; but it is one of years, and of much more consequence than it appears at first sight.

The calculations of the upholders of the dates 1027-28 are founded on:

1. The contract of marriage of Duke Richard II and Judith, the parents of Robert, said to be dated in 1008. According to this date, Robert being their second son, would hardly have been born before 1010, and could be only seventeen or eighteen at the birth of William, and consequently his passion for Herleve was that of a boy of sixteen or seventeen at the utmost.

2. A charter granted by Robert previous to his departure on pilgrimage to Jerusalem dated in the ides of January, 1035, and as it is agreed on all hands that William was between seven and eight years old when his father left Normandy, that would place his birth in 1027-28.

3. The cartulary recently discovered at Falaise recording William's birth and baptism therein 1027.

4. The statement of Guillaume de Jumièges that William was not quiteeeeee sixty at his death iiin 1087.

A sort of collateral substantiation of the date of the pilgrimage I find also in the story told by the author of the "Gesta Consulum Andegavensium," of the meeing of Duke Robert with Fulk Nera, Count of Anjou, at Constantinople in 1035, and their travelling thence to the Holy Land together, escorted by some merchants of Antioch, who had offered to be their guides. Robert becoming fatigued was carried in a litter by four Moors. A Norman pilgrim returning from Jerusalem, meeting his sovereign with this equipage, asked if he had any message to send to his friends. "Tell them," said the Duke, "that thou sawest me borne to Paradise by four devils." But it is to be observed that Fulk was also a pilgrim to the Holy Land in 1028, and that the compiler of "L'Art de Vérifierrr lesssss Dates" remarks that the work I have quoted "ne mérititite ppp papass beaucouppp de créance."""""""""

On the other hand we have also to consider the statement of William himself, who, according to Orderic, declared on his death-bed that he was sixty-four, which would make him born in 1023; that he was eight years old when his father went into what he calls voluntary exile, and that he had ruled the duchy fifty-six years, thus placing the death of Robert in 1031. That date is supported by the perfectly independent testimony of the Saxon Chronicle, which becomes more trustworthy in the eleventh century, wherein we read, "A 1031. . . . and Robert, Earl of Normandy, went to Jerusalem and there died, and William, who was afterwards king in England, succeeded to Normandy, though he was but a child." The words I have printed in italics, however, detract from the value of the evidence; as they must have been written at least thirty-five years after the event, and perhaps much later.

The Peterborough and Canterbury chronicles follow the Saxon, and Roger of Wendover and Matthew of Westminster are merely copyists of the earlier writers.

I have seen too many errors in the dates of charters and other MSS., arising from clerical or typographical carelessness, to pin my faith upon any copy, printed or other, even when the original document is undoubtedly genuine, and therefore hesitate to accept the date accorded to the contract of marriage of Richard and Judith, particularly as there are several obvious inaccuracies in the copy printed in Martene (Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum, vol. i.).

Judith was the only child of Conan le Tort, Count of Rennes, by his second wife Ermengarde, daughter of Geoffrey Grisegonelle, married according to the "Chroniques de Mont St. Michel" in 9 70. Conan was slain at the battle of Conquereux in 992. Now, if these dates can be at all relied on, what age was Judith likely to be in 1008, if not married till then? At what period of the two-and-twenty years of her parents' married life was she born? If in the ordinary course of nature, she must have been five- or six-and-thirty in 1008!

Judith died in 1017, the mother of five children: Richard, Robert, Guillaume, Alix (also called Judith), and Eleanore; and if only married in 1008 her eldest son Richard could scarcely have been born before 1009, and Robert, as already remarked, 1010. Whether Guillaume or Alix was their third child is uncertain, but before 1025 Alix was the wife of Renaud, son of Otto-Guillaume, Count of Burgundy, who, having fallen into the power of Hugues, Bishop of Auxerre and Count of Chalons, was strictly confined in prison by that prelate. Richard II, Duke of Normandy, thereupon sent his sons, Richard and Robert, with an army to relieve their brother-in-law, and Count Hugues was compelled to present himself with a saddle on his back (the usual custom at that period) and crave mercy at the hands of the sons of the Duke of Normandy.

Now, doubting that young warriors were mere boys of fifteen and sixteen years of age in 1025 (Richard, the eldest, dying in 1027, and leaving a natural son named Nicholas, who was Abbot of St. Ouen in 1042), I cannot bring myself to believe in the "extreme youth" of Robert, as pointed out by Mons. Deville, and without presuming to fix an exact date, believe that both Richard and Robert were nearly of full age at the death of their father, whether that event occurred in 1026 or 1027.

Leaving, therefore, the precise period of the birth of William the Conqueror still undecided, the weight of evidence inclining rather to 1027, let us hasten to the consideration of the equally vexed question concerning the number and ages of his family, consisting undoubtedly of four sons, and presumably of five or six daughters. [Freeman: Nor. Con., vol. v. [. 468, note4.]

Notwithstanding the various and conflicting dates suggested for the marriage of William and Matilda, ranging from 1047 to 1053, I think we may consider it sufficiently proved that it was solemnized at the close of 1053 or beginning of 1054, and that Robert, their first child, was born in the course of the latter year.

Their second child I take to have been Adeliza, eldest daughter, born apparently in 1055, being seven years old in 1062, when betrothed to Harold, and dead before 1066, as her decease was the undeniable answer of the Saxon king to one of William's charges of broken faith.

Cecilia must have been the third child, as she was clearly born in 1056, dedicated to the service of God by her father and mother at the consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Caen, 18th June, 1066, was elected abbess on the death of Matilda, the first abbess, in 1112, and died on the 30th of July, 1125, in the seventieth year of her age.

The fourth child appears to have been Richard, born 1057-58, who, with his younger brother, William (fifth child), born 1060, witnessed the consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Caen in 1066.

Richard was killed in the New Forest by accident during the reign of his father in England; and his brother William, surnamed Rufus, who succeeded the Conqueror as King of England, met his death, as is well known, A.D. 1100, in the same forest, doomed apparently to be fatal to the progeny of the heartless despot who had sacrificed to his passion for the chase the homes and hearths of thousands of his unfortunate subjects.

The sixth child I take to be Constance, born in 1061, married to Alain, Duke of Brittany, in 1086, and who died, poisoned by her own servants, according to some writers, on the 13th of August, 1094, at the early age of thirty-three.

Mrs. Green, notwithstanding she places her birth "most likely about 1057," subsequently tells us, upon the authority of no less than four chronicles, that she died in 1094 " when she had scarcely attained her thirty-third year." If the latter statement is to be depended upon, she must have been born in 1061, and the probabilities are all in favour of that date. Miss Strickland, by a curious inadvertency, makes Constance die some years before her mother, "after seven years' unfruitful marriage." The marriage having taken place three years after her mother's death!

The seventh child I believe to have been Adela, born circa 1062, married, at Chartres in 1080, to Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres, and deceased in 1137, in tbe seventy-fourth year of her age.

Agatha, believed by Mrs. Green to be also Matilda, whose name appears in Domesday, the eighth and last child born in Normandy, circa 1064, was promised to Edwin, the Saxon Earl of Chester, in 1067, when only three years old, and after his death contracted to Alfonso 1, King of Castile and Galicia. She died on her journey to Spain, having, as the story goes, prayed she might not live to be married, and by unceasing genuflections caused a horny substance to form on her knees.

More incredible is the sentimental account of "blighted hopes" and "crushed affections" indulged in by Mrs. Green, as the child was but three years old when she first saw the "fair-haired Saxon," seven when her "lover" was murdered, and scarcely fifteen when she was contracted to Alfonso; for she must have been dead in 1080, as in that year the Castilian monarch married the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy.

This is of course according to my calculation, which I by no means presume to be irrefutable, and also applies solely to Agatha, leaving it to others to identify her with Matilda "filiae regis," whose chamberlain (Geoffrey) held lands in Hampshire of the King for service rendered to his said daughter. That there was a Matilda, daughter of King William, is undeniable, not only from the entry in Domesday, but from her being named with her sisters Adelaide and Constance in an encyclical letter to the nuns of the Holy Trinity at Caen in 1112. But as the survey was only begun in 1085, and completed in 1086, it will be difficult, I think, to prove that Agatha, who must have been dead in 1080, was the same daughter as Matilda, supposed to be living five or six years later.

Henry, afterwards King Henry 1, the youngest of the whole family, was the only child born in England, and the date of his birth is generally acknowledged to be 1068, his mother having come over from Normandy for her coronation in that year. Now let us see when it would be possible that a tenth child, if not a twin, could have been born to William by his duchess, and of sufficient age to have a chamberlain appointed to her before 1085.

Robert, born 1054.
Adeliza, born 1055; dead before 1066.
Cecilia, born 1058.
Richard, born 1057-58.
William, born 1060.
Constance, born 1061.
Adela, born 1062.
Agatha, born 1064; dead before 1080.
Henry, born 1068.

The ingenious theory that Matilda was no other than the mysterious Gundrada, the former name being simply a translation of the latter, is negatived by the fact that Gundrada died wife of William de Warren in 1085, while the survey was in the course of compilation. That one daughter should have been named after her mother is most natural. That the King had a daughter so named, and that she was apparently living in 1085, must be conceded; but that she was the same person as Agatha "the inexorable logic of facts" positively contradicts. There is just the possibility of its being Constance, who survived her mother, and was married to Alain, Duke of Brittany, as before stated, in 1086. She is said to have been the favourite daughter and companion of Queen Matilda, and for nearly six years the only princess at Court. At the period of her niother's death she would have been twenty-three, and previous to her marriage would no doubt have had a chamberlain and other officers appointed for her service. That she was ever called Matilda there is no evidence yet discovered; but there is no daughter of Matilda's more likely to have been so. But then we have to get over the awkward fact of Matilda and Constance being separately named in the encyclical letter of 1112. ["Matildem Anglorum reginam, nostri cnobii fondatricem, Adelidem, Mathildem Constantiam, filias ejus." Also in the Bouleau des Morts of the same Abbey we read: Ç "Orate pro nostria Mathilde Regina etttt Wiiiiillielmoooo ejus filio atque pro filiabus ejus Adelide, Mathilde, Constancia." -- Recherches sur le Domesday, p. 234.] Matilda is consequently, as Mr. Freeman truly describes her, "without a history." The vexed question of Gundrada will be discussed in the chapter comprising the biography of her husband, William, Earl of Warren and Surrey, and in connection with it the presumed widowhood of Matilda of Flanders, and her passion for Brihtric Meaw.

Robert married of Conversano Sybil in 1071/1104. Sybil was born in 1050/1070; died in 1071/1154. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Henry I (of England) (1068-1135), third Norman king of England (1100-1135), fourth son of William the Conqueror. Henry was born in Selby. Because his father, who died in 1087, left him no land, Henry made several unsuccessful attempts to gain territories on the Continent. On the death of his brother William II in 1100, Henry took advantage of the absence of another brother-Robert, who had a prior claim to the throne-to seize the royal treasury and have himself crowned king at Westminster. Henry subsequently secured his position with the nobles and with the church by issuing a charter of liberties that acknowledged the feudal rights of the nobles and the rights of the church. In 1101 Robert, who was duke of Normandy, invaded England, but Henry persuaded him to withdraw by promising him a pension and military aid on the Continent. In 1102 Henry put down a revolt of nobles, who subsequently took refuge in Normandy (Normandie), where they were aided by Robert. By defeating Robert at Tinchebray, France, in 1106, Henry won Normandy. During the rest of his reign, however, he constantly had to put down uprisings that threatened his rule in Normandy. The conflict between Henry and Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, over the question of lay investiture (the appointment of church officials by the king), was settled in 1107 by a compromise that left the king with substantial control in the matter.

Because he had no surviving male heir, Henry was forced to designate his daughter Matilda as his heiress. After his death on December 1, 1135, at Lyons-la-Faret, Normandy, however, Henry's nephew, Stephen of Blois, usurped the throne, plunging the country into a protracted civil war that ended only with the accession of Matilda's son, Henry II, in 1154.

"Henry I (of England)," Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia copyright 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Henry I was born in the year 1068---a factor he himself regarded as highly significant, for he was the only son of the Conqueror born after the conquest of England, and to Henry this meant he was heir to the throne. He was not an attractive proposition: he was dissolute to a degree, producing at least a score of bastards; but far worse he was prone to sadistic cruelty---on one occasion, for example, personally punishing a rebellious burgher by throwing him from the walls of his town.

At the death of William the Conqueror, Henry was left no lands, merely 5,000 pounds of silver. With these he bought lands from his elder brother Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, only to see them taken back again a few years later by Robert, in unholy alliance with his brother William Rufus.

Henry could do little to avenge such treatment, but in England he found numerous barons who were tired of the exactions and ambitions of their king. He formed alliances with some of these, notably with the important de Clare family. He and some of the de Clares were with William Rufus on his last hunting expedition, and it is thought that the king's death was the result of Henry's plotting.

Certainly he moved fast to take advantage of it; leaving Rufus's body unattended in the woods, he swooped down on Winchester to take control of the treasury. Two days later he was in Westminster, being crowned by the Bishop of London. His speed is understandable when one realizes that his elder brother, Robert [Curthose], was returning from the crusade, and claimed, with good reason, to be the true heir.

Henry showed great good sense in his first actions as King. He arrested Ranulph Flambard, William's tax-gatherer, and recalled Anselm, the exiled Archbishop. Furthermore, he issued a Charter of Liberties which promised speedy redress of grievances, and a return to the good government of the Conqueror. Putting aside for the moment his many mistresses, he married the sister of the King of Scots, who was descended from the royal line of Wessex; and lest the Norman barons should think him too pro-English in this action, he changed her name from Edith to Matilda. No one could claim that he did not aim to please.

In 1101 Robert Curthose invaded, but Henry met him at Alton, and persuaded him to go away again by promising him an annuity of 2000 pounds. He had no intention of keeping up the payments, but the problem was temporarily solved.

He now felt strong enough to move against dissident barons who might give trouble in the future. Chief amongst these was the vicious Robert of Belleme, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom Henry had known for many years as a dangerous troublemaker. He set up a number of charges against him in the king's court, making it plain that if he appeared for trial he would be convicted and imprisoned. Thus Robert and his colleagues were forced into rebellion at a time not of their own choosing, were easily defeated and sent scuttling back to Normandy.

In Normandy Robert Curthose began to wreak his wrath on all connected with his brother, thus giving Henry an excellent chance to retaliate with charges of misgovernment and invade. He made two expeditions in 1104-5, before the great expedition of 1106 on which Robert was defeated at the hour-long battle of Tinchebrai, on the anniversary of Hastings. No one had expected such an easy victory, but Henry took advantage of the state of shock resulting from the battle to annex Normandy. Robert was imprisoned (in some comfort, it be said); he lived on for 28 more years, ending up in Cardiff castle whiling away the long hours learning Welsh. His son William Clito remained a free agent, to plague Henry for most of the rest of his reign.

In England the struggle with Anselm over the homage of bishops ran its course until the settlement of 1107. In matters of secular government life was more simple: Henry had found a brilliant administrator, Roger of Salisbury, to act as Justiciar for him. Roger had an inventive mind, a keen grasp of affairs, and the ability to single out young men of promise. He quickly built up a highly efficient team of administrators, and established new routines and forms of organization within which they could work. To him we owe the Exchequer and its recording system of the Pipe Rolls, the circuits of royal justiciars spreading the king's peace, and the attempts at codification of law. Henry's good relationships with his barons, and with the burgeoning new towns owed much to skilful administration. Certainly he was able to gain a larger and more reliable revenue this way than by the crude extortion his brother had used.

In 1120 came the tragedy of the White Ship. The court was returning to England, and the finest ship in the land was filled with its young men, including Henry's son and heir William. Riotously drunk, they tried to go faster and faster, when suddenly the ship foundered. All hands except a butcher of Rouen were lost, and England was without an heir.

Henry's only legitimate child was Matilda, but she was married to the Emperor Henry V of Germany, and so could not succeed. But in 1125 her husband died, and Henry brought her home and forced the barons to swear fealty to her---though they did not like the prospect of a woman ruler. Henry then married her to Geoffrey of Anjou, the Normans' traditional enemy, and the barons were less happy---especially when the newly-weds had a terrible row, and Geoffrey ordered her out of his lands. In 1131 Henry, absolutely determined, forced the barons to swear fealty once more, and the fact that they did so is testimony of his controlling power. Matilda and Geoffrey were reunited, and in 1133 she produced a son whom she named for his grandfather. If only Henry could live on until his grandson was old enough to rule, all would be well.

But in 1135, against doctor's orders, he ate a hearty meal of lampreys, got acute indigestion, which turned into fever, and died. He was buried at his abbey in Reading---some said in a silver coffin, for which there was an unsuccessful search at the Dissolution. [Source: Who's Who in the Middle Ages, John Fines, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1995]

Henry I was born in the year 1068---a factor he himself regarded as highly significant, for he was the only son of the Conqueror born after the conquest of England, and to Henry this meant he was heir to the throne. He was not an attractive proposition: he was dissolute to a degree, producing at least a score of bastards; but far worse he was prone to sadistic cruelty---on one occasion, for example, personally punishing a rebellious burgher by throwing him from the walls of his town.

At the death of William the Conqueror, Henry was left no lands, merely 5,000 pounds of silver. With these he bought lands from his elder brother Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, only to see them taken back again a few years later by Robert, in unholy alliance with his brother William Rufus.

Henry could do little to avenge such treatment, but in England he found numerous barons who were tired of the exactions and ambitions of their king. He formed alliances with some of these, notably with the important de Clare family. He and some of the de Clares were with William Rufus on his last hunting expedition, and it is thought that the king's death was the result of Henry's plotting.

Certainly he moved fast to take advantage of it; leaving Rufus's body unattended in the woods, he swooped down on Winchester to take control of the treasury. Two days later he was in Westminster, being crowned by the Bishop of London. His speed is understandable when one realizes that his elder brother, Robert [Curthose], was returning from the crusade, and claimed, with good reason, to be the true heir.

Henry showed great good sense in his first actions as King. He arrested Ranulph Flambard, William's tax-gatherer, and recalled Anselm, the exiled Archbishop. Furthermore, he issued a Charter of Liberties which promised speedy redress of grievances, and a return to the good government of the Conqueror. Putting aside for the moment his many mistresses, he married the sister of the King of Scots, who was descended from the royal line of Wessex; and lest the Norman barons should think him too pro-English in this action, he changed her name from Edith to Matilda. No one could claim that he did not aim to please.

In 1101 Robert Curthose invaded, but Henry met him at Alton, and persuaded him to go away again by promising him an annuity of 2,000 pounds. He had no intention of keeping up the payments, but the problem was temporarily solved.

He now felt strong enough to move against dissident barons who might give trouble in the future. Chief amongst these was the vicious Robert of BellÃssme, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom Henry hhhhhad known for manyy yearrssss asss aaa dangerous troublemaker. He set up a number of charges against him in the king's court, making it plain that if he appeared for trial he would be convicted and imprisoned. Thus Robert and his colleagues were forced into rebellion at a time not of their own choosing, were easily defeated and sent scuttling back to Normandy.

In Normandy Robert Curthose began to wreak his wrath on all connected with his brother, thus giving Henry an excellent chance to retaliate with charges of misgovernment and invade. He made two expeditions in 1104-5, before the great expedition of 1106 on which Robert was defeated at the hour-long battle of Tinchebrai, on the anniversary of Hastings. No one had expected such an easy victory, but Henry took advantage of the state of shock resulting from the battle to annex Normandy. Robert was imprisoned (in some comfort, it be said); he lived on for 28 more years, ending up in Cardiff castle whiling away the long hours learning Welsh. His son William Clito remained a free agent, to plague Henry for most of the rest of his reign.

In England the struggle with Anselm over the homage of bishops ran its course until the settlement of 1107. In matters of secular government life was more simple: Henry had found a brilliant administrator, Roger of Salisbury, to act as Justiciar for him. Roger had an inventive mind, a keen grasp of affairs, and the ability to single out young men of promise. He quickly built up a highly efficient team of administrators, and established new routines and forms of organization within which they could work. To him we owe the Exchequer and its recording system of the Pipe Rolls, the circuits of royal justiciars spreading the king's peace, and the attempts at codification of law. Henry's good relationships with his barons, and with the burgeoning new towns owed much to skilful administration. Certainly he was able to gain a larger and more reliable revenue this way than by the crude extortion his brother had used.

In 1120 came the tragedy of the White Ship. The court was returning to England, and the finest ship in the land was filled with its young men, including Henry's son and heir William. Riotously drunk, they tried to go faster and faster, when suddenly the ship foundered. All hands except a butcher of Rouen were lost, and England was without an heir.

Henry's only legitimate child was Matilda, but she was married to the Emperor Henry V of Germany, and so could not succeed. But in 1125 her husband died, and Henry brought her home and forced the barons to swear fealty to her---though they did not like the prospect of a woman ruler. Henry then married her to Geoffrey of Anjou, the Normans' traditional enemy, and the barons were less happy---especially when the newly-weds had a terrible row, and Geoffrey ordered her out of his lands. In 1131 Henry, absolutely determined, forced the barons to swear fealty once more, and the fact that they did so is testimony of his controlling power. Matilda and Geoffrey were reunited, and in 1133 she produced a son whom she named for his grandfather. If only Henry could live on until his grandson was old enough to rule, all would be well.

But in 1135, against doctor's orders, he ate a hearty meal of lampreys, got acute indigestion, which turned into fever, and died. He was buried at his abbey in Reading---some said in a silver coffin, for which there was an unsuccessful search at the Dissolution. [Source: Who's Who in the Middle Ages, John Fines, Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1995]

Henry married Adeliza de Leuven on 2 Feb 1121 in Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England. Adeliza (daughter of Count of Leuven and Brussels, Landgraves of Brabant Godfrey de Leuven, Duke of Lorraine I and of Chiny Ida) was born about 1094 in Affligem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium; died on 23 Apr 1151 in Affligem, Flemish Brabant, Belgium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Ansfride about 1089. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Nest verch Rhys about 1090. Nest (daughter of King of Deheubarth Rhys ap Tewdwr Mawr and Gwladus verch Rhiwallon) was born about 1073 in Dynevor, Llandyfeisant, Caemarvonshire, Wales; died about 1163. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Sibyl Corbet about 1089. Sibyl (daughter of Burgess of Caen Robert Corbet) was born about 1077 in Alcester, Warwickshire, England; died after 1157. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Isabel (Elizabeth) de Beaumont about 1119. Isabel (daughter of 1st Earl of Leicester Robert de Beaumont, Count Meulan I and Isabel (Elizabeth ) de Vermandois) was born in 1098 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England; died on 6 Jan 1147 in Tunbridge, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Edith FitzForne about 1089. Edith (daughter of 1st Lord of Greystoke Forne FitzSigulf) was born about 1072 in Greystoke, Cumberland, England; died in 1152 in Oseney Abby, Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Princess of Scotland Matilda (Edith) mac Maíl Coluim on 11 Nov 1100 in Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England. Matilda (daughter of King of Scots Malcolm III "Canmore" mac Dhonnchaidh and Margaret "of Scotland" Ætheling) was born about 1080 in Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland; died on 1 May 1118 in Westminster Palace, London, Middlesex, England; was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

It was thought that Matilda (Gundred) married William de Warren, 1st Earl of Surrey. That has since been disproved. For details see "Early
Yorkshire Charters" by C. T. Clay or "tudes sur Quelques Points de
l'Histoire de Guillame le Conqurant" by H. Prentout described under
Surrey in "The Complete Peerage" by G.E. Gibbs.

I married Wulfhilda von Saxony about 1099 in Germany. Wulfhilda (daughter of Duke of Saxony Magnus and Princess of Hungary Sophia (Zsofia)) was born about 1075 in Saxony, Germany; died on 29 Dec 1126. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ranulf married Margaret d'Avranches about 1069 in Normandy, France. Margaret (daughter of Viscount of Avranches Richard le Goz and Emma de Conteville) was born about 1054 in Avranches, Normandy, France; died in 1136 in Chester, Cheshire, England; was buried in Chester, Cheshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Agnes married Robert de Grandmesnil in 1075 in Grandmesnil, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. Robert (son of Sheriff of Leicester Hugh I de Grandmesnil and Adeliza (Aelis) (Alice) de Beaumont) was born about 1062 in Grandmesnil, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 1 Jun 1136 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Hugh de Montfort. Hugh was born about 1026. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Earl of Hereford William FitzOsbern. William (son of Steward of Normandy (Robert) Osbern de Crepon and Emma (Alberade) d'Ivry) was born in 1030 in Poitiers, Poitou, France; died on 20 Feb 1070/71 in Battle of Cassel, Normandy, France; was buried in Cormeilles Abbey, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

RAOUL DE TOENI

The Conqueror and His Companions
by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874..

Raoul (Ralph) de Toeni, Seigneur de Conches, second of that name, was the son or grandson (for it is not quite clear which) of that turbulent Roger de Toeni, who was one of the first to dispute the succession of the base-born William to the ducal throne of Normandy, and who, with his two sons Halbert and Elinance, was slain in a conflict with Roger de Beaumont. You have beard of him before as the messenger of the Duke to the French King with the disastrous tidings of the battle of Mortemer.

The honourable office of gonfanonier (standardbearer) of Normandy was hereditary in their family, collateral descendants of its dukes from Mahaluc, uncle of Rolf or Rollo, but on whom it was first conferred has not transpired.

Previous to the battle at Senlac, Wace tells us the Duke ordered the consecrated gonfanon, which the Pope had sent to him, to be brought forth and unfurled. Then taking and raising it, he called to him Raoul de Conches, and said, "Bear my gonfanon, for I would not but do you right. By right and by ancestry your family are gonfanoniers of Normandy, and very good knights have they all been." "Many thanks to you," answered Raoul, "for the recognition of our right, but by my faith the gonfanon shall not be borne by me this day. To-day I claim quittance of that service, for I would serve you in another guise. I will go with you into the battle and fight the English as long as I have life to do so, and be assured that my hand will be worth more than those of twenty such men!"

There can be no doubt that he was as good as his word, although no especial act of gallantry has been recorded of him, for we find him rewarded by the gift of thirty-seven lordships, nineteen being in Norfolk, and making Flamstead, in Hertfordshire, his principal residence in England.

Orderic tells us that this Raoul gained great glory in the wars, and was renowned among the first of the Norman nobles for honour and wealth, serving bravely in the armies of King William and Duke Robert, his son, for nearly sixty years. Of course he must mean alternately, for he was one of the nobles who took part with Robert Court-heuse on his first outbreak, in consequence of the insult of his brothers, William and Henry, who threw water on him from a gallery in a house where they were playing at dice. Raoul was banished, and his domains seized by the King, but through the intercession of friends obtained his pardon and the restoration of his estates.

In 1077, he married Elizabeth, or Isabel, daughter of Simon de Montfort l'Amauri, whose hand he obtained by the audacious act of carrying off by night Agnes, daughter of Richard, Comte d'Evreux, who was his half-sister, and marrying her to the said Simon. Orderic gives an amusing account of this Isabel and her sister-in-law Havise, daughter of William, Comte de Nevers, the wife of her brother Willliam, Comte d'Evreux. The Countess Havise took offence, it appears, at some taunts of the Lady of Conches, and used all her influence with her husband and his barons to have recourse to arms, in which mischievous attempt she unfortunately succeeded. "Both these ladies," the chronicler tells us, "were great talkers, and spirited as well as handsome; they ruled their husbands, oppressed their vassals, and inspired terror in various ways: but still their characters were very different. Havise had wit and eloquence, but she was cruel and avaricious; Isabel, on the contrary, was generous, enterprising, and lively, so that she was beloved and esteemed by those immediately about her. She rode in knightly armour when the vassals took the field, and exhibited as much daring amongst belted knights and men-at-arms as Camilla, the renowned Virgin of Italy, among the squadrons of Tevenus."

By turns the people of Evreux and Conches plundered and destroyed the property of each other. The Lord of Conches, who was less powerful than the Count of Evreux, sought his sovereign, Robert Court-heuse, and laying before him an account of the losses to which he was exposed by the aggressions of the Count of Evreux, demanded the aid he had a right to expect from his liege lord; but Robert turned a deaf car to his prayer, and Raoul in his distress sought a more powerful protector in the King of England, promising him by his envoys the fealty of all his estates in return for his assistance. Rufus was highly pleased at the proposal, and sent orders to Stephen Count of Aumale and Gerrard de Gournay, with others in command of his forces in Normandy, to give every aid to Raoul de Toeni, and throw supplies of all kinds into his castles.

In the month of November, 1090, Count William assembled a large force and laid siege to Conches, his two nephews, Richard de Montfort and William de Breteuil joining him with their respective powers. Richard de Montfort was slain while taking possession of the Abbey of St. Peter de Châtillonn at Conches, and in a subsequent attack William de Breteuil was taken prisoner. This worse than civil war, the wagers of it being all nearly related to each other, lasted three years; at length the Count of Evreux and his allies, ashamed that, having commenced hostilities on so frivolous a provocation, they had suffered the greatest losses, consented to a truce, and peace was proposed upon the following terms: -- William de Breteuil paid three thousand livres for his ransom, and made his cousin Roger, eldest son of Raoul de Toeni, heir to the whole of his fief; the Count of Evreux appointed the same youth, who was his nephew, his successor in the comté. "But," adds the pious writer, "Divinee Providence, which is not ruled by the will of man, provided otherwise." The boy was of an excellent disposition and much beloved by his companions, the vassals, and the neighbors. He had a great regard for the clergy and the monks, to whom he paid due reverence. Rejecting the pomp of dress, in which the nobility too much gloried, his whole demeanour was simple and modest. Upon one occasion, when the knights were amusing themselves in the hall at Conches, playing at various games and talking on various subjects, "as the custom is," the Lady Isabel being present, the conversation took a serious turn, and one of Roger's youthful companions said, "I had a dream lately which much alarmed me. I saw our Lord upon the cross, his whole body livid and writhing with agony. My eyes were riveted upon him in the greatest terror." The listeners gravely remarked that so solemn and fearful a dream seemed to forebode some terrible judgment of God upon him. Baldwin, the son of Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who was of that company, said, "I, too, lately saw in a dream our Lord upon the cross, but in my vision He appeared bright and glorious, and smiled benignantly upon me, stretching forth one hand and making the sign of the cross upon my head." The bystanders all agreed that this vision portended some singular grace and favour. Young Roger de Toeni, upon this, said to his mother, "I know some one not far from here who had recently a similar dream." Her curiosity being excited, she pressed him to say who it was, and what had been seen; but the boy blushed, and was unwilling to say more. At length, yielding to the general entreaties of his friends, he said: "A certain person saw in a vision the Lord Jesus, who, laying his hand on his head, blessed him, saying, 'Come quickly to me, beloved, and I will give you the joys of life.' I therefore believe firmly that one whom I know has been called by the Lord, and will not live long."

The three youths, we are told, experienced different fates, corresponding with what had been foreshadowed to each of them. The first, whose name is not given, was mortally wounded in a hostile inroad, and died without having confessed or received the viaticum. Baldwin, as is well known, took the sign of the Cross, and distinguishing himself in the Holy Wars, was, on the death of his brother Godfrey, elected King of Jerusalem. The youthful heir-presumptive of the Count of Evreux and William de Breteuil took to his bed the same year that he had seen his vision, and departing this life on the 15th of May, was buried amidst general sorrow with his ancestors in the Abbey of St. Peter's at Châtillon, now called off Conches.

Leaving my readers to decide for themselves the question how much credibility may be attached to this story, the like of which are to be found by scores in the pages of our monkish chronicles, I shall only direct their attention to the interesting view it affords us of the manners and habits of the age in which it was written, the words "as the custom now is" proving that although the anecdote may be mere idle gossip, the picture of domestic life is drawn from personal knowledge and observation. Here we see the high-spirited Lady of Conches, seated on the dais or haut pas, in her own castle hall, the ruins of which were recently and may still be existing, surrounded by her family and their young companions, the knights owing service to her lord, the officers of her household, and her handmaidens in attendance on her -- all the features of the court of baron of the eleventh century familiar to the sight of the narrator; the various groups, each with its favourite pastime or topic of conversation, and the peculiar character imparted to the latter by the religious atmosphere of the age. We have here the earliest glimpse of that future King of Jerusalem when, probably, a newly-belted knight and a guest of Raoul de Toeni, he may have seen for the first time the young Countess Godechilde, daughter of his host, who, just separated from her husband, Robert de Meulent, and still under age, was shortly to become his wife, although not destined to share with him the crown of his eastern kingdom.

Raoul de Toeni, like his grandfather Roger, made a journey into Sprain, but with a more peaceful object. The former had hoped to carve out with his sword a dominion for himself, as Rollo had done in Normandy and Robert Guiscard in Sicily; but gained nothing by his enterprise except an empty name --- being afterwards distinguished from other members of his family as Roger of Spain.

His grandson most probably went, like Walter Giffard, to visit the shrine of St. Iago of Compostella.

Previously to setting out on his journey he attended a chapter at the Abbey of St. Evroult, and implored pardon of the abbot and monks for having abetted Arnould d'Eschafour when he burnt the town of Ouche. Laying his gage on the altar, he made many pious vows to be fulfilled on his safe return, and recommended to their care his physician Goisbert, whom he much loved, and who, as soon as he departed, made his profession as a monk, and kept it for nearly thirty years. Goisbert must, therefore, have been personally known to Orderic -- a fact which increases our reliance on any information he communicates to us respecting the family of De Toeni.

On Raoul's return, he tells us, the Lord of Conches faithfully redeemed his promises by the gifts of certain lands and privileges to St. Evroult, and that some years afterwards he took Goisbert, the monk, with him to England, and, through his means, added to his former benefactions two farms or manors -- one named Caldecot, in Norfolk, and the other Abington in Worcestershire; his wife, Roger and Ralph, his sons, freely joining in the grant, which was also confirmed by King William.

Ralph II de Toeni died 24th March 1102, and was buried in the Abbey of Conches, beside his father and his son Roger. His widow Isabel, repenting of the sinful levity in which she had too much indulged in her youth, gave up the world, and took the veil in a convent of nuns at Haute Bruyère (a priory of the order of Fontevrauld, at St. Remi-l'HonorÉ, nearar Montfort l'Amauri), where she reformed her life and worthily ended it in the favour of the Lord.

From Robert, a cadet of this house, the family of Stafford is descended, but I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the exact place of Robert and his brother Nigel de Stafford in the pedigree. They were probably younger brothers of the subject of this memoir, or possibly his uncles. They appear in Domesday as possessors of considerable property, but whether companions of the Conqueror in 1066 is uncertain. The first Robert de Toeni who assumed the name of Stafford, from the Castle of Stafford, married, it is said, Avicia de Clare; but I cannot identify any such person.

Raoul married Dame Nogent-le-Roy Isabel de Montfort in 1077 in Ile de France, France. Isabel (daughter of Simon de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort and Isabel de Broyles) was born about 1058 in Montfort-sur-Risle, Eure, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adeliza married Earl of East Anglia Roger Bigod about 1084 in Leicestershire, England. Roger (son of Robert Bigod and Billeheude de St. Sauveur) was born about 1060 in St. Saveur, Calvados, Normandy, France; died on 8 Sep 1107 in Evesham, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Agnes d'Evereaux

Agnès married Simon de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort in 1058 in Normandy, France. Simon (son of Amaury de Montfort, Lord of Montfort I and Bertrade de Gometz) was born about 1025 in Montfort-l'Amaury, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France; died on 25 Sep 1087 in St Thomas, Loire, Rhône-Alpes, France; was buried in Épernon, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Adela d'Eu. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ivo married Emma on 2 Apr 1043 in Bretagne, France. Emma (daughter of Geoffrey I Berengar and Hedwig de Normandy) was born on 6 Feb 1024 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 1 Feb 1095 in Cotentin, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Godehut (Goldehilde) Borrell. Godehut was born in 995 in Toeni, Normandy, France; died in 1077. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Belvoir: The Heirs of Robert and Berengar de Tosny.

Taken from website http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/ihr/nine.html.

K. S. B. Keats-Rohan.

Succession to the fee of Belvoir has been discussed as a problem several times over the years, but perhaps the issue is actually straightforward once one has identified the key players.1 Domesday's Robert de Tosny of Belvoir was a collateral of his contemporaries Ralph and Roger. By c. 1050+ he had a first-born son Berengar who could expect to succeed his father in Normandy.2 Around the time of Domesday Book, a few years before his death, Robert founded Belvoir priory with his wife Adelais. Early charters of Belvoir mention their sons William and Geoffrey and their daughter Agnes.3 At his death, Robert's lands were divided between Berengar, his eldest son and Norman heir - co-incidentally an English tenant-in-chief in his own right - and his next son and English heir, William. Presumably some provision was made for the third son Geoffrey. As it happened, all three sons were to die without issue, which meant that rights of succession passed to Robert's daughters.

Initially, the sole right of succession passed to Robert's eldest daughter Albreda, who inherited the tenancies-in-chief of both her eldest brother Berengar and her younger brother William before the date of the Lindsey Survey, which shows her husband Robert de Insula in charge of both honours.4 It has always been assumed that Albreda was the widow of Berengar who took his land to a second husband, but the idea is clearly untenable once the full story of the Belvoir succession unfolds. The references in confirmation charters of the Lincolnshire abbey of Newhouse to 'the fee of Albreda de Tosny'' is an indication that the wife of Robert de Insula was a blood relative and heiress of Berengar, rather than his widow.5 This view is confirmed by the necrology of Belvoir priory, where the anniversaries of Berengar and Albreda uxor eius, deo sancta (a phrase always referring to a religious in this document) were kept on 29 June.6 All doubt is removed by a charter of c. 1147/52 in which Hugh Bigod made a grant to Kirkstall abbey for the soul of Albrede de Insula amite mee, a phrase that can only mean that Albreda was his mother's sister.7 The phrase also usefully confirms that Albreda de Tosny and Albreda (wife of Robert) de Insula were the same.

Robert de Tosny had two other daughters, of whom the youngest was Agnes. She confirmed her father's grant of land at Aslackby, Lincolnshire, to Belvoir priory as being part of her marriage portion on her first marriage to Ralph de Beaufour of Hockering (fl. 1086/1100).8 Widowed in the early twelfth century, she married secondly Hubert I de Ryes, castellan of Norwich, to whom the tenancy-in-chief of Hockering was given by Henry I. She occurs in the 1129/30 Pipe Roll (p. 93) charged with a debt of 35 silver marks because her son was with the count of Flanders. At a similar date she attested the charter which William de Albini pincerna gave for Wymondham priory on the day his wife Matilda Bigod, Agnes's niece, died. Agnes follows her sister Adelisa Bigod in the witness list, where she was accompanied by her daughter Almud and a niece or granddaughter (nepta) Muriel.9 Her dower lands at Aslackby and at Seaton, Northamptonshire (then in Rutland), were held in 1166 by her son or grandson Ralph de Beaufour from her grandson Hubert II de Ryes.10

The elder of Robert de Tosny's younger daughters was Adelisa, wife of Roger Bigod at his death in 1107. It is probable that Roger was married only once, although he is usually credited with two wives of the same name on the inconclusive evidence of a pro anama clause in a charter of his son William.11 Roger and his wife Adelisa gave charter for Rochester priory which referred to their sons and daughters and was attested by their children William, Humphrey, Gunnor and Matilda.12 This charter tellingly refers to King Henry, making it highly unlikely that Roger acquired a second wife and second family before his death in 1107. It is likely that Rogers' children were born from the late 1090s onwards, and that the youngest of them were Hugh and Cecilia.13 Roger's daughters Gunnor and Matilda were married soon after 1107. Gunnor's marriage to Robert fitz Swein of Essex had perhaps been arranged by her father. Matilda was married to William de Albini pincerna by Henry I who bestowed 10 Bigod fees on her as a marriage portion. The marriages certainly took place before Adelisa de Tosny became the heiress to Belvoir on the death without issue of her eldest sister Albreda, some time between 1115/18 and 1129, when Adelisa, as widow of Roger Bigod, accounted for her father's land of Belvoir.14

In 1129 the sole surviving issue of Robert de Tosny were his younger daughters Adelisa Bigod and Agnes de Beaufour, who was then already married to Hubert de Ryes. At that date his Bigod granddaughter Matilda de Albini was probably already dead and her sister Gunnor not long removed from her second marriage to Haimo de St Clair. Of their siblings, only Hugh Bigod and Cecilia, then wife of William de Albini Brito, survived. The Carta returned by Hugh Bigod in 1166 shows him holding the fee of his aunt Albreda de Insula.15 At the same date William de Albini Brito II held the fee of Belvoir. The conclusion from this must be that Adelisa succeeded Albreda in the fees of both Berengar and Robert de Tosny as next surviving sister. When she in her turn died she left issue of both sexes. Her sole surviving son Hugh succeeded his aunt Albreda - and by extension, her eldest brother Berengar - as heir both to Berengar's tenancy-in-chief in Lincolnshire and the Norman lands of Robert de Tosny of Belvoir. His tenancy of Robert's Norman lands is shown in a Norman record of 1172 where he is named as holding land of the fee of Conches and Tosny.16 More important in terms of size in England, the lordship of Belvoir was nonetheless the lesser of the two Tosny lordships because it as not associated with their Norman heritage. As the inheritance of a woman married to an important tenant-in-chief it could be expected to pass to one of her younger children and not her husband's principal male heir. Since she had no surviving younger sons after 1120, the devolution of Belvoir to one of her daughters was inevitable. Gunnor and Matilda had long since been provided for from their father's inheritance by the time, after c. 1115/1118, that Adelisa succeeded to Belvoir. Consequently it was the youngest daughter Cecilia - quite probably a mere infant at her father's death in 1107 - who became her mother's heiress. She was, of course , an heiress whose marriage could advantageously be used to reward one of the king's loyal new men. Cecilia's marriage to William de Albini Brito has been said to have occurred as early as 1107 on the basis of a Belvoir charter given by Ralph de Raines and attested by Roger Bigod, but it certainly took place much later. The Belvoir charter just mentioned probably begins to the early 1140s . It was attested by William de Albini senior and his wife Cecilia, their son William junior, Roger Bigot, Robert de Toteneio, Ralph de Albeneio and others.17 Since William, Robert and Ralph were certainly sons of William and Cecilia it is clear that Roger Bigod was also, as is confirmed by the order of their sons William, Robert, Roger, listed in the Thorney Liber vitae (BL Add, 40,000, fol. 2r)

The prosopography of Domesday Book which is part of the COEL research project will be published later this year by Boydell and Brewer as Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166. Volume I. Domesday Book.

It is hoped that the COEL database will be published in November/December. Final details are still to be decided, but a network copy will probably cost around Ãii600. A few screen shottttts frommm theeeee database are available on the Unit website, http;://www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/prosop/home.stm (or, if that proves troublesome, www.linacre.ox.ac.uk, then click on Unit).

Inquiries can be sent be e-mail to katherine.keats-rohan@linacre.ox.ac.uk

Footnotes
1 Cf. J. Green, Government of England Under Henry I, 228-9.
2 Named after his father's brother Berengar Spina, all three occur in a Marmoutier charter of 1063, when Berengar , probably then still an adolescent, authorised an agreement made by his father (Faroux, Recueil...de Normandie, 157).
3 Mon. Ang. ii, 288-9.
4 Lindsey Survey (Lincoln Record Soc. Vol. 19) L3/8, 4/3, 6/5, 7/5, 10/1.
5 Stenton, Danelaw Charters, nos. 238-9.
6 BL Add. 4936, fol. 27.
7 Coucher Book of Kirkstall (Thoresby Soc. Vol. 8, 1904), no. cclxvi, pp. 188-9.
8 Mon. Ang. ii, 290, no. vii.
9 Mon. Ang. iii, 330-1.
10 RBE, 401.
11 Mon. Ang. iii, 330-1.
12 BL Cotton Domitian A x, fol. 201v-2r.
13 The view that all his children were minors at his death in 1107 was expressed in A. Wareham,'Motives and politics of the Bigod family c.1066-1177', Anglo-Norman Studies 17 (1995).
14 Pipe Roll 31 Henry I, 114.
15 RBE 397.
16 At Guerney and Vesley, Eure, cant. Gisors; RBE, 642; cf. Loyd, Anglo-Norman Families, 74.
17 Mon. Ang. ii, 289, no. 111.

Family/Spouse: Adeliza. Adeliza was born about 1050. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Said by some to be the widow, not the sister of Roger. This is not possible as Roger did not die until 1038.

Family/Spouse: Richard d'Evereaux. Richard (son of Count of Evreux and Archbishop of Rouen Robert d'Evereaux and Havlive de Rouen) was born about 986 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; died on 13 Dec 1067 in Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Abbey de Perseigne, Le Mans, France

Family/Spouse: Count of Alencon and Ponthieu William Talvas, Count of Ponthieu III. William (son of 3rd Earl Shrewsbury Count of Ponthieu, Alecon, and Montreuil Robert de Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury II and Agnes de Ponthieu) was born about 1093 in Alençon, Orne, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 30 Jun 1171. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Helie married Count of Ponthieu III William in 1115. III was born about 1095; died on 20 Jun 1172. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Helie married Bertrand de Toulouse, Count of Toulouse in Jun 1095. Bertrand died in 1112. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hugh married Maud de Turenne in 1103/1135 in Bourgogne, Marne, France. Maud (daughter of Viscount of Turenne I Boso and Gerberge de Terrasson) was born about 1090 in of Mayenne, France; died after 1162 in Beaune, Cote-d'Or, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Walter married Matilda (Maud) de Brittany about 1116 in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England. Matilda (daughter of I Stephen de Brittany and Hawise) was born about 1086 in Brittany, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

AFN 9HQJ-F2:

Family/Spouse: Ivo Grentemaisnel. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: 2nd Baron Percy Alan de Percy. Alan (son of 1st Baron Percy William de Percy and Emma de Porte) was born in 1069 in Perci-en-Auge, Low Normandy, France; died in 1135; was buried in Whitby, North Riding, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Adeline de Meulent. Adeline was born about 1080. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Robert de Latham. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

242-p277:
244-1-p440:
505-v5-p484:
550-v2-p303:
758-v5-p123:
809-v1-p229:
1976-p106:
3123-p31(e2-f1)

Robert married Alice Pagnel about 1108 in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England. Alice was born about 1087 in Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Gunnora de Gourey about 1112 in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England. Gunnora was born about 1094 in Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

III married Sibylla d'Anjou about 1134. Sibylla (daughter of Fulk V "The Younger" d'Anjou, Count of Anjou King of Jerusalem and of Maine Ermengarde de la Fletche) was born in 1112 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died in 1165 in Abbey of St. Lazarus, Bethany, Palastine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Suanhilde. Suanhilde died in 1133. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adelaide married Duke of Lorraine I Simon about 1107 in Nancy, France. I (son of Duke of Alsace-Lorraine II Thierry and Countess of Formbach Hedwige) was born in 1076 in Lorraine, France; died on 19 Apr 1138; was buried in Sturzelbronu, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Baldwin married Yolande von Guelders in 1107. Yolande (daughter of Count of Guelders Gerald (Gerhard) (Gueldres) de Wasseberg, I and Clemence de Poitou) was born in 1089 in Wassenberg, Heinsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; died on 10 Nov 1110 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ida married Seigneur de Marl Thomas de Courcy about 1098 in Boves, Somme, France. Thomas (son of Count d'Amiens Enguerrand I de Courcy and Comtesse de Roucy Ade de Marle) was born about 1082 in Boves, Somme, France; died in 1131. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Thibaud IV
• Birth: Abt 1088, of Blois, Loir-et-cher, France
• Death: 8 Jan 1152

Theobald married Princess of Carinthia Mathilde von Sponheim in 1123 in Blois, Loir-et-cher, France. Mathilde (daughter of Duke of Carinthia, Margrave of Istre II Engelbert and Utha von Passau) was born in 1097 in Karnten, Austria; died on 13 Dec 1160 in Fontrevault, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Earl of Chester Richard d'Avranches. Richard (son of Earl of Chester Hugh "Lupus" d'Avranches and Countess Of Chester Ermentrude de Clermont) was born about 1094; died on 25 Nov 1120 in Drowned in wreck of the White Ship near Barfleur, Manche, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Count of Vermandois Raoul I de Vermandois. Raoul (son of Hugh "The Great" Capet, Duke of France and Burgundy and Adelaide de Vermandois) was born in 1085; died on 14 Oct 1152. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY: http://www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal01397

Reigned 1135-1154. He seized the throne from Matilda who invaded England in 1139. The civil war that followed proved him a brave soldier but revealed his lack of political sense. In 1152, after much of the country had been ravaged in factional fighting and the royal administration had broken down, Stephen recognized Matilda's son Henry as heir to the throne. Duke of Normandy 1135-1144, deposed. Duke of Blois, Count of Mortain, Count of Boulogne.

Stephen married Countess of Boulogne Matilda de Talvas in 1125 in Westminster, London, England. Matilda (daughter of Count of Boulogne and Lens Eustace III de Talvas and Princess of Scotland Mary mac Maíl Coluim) was born about 1105 in Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 3 May 1152 in Hedingham Castle, Essex, England; was buried in Faversham Abbey, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Agnes de Sully. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Conqueror and His Companions
by J.R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874........

Son of Etienne II, Comte de Champagne and Brie, by Adele, supposed to have been a daughter of Richard II, Duke of Normandy, but by which of his wives or mistresses has not been ascertained. Now if such were the fact, Odo was the nephew of Duke Robert, the father of the Conqueror, and consequently first cousin of the latter and of his sister Adelaide or Adeliza, as far as blood was concerned. A marriage with her, therefore, would have been within the prohibited degrees so rigidly construed by the Church of Rome. William of Jumiegrave;ges, who styles him Count of Champagne, says he was nearly allied to King William by consanguinity, being grandson of Maud, daughter to Richard I, Duke of Normandy, wife of Odo, Earl of Blois and Chartres. This assertion is still more unfortunate, for Maud died childless, and Etienne, the father of our Odo, was the son of the Count of Blois' second wife Ermengarde, daughter of Robert I, Count of Auvergne, whom he married in 1020. I therefore deny the maternal descent of Odo from any near relation of William, Duke of Normandy, of whom he has been set down as a kinsman on the above authority only.

Dugdale, who appears to have been perfectly bewildered respecting him, has printed in his Monasticon two accounts, one from the Book of Meaux, an abbey in Holderness, and the other from the Register of Fountains Abbey, which is nearly verbatim, but in one or two instances more explicit.

The story as told in them is as follows: Odo having killed a magnate of his own country, took refuge in the dominions of his kinsman, William, Duke of Normandy, who gave him, through the intercession of the Archbishop of Rouen, his sister for wife, and subsequently bestowed upon him the island (according to the Book of Meaux), the county (according to the Register of Fountains), of Holderness. To the same Archbishop, not named, he is said to have been indebted for the grant of the county "comitatum" (the Register of Fountains reads "civitatem") of Albemarle on condition that he should attend the primate in any expedition with ten knights, and bear his standard before him.

The author of L'Art de Vérifier les Dates, and Père Anselm follow this s s s s s s s s s account, b bubut spepecicify the Archbishop as Jean de Bayeux, who entertained a great friendship for Odo, and, with the consent of the Chapter, bestowed upon him the lands of Aumale on the above-named condition.

Now let us see what light the crucial test of dates flings upon these statements. Etienne, the father of Odo, could not have been born earlier than 1021, and would have been about sixteen or seventeen when he succeeded his father in 1037 as Comte de Champagne and Brie. Allowing that he married before he was of full age, say 1040, Odo must have been a mere child at his death in 1047/8, when he was immediately dispossessed of his inheritance by his uncle, Thibaut III, legally, it would appear, according to the law at that period, which, if the heir to the lordship was not of sufficient age to receive investiture by the ceremony of girding with the sword, authorized the nearest in blood of full age to claim the succession. Sharp practice, it may be said, but still the law, and one, it may be worth remarking, which would justify the rebellions against William in the first years of his rule had he even been legitimate.

At what time Odo took refuge in the Court of William, Duke of Normandy, is not stated, but he must have been a most precocious young swashbuckler if he killed "a magnate of his own country" before he entered his teens, and the loss of his estates would have been quite sufficient to have caused him at a later period to seek his fortune elsewhere, without having killed anyone fairly or foully.

At the time of the invasion of England Odo would have been about five-and-twenty, and what more likely than, having nothing to lose and everything to gain, he should eagerly have volunteered his services to William? But if we are to believe that Odo was indebted to Jean de Bayeux for the hand of his wife and the lands of Aumale, how could he be the "Sire d'Aubemare" who fought at Senlac in 1066, when the said Jean de Bayeux was not elevated to the primacy till after the death of Archbishop Maurilius in 1067?

The labours of Mr. Stapleton before alluded to, and those of the authors of Recherches sur le Domesday, enable us to solve the riddle in the most satisfactory manner. The old Norman Chroniclers state clearly enough that Odo de Champagne was the husband of the Conqueror's sister, though differing as to the fact of her being of the whole or the half blood, but not one of them had the kindness to inform us, if they knew, that the lady had been twice previously married, and had left issue by each husband.

The facts of the case, which have been elicited from the records of the Church of St. Martin d'Auchi (de Alceio), commonly called of Aumale, from its vicinity to the town of that name, are as follows: In or about the year 1000 a castle was built on the river Eu, now known as the Bresle, at the point where it divides the provinces of Normandy and Picardy, by a certain Guerinfroi (Guerinfrides), who also, in 1027, founded in its neighbourhood the Abbey of St. Martin d'Auchi. This Guerinfroi, who was Sire d'Aumale (not Count, as he has been incorrectly called), had an only daughter named Berta, who became the wife of Hugh II, Comte de Ponthieu, and mother by him of Enguerrand, or Ingleram, Sire d'Aumale in right of his mother, who married Adelaide, sister of the Conqueror, and was killed in an ambush at St. Aubin, near Arques, in 1053, leaving an only daughter, named Adelaide after her mother, and having settled on his wife the lands of Aumale in dower. The widow of Enguerrand, being still young, married secondly, and in the first year of her widowhood, Lambert, Count of Lens, in Artois, and brother of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and had by him a daughter, named Judith, whose hand was given by her uncle, William the Conqueror, to Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland. Count Lambert could scarcely have seen the birth of his child, for he was killed at Lille the following year, in a battle between Baldwin, Count of Flanders, and the Emperor Henry III. A widow for the second time, and still in the prime of life, she married, thirdly, Odo of Champagne, by whom she was the mother of Stephen, who, on the death of his elder sister Adelaide, became the first Comte d'Aumale, or Earl of Albemarle, the Seigneurie having been made a Comte by King William, but upon what occasion and at what time we have no evidence.

The name of Adeliza with the title of "Comitissa de Albemarle" occurs in Domesday, but not that of Odo, which first appears in connection with English transactions in 1088 (1st of William Rufus), when Count Odo and his son Stephen gave the manor and church of Hornsea, in the wapentake of Holderness, to the Abbey of St. Mary of York.

This latter fact also leads to the correction of Orderic Vital's assertion, that King William granted the earldom of Holderness to Odo of Champagne at the same time that he distributed cities and counties with great honours and domains among other lords who had assisted him in the Conquest, viz, in 1070. In the first place, Holderness was not an earldom; and in the second, as late as the completion of Domesday, A.D. 1086, the whole district so named was still part of the honour of Drogo de Brevere, a Fleming who had fought for William at Senlac, and received the greater part of the territory of Holderness amongst other portions of the spoil.

The gift of the lands (Dugdale says, of the city) of Aumale to Odo by the Archbishop of Rouen has also to be explained, for as Jean de Bayeux, if it were he, as stated by the author of L'Art de Vérifier les Dates,,,, wassss not advanced to the primacy before 1067, such donatiooon coouuld not have been made previous to the invasion of England, at which period, and as late as 1086, the city and Castle of Aumale, with such lands as had not been given to the church of Auchi, were in possession of Adeliza, as Lady or Countess of Aumale, the wife, or if she were deceased, the stepdaughter of that very Odo.

It depends therefore entirely upon the date of Odo's marriage, whether it was he who, in 1066, was the "Sire d'Aubemare" (in right of his wife) alluded to by the rhyming chronicler as a combatant in the great battle. The evidence brought to light by the industry of Mr. Stapleton, and published by him in the 23rd vol. of the Archaeologia, supplemented by his letter to the late Sir Charles G. Young, Garter-King-of-Arms, and communicated by the latter to the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. vi. p. 265, and also set forth by Mr. Stapleton in his notes on the Norman rolls of the Exchequer, has been epitomized by the authors of Recherches sur le Domesday, published in 1842, and it is singular, therefore, that the information of the triple marriage of the Countess of Ponthieu should have escaped the vigilance of Mr. Freeman, who has been led by Mr. Stapleton into the serious error which his later discoveries allowed him to correct, of making Odo the husband of the younger Adelaide, who at the time the record was written had succeeded, as daughter and sole heir of Count Enguerrand, to the "Suzeraineté""" offfff Aumale.....

Whether the expatriated Count of Champagne fleshed his maiden sword at Senlac or not, he appears to have made no mark either for good or for evil in the annals of this country till, misled by ambition, he was induced to join in the conspiracy the collapse of which has given him an unenviable reputation in them.

History is quite silent about him until after the death of the Conqueror, when we are told that Odo found himself embarrassed by his position as a feudatory of William Rufus in England and of Robert Court-heuse in Normandy. He owed allegiance to each; but how could he serve two masters who were at war with one another? He decided in favour of Rufus, and received an English garrison in his Castle of Aumale, which, in conjunction with his son Stephen, he enlarged and strengthened, at the expense of the royal treasury, on the invasion of Normandy by the Red King in 1090.

Five years afterwards, however, he joined in a conspiracy with Robert de Mowbray, William d'Eu, and other disaffected nobles, to depose Rufus and place his own son Stephen d'Aumale upon the throne.

The conspiracy failing in consequence of timely warning having been given to the King, Odo and his son were both arrested, the former thrown into a prison, from which he never emerged alive, and the latter condemned to have his eyes put out; but the piteous prayers of his wife and family, to say nothing of the payment of a considerable sum of money, obtained a remission of his sentence and restoration to liberty. How long Odo lingered in his dungeon is unknown. The exact date of his death is as uncertain as nearly every other part of his history, but it is presumed to have taken place in 1108.

Dugdale says, "the lordships whereof he was possessed, as appears by the Conqueror's Survey, were only these," and he then enumerates certain manors, which, in "the Conqueror's Survey," are distinctly set down as held by Adeliza, Countess of Albemarle, Odo's name, as I have previously stated, not occurring in a single instance throughout the work; but Holderness, he adds, "was not given him till after that Survey." There he is right, as we shall find in the following notice of Drogo de Brevere.

Family/Spouse: Amice de Gael. Amice (daughter of Lord of Montfort Ralph de Gael and Emma Avice de Vermandois) was born in 1108 in Montford de Gael, Brittany, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

[From Burke's Peerage-see source for details]

An undoubted Earl of Gloucester, perhaps the first authentic one, at any rate after the Conquest, is Robert FitzHamon's son-in-law, another Robert, who was an illegitimate son of Henry I and was so created 1122. The Earldom passed to his eldest son, William FitzRobert, and from him to John, later King John and husband from 1189 to 1199 (when he divorced her) of Isabel, the youngest of William FitzRobert's three daughters. On John's coming to the throne the title did not merge in the Crown for it was not his in his own right but in right of his wife.

Robert married Maud FitzHamon about 1115 in Gloucestershire, England. Maud (daughter of Earl of Gloucester Robert FitzHamon and Sybil de Montgomery) was born about 1094 in Gloucestershire, England; died in 1157 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Not shown in The Complete Peerage, but shown in Weir as having an unknown mother.

Joan married of Galloway Fergus in 1112/1160. Fergus was born in 1092/1139; died on 12 May 1161 in Holyrood Abbey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Count of Brittany III Conan. III (son of Duke of Brittany Alan IV Fergant and Ermengard d'Anjou) was born before 1112; died in 1148. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: King of Scotland Alexander I "The Fierce" mac Maíl Coluim. Alexander (son of King of Scots Malcolm III "Canmore" mac Dhonnchaidh and Margaret "of Scotland" Ætheling) was born about 1080 in Atholl, Perthshire, Scotland; died on 23 Apr 1124 in Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Reginald had been invested with the Earldom of Cornwall by King Stephen of England, but having afterwards taken up the cause of the Empress Matilda, his sister, he forfeited his lands and honours. Around 1173 he granted a charter to his free bugesses of Triueru, and he addressed his meetings at Truro to All men both Cornish and English suggesting a continuing differentiation.

Family/Spouse: Beatrice de Mortaigne. Beatrice (daughter of Earl of East Cornwall William de Mortaigne and Isabel FitzRichard) was born in 1114 in Cornwall, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Matilda married Rotrou II "The Great" de Perche in 1103. Rotrou (son of Count of Perche and Mortaigne Geoffrey II de Perche and Beatrice de Montdidier) was born in 1089; died on 8 May 1144 in Siege of Rouen, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was designated Henry's heir, and on his death (1135), Stephen seized the throne and Matilda invaded England (1139) inaugurating a period of inconclusive civil war. She and her second husband (Geoffrey) captured Normandy and in 1152 the Treaty of Wallingford recognized Henry as Stephen's heir.

Burke says she was betrothed in her eighth year (1119) to Henry.

MATILDA (1102-1167), empress, was the daughter of Henry I of England by his first marriage. She was betrothed in 1109 and married in 1114 to the German emperor Henry V. When her husband died (1125) leaving her childless, her father, whose only surviving legitimate child she then was, persuaded his reluctant barons to accept her, on oath, as his successor (Jan. 1, 1127). The novel prospect of a female ruler was itself unwelcome; Matilda's 17-year absence in Germany (where she was not unpopular) and her apparent arrogance estranged her from her father's subjects. Difficulties also might result from her remarriage to provide for the succession. Her marriage in 1128 to Geoffrey Plantagenet, heir to Anjou and Maine (designed by Henry I, like her first marriage, for political ends), whose father, Count Fulk, departed immediately after the ceremony to become the consort of Melisende of Jerusalem, flouted the barons' stipulation that she should not marry outside England without their consent, and was unpopular in Normandy and England. On Henry I's death, his nephew Stephen by prompt action secured England and was recognized by Pope Innocent II. Matilda and Geoffrey, however, made some headway in Normandy. Matilda's subsequent challenge to Stephen's position in England mainly depended on the support of her half-brother Earl Robert of Gloucester. After the defeat and capture of Stephen at Lincoln (Feb. 1141), Matilda was elected "lady of the English" and would have been queen could she have proceeded to coronation, but active support for her cause still came mainly from the western counties. Her chance of consolidating her precarious victory was swiftly destroyed by a reaction imitated by her tactless handling of London. After her defeat at Winchester in Sept. 1141, her supporters, slowly reduced by death and defection, maintained a stubborn defense until Earl Robert died (1147) and Matilda retired (1148) to Normandy, of which her husband had gained possession. She continued to interest herself in the government of the territories of her eldest son, the future Henry II of England. Her career was not entirely unsuccessful: all the subsequent monarchs of England have been her descendants, not Stephen's. She died in Normandy on Sept. 10, 1167.

Died:
Abbey of Notre Dame de Pres, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France

Matilda married Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou V on 22 May 1127 in Le Mans Cathedral, Anjou, France. Geoffrey (son of Fulk V "The Younger" d'Anjou, Count of Anjou King of Jerusalem and of Maine Ermengarde de la Fletche) was born on 24 Aug 1113 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 7 Sep 1151 in Château-du-Loir, Eure-et-Loire, Normandy, France; was buried in St Julian's Church, Le Mans, Anjou, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Matilda married Holy Roman Emperor V Henry on 7 Jan 1113 in Mainz, Germany. V (son of Holy Roman Emperor IV Heinrich and Bertha de Savoy) was born on 11 Aug 1086; died on 23 May 1125 in Utrecht. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: William "The Atheling"
• Birth: 5 Aug 1103, Winchester, Hampshire, England
• Death: 25 Nov 1120

Family/Spouse: Matilda d'Anjou. Matilda (daughter of Fulk V "The Younger" d'Anjou, Count of Anjou King of Jerusalem and of Maine Ermengarde de la Fletche) was born in 1111; died in 1154. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Judith married Duke of Swabia Frederick II von Hohenstaufen about 1120 in Germany. Frederick (son of Duke of Swabia Frederick I von Büren and Princess of Germany Agnes) was born in 1090 in Swabia, Germany; died on 6 Apr 1147. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Ranulf or Randle de Meschines, surnamed de Bricasard, Viscount Bayeux, in Normandy, (son of Ralph de Meschines, by Maud, his wife, co-heir of her brother, Hugh Lupus, the celebrated Earl of Chester), was given by King Henry I the Earldom of Chester, at the decease of his 1st cousin, Richard de Abrincis, 2nd Earl of Chester, of that family, without issue. By some historians, this nobleman is styled Earl of Carlisle, from residing in that city; and they further state that he came over in the train of the Conqueror, assisted in the subjugation of England, and shared, of course, in the spoil of conquest. He was lord of Cumberland and Carlisle, by descent from his father, but having enfeoffed his two brothers, William, of Coupland, and Geffrey, of Gillesland, in a large portion thereof, he exchanged the Earldom of Cumberland for that of Chester, on condition that those whom he had settled there should hold their lands of the king, in capite. His lordship m. Lucia, widow of Roger de Romara, Earl of Lincoln, and dau. of Algar, the Saxon, Earl of Mercia, and had issue, Ranulph, his successor; William, styled Earl of Cambridge, but of his issue nothing in known; Adeliza, m. to Richard FitzGilbert, ancestor of the old Earls of Clare; and Agnes, m. to Robert de Grentemaisnil. The earl d. in 1128 and was s. by his elder son, Ranulph de Meschines. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 365, Meschines, Earls of Chester]

Ranulf married Lucy de Taillebois in 1098 in Normandy, France. Lucy (daughter of Earl of Anjou, 1st Baron of Kendal, Earl of Holland in Lincolnshire Ivo (Ives) de Taillebois and of Mercia Lucia) was born on 23 May 1074 in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England; died on 28 Jun 1144 in Chester, Cheshire, England; was buried in Chester, Cheshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Alice de Beaumont. Alice (daughter of 1st Earl of Leicester Robert de Beaumont, Count Meulan I and Isabel (Elizabeth ) de Vermandois) was born in 1105 in Beaumont, Sur-Oise, Normandy, France; died on 11 Jul 1191 in Rheims, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alice married Lord Folkingham Gilbert de Gant, Lord of Folkingham about 1070 in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England. Gilbert (son of Lord Alost Ralph de Gant and Gisele de Luxembourg) was born about 1048 in Aalst, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium; died in 1094 in Bardney,Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England; was buried in Bardney, Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Earl of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge Ralph de Gael. Ralph (son of Earl of Hereford Ralph de Sudeley and Gytha FitzOsgood) was born about 1042 in Gael, Brittany, France; died in 1096. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Raoul married Alice Huntingdon in 1103 in England. Alice (daughter of Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland Waltheof Siwardsson and of Lens Judith) was born about 1077 in Flamsted, Herefordshire, England; died after 1126. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: William "Pincerna Regis" d'Aubigny. William (son of Roger d'Aubigny and Amice de Montbrey) died in 1139. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Hugh Bigod, brother of William, steward of the household of King Henry I, was also steward to King Henry I, who being mainly instrumental in raising Stephen, Earl of Bologne, to the throne upon the decease of his royal master, was rewarded by this new king with the Earldom of the East Angles, commonly called Norfolk, and by that designation we find him styled in 1140 (6th Stephen). His lordship remained faithful in his allegiance to King Stephen through the difficulties which afterwards beset that monarch, and gallantly defended the castle of Ipswich against the Empress Maud and her son until obligated at length to surrender for want of timely relief. In the 12th Henry II, this powerful noble certified his knight's fee to be one hundred and twenty-five "devetrifeoffamento," and thirty-five "de novo," upon the occasion of the assessment in aid of the marriage of the king's daughter; and he appears to have acquired at this period a considerable degree of royal favor, for we find him not only re-created Earl of Norfolk, by charter, dated at Northampton, but by the same instrument obtaining a grant of the office of steward, to hold in as ample a manner as his father had done in the time of Henry I. Notwithstanding, however, these and other equally substantial marks of the kings liberality, the Earl of Norfolk sided with Robert, Earl of Leicester, in the insurrection incited by that nobleman in favor of the king's son (whom Henry himself had crowned, ) in the 19th of the monarch's reign; but his treason upon this occasion cost him the surrender of his strongest castles, and a find of 1,000 marks. After which he went into the Holy Land with the Earl of Flanders, and died in 1177. His lordship had married twice; by his 1st wife, Julian, dau. of Alberic de Vere, he had a son, Rogers; and by his 2nd, Gundred, he had two sons, Hugh and William. He was s. by his eldest son, Roger Bigod, 2nd earl. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 53, Bigod, Earls of Norfolk]

----------

The Bigods held the hereditary office of steward (dapifer) of the royal household, and their chief castle was at Framlingham in Suffolk. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961 ed, Vol. 3, pages 556/557, Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk.)

Hugh married Juliana de Vere about 1133 in Marriage was annulled. Juliana (daughter of Lord Great Chamberlain of England Aubrey II de Vere and Alice FitzGilbert de Clare) was born in 1116 in Hedingham, Essex, England; died after 1185. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Gundred de Beaumont. Gundred (daughter of 2nd Earl of Warwick Roger de Beaumont and Gundred de Warenne) was born about 1134 in Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England; died in 1200/1208. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lord Baron Halton Richard FitzEustace Clavering. Richard (son of Lord of Alnwick Eustace FitzJohn de Burgo and Agnes FitzNigel) was born about 1128 in Halton Castle, Skipton, Yorkshire, England; died in 1163 in Halton Castle, Skipton, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Bertrade married King of France Philip I "The Fair" Capet in 1095. Philip (son of Henry Capet, King of France I and Anna Agnesa Yaroslavna Princess of Kyiv) was born on 23 May 1052 in Champagne, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France; died on 29 Jul 1108 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Ile-de-France, France; was buried in St-Benoit-sur-Lo, Loiret, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Bertrade married Fulk IV "The Rude" d'Anjou, Count of Anjou about 1077. Fulk (son of Count of the Gatinais Aubri Geoffrey, Cunt of the Gatinals and Ermengarde Blanche d'Anjou) was born on 30 Apr 1043 in Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, France; died on 14 Apr 1109 in Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, France; was buried in Departement de Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Amauri IV de Montfort

Notes:

Amauri joined with King William II Rufus in his attacks against the Castles at Montfort and Epernon, which were defended by Armuari's brother, Simon II. Amauri became the Baron of Montfort after his brother, Simon, died in 1103. Amauri obtained more land by seizing Evreaux after King Henry I denied it to him.

He continued his quarrel with Henry by joining forces against him along with his future son-in-law, Waleran II, the County of Meulan. A year later, in 1124, Amuari was captured at the battle of Bourgtheroulde by William de Grandcourt. William could not make himself hand over his prisoner to the king, so Amauri and William were both exiled, but they later made peace with the king.

Amaury married Richilde de Hainaut about 1097. Richilde (daughter of Count of Hainault II Baldwin and Ida de Leuven) died after 1118. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Amaury married Countess de Rochefort Agnes de Garlende in 1120 in Garlende, France. Agnes (daughter of Anselm de Garlende and de Montlhery) was born about 1090 in Garlende, France; died in 1181. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: de Plessis. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Eleanor de Crispin. Eleanor (daughter of Gilbert de Crispin and Eva de Montfort) was born in 1070 in Runcorn, Cheshire, England; died after 1114 in Somme, Picardie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Earl of Hereford William FitzOsbern. William (son of Steward of Normandy (Robert) Osbern de Crepon and Emma (Alberade) d'Ivry) was born in 1030 in Poitiers, Poitou, France; died on 20 Feb 1070/71 in Battle of Cassel, Normandy, France; was buried in Cormeilles Abbey, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

RAOUL DE TOENI

The Conqueror and His Companions
by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874..

Raoul (Ralph) de Toeni, Seigneur de Conches, second of that name, was the son or grandson (for it is not quite clear which) of that turbulent Roger de Toeni, who was one of the first to dispute the succession of the base-born William to the ducal throne of Normandy, and who, with his two sons Halbert and Elinance, was slain in a conflict with Roger de Beaumont. You have beard of him before as the messenger of the Duke to the French King with the disastrous tidings of the battle of Mortemer.

The honourable office of gonfanonier (standardbearer) of Normandy was hereditary in their family, collateral descendants of its dukes from Mahaluc, uncle of Rolf or Rollo, but on whom it was first conferred has not transpired.

Previous to the battle at Senlac, Wace tells us the Duke ordered the consecrated gonfanon, which the Pope had sent to him, to be brought forth and unfurled. Then taking and raising it, he called to him Raoul de Conches, and said, "Bear my gonfanon, for I would not but do you right. By right and by ancestry your family are gonfanoniers of Normandy, and very good knights have they all been." "Many thanks to you," answered Raoul, "for the recognition of our right, but by my faith the gonfanon shall not be borne by me this day. To-day I claim quittance of that service, for I would serve you in another guise. I will go with you into the battle and fight the English as long as I have life to do so, and be assured that my hand will be worth more than those of twenty such men!"

There can be no doubt that he was as good as his word, although no especial act of gallantry has been recorded of him, for we find him rewarded by the gift of thirty-seven lordships, nineteen being in Norfolk, and making Flamstead, in Hertfordshire, his principal residence in England.

Orderic tells us that this Raoul gained great glory in the wars, and was renowned among the first of the Norman nobles for honour and wealth, serving bravely in the armies of King William and Duke Robert, his son, for nearly sixty years. Of course he must mean alternately, for he was one of the nobles who took part with Robert Court-heuse on his first outbreak, in consequence of the insult of his brothers, William and Henry, who threw water on him from a gallery in a house where they were playing at dice. Raoul was banished, and his domains seized by the King, but through the intercession of friends obtained his pardon and the restoration of his estates.

In 1077, he married Elizabeth, or Isabel, daughter of Simon de Montfort l'Amauri, whose hand he obtained by the audacious act of carrying off by night Agnes, daughter of Richard, Comte d'Evreux, who was his half-sister, and marrying her to the said Simon. Orderic gives an amusing account of this Isabel and her sister-in-law Havise, daughter of William, Comte de Nevers, the wife of her brother Willliam, Comte d'Evreux. The Countess Havise took offence, it appears, at some taunts of the Lady of Conches, and used all her influence with her husband and his barons to have recourse to arms, in which mischievous attempt she unfortunately succeeded. "Both these ladies," the chronicler tells us, "were great talkers, and spirited as well as handsome; they ruled their husbands, oppressed their vassals, and inspired terror in various ways: but still their characters were very different. Havise had wit and eloquence, but she was cruel and avaricious; Isabel, on the contrary, was generous, enterprising, and lively, so that she was beloved and esteemed by those immediately about her. She rode in knightly armour when the vassals took the field, and exhibited as much daring amongst belted knights and men-at-arms as Camilla, the renowned Virgin of Italy, among the squadrons of Tevenus."

By turns the people of Evreux and Conches plundered and destroyed the property of each other. The Lord of Conches, who was less powerful than the Count of Evreux, sought his sovereign, Robert Court-heuse, and laying before him an account of the losses to which he was exposed by the aggressions of the Count of Evreux, demanded the aid he had a right to expect from his liege lord; but Robert turned a deaf car to his prayer, and Raoul in his distress sought a more powerful protector in the King of England, promising him by his envoys the fealty of all his estates in return for his assistance. Rufus was highly pleased at the proposal, and sent orders to Stephen Count of Aumale and Gerrard de Gournay, with others in command of his forces in Normandy, to give every aid to Raoul de Toeni, and throw supplies of all kinds into his castles.

In the month of November, 1090, Count William assembled a large force and laid siege to Conches, his two nephews, Richard de Montfort and William de Breteuil joining him with their respective powers. Richard de Montfort was slain while taking possession of the Abbey of St. Peter de Châtillonn at Conches, and in a subsequent attack William de Breteuil was taken prisoner. This worse than civil war, the wagers of it being all nearly related to each other, lasted three years; at length the Count of Evreux and his allies, ashamed that, having commenced hostilities on so frivolous a provocation, they had suffered the greatest losses, consented to a truce, and peace was proposed upon the following terms: -- William de Breteuil paid three thousand livres for his ransom, and made his cousin Roger, eldest son of Raoul de Toeni, heir to the whole of his fief; the Count of Evreux appointed the same youth, who was his nephew, his successor in the comté. "But," adds the pious writer, "Divinee Providence, which is not ruled by the will of man, provided otherwise." The boy was of an excellent disposition and much beloved by his companions, the vassals, and the neighbors. He had a great regard for the clergy and the monks, to whom he paid due reverence. Rejecting the pomp of dress, in which the nobility too much gloried, his whole demeanour was simple and modest. Upon one occasion, when the knights were amusing themselves in the hall at Conches, playing at various games and talking on various subjects, "as the custom is," the Lady Isabel being present, the conversation took a serious turn, and one of Roger's youthful companions said, "I had a dream lately which much alarmed me. I saw our Lord upon the cross, his whole body livid and writhing with agony. My eyes were riveted upon him in the greatest terror." The listeners gravely remarked that so solemn and fearful a dream seemed to forebode some terrible judgment of God upon him. Baldwin, the son of Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who was of that company, said, "I, too, lately saw in a dream our Lord upon the cross, but in my vision He appeared bright and glorious, and smiled benignantly upon me, stretching forth one hand and making the sign of the cross upon my head." The bystanders all agreed that this vision portended some singular grace and favour. Young Roger de Toeni, upon this, said to his mother, "I know some one not far from here who had recently a similar dream." Her curiosity being excited, she pressed him to say who it was, and what had been seen; but the boy blushed, and was unwilling to say more. At length, yielding to the general entreaties of his friends, he said: "A certain person saw in a vision the Lord Jesus, who, laying his hand on his head, blessed him, saying, 'Come quickly to me, beloved, and I will give you the joys of life.' I therefore believe firmly that one whom I know has been called by the Lord, and will not live long."

The three youths, we are told, experienced different fates, corresponding with what had been foreshadowed to each of them. The first, whose name is not given, was mortally wounded in a hostile inroad, and died without having confessed or received the viaticum. Baldwin, as is well known, took the sign of the Cross, and distinguishing himself in the Holy Wars, was, on the death of his brother Godfrey, elected King of Jerusalem. The youthful heir-presumptive of the Count of Evreux and William de Breteuil took to his bed the same year that he had seen his vision, and departing this life on the 15th of May, was buried amidst general sorrow with his ancestors in the Abbey of St. Peter's at Châtillon, now called off Conches.

Leaving my readers to decide for themselves the question how much credibility may be attached to this story, the like of which are to be found by scores in the pages of our monkish chronicles, I shall only direct their attention to the interesting view it affords us of the manners and habits of the age in which it was written, the words "as the custom now is" proving that although the anecdote may be mere idle gossip, the picture of domestic life is drawn from personal knowledge and observation. Here we see the high-spirited Lady of Conches, seated on the dais or haut pas, in her own castle hall, the ruins of which were recently and may still be existing, surrounded by her family and their young companions, the knights owing service to her lord, the officers of her household, and her handmaidens in attendance on her -- all the features of the court of baron of the eleventh century familiar to the sight of the narrator; the various groups, each with its favourite pastime or topic of conversation, and the peculiar character imparted to the latter by the religious atmosphere of the age. We have here the earliest glimpse of that future King of Jerusalem when, probably, a newly-belted knight and a guest of Raoul de Toeni, he may have seen for the first time the young Countess Godechilde, daughter of his host, who, just separated from her husband, Robert de Meulent, and still under age, was shortly to become his wife, although not destined to share with him the crown of his eastern kingdom.

Raoul de Toeni, like his grandfather Roger, made a journey into Sprain, but with a more peaceful object. The former had hoped to carve out with his sword a dominion for himself, as Rollo had done in Normandy and Robert Guiscard in Sicily; but gained nothing by his enterprise except an empty name --- being afterwards distinguished from other members of his family as Roger of Spain.

His grandson most probably went, like Walter Giffard, to visit the shrine of St. Iago of Compostella.

Previously to setting out on his journey he attended a chapter at the Abbey of St. Evroult, and implored pardon of the abbot and monks for having abetted Arnould d'Eschafour when he burnt the town of Ouche. Laying his gage on the altar, he made many pious vows to be fulfilled on his safe return, and recommended to their care his physician Goisbert, whom he much loved, and who, as soon as he departed, made his profession as a monk, and kept it for nearly thirty years. Goisbert must, therefore, have been personally known to Orderic -- a fact which increases our reliance on any information he communicates to us respecting the family of De Toeni.

On Raoul's return, he tells us, the Lord of Conches faithfully redeemed his promises by the gifts of certain lands and privileges to St. Evroult, and that some years afterwards he took Goisbert, the monk, with him to England, and, through his means, added to his former benefactions two farms or manors -- one named Caldecot, in Norfolk, and the other Abington in Worcestershire; his wife, Roger and Ralph, his sons, freely joining in the grant, which was also confirmed by King William.

Ralph II de Toeni died 24th March 1102, and was buried in the Abbey of Conches, beside his father and his son Roger. His widow Isabel, repenting of the sinful levity in which she had too much indulged in her youth, gave up the world, and took the veil in a convent of nuns at Haute Bruyère (a priory of the order of Fontevrauld, at St. Remi-l'HonorÉ, nearar Montfort l'Amauri), where she reformed her life and worthily ended it in the favour of the Lord.

From Robert, a cadet of this house, the family of Stafford is descended, but I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the exact place of Robert and his brother Nigel de Stafford in the pedigree. They were probably younger brothers of the subject of this memoir, or possibly his uncles. They appear in Domesday as possessors of considerable property, but whether companions of the Conqueror in 1066 is uncertain. The first Robert de Toeni who assumed the name of Stafford, from the Castle of Stafford, married, it is said, Avicia de Clare; but I cannot identify any such person.

Raoul married Dame Nogent-le-Roy Isabel de Montfort in 1077 in Ile de France, France. Isabel (daughter of Simon de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort and Isabel de Broyles) was born about 1058 in Montfort-sur-Risle, Eure, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adeliza married Earl of East Anglia Roger Bigod about 1084 in Leicestershire, England. Roger (son of Robert Bigod and Billeheude de St. Sauveur) was born about 1060 in St. Saveur, Calvados, Normandy, France; died on 8 Sep 1107 in Evesham, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Agnes d'Evereaux

Agnès married Simon de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort in 1058 in Normandy, France. Simon (son of Amaury de Montfort, Lord of Montfort I and Bertrade de Gometz) was born about 1025 in Montfort-l'Amaury, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France; died on 25 Sep 1087 in St Thomas, Loire, Rhône-Alpes, France; was buried in Épernon, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adela married 3rd Earl of Surrey William III de Warenne in 1132/1147. William (son of 2nd Earl of Surrey William II de Warenne and Isabel (Elizabeth ) de Vermandois) was born in 1118 in Vermandois, Neustria, France; died on 19 Jan 1147 in Laodicea, Turkey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adela married 1st Earl of Salisbury Patrick d'Evereaux before 1152. Patrick (son of Sheriff of Wiltshire Walter FitzEdward d'Evereaux and Sibyl de Chaworth) was born about 1129 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England; died on 27 Mar 1168 in Slain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Guy married Ida de St. Pol about 1145 in Ponthieu, France. Ida (daughter of Hugues IV St. Pol and Beatrix) was born about 1126 in St. Pol, Artois, Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

II married Marie de Champagne about 1145 in Burgundy, France. Marie (daughter of Count of Blois and Champagne Theobald IV de Blois and Princess of Carinthia Mathilde von Sponheim) was born about 1129 in Champagne, France; died on 17 Aug 1190 in Fonterault, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Urraca married King of Leon Ferdinand Burgundy, II in 1165. Ferdinand (son of Emperor of All the Spains Alfonso VII Burgundy and Berenguela Raimundo) was born in 1137 in Toledo, Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain; died on 22 Jan 1188 in Benavente, Zamora, Castilla-Leon, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gilbert married Rohese de Clare about 1145 in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England. Rohese (daughter of Lord of Tonbridge Lord of Cardigan Richard FitzGilbert de Clare and Alice de Meschines) was born about 1124 in Tunbridge Castle, Kent, England; died after 1175. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Gunnora d'Aubigny about 1158 in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, England. Gunnora was born about 1134 in Belvoir, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Earl Somerset William de Mohun. William (son of Lord Dunster William de Mohun and Adeliz) was born about 1128; died before 1155. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]