Princess in England Heluna (Bleja)

Heluna married Danish King of Russia Sigurd II "Snake-in-Eye" Ragnarsson, King of Denmark about 799 in Denmark. Sigurd (son of King of the Danes Ragnar "Lodbrok" Sigurdsson and Aslaug Sigurdsdatter) was born about 786 in Denmark; died about 873 in Northumberland, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thorberga married of Agder Ragnvald Olafsson about 833 in of Maer, Nord Trondelag, Norway. Ragnvald (son of King of Jutland and Vestfold Olaf Gudrossson) was born in 782 in Vestfold, Norway; died about 850 in Mære, Steinkjer, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thorberga married Helgi Olafsson about 819 in Ireland. Helgi (son of King of Jutland and Vestfold Olaf Gudrossson) was born about 802 in Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Aslaug married Helgi "The Bold" Fridleifsson about 820 in Denmark. Helgi (son of Fridleif Frodasson) was born about 790. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Ascinda Rognualdsdattir

Ascrida married Eyestein "The Noisy" Ivarsson, Earl of More about 829 in of Maer, Nord Trondelag, Norway. Eyestein (son of Ivar Halfdansson, Jarl of the Uplanders, son of Ivar, Jarl of the Uplands and Eysteinsdottir) was born in 810 in Mære, Steinkjer, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway; died in 859 in Maer, Nord-Trondelag, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sigurd married Ingibjorg Haraldsson about 827 in Ringerike, Norway. Ingibjorg was born about 814 in Ringerike, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Swanhilda married Harald I "Fairhair" Halfdansson about 870 in Norway. Harald (son of Halfdan "Schwarze" Gudrodsson and Ragnhild Sigurdsson) was born about 850 in Hademark, Norway; died in 933 in Norway; was buried in Hauko, Rogaland, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ragnhild Hrolfsdottir. Ragnhild (daughter of Hrolf Nefia) was born in 848 in Nystu Bergset, Ovre Rendal, Hedmark, Norway; died in 854 in Maer, Nord-Trondelag, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Malahuc married Maud de St. Pol about 875 in Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. Maud (daughter of Adelolf de Boulogne and Mathilde de Crequy) was born in 920 in Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died in 965 in Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ragnhild married Halfdan "Schwarze" Gudrodsson about 849 in Norway. Halfdan (son of Gudrod Halfdansson and Asa Haraldsson) was born about 822 in Vestfeld, Norway; died in 860 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Notes:

See Europsch Stammtafeln Bund II tafel 36.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [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]

Harald married Swanhilda Eysteinsdottir about 870 in Norway. Swanhilda (daughter of Eyestein "The Noisy" Ivarsson, Earl of More and Ascrida Rognvaldsdottir) was born about 850 in Mære, Steinkjer, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harald married Thora "Mosterstang" Karadatter about 888 in Vestfold, Norway. Thora was born about 865 in Moster, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harald married Snaefrid Svassesdatter about 896 in Vestfold, Norway. Snaefrid was born about 872 in Trondheim, Sor Trondelag, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harald married Asa Hakonsdatter about 890 in Vestfold, Norway. Asa was born about 860 in of Trondheim, Sor Trondelag, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harald married Alvhild (Alfhild) Ringsson about 890 in Vestfold, Norway. Alvhild was born about 868 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harald married Gyda Eiriksson about 884 in Norway. Gyda was born about 852 in Hordaland, Norway, Hordaland, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harald married Queen of Norway Ragnhild Eriksdatter about 894 in Norway. Ragnhild was born about 870 in Jylland, Denmark; died in 897. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gudrod married Cecilie about 956 in Vestfold, Norway. Cecilie was born about 936 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Sporte de Bretagne in 932 in Normandel, Orne, Basse-Normandie, France. Sporte was born in 911 in Senlis, Bretagne, France; died in 945 in Normandy, France; was buried in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Luitgarda de Vermandois in 940. Luitgarda (daughter of Herbert de Vermandois, Count of Vermandois Count of Meaux and Count of Soissons II and Adele Capet) was born about 922 in of Vermandois, Normandy, France; died on 9 Feb 978; was buried in Matemoutier Abbe, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adele married Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Auvergne William III "Towhead" about 944 in Aquitaine, France. William (son of Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou Ebles "The Bastard" and Emiliane) was born about 912 in of Poitiers, France; died on 3 Apr 963 in Montecassino, Italy. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adaele married Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Auvergne William III "Towhead" about 944. William (son of Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou Ebles "The Bastard" and Emiliane) was born about 912 in of Poitiers, France; died on 3 Apr 963 in Montecassino, Italy. [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]

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

Harald married Asta Gudbrandsson about 994 in Vestfold, Norway. Asta (daughter of King of the Uplanders Gudbrand "Kule" and Ulfhild) was born about 972 in Vestfeld, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Gunnora de Crepon in 978 in Normandy, France. Gunnora (daughter of King of Denmark Herbastus (Harold) VII "Bluetooth" Gormsson and Gynrithe Olafsdatter) was born on 21 Nov 936 in Crépon, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 23 Sep 1031 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married of Paris Emma in 956 in France. Emma (daughter of Hugh "The Great" Capet and of Saxony Hedwig) was born in 945 in France; died on 19 Mar 968. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Duke of Aquitaine. abdicated 993. Also known as Fierabras.

William married of Blois Emma about 968. Emma (daughter of Count of Champagne I Theobald and Luitgarda de Vermandois) was born about 945 in of France; died after 27 Dec 1003. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adelaide married Hugh Capet, King of the Franks in 968. Hugh (son of Hugh "The Great" Capet and of Saxony Hedwig) was born on 23 Aug 941 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France; died on 24 Oct 996 in Les Juifs, Chartres, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France; was buried in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, France. [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]

Gudrod married Cecilie about 956 in Vestfold, Norway. Cecilie was born about 936 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Olav married Thorberga Arnimsson in 1021 in Norway. Thorberga was born about 1001 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Olav married Alfhild about 1018 in Bergen, Hordaland, Norway. Alfhild was born about 1002 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Olav married Princess of Sweden Astrid in 1024 in Uppsala, Sweden. Astrid (daughter of King of Sweden Olaf III "Skotkonung" Eriksson and Princess of Wends Edla) was born in 1003 in of Uppsala, Sweden. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Judith de Rennes in 996 in France. Judith (daughter of Conan I "The Crooked", Duke of Brittany Count of Rennes and Ermengarde d'Anjou) was born in 974 in Bretagne, France; died on 16 Jun 1017 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; was buried in Bernay, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Princess of Denmark Estrid Svendsdatter in 1017 in Normandy, France. Estrid (daughter of Princess of Poland Swietoslava (Sygryda) (Gunhild)) was born about 962 in of Denmark; died in 9 May; was buried in Cathedral, Roskilde, Roskilde, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Pope (Papie) about 1024 in of Normandy, France. Pope was born about 997 in of Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Geoffrey married Hawise de GuinesBrionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France. Hawise (daughter of Count Guisnes Sigefred "The Dane" and Countess of Guisnes Elstrude de Flanders) was born in 958 in Guînes, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 19 Jul 1002 in Brionne, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hedwig married Geoffrey I Berengar in 996 in Bretagne, France. Geoffrey (son of Conan I "The Crooked", Duke of Brittany Count of Rennes and Ermengarde d'Anjou) was born in 980 in Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France; died on 20 Nov 1008 in Loire-Atlantique, Pays de la Loire, France; was buried in Bretagne-de-Marsan, Landes, Aquitaine, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Beatrix married Viscount of Veretadour, Camborn and Turenne Ebles about 1000 in Roucy, Aisne, France. Ebles (son of Viscount of Ventedour II Archembaud and Sulpice de Turenne) was born in 970 in Turenne, France; died after 1030. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Havlive de Rouen. Havlive was born about 968 in Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Lescelin de Turquerville before 1017. Lescelin was born about 997; died in 1057. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Emma married King of England Æthelred II "The Unready" on 5 Apr 1002 in Winchester Cathedral, England. Æthelred (son of King of England Edgar "The Peaceful" and Ælfthryth) was born in 968 in Wessex, England; died on 23 Apr 1016 in London, Middlesex, England; was buried in St Paul's, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Emma married Canute in 1017. Canute was born about 995; died on 12 Nov 1035 in Shaftesbury, Dorset, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Some sources say he resigned the Dukedom for his son in 1021, but this is not indicated in Stammtafeln. Some sources also say died 1025, but Stammtafeln indicates 1030.

William married Comtesse de Bourgogne Agnes de Macon in 1018 in France. Agnes (daughter of Otto, King of Lombardy I and of Rheims Ermentrude de Roucy) was born in 995 in of Bourgogne, France; died on 10 Nov 1068. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Brisque de Gascogne about 1009 in Aquitaine, Gironde, France. Brisque was born about 989 in Gascogne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married of Burgundy Bertha in 996. Bertha was born about 980. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married of Toulouse Constance d'Arles in 1000 in Meulan, Seine-et-Marne, Ile-de-France, France. Constance (daughter of Count of Arles, Provence, and Toulouse William (Guillaume) de Taillefer, III and Adelaide (Arsinde) (Blanche) d'Anjou) was born in 985 in Toulouse, Jura, Franche-Comte, France; died on 25 Jul 1032 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Ile-de-France, France; was buried in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, France. [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]

Harald married Asta Gudbrandsson about 994 in Vestfold, Norway. Asta (daughter of King of the Uplanders Gudbrand "Kule" and Ulfhild) was born about 972 in Vestfeld, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ulfhild married of Saxony Ordulf about 1042 in Saxony. Ordulf (son of Duke of Saxony II Bernard and Elika von Schweinfurt) was born about 1022 in Saxony; died on 28 Mar 1072. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Robert contributed to the restoration of Henry King of France to his throne and received from the gratitude of that monarch the Vexin as an addition to his patrimonial domains. In the 8th year of his reign, curiosity or devotion induced him to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where the fatigues of the journey and the heat of the climate so impaired his constitution he died on his way home.

Some sources call him Robert I the Magnificent!

Robert married Officer of the Household Hariette de Falaise about 1023. Hariette (daughter of Fulbert "The Tanner" de Falaise and Doda (Duxia)) was born in 1003 in Falaise, Normandy, France; died in 1035; was buried . [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Adèle Capet, Princess of France in Jan 1026 in Nevers, Nièvre, Bourgogne, 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]

Alice married Renaud, Count of Burgundy I before 1 Sep 1016 in Burgundy, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France.. Renaud (son of Otto, King of Lombardy I and of Rheims Ermentrude de Roucy) was born in 990 in Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France; died on 4 Sep 1057 in Fecamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; was buried in Besancon, Franche-Comté, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Pappa married Gilbert (Gautier) de St. Valery about 1004 in of St. Valery-en-Caux, Normandy, France. Gilbert (son of Bernard St. Valery and Emma) was born about 977 in of St. Valery-en-Caux, Normandy, France; died after 1011. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Stephen II de Champagne. Stephen (son of Count of Blois, Champagne, Chartres, Tours and Beauvais Odo (Eudes), II and Ermengarde d'Auvergne) was born about 1015; died about 1047. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gilbert married Gunnora d'Anjou in 1021 in Tillieres, Eure, France. Gunnora (daughter of Fulk III "The Black", Count of Anjou and Hildegarde de Lorraine) was born in 984 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 12 Sep 1042 in Fecamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Constance de Eu. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Vicomte de St. Sauveur Niel III de St. Sauveur. Niel (son of Niel, Vicomte de St. Sauveur II and Countess of Bretange Hedwige) died after 1066. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Emma married Ivo, Vicomte de Cotentin on 2 Apr 1043 in Bretagne, France. Ivo (son of Niel, Vicomte de St. Sauveur II and Adela d'Eu) was born in 1026 in Bellomontensis, Cotentin Manche Normandy, France; died on 22 May 1059 in Contentin, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Matilda about 1045 in France. Matilda was born about 1025 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Adelaide de Chalons about 1046 in France. Adelaide was born about 1025 in France; died in 1080. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

RICHARD, COMTE D'EVREUX, AND GUILLAUME HIS SON
The Conqueror and His Companions
by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874........

Of the group of nobles at the head of this chapter, the first two are mentioned by Wace, and Guillaume de Poitiers speaks only of the son of Count Richard.

Other writers, however, assert that both Count Richard and his son fought side by side in the battle of Senlac. It is possible they might have done so, as Count Richard died on the 13th of December of the following year, 1067, and there is nothing to prove that he was not in the army of invasion. It is remarkable, however, that in Taylor's List it is William, Count of Evreux, who is set down as contributing eighty vessels to the fleet; and as William was not Count of Evreux in 1066, it is possible that it is one of the many mistakes we find in the baptismal names of these early nobles and their wives, and we ought to read "Richard," at least as far as the furnishing so noble a contingent as eighty vessels, which must surely have been the act of the reigning Prince, and not of his son, who might at the same time have had the command of them. Richard, Count of Evreux, was the grandson of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, and succeeded his father, Robert, Count of Evreux and Archbishop of Rouen, in 1037. Beyond the fact that at a date variously stated as 1055, 1060, and 1066 or 1067, he founded the abbey of St. Sauveur; nothing is stated of his acts and deeds worth recording; but he is described by the monk of Jumièges as equally a good Christian and aa good soldier.....

He was twice married. His first wife was Adela (called by Pere Anselm, Helene), widow of the Roger de Toeni who was slain in 1038, by whom he had William, who succeeded him, and Agnes, third wife of Simon de Montfort, and whose abduction by her half-brother, Ralph de Toeni, I have already mentioned. By his second wife, Godechilde, of whose family we know as little as we do of that of his first, he had only one daughter, named after her mother, who became abbess of St. Sauveur, the abbey founded by her father at Evreux.

Of William, Count of Evreux, the undoubted companion of the Conqueror, much more is recorded, though nothing previous to the invasion, except his being present with his father at the great Council at Lillebonne, wherein that invasion was decided upon. He is reported as having borne himself valiantly in the battle, and received an ample share of the lands in England distributed by the Conqueror in 1070 to the chieftains who had accompanied him in his expedition. He returned to Normandy in 1078, and was one of the mediators in the treaty of Peace of Blanchelande (vide p. 198, ante). Shortly afterwards, King William, as if to indemnify himself for the property he had bestowed upon him in England, took from him the Castle of Evreux, and placed a royal garrison in it. Nevertheless, he fought on the King's side during the disturbances in Maine, and was taken prisoner at the assault of the Castle of Saint Suzanne, held against the King by Hubert, Vicomte de Maine. In 1087, on the death of the Conqueror, he recovered the Castle of Evreux, driving out the royal troops both from there and from the town of Dangu in the Norman Vexin.

Being without issue, he had adopted his niece Bertrade, daughter of his brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort. In 1089, Fulk le Rechin, or the Quarreler, Count of Anjou, captivated by her beauty, determined to repudiate his third wife, Arengarde, daughter of Isambert, Lord of Chalet-dillon, whom he had only married, 21st January, 1087, in order to obtain the hand of the lovely Bertrade. At this moment, the Manceaux making a fresh effort to throw off the yoke of the Normans, Duke Robert Court-heuse entreated the Count of Anjou to assist him in their repression, which he promised to do on condition that the Duke would obtain for him the hand of Bertrade. On Robert's application to the Count of Evreux, he was answered: "Not unless you will restore me Noyon- sur-Andelle, Gassai, Cravant, Ecouchi, and the other lands of Raoul, my paternal uncle, who was facetiously called 'Tete d'Ane,' on account of his head of hair, and to my nephew, William de Breteuil, Pont Saint Pierre; for Robert de Gassai, son of Raoul, has made me his sole heir." The Duke accepted the condition, and restored to him the whole of these estates, except that of Ecouchi, which was held by Gerrard de Gournay, who was of the same family. The beautiful young Bertrade was, therefore, literally sold at that price to the profligate and detestable Count of Anjou, whom she subsequently fled from with the French King, Philip I, -- the natural consequence of such an unholy union, and the guilt of which lies on the head of her uncle. I have already, in my notice of Ralph de Toeni, spoken of the war maintained for three years between him and this William, Count of Evreux, his uterine brother, kindled by the hostility of their respective wives. After their reconciliation the Count of Evreux did good service to Duke Robert against William Rufus, who endeavored to take from him the city of Rouen; but afterwards, making his peace with the King on the departure of Court-heuse for the Holy Land, he was appointed, in 1097, one of the leaders of the army sent by Rufus, as Regent of Normandy in his nephew's absence, to wrest the province of the Vexin from the King of France, and after the reduction of Maine, in the following year, was charged, in conjunction with Gilbert de 1'Aigle, with the keeping of the city of Mans.

Previous to the death of Rufus the Count of Evreux was out of favor with the King, in consequence of some reports to his disadvantage, attributed to the jealousy of Robert de Meulent, but he continued loyal to that monarch up to the day of the fatal hunt in the New Forest. He lost no time afterwards, however, in avenging himself on Robert de Meulent, whose land of Beaumont he overran and ravaged with unsparing fury.

In 1104 the new King of England, Henry I, coming over to Normandy with a numerous fleet and a great power, in order to restore something like order into the duchy, which the indolent and dissolute Robert Court-heuse had abandoned to the shameless parasites by whom he was enslaved, Robert, conscious of his misconduct, and alarmed at the attitude of his brother, implored his forgiveness and protection, offering him, as a pledge of his sincerity, the whole Comté of Evreux, with the feudal services of itss Count and all his vassals.....

"The illustrious Count," says Orderic, "hearing that he was to be transferred like a horse or an ox, and wishing to preserve his integrity and fealty, said publicly to the Princes: 'I have served your father faithfully all my days, never having stained my sworn fealty in any matter hitherto. I have also observed it to his heir, and determined to use every effort to continue in that course; but it being impossible, as I have often heard learned doctors declare, on the faith of Scripture and the Word of God, that a man can serve two masters who are opposed to each other, it is my earnest desire to be subject to one lord only, lest, being liable to a double service, I may satisfy neither. I love both the King and the Duke; both are the sons of the King, my late lord, and I wish to respect both; but I will only do homage to one, and him I will faithfully serve.'"

The chronicler adds that this candid declaration pleased every one. Duke Robert himself placed the hands of the Count between those of the King, and William became Henry's "Man," fighting for him loyally against his former lord, Robert Court-heuse, at the battle of Tenchebrai, A.D. 1106. But the restless and mischief-making spirit of his wife, by whom he was blindly guided, disturbed the good feeling between William and his sovereign, who had begun very highly to appreciate the services of the Count of Evreux. Proud and envious, she involved him in continual quarrels with the most influential nobles about the person of the King, and ultimately induced him to destroy a tower which Henry had caused to be erected in Evreux.

This act embroiled him with the King, and caused his banishment and the confiscation of his estates. He sought refuge with Fulk V, Count of Anjou, the son of his niece Bertrade, A.D. 1112. Recalled and re-established in his estates after fourteen months' exile, he was a second time banished and again pardoned and restored to his rank and property, and died of apoplexy, 18th April, 1118, without issue.

I cannot resist quoting from Orderic a ridiculous story connected with the death of this Count, because it is so seriously told by the worthy monk of St. Evroult, and illustrates the curious state of education of the period.

"About this time," says the writer, "a prodigy was seen in England. A rustic having bought a cow, presumed to be with calf, at Ely, killed and opened it by order of Henry the Breton, bishop of that diocese. Strange to say, instead of a calf, three little pigs were found in it. "A certain pilgrim returning from Jerusalem, who chanced to meet the countryman driving the cow home from market, told him, and afterwards repeated to the Bishop and other bystanders, that three great persons in the dominions of King Henry would die that year, and many severe calamities would follow. The pilgrim's prophecy was justified by events which occurred in the time specified.

"In fact, William, Count of Evreux, died on the fourteenth of the kalends of May (11th April), and was interred at Fontenelles, in the Abbey of St. Wandrille, by the side of his father Richard. Soon afterwards Queen Matilda, whose baptismal name was Edith, died on the kalends (1st) of May, and lies buried in the Church of St. Peter at Westminster; likewise Robert, Earl of Meulent, expired on the nones (5th) of June, and reposes with his father and brother in the chapters of the monks at Preaux. After the death of these distinguished persons there were great troubles in Normandy."

It needed no ghost from the grave, nor second-sighted pilgrim to predict that three persons of rank would die in the course of the ensuing twelve months, or that there would be troubles in some parts of the dominions of Henry.

The production of the three little pigs is by far the most surprising part of the story. Are we much less prone to gulp down preposterous statements in the 19th century?

One fact, however, is incidentally brought to light in this foolish fiction which is important to the genealogist. The double name of the Queen warns us of the confusion that may arise from our ignorance of such instances in other cases; one of which may possibly be discovered in the puzzling entry in Domes day Book respecting the King's daughter "Matilda" (vide p. 84, ante).

I have given you the character of Isabel, wife of Ralph de Toeni, it is but fair to place before you that of her antagonist, Havise, from the same authority.

"The Countess," writes Orderic, "was distinguished for her wit and beauty. She was one of the tallest women in all Evreux, and of very noble birth, being the daughter of William, the illustrious Count of Nevers. Disregarding the counsels of her husband's barons, she chose rather to follow her own opinion, and her ambition prompting her to meddle in political affairs, she was easily led to engage in rash enterprises."

The Countess died in 1114, and was buried at Noyon-sur-Andelles, in the priory which, with her husband, she had founded in 1108, but which was unfinished when Orderic was writing the eleventh book of his "History," viz., 1136. The building was razed to the ground in the reign of Charles IX, who laid the foundations of a magnificent palace there, and since that time the place has been called Charleval.

Family/Spouse: Adele de Toeni. Adele (daughter of Raoul I de Toeni and Fredistina de Bayeaux) was born about 1004 in Normandy, France; died in 1051. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Abbess of St. Sauveur Godechilde. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Gerrard Flaitel. Gerrard was born in Jan 983 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died in 1028 in Longueville, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Known as "the Confessor", he was born around c. 1003/4 (by 1005) at Islip, Oxon. When he succeeded his half-brother King Hartacanute, on the 8th of June, 1042, the crown of England reverted from the usurping Dainsh dynasty to the line of Cerdic once
more, and for the last tiem. Edward was crowned on the 3rd of April, 1043, at Winchester Cathedral.

He died on the 4th or 5th of January, 1066, at the Palace of Westminster, and was buried in the new Westminster Abbey, built by his command and only recently consecrated.

He was succeeded by Harold, Earl of Wessex, his brother-in-law, to whom he left his throne, with the suport of the Witan, there being no adult claimant to the crown of the line of Cerdic.

Edward and Edith's marriage was purely platonic, the King being unwilling, for religious reasons, to comsummate it, hense there were no children.

His talent lay in the building of churches.

On the 7th of February, 1161, edward the Confessor was canonised, thus becoming the only king of England to be made a saint.

Edward married of Wessex Edith on 23 Jan 1045. Edith (daughter of Godwin and Gytha Thorgilsdottir) was born about 1020; died on 18 Dec 1075 in Palace of Westminster, London, England; was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Goda married Count of Mantes and the Vexin Walter "Dreux" de Vexin about 1023. Walter (son of Count of Vexin Walter (Gautier) II "The White" de Valois and Adele de Senlis) was born in 979 in Normandy, France; died on 1 Jul 1035 in Bithynia, Turkey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Goda married Count of Boulogne II Eustace about 1050. II (son of I Eustace and Mahaut) was born about 1015 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died in 1087. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Founded the Priory of St. Gemma in Xaintonge. Some sources say died 1021, but no Duke of Aquitaine died then according to Stammtafeln.

William married of Burgundy Hildegard about 1069. Hildegard (daughter of Robert I "The Old" Capet, Duke of Burgundy and Ermengarde Blanche d'Anjou) was born in 1050; died after 1104. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Mathide de la Marche about 1058. Mathide (daughter of Hugh V "The Fair" de Lusignan and Almodis de la Marche, Countess of Limoges Toulouse and Barcelona) was born in 1035. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Ermesin about 1050 in Namur, France. Ermesin was born about 1030 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Agnes married Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich (Henry) III "The Black" on 21 Nov 1043 in France. Heinrich (son of Holy Roman Emperor Konrad (Conrad) II "The Salic" and Duchess of Swabia Gisele) was born on 28 Oct 1017 in Germany; died on 5 Oct 1056. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Agnes married Count of Savoy Peter I de Savoie about 1058 in France. Peter (son of Count of Maurienne and Chablais Oddon and of Torino Adelaide) was born about 1048 in Savoie, France; died on 9 Jul 1078. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Adela Capet

Adèle married Richard III "le Bon", Duke of Normandy in Jan 1026 in Nevers, Nièvre, Bourgogne, France. Richard (son of Richard, Duke of Normandy II and Judith de Rennes) was born about 1001 in Falaise, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 6 Aug 1027 in Nicea, Bithynia, Turkey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adèle married Baldwin V "The Pious", Count of Flanders in 1028 in Amiens, Somme, Picardie, France. Baldwin (son of Baldwin IV "Fair Beard", Count of Flanders and of Luxemburg Otgive de Luxembourg) was born on 19 Aug 1012 in Arras, Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 1 Sep 1067 in Lille, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; was buried in Lille, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Ermengarde Blanche d'Anjou about 1048 in France. Ermengarde (daughter of Fulk III "The Black", Count of Anjou and Hildegarde de Lorraine) was born about 1018 in Semur, Cote-d'Or, Bourgogne, France; died on 18 Mar 1076 in Fleury-sur-Ouche, Cote-d'Or, Bourgogne, France; was buried in Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye, Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Helie (Eleanor) de Semur about 1033 in France. Helie (daughter of Count of Semur I Dalmace and Aremburge de Vergy) was born in 1016 in of Semur, Cote-d'Or, France; died on 22 Apr 1109. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Death: 4 Aug 1060, Brie, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France

Henry married of Germany Matilda of de Friesland in 1043 in Bourgogne, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Matilda was born about 1022 in Friesland, Netherlands; died before 1044 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Anna Agnesa Yaroslavna Princess of Kyiv on 19 May 1051 in Maine, Charente, Poitou-Charentes, France. Anna (daughter of Grand Prince of Novgorod and Kyiv Yaroslav I "The Wise" Wladimirowwitsch Grand Prince of Kyiv and Ingegarda Olafsdottir, Princess of Sweden) was born in 1036 in Kyiv, Ukraine; died on 5 Sep 1075 in La Ferté-Alais, Essonne, Île-de-France, France; was buried in Villiers Abbey, La Ferte-Alais, l'Essonne, Île-de-France, France. [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]

Olav married Thorberga Arnimsson in 1021 in Norway. Thorberga was born about 1001 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Olav married Alfhild about 1018 in Bergen, Hordaland, Norway. Alfhild was born about 1002 in Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Olav married Princess of Sweden Astrid in 1024 in Uppsala, Sweden. Astrid (daughter of King of Sweden Olaf III "Skotkonung" Eriksson and Princess of Wends Edla) was born in 1003 in of Uppsala, Sweden. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Magnus married Princess of Hungary Sophia (Zsofia) about 1071 in Germany. Sophia (daughter of King of Hungary I Bela and Princess of Poland Rixa) was born about 1043 in of Esztergom, Hungary; died on 18 Jun 1095. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Count of Lens Lambert II von Boulogne. Lambert died in 1054. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Reigned 1066-1087. Duke of Normandy 1035-1087. Invaded England defeated and killed his rival Harold at the Battle of Hastings and became King. The Norman conquest of England was completed by 1072 aided by the establishment of feudalism under which his followers were granted land in return for pledges of service and loyalty. As King William was noted for his efficient if harsh rule. His administration relied upon Norman and other foreign personnel especially Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1085 started Domesday Book.

William married of Flanders Matilda in 1053 in Cathedral of Notre Dame d'Eu, Normandy, France. Matilda (daughter of Baldwin V "The Pious", Count of Flanders and Adèle Capet, Princess of France) was born on 24 Nov 1031 in Flanders, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; died on 2 Nov 1083 in Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; was buried in Holy Trinity Abbey, Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alix married Ranulf "The Rich" de Briquessart, Vicomte De Bessin on 1 May 1045 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. Ranulf (son of Ancitel de Bayeux, Viscount of Bessin and Poppa de Senlis) was born on 17 Jan 1021 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 21 May 1089 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Stephanie de Longwy before 1060 in Bourgogne, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Stephanie (daughter of Adalbert de Longwy and Clemence de Foix) was born in 1035 in Longwy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France; died on 19 Oct 1092 in Besançon, Doubs, Franche-Comte, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

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

Family/Spouse: Ada de Hugleville. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Odo married of Normandy Adeliza about 1056 in of Normandy, France. Adeliza was born about 1026 in Falaise, Calvados, France; died before 1090. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 1030, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England

Notes:

also Sheriff of Devon

Family/Spouse: Rohese Giffard. Rohese (daughter of Count of Longueville Walter Giffard and Ermentrude (Ermengarde) Fleitel) was born about 1035 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died after 1133. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Baldwin de Brionis, who, for the distinguished part he had in the Conquest, obtained from King William the Barony of Okehampton, the custody of the co. of Devon, and the government of the castle of Exeter in fee. He m. Albreda, dau. of Richard, surnamed Gos, Count of Avranche, and had, with other issue,
I. Richard, surnamed de Redvers.
II. Robert, governor of Brione.
I. Emma, m. 1st to William Avenal, and 2ndly, to William de Abrincis.

[Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 140, Courtenay, Barons Courtenay, Earls of Devon]

Family/Spouse: Albreda d'Avranches. Albreda was born about 1020 in Avranches, Normandy, France; died in Okehampton, Devonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Emma. Emma was born about 1030 in Brionne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Esilia married William Malet about 1041 in Normandy, France. William (son of Earl of Mercia III Ælfgar and Alversa Malet) was born in 1014 in Graville, Normandy, France; died about 1071. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gilbert married Eva de Montfort in 1074 in France. Eva (daughter of Amaury de Montfort, Lord of Montfort I and Bertrade de Gometz) was born in 1045 in Isle, Aube, Champagne-Ardenne, France; died after 1086 in France. [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]

I married Gerberge de Terrasson about 1076 in France. Gerberge (daughter of Pierre de Terrasson) was born about 1055 in Terrasson, France; died in 1103. [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: Count of Longueville Walter Giffard. Walter (son of Lord of Longueville Osbern II de Bolbec and Avelina de Crepon) was born about 1010 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died in 1084 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ralph married Getha Clopa about 1055. Getha was born about 1040 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ralph married Gytha FitzOsgood about 1038. Gytha (daughter of Osgood Clapa) was born in 1025 in Hereford, Herefordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Assisted Philip I of France against William the Conqueror. He erected the Palace of Poictou, and, after conferring large donations on the Church, died.

The dates and name are unclear. Some label him as William VII.

William married Philippa de Toulouse in 1094 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrenees, France. Philippa (daughter of William, Count of Toulouse Margrave of Provence and Duke of Narbonne IV and Emma de Mortain) was born on 22 Oct 1073 in Toulouse, Jura, Franche-Comte, France; died on 28 Nov 1118 in Fontevrault Abbey, Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Ermengard d'Anjou in 1088. Ermengard (daughter of Fulk IV "The Rude" d'Anjou, Count of Anjou and Hildegard de Beaugency) was born on 18 Mar 1066 in Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, France; died on 1 Jun 1147 in Acquitaine, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Agnes married King of Leon and Castile Alfonso VI Fernandez in 1069. Alfonso died on 29 Jun 1109 in Toledo, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Clemence married Count of Luxembourg I Konrad about 1080 in France. I (son of Count of Luxembourg Giselbert) was born about 1019 in of Trier, Rheinland, Germany; died on 8 Aug 1086. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Clemence married Count of Guelders Gerald (Gerhard) (Gueldres) de Wasseberg, I about 1087 in France. Gerald (son of Count of Teiste Dirk Flamens and de Montaigu) was born about 1063 in Gueldres, Wassenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; died in 1134 in Zutphen, Gelderland, Netherlands. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

IV married Bertha de Savoy about 1072 in Schwaben, Germany. Bertha (daughter of Count of Maurienne and Chablais Oddon and of Torino Adelaide) was born on 21 Sep 1051 in Maurienne, France; died on 27 Dec 1087. [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]

Hildegard married Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitiers William VIII (Guillaume) about 1069. William (son of Count of Aquitaine William VII "The Great" and Comtesse de Bourgogne Agnes de Macon) was born about 1026; died on 25 Sep 1086 in Chateau de Chize, Deux-Sevres, Poitou-Charentes, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Countess of Barcelona Sibylle in 1056 in Burgundy, France. Sibylle (daughter of de Barcelona Ramon Berenger and Guisle d'Ampurias) was born about 1032 in Barcelona, Spain; died in 1066. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Margaret about 1070 in Burgundy, France. Margaret was born about 1050. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Constance married King of Castile and Leon Alfonso VI "The Brave" on 8 May 1081. Alfonso (son of King of Castile and Leon Ferdinand "The Great" and of León Sancha) was born in Jun 1040; died on 29 Jun 1109 in Toledo, Spain; was buried in Monastery of Sahegun. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philip married Bertrade de Montfort in 1095. Bertrade (daughter of Simon de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort and Agnès d'Évreux) was born in May 1059 in Montfort-l'Amaury, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France; died on 14 Feb 1117 in Fontevrault, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France; was buried in Saint-Remy-l'Honore, des Yvelines, Île-de-France, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philip married Countess of Holland Bertha in 1072. Bertha (daughter of Count of Holland Floris, Count of Holland I and Gertrud Wettin) was born about 1054 in of Vlaardingen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands; died on 30 Jul 1093 in Montreuil-sur-Lo, Maine-et-Loire, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hugh married Adelaide de Vermandois in 1064 in France. Adelaide (daughter of Count of Vermandois Herbert IV de Vermandois and Adela de Valois) was born about 1048 in Valois, Isle de France, France; died on 23 Sep 1120 in Meulan, Yvelines, Ile-de-France, France. [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: 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]

Ulfhild married of Saxony Ordulf about 1042 in Saxony. Ordulf (son of Duke of Saxony II Bernard and Elika von Schweinfurt) was born about 1022 in Saxony; died on 28 Mar 1072. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Wulfhilda married Duke of Bavaria I Heinrich about 1099 in Germany. I (son of Duke of Bavaria IV Welf and Countess of Northumbria Judith (Fausta)) was born about 1074 in Bavaria; died on 13 Dec 1126. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Judith married Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland Waltheof Siwardsson in 1070 in Artois, France. Waltheof (son of Siward Bjornsson and III Æfleda) was born about 1025 in Huntington, Northumberland, England; died on 31 May 1076 in Beheaded at St. Giles Hill, Winchester, Hampshire, England. [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]