King of Vestfold in Raumerike Eystein "The Fart" Halfdanarsson

Eystein married of Vestfold Hild Ericsdottir about 756 in Akershus, Norway. Hild (daughter of of Vestfold Eric Agnarsson) was born about 740 in Vestfeld, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Halfdan married Hlif Dagsdatter about 787 in Norway. Hlif was born about 762. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: of Engern Emhild. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gudrod married Asa Haraldsson about 816 in Norway. Asa (daughter of Harald "The Red Herbrandsson) was born about 794 in Holtum, Vestfeld, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Halfdan married Ragnhild Sigurdsson about 849 in Norway. Ragnhild (daughter of Sigurd Helgisson and Ingibjorg Haraldsson) was born about 830 in Ringerike, Sogn, Norway. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Killed at Battle of Walcheran

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]

Family/Spouse: King of Denmark Gorm "The Old". Gorm (son of King of Denmark Harold Parcus and Elgiva) was born about 840 in Denmark; died in 893 in Jellinge, Vejle, Denmark; was buried in Jellinge, Vejle, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Herbastus married Gynrithe Olafsdatter about 940 in Normandy, France. Gynrithe (daughter of King of Sweden Olof "Mitkg" Bjornsson and Ingeberg Thrandsdotter) was born in 919 in Denmark; died in 1000. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Herbastus married Cynthia de Crepon in 934 in Normandy, France. Cynthia (daughter of Prince of Obatrides Mistawri) was born about 914 in of Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Gunnora married Richard I "The Fearless", Duke of Normandy in 978 in Normandy, France. Richard (son of William I "Longsword" and Sporte de Bretagne) was born on 5 May 933 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; died on 20 Nov 996 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; was buried in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lord of Longueville Osbern I de Bolbec. Osbern was born about 940 in Longueville, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Wevie married Touroude de Harcourt about 979. Touroude was born in 949 in Pont-Audemer, Eure, France; died in 1040; was buried in Preaux, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thyra married Prince of Sweden Styrbjorn "The Strong" Olafsson in 947 in Denmark. Styrbjorn (son of King of Sweden Olof "Mitkg" Bjornsson and Ingeberg Thrandsdotter) was born in 903 in Sweden; died in 985 in Fyrisval, Uppsala, Sweden. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Sveyn married Sigrid Storrada "The Haughty" Skoglar-Testedot about 984. Sigrid (daughter of Skoglar Toste) was born in 967 in Poznan, Poland; died on 2 Feb 1014. [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 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]

Osbern married Avelina de Crepon about 1001 in France. Avelina (daughter of Herfast de Crepon and Cyrid) was born about 974 in of Longueville, Normandy, France; died in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Humphrey married Aubreye de la Haye Auberie about 1010 in France. Aubreye was born in 984 in Pont-Audemer, Eure, France; died on 20 Sep 1045. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Sigrid. Sigrid was born about 971 in of Halland, Sweden. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Avelina married Lord of Longueville Osbern II de Bolbec about 1001 in France. Osbern (son of Lord of Longueville Osbern I de Bolbec and Wevie de Crepon) was born in 975 in Longueville, Normandy, France; died in 1063 in Longueville, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Avelina married Walter GiffordFrance. Walter was born about 978 in Of Halsbury. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Emma (Alberade) d'Ivry. Emma (daughter of Count of Ivry Ralph de Bayeaux and Erneburge de Caux) was born about 1008 in Ivry, 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]

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:

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

Here we have the name of an illustrious Norman, the progenitor of a race from which the noblest families in England are proud to trace their descent; and, strange to say, beyond this fact little or nothing is known about his own family which can be supported by credible authority. Even the origin of the name of Giffard, Gifford, or Giffart, as it is indifferently spelt, has yet to be definitively settled.

The story that has been so often told about it, viz., that it signified a free-handed or liberal giver, is without any substantial foundation, and is, I believe, one of the many which have been so detrimental to the study of genealogy and heraldry, by misleading the inquirer or checking research altogether. It is upon the authority of William of Jumièges thatt this Walter Giffart, the companion of the Conqueror, the first we know of that name, has been set down as a son of Osborn de Bolbec by his wife, indifferently called Avelina and Duvelina, sister of Gonnor, wife of Richard, Duke of Normandy. Granting this to be true, as we have no documentary evidence to contradict it, the appellation of Giffart or Gifford, appears to be one of those sobriquets founded on personal peculiarities so commonly applied to distinguish certain members of a family previous to the general establishment of hereditary surnames.

Instances of the practice are familiar to the veriest schoolboy, and in the preceding memoir I have mentioned Lambert the Bearded, Eustace with the Eye, and Eustace with the Whiskers. Hence the complimentary suggestion of " Free-Giver," which I should be happy to leave undisputed could it be borne out by etymology. The family, however, was Norman, not Saxon; and it is in the Norman-French, or Low-Latin of the eleventh century, that we must look for its derivation. The word occurs in both those dialects. In Roquefort's Dictionnaire de la Langue Romane, "Giffarde" is rendered "Joufloue, qui a des grosses joues - servante de cuisine," the word being derived from giffe "the cheek," giffle also signifying in the same language "un soufflet," or blow on the cheek. An old French poet, Gautier de Coisiny, complains that women of every class paint themselves, even the torchepot, " scullion," and the Giffarde, " kitchen maid or cook." So in the new Dictionnaire Franco-Normand, by M. George Métivier, we have "Giffair, rire comme un jouflou." And, to myy great satisfaction, I find that this esteemed philologist has come to the same conclusion as myself, for under that word he has " Giffe, Giffle, Joue. Telle est l'origine de l'illustre famille Normande de Giffard, nom répandu très au-delà de cette Province (Jersey, of which Mons. Métiviervier is a native) et de nos îles." Vide also Ducange, sub voce "Giffardus,"" who has a similar interpretation, "Ancilla coquina." It is almost impossible to resist the conviction that Giffard, in the language of that day, signified a person with large cheeks, and was in consequence applied to a cook, who is popularly represented as fat and rubicund.

I beg to apologize to those of my readers who may not take any interest in such disquisitions, and hasten to the sayings and doings of Walter Giffard, with whom the name, whatever it meant, could not have originated, as an Osborne and a Berenger Giffard were his contemporaries, proving that the sobriquet of an individual had become the appellation of a family.

We first hear of him in 1035, as a companion of Hugh de Gournay in the abortive attempt of Edward son of King Ethelred to recover the crown of England (vide vol. ii. p. 113), and next in 1053, when he was left by Duke William in command of the forces blockading the Castle of Arques, and at that period was Lord of Longueville, and already past the prime of life, judging by his account of himself only thirteen years afterwards. In the following year Wace informs us he was entrusted by the Duke with the defense of the district of Caux, in which Longueville is situate, on the occasion of the invasion of Normandy by Henry, King of France. Subsequently he appears to have made a pilgrimage to St. Iago de Compostella, in Spain, or may perhaps have been sent there by the Duke on some mission to Alfonso King of Galicia, to whom William afterwards affianced his daughter Agatha, after the breaking off of the match with the Saxon Prince Edwin. All we learn from Wace is that in the great battle William's first horse had been brought to him by Giffard from Spain, "the gift of a king who had a great friendship for him." The Lord of Longueville accompanied his sovereign to England, having furnished his fleet, according to the List published by Taylor, with thirty vessels and a hundred men.

Previous to the battle, Raoul de Conches, the hereditary standard-bearer of Normandy, having prayed quittance of service on that day, that he might fight with greater freedom in the field, the Duke called to him Walter Giffard, and desired him to bear his gonfanon, who also requested to be excused the honor on the plea of being too old and too feeble. "For the mercy of God, sire," said the old knight, "look upon my white and bald head; my strength is impaired, and I am short of breath," and in answer to the Duke's passionate reproaches, urged that he had a large contingent of men-at-arms in the field, whom he was bound to lead into action, and at the head of them he was ready to die in his sovereign's cause. Whereupon the Duke excused him, and assured him that he loved him more than ever, and that if he survived that day it should be the better for him (Walter) as long as he lived.

We hear of no special exploit performed by him during the battle, Benoîtt de St.-More merely saying that he was struck down in the mélée, andnd rescued apparently by William himself. At its close, however, after Harold had been mortally wounded, this brave old Lord of Longueville, with his bald head and his white locks, is accused of assisting to mutilate the body of the heroic King!

It would be an indignity to the noble veteran to defend him against so infamous a charge, and fortunately there is no need to do so, for it is unsupported by any evidence, and the accuser stands convicted of falsehood and exaggeration sufficient to deprive him of any character for honesty whatever.

When the fight was over, and the victorious Duke had ordered a space on the top of the hill to be cleared of the dead and dying, that his tent might be pitched there, and signified his intention to sup and sleep on the spot, Walter Giffard galloped up to him. " Sire," he said, "what are you about? You are surely not fitly placed here among the dead. Many an Englishman lies bleeding and mingled with the slain, but yet living, and though wounded, only waiting to rise at night and escape in the darkness. They would delight to take their revenge, and would sell their lives dearly, no one caring who killed him afterwards, so he but slew a Norman first, for they say we have done them great wrong. You should lodge elsewhere, guarded by one or two thousand men whom you can best trust. Let a careful watch be set this night, for we know not what snares may be laid for us. You have made a noble day of it, but I like to see the end of the work." The Duke, however, adhered to his original determination. (Roman de Rou) There can be no doubt, I think, that this Walter Giffard who fought at Hastings was the person to whom William the Conqueror, in 1070, gave the earldom of Buckingham; for, old as he is said by Wace to have represented himself at that period, he lived nineteen years afterwards, and was one of the Commissioners entrusted by William to superintend the compilation of the great survey of England, and I can find no reason whatever for the ordinary assertion that his son, the second Walter, was the first earl.

There is evidence that in 1079 he founded the priory of St. Michel de Bolbec, and he is reported to have died about 1081, which we may fairly understand to be 1085, the year in which Domesday was begun and completed.

The wife of this Walter was Ermengarde, a daughter of Gerrard Flaitel, by whom he had a son, the second Walter, Earl of Buckingham, who died in 1102, and with whom he has been confounded. He had also a second son named William, who was Chancellor to William Rufus, made Bishop of Winchester by Henry I, 1107, and died in 1128, and a daughter, named Rohais or Rohesia, wife of Richard Fitz Gilbert, from whom descended the great house of Clare.

Family/Spouse: Ermentrude (Ermengarde) Fleitel. Ermentrude (daughter of Gerrard Flaitel and d'Evereaux) was born in 1014 in Longueville, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Beatrice married Tesselin de Vascoeuil, Count of Rouen in 1010 in Longueville, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. Tesselin (son of Gozelin de Rouen and Emmeline de Normandy) was born in 970 in Vascoeuil, Haute-Normandie, France; died in 1021 in Vascoeuil, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Beatrice de Arques. Beatrice (daughter of Josselyn de Arques and Emmeline) was born in 975. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Notes:

Seigneur of Beaumont, Pontaudemer, Brionne and Vatteville, Normandy.

Roger was nicknamed Barbatus or La Barbe because he wore a moustache and beard while the Normans usually were clean shaven. This peculiarity is recognized in the forty-first panel of the Bayeux Tapestry where he is depicted sitting at a feast with Duke William on his left hand, Odo brother of William and Bishop of Bayeux in the centre.

Planché tells us that "he was the noblest, the wealthiest, and the most valiant seigneur of Normandy, and the greatest and most trusted friend of the Danish family." There is an explanation for this - as an older cousin who had never rebelled against the young Duke, he was part of the kinship group of noblemen that William relied upon in governing Normandy and fighting off frequent rebellion and invasions. The historian Frank McLynn notes that William relied on relatives descended via his mother (namely his half-brothers and brothers-in-law) and on relatives descended from the Duchess Gunnora's sisters, since his own paternal kin had proved unreliable.

Wace, the 12th century historian, says that "at the time of the invasion of England, Roger was summoned to the great council at Lillebonne, on account of his wisdom; but that he did not join in the expedition as he was too far advanced in years." Although Roger could not fight, he did not hesitate in contributing his share of the cost, for he provided at his own expense sixty vessels for the conveyance of the troops across the channel. Furthermore, his eldest son and heir fought bravely at Hastings as noted in several contemporary records. As a result, Roger's elder sons were awarded rich lands in England, and both eventually were made English earls by the sons of the Conqueror.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Died:
Abbey of Preaux, Pont-Audemer, Eure, France

Roger married Adeline de Meulan in 1040. Adeline (daughter of Waleran de Meulan and Ode de Conteville) was born about 1025. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Princess of Denmark Estrid Margaret Svendsdatter. Estrid (daughter of King of Denmark, Norway and England Svend "Forked Beard" and Princess of Poland Swietoslava) was born about 955 in Denmark; died before 9 May 1047; was buried in Cathedral Roskilde, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She died in exile.

Gytha married Godwin about 1019/20. Godwin (son of Wulfnoth) was born about 987 in of Wessex, England; died on 15 Apr 1053 in Winchester Castle, Hampshire, England; was buried in Winchester Cathedral, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

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

Of the three great names at the head of this chapter [Wm F. O., Roger de Montgomeri, Robt de Beaumont], that of William Fitz Osbern claims precedence as the nearest personal friend of the Conqueror, and the chief officer of his household. Son of that Osbern the son of Herfast, otherwise Osbern de Crépon, who was foully murdered in the bed-chamberr off his young sovereign by William de Montgomeri, he succeeded him in his office of Dapifer and the favor of the Duke. No particular feat of arms is recorded of him, though he must have fought in some, if not all, of the battles in Normandy during the twenty years or more which immediately preceded the invasion of England, from that of Val-ès-Dunes in 1047 tooo that of Varaville in 1060, and was probably with the Duke in his expeditions against Conan in Brittany and his invasion of Maine in 1063. We have proof at least of his presence at the siege of Domfront in 1054, when he was sent with Roger de Montgomeri to demand an explanation from Geoffrey Martel of his conduct in marching into Normandy and seizing Alençon. It is not, however, till thee memorable year 1066 that hee becomes a prominent person in the history of Normandy and of England. He appears to have somewhat resembled his master in character, combining great valor with much readiness of wit and astuteness of policy. We have seen him entering the hall of the Palace at Rouen "humming a tune," and rousing the moody Duke from his silent and sullen consideration of the news from England by bidding him bestir himself and take vengeance on Harold, who had been so disloyal to him; to call together all that he could call, cross the sea, and wrest the crown from the perjured usurper. William followed his advice, as most people do when they have already determined on taking the course suggested, and "Osbern, of the bold heart," was very likely aware of that fact when he ventured to express his opinion. The call was made first of the Duke's relatives and most confidential friends, and then of the whole baronage of Normandy. It is at this last and large assembly at Lillebonne that the audacity and cunning of Fitz Osbern become strongly apparent.

Considerable hesitation, and in some instances direct objection, being displayed to the adoption of the project, and the council breaking up into groups to discuss it, the wily Dapifer flitted about from one influential chief to the other, suggesting the danger of driving their feudal lord to extremities; that they should rather anticipate his wishes than suffer him to ask their aid in vain, and that it would be much worse for them eventually, should the Duke have to complain that his enterprise had failed in consequence of their defection. Puzzled and irresolute they at length requested him to speak to the Duke in the name of the whole body, and say not only that they feared the sea, but also that they were not bound to serve him beyond it.

Having thus contrived to be elected their spokesman, he, with the greatest effrontery, assured the Duke that they were unanimous in their determination to support him. That to advance him they would go through fire and water. They would not only cross the sea, but double their service. He who should bring twenty knights would cheerfully bring forty; he who was bound to serve with thirty would come with sixty, and the barons who had to serve with one hundred men would join him with two hundred. As to himself, he promised to furnish sixty ships laden with fighting men. The barons were as indignant as astounded at this unwarrantable declaration. Many openly disavowed him; all was tumult and confusion. "No one could hear another speak; no one could either listen to reason or render it for himself" (Roman de Rou).

The Duke then withdrawing to one side of the hall, sent for the barons one by one, and assuring them of his love and grace, pledged himself that if they would support him, as Fitz Osbern had stated, by doubling their service on this occasion, that they should not be called on in future for service beyond what was the custom of the land, and such as their ancestors had always rendered to their feudal lord. The Duke's eloquence was successful, and, as before stated (page 51), each baron's promise was recorded by scribes ready at hand as soon as it was made.

In Taylor's List, the number of ships furnished by Fitz Osbern, whose name stands first upon it, agrees with that mentioned by Wace. "Habuit a Willielmo Dapifero, filio Osberni LX naves." No knights are mentioned.

We next hear of him on English ground. While the Duke of Normandy was haranguing his forces on the morning of the battle, "William Fitz-Osber" rode up and interrupted him, saying, "Sire, we tarry here too long, let us all arm ourselves. Allons! Allons!" Wace, who recounts this incident, says, Fitz Osbern's horse was "all covered with iron." This is one of the instances in which he has been guilty of an anachronism, no such practice existing in the days of the Conqueror (vide the Bayeux Tapestry), but at the time that he composed the Roman de Rou, the fashion had been imported from the East by the Crusaders, and the horses were often coated with chain from the tail to the nostrils. In the disposition of the army, he was selected by the Duke to be a leader of the wing composed of the men of Boulogne and Poix, but we hear of no special incident connected with his name in the course of the battle.

The reward of his great and long-continued service was promptly bestowed upon him. The earldom of Hereford and the lordship of the Isle of Wight being the principal honors; the manor of Hanley, in Worcestershire, and several in Gloucestershire and other counties, which, in consequence of his dying before the great survey, cannot now be identified.

In addition to these substantial benefits, King William, on his return to Normandy in 1067, made him governor of his newly built Castle of Winchester: an office of great responsibility, as Winchester at that period was a city second only in importance to London. Its palace was the favorite residence of Edward the Confessor and the early Norman kings. It possessed a mint and a treasury, in which the riches and regalia of the sovereign were deposited, and was consequently to be most jealously guarded. The Conqueror also associated him with Bishop Odo, in the vicegerency (sic; viceregency) of the realm during his absence. Fitz Osbern having the chief administration of justice in the north, and Odo in the south of the kingdom.

On the defeat of Edgar Athelin and his confederates at York by the Conqueror in 1068, William Fitz Osbern was appointed governor of that city, and in the following year was hastily summoned to relieve the cities of Shrewsbury and Exeter, simultaneously attacked by the Welsh and the disaffected men of Cheshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall. He was too late to save Shrewsbury, which the insurgents, under Edric the Wild, had burned and abandoned; but reaching Exeter at the moment when a sudden sally of the garrison had driven back the besiegers and thrown them into confusion, the Earl, in conjunction with Count Brian of Brittany, fell upon them and put them nearly all to the sword.

In 1070, he was sent to Normandy by King William in order to assist Queen Matilda, the duchy being at that time in a very disturbed state. About the same period war broke out in Flanders between Richilde, widow of Count Baldwin VI -- called De Mons, and mother of his eldest son and heir, Ernulph -- and Robert, surnamed the Frison, who claimed the regency during the minority of Ernulph, in conformity with the will of his deceased brother. Matilda, taking the side of her sister-in-law, sent the Earl of Hereford with what forces she could spare to her aid. The Earl was then a widower, and either from love or ambition, became a suitor for the hand of the still fair Countess of Flanders.

Richilde, either responding to his affection, or from a desire to attach the valiant Norman more thoroughly to her interest, married him, and made him titular Count of Flanders.

He did not long, however, enjoy his dignity, for, on the 22nd of February, 1071, a sanguinary engagement took place at Ravenchoven, near Cassel, between the forces of Robert the Frison and those of the Countess Richilde and her ally, Philip I, King of France, in which both her son, young Count Ernulph, and her husband, the Earl of Hereford, who fought by his side, fell together.

According to Meier, the death-blow of William Fitz Osbern was dealt by one of his own knights, named Gerbodon, who had previously unhorsed him, but we are left in doubt as to the motive of the felon. The Earl's body was carried by his men-at-arms to the Abbey of Cormeilles, in Normandy, of which he was the founder in 1060, and buried there "amid much sorrow." His first wife, Adelina or Adeliza, was the daughter of Roger de Toeni. The date of her death is uncertain, but it probably took place some few years before the Conquest. She was buried at the Abbey of Lire, on the river Risle, in Normandy, which was also founded by Fitz Osbern as early as 1046; perchance on the occasion of his marriage, as Cormeilles may have been on that of her death. The dates are at least suggestive.

By Adelina de Toeni he had three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, William, succeeded him as Lord of Breteuil and Pacy, and in all his other possessions in Normandy. The second, Ralph, was shorn a monk, when young, in the Abbey of Cormeilles; and the third, Roger de Breteuil, had the earldom of Hereford and all the land his father held in England. The eldest daughter, Emma, married Ralph, Earl of Norfolk, of whom much hereafter. The name of the second and that of her husband are at present unknown, but she became the mother of Raynold de Cracci. (It is clear, therefore, that Dugdale and the other genealogists are in error, who give to Roger de Toeni for wife Alicia, a daughter of William Fitz Osbern, independently of the fact that in that case she would have been his own grand-daughter. Adela, by Pere Anselm called Helene, the widow of Roger de Toeni, and mother of Adeline or Alicia, wife of Will. Fitz Osbern, married secondly Richard Count of Evreux, vide chapter viii., p. 249.) A natural daughter of William de Breteuil, named Isabel, married Ascelin Goel, and was the direct ancestress of the Lovels of Tichmarsh. (Vide vol. ii, ch. vii)

William married Countess of Hainault and Namur Richilda about 1070 in of Flanders. 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]

Family/Spouse: Adeliza (Adelina) de Toeni. Adeliza (daughter of Roger I "The Spainard" de Toeni and Godehut (Goldehilde) Borrell) was born about 1035 in Tosni, France; died in Lire Abbey, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Emma married William de Vernon about 1055 in of Normandy, France. William (son of Hugh de Vernon and de Centerville) was born about 1030 in Vernon, Eure, Normandy, France. [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]

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]

Family/Spouse: Richard FitzGilbert de Clare. Richard (son of Gilbert de Clare, Count of Brionne and Gunnora d'Anjou) was born on 10 Aug 1030 in Saint-Martin-de-Bienfaite-la-Cressonnière, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 14 Nov 1090 in St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England; was buried in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Beatrice married Ralph (Rudolph) de Warenne in 1034 in Bellencombe, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. Ralph was born on 12 Dec 1020 in Varenne, Bellencombre, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France; died on 15 Feb 1074 in Varenne, Bellencombre, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Notes:

Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick (? – 20 June 1123) was an English nobleman. He is also known as Henry de Neubourg or Henry de Newburgh, from the castle of Newburg near Looviers, in Normandy where he was born.

Henry was the younger son of Roger de Beaumont and Adeline of Meulan, daughter of Waleran III, Count de Meulan. He inherited the modest lordship of La Neubourg, in central Normandy, but acquired a much greater holding in England, when, in reward for help in suppressing the Rebellion of 1088, William II of England made him Earl of Warwick.

His name is included in the roll of the knights who came over with the William the Conqueror, but he does not appear to have been present at the Battle of Hastings. He spent the greater part of his life in Normandy, his name is not found in the Domesday Book. He took it leading part in reconciling the Conqueror with his eldest son Robert Curthose in 1081 and he stood high in the Conqueror's favour. He was the companion and friend of Henry I, and when in 1100 a division took place amongst the barons who had gathered together to choose a successor to William II, it was mainly owing to his advice that Henry was selected and when in the following year most of the barons were openly or secretly disloyal and favoured the attempt of Duke Robert to gain the Crown, he and his brother were amongst the few that remained faithful to the King.

He had many honours conferred upon him, in 1068 he was made Constable of Warwick Castle and shortly afterwards King William gave it to him together with the borough and manor. The Castle was enlarged and strengthened during the long succession of powerful lords, and it eventually became one of the most renowned of English fortresses and it remains even to-day the glory of the midland shires. The Bear and Ragged Staff was the badge of Guy the great opponent of the Danes, and Henry on his elevation to the Earldom in 1076 by William I, assumed it, and it has ever since been used by successive Earls. Odericus tells us that "he earned this honour by his valour and loyalty" and Wace speaks of him as "a brave man". He was made a Councillor by the King in 1079 and a Baron of the Exchequer in Normandy 12 April 1080.

In 1099 he fought against the Welsh and built a castle at Abertawy, near Swansea, which was unsuccessfully attacked by the Welsh in 1113; he also captured the Gower peninsula in the south of Glamorganshire. He built other castles at Penrhys, Llandhidian and Swansea in ll20, together with the others at Oystermouth and Aberllychor, the only remains of the latter are a mound and a keep.

Some time between 1106 and 1116 he was granted the lordship of Gower in Wales.

Henry was by disposition quiet and retiring, and was overshadowed by his elder brother Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, reputedly one of the most brilliant men in England.

He died 20 June 1123 and was buried in the Abbey at Preaux.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Family/Spouse: Margaret de Perche. Margaret (daughter of Count of Perche and Mortaigne Geoffrey II de Perche and Beatrice de Montdidier) was born about 1067 in Morlaign, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

ROBERT DE BEAUMONT

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

"Rogier li Veil, cil de Belmont, Assalt Engleis el primier front." Roman de Rou, 1. 13,462.

Thus sings the Prebend of Bayeux in direct contradiction, as I have already observed, of the Archdeacon of Lisieux, who as distinctly asserts that Roger de Beaumont was left in Normandy, president of the council appointed by the Duke to assist his Duchess in its government. There is more reason, however, to discredit Wace in this instance than even in the former one, as Orderic corroborates the statement of the Archdeacon that it was Robert, the eldest son of Roger de Beaumont, who was the companion of the Conqueror in 1066, and whom he describes as "a novice in arms." Mr. Taylor, in his translation of the poem, has mentioned also that in the MS. of Wace, in the British Museum, the name is Robert, though the epithet "le Viel" is not appropriate to his then age. Might not "le Viel" be a clerical error for "de Vielles," the name of Roger's father, which is latinized into "de Vitulis"? Roger de Beaumont would of course have been de Vielles as well as his father. The latinizing of proper names cannot be too much deplored and deprecated.

Of Roger, Count de Beaumont, it is unanimously recorded that he was the noblest, the wealthiest, and the most valiant seigneur of Normandy, and the greatest and most trusted friend of the Danish family. Son of Humphrey de Vielles, and grandson of Thorold de Pontaudemer, a descendant of the Kings of Denmark, through Bernard the Dane, a companion of the first Norman Conqueror, Duke Rollo, illustrious as was such as origin in the eyes of his countrymen, he considered his alliance with Adelina, Countess of Meulent, sufficiently honorable and important to induce him to adopt the title of her family in preference to that of his own.

We have already heard of his first great exploit, when, as a young man, in the early years of Duke William, he defeated the turbulent Roger de Toeni, who with his two sons were slain in that sanguinary conflict (vide p. 19, ante). Towards the invading fleet he contributed, according to Taylor's List, sixty vessels, and being at that time advanced in years, and selected to superintend the affairs of the duchy, sent his young son Robert to win his spurs at Senlac.

In that memorable battle he is said to have given proof of courage and intelligence beyond his years, and promise of the high reputation he would eventually obtain, and which won for him the surname of Prudhomme. "A certain Norman young soldier," writes William of Poitou, "son of Roger de Bellomont, and nephew and heir of Hugh, Count of Meulent, by Adelina, his sister, making his first onset in that fight, did what deserves lasting fame, boldly charging and breaking in upon the enemy with the troops he commanded in the right wing of the army."

His services were rewarded by ninety manors in Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Wiltshire, and Northamptonshire. In 1080 he, with his brother Henry, afterwards Earl of Warwick, were amongst the barons who exerted themselves to reconcile King William to his son Robert Court-heuse, and in 1081 he subscribed a charter of confirmation in favour of the Abbey of Fécamp. This was the last document he signed inn the name of Beaumont, for his mother dying in year, he thenceforth wrote himself Comte de Meulent, and did homage to Philip I, King of France, for the lands to which he succeeded in that kingdom, and in 1082 sat as a Peer of France in a parliament held by the said King at Poissy.

On the death of the Conqueror, the Comte de Meulent and his brother sided with William Rufus; their father, Roger de Beaumont, leaving also the ducal court and retiring to his estates. The late King had given the Castle of Ivri jointly to Roger de Beaumont and Robert his son; but during the absence of the latter in England, Robert Court-heuse, having become Duke of Normandy, exchanged, in 1090, that castle for the Castle of Brionne with Roger de Beaumont, without obtaining the consent of Robert de Meulent. The latter, having a quarrel with the monks of Bec, whose monastery was in the territory of Brionne, was greatly angered by this transaction, and repairing to the Duke at Rouen, boldly demanded of him the restoration of Ivri. The Duke answered that he had given his father the Castle of Brionne for it, which was a fair exchange. The Count replied, "I was no party to that bargain, and repudiate it; but what your father gave to my father that will I have, or by Saint Nicaise I will make you repent your conduct to me." The Duke, highly incensed, had him immediately arrested and imprisoned, and seizing the Castle of Brionne, gave it into the keeping of Robert, son of Baldwin de Meules. Roger de Beaumont, on receipt of these tidings, sought the Duke, and with the skill of an old courtier contrived to pacify his resentment, and obtain the release of his son and the restoration of Brionne; but Robert de Meules, who was in charge of it, refused to surrender it, and the Count de Meulent was obliged to resort to force. Siege was laid to the castle in regular form, and the garrison stoutly holding out, Gilbert du Pin, commanding the beleaguering forces, caused arrows, with their steel heads made red-hot in a furnace, to be shot over the battlements, and which, falling on the roofs of the buildings within the walls, set them on fire. The conflagration spreading, the place became no longer tenable, and Brionne remained from that period in the hands of the Counts of Meulent.

The monks of Bec now found it necessary to patch up their quarrels with the Count, who behaved generously on the occasion, confirming their privileges and those also of the Abbey of Préaux, of Jumiéges, and St.t. Vaudrille, remitting certain imports due to him from the wine-growers of Mantes. I mention these circumstances, which have no interest for the general reader, only to notice a singular condition the Count attached to the franchise, namely, that the masters of all boats passing the Castles of Meulent and Mantes should play on the flageolet as they shot the bridges!

On the departure of Robert Court-heuse for the Crusades, William Rufus, to whom he had confided the government of Normaudy, as a pledge for the repayment of the money the King had lent to him for the expenses of his expedition, considered it a good opportunity to recover from France the province of the Vexin. The Count of Meulent found himself awkwardly situated between the two contending parties. He owed fealty to both sovereigns: to the King of France for the Comté of Meulent, and to thee King of England for his large estates, both in that country and Normandy. He decided in fayour of the latter, received into his castle the forces of the Red King, and so opened for him an entrance into France. The war ended without advantage to either side, and was followed by another between Rufus and Hélie de la FlÈche, Comte du Maine. After vainlyly attempting to reduce the Castle of Dangueul, the King withdrew from the siege, leaving the Count of Menlent to carry on the operations. On the 28th April, 1098, Hélie was drawn into an ambush by Count Robert, and,, after a desperate defence, made prisoner, and conducted by him to the King, who was at Rouen, and who consigned his captive immediately to a dungeon in the great tower of that city.

The incidents and results of this campaign are not sufficiently connected with the personal history of Robert de Meulent to require notice here. He was one of the royal hunting party in the New Forest on the 2nd of August, 1100, when William Rufus received his mysterious death-wound, and hastened on the instant with Prince Henry to Winchester, in order to secure the royal treasure, as well as the succession to the throne of England.

Under the reign of the new King he retained the favour and influence he had enjoyed during those of the two Williams, and commanded the English army, which achieved the conquest of Normandy by Henry I in 1106, who acknowledged himself indebted for it to the advice and valour of the Earl of Leicester, to which dignity Robert de Meulent had been advanced by him at some period not distinctly ascertained, but most probably in the first year of his reign.

Orderic Vital gives the following account of the mode by which he obtained the earldom: -- "The town of Leicester had four masters -- the King, the Bishop of Lincoln, Earl Simon" (Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon), "and Ivo, the son of Hugh" (de Grentmesnil). The latter had been heavily fined for turbulent conduct, and was in disgrace at Court. He was also galled by being nicknamed "the Rope-dancer," having been one of those who had been let down by ropes from the walls of Antioch. He therefore had resolved to rejoin the Crusade, and made an agreement with the Count of Meulent to the following effect: -- The Count was to procure his reconciliation with the King, and to advance him five hundred silver marks for the expenses of his expedition, having the whole of Ivo's domains pledged to him as a security for fifteen years. In consideration of this, the Count was to give the daughter of his brother Henry, Earl of Warwick, in marriage to Ivo's son, who was yet in his infancy, and to restore him his father's inheritance. This contract was confirmed by oath, and ratified by the King, but Ivo died on his road to the Holy Land, and Robert de Meulent, by royal favour and his own address, contrived to get the whole of Leicester into his own hands, and being in consequence created an English earl, his wealth and power surpassed those of any other peer of the realm, and he was exalted above nearly all his family." (Book xi, c. 2)

This great warrior and able man is said to have died of sorrow and mortification, caused by the infidelity of his second wife Elizabeth, otherwise Isabella, daughter of Hugh the Great, Comte de Vermandois and of Chaumont in the Vexin. He had married -- the date at present unknown -- Godechilde de Conches, daughter of Roger de Toeni, Seigneur de Conches, but had separated from her before 1096, as in that year she, who could not then have been seventeen, became the wife of Baldwin, son of Eustace de Boulogne, who was King of Jerusalem after the decease of his brother Godfrey. Robert de Meulent, then being between fifty and sixty, and without issue, sought the hand of Elizabeth de Vermandois, who was in the bloom of youth, and was accepted by the lady; but Ivo, Bishop of Châtres, forbade the magiage on the ground of consanguinity; the Count off Vemandois and the Count of Meulent being both great-grandsons of Gautier II, surnamed "Le Blanc," Count of the Vexin. A dispensation was obtained, however, from the Pope, on condition that Count Hugh should take the Cross, and the marriage was celebrated on the eve of his departure for the Holy Land, the same year in which Robert's first wife married Baldwin de Boulogne.

The issue of Robert de Meulent by his second wife was a daughter named Emma, born, according to Orderic, in 1102; two sons (twins), baptised Waleran and Robert, born in 1104; a third son, known as Hugh the Poor, afterwards Earl of Bedford, and three other daughters, Adeline, Amicia, and Albreda, all of whom must have been born after 1104, when their father, then Earl of Leicester, was well stricken in years. Orderic, indeed, says he had five daughters, the fifth being named Isabel, after her mother.

All these children being born in wedlock, were of course in the eyes of the law legitimate, but William de Warren, Earl of Warren and Surrey, second of that name, son of the mysterious Gundred, had supplanted the Earl of Leicester for some years in the affections of his wife, and her ultimate desertion of him for his young rival affected his mind, and hurried hhn to the grave, June 5, 1118.

Henry of Huntingdon, in his "Letter to Walter," gives the following account of his last moments: -- "I will mention the Earl of Meulent, the most sagacious in political affairs of all who lived between this and Jerusalem. His mind was enlightened, his eloquence persuasive, his shrewdness acute; he was provident and wily; his prudence never failed; his counsels were profound; his wisdom great. He had extensive and noble possessions, which are commonly called honours, together witIx towns and castles, villages and farms, woods and waters, which he acquired by the exercise of the talents I have mentioned. His domains lay not only in England but in Normandy and France, so that he was able at his will to promote concord between the sovereigns of those countries, or to set them at variance and provoke them to war. If he took umbrage against any man, his enemy was humbled and crushed, while those he favoured were exalted to honour. Hence his coffers were filled with a prodigious influx of wealth in gold and silver, besides precious gems and costly furniture and apparel. But when he was in the zenith of his power it happened that a certain earl carried off the lady he had espoused, either by some intrigue or by force and stratagem. Thenceforth his mind was disturbed and clouded with grief, nor did he to the time of his death regain composure and happiness. "After days abandoned to sorrow, when he was labouring under an infirmity which was the precursor of death, and the Archbishop (of Rouen) and priests were performing their office for the confessional purification, they required of him that as a penitent he should restore the lands which by force or fraud he had wrung from others, and wash out his sins with tears of repentance, to which he replied, 'Wretched man that I am! If I dismember the domains I have acquired, what shall I have to leave to my sons?'

"Upon this the ministers of the Lord answered, 'Your hereditary estates and the lands which you have justly obtained are enough for your sons; restore the rest, or else you devote your soul to perdition.'

"The Earl replied, 'My sons shall have all. I leave it to them to act mercifully, that I may obtain mercy.'"

"Assuming the monastic habit, he then breathed his last, and was buried near his father at Préaux, his heart being sent to the monastery off Brackley in Northamptonshire, which he had founded, and there preserved in salt.

William of Malmesbury says of him, that his advice was regarded as though the oracle of God had been consulted; that he was the persuader of peace, the dissuader of strife, and capable of speedily bringing about whatever he desired by the power of his eloquence; that he possessed such mighty influence in England as to change by his single example the long established modes of dress and diet. Limiting himself on the score of his health to one meal a day, in imitation of Alexius, Emperor of Constantinople, the custom was adopted generally by the nobility. In law, he was the supporter of justice; in war, the insurer of victory; urging his lord the King to enforce the statutes vigorously, he himself not only respecting those existing, but proposing new. Ever loyal to his sovereign, he was the stern avenger of treason in others.

It is a relief to read such a character of a man in these darkest days of feudalism, imperfect civilization, and demoralizing superstition.

A word or two respecting his children.

The twins, Waleran and Robert, were carefully brought up by King Henry I from the time of their father's death, "for the King loved him much, because in the beginning of his reign he had greatly aided and encouraged him." On their arriving at the proper age they received knighthood at his hands, and Waleran was put in possession of all his father's domains in France and Normandy, his brother Robert receiving the earldom of Leicester and the lands and honours in England. Three of their sisters were given in marriage by Waleran: -- Adeline to Hugh, 4th Sire de Montfort-sur-Risle, Amicia to Hugh de Château-neuf in Thimerais; andd Albreda (or Aubrey) to William Louvel or Lupel, son of Ascelin Goel, Lord of Ivri. ( Vide vol. ii, p. 223)

Isabel became, according to the chronique scandaleuse of that day, one of the many mistresses of Henry I, and subsequently married Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke. What became of Emma, the eldest born, we know not. According to Orderic she was betrothed, when only a year old, to Aumari, nephew of William, Count of Evreux, but from some impediment which occurred the marriage never took place. She probably died in infancy, or entered a convent. The author of "L'Art de Vérifier less Dates," besides Hugh, Earl of Bedford, already mentioned, gives Robert, a fourth son, whom he calls Dreux, Sire de Boisemont.

Robert married Isabel (Elizabeth ) de Vermandois in 1096. Isabel (daughter of Hugh "The Great" Capet, Duke of France and Burgundy and Adelaide de Vermandois) was born on 13 Feb 1081 in Vermandois, Normandy, Bretagne, France; died on 13 Feb 1131 in Sens, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France; was buried in St. Nicaise, Meulan, France-Sens, Saone-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Flicka Dansk. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Harold Godwineson, II was created Earl of East Anglia in c. 1045, and succeeded his father as Earl of Wessex on the 15th of April, 1053. He was created Earl of Hereford in 1058, and styled 'Duke of the English' from 1064. He succeeded Edward the Confessor as King of England on the 6th of January, 1066, having been chosen by the King as his successor with the support of the Witan. Harold II was crowned on the 6th of January, 1066, probably at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (some authorities state he was crowned at Westminster Abbey, but there is no evidence for this).

He was killed at the Battle of Hastings, Sussex, England. He was felled by an arrow between his eyes - this popular myth has been perpetrated by a misreading of the Bayeus tapestry. He was, in fact, struck down by a blow from a sword wielded by a mounted Norman knight. Harold was buried on the seashore at Hastings, or on the battlefield - the latter is more likely. A stone memorial marks the spot within the grounds of Battle Abbey. Later on, Harold's remains were removed to Waltham Abbey in Essex.

He was succeeded by William, Duke of Normandy, the victor of Hastings.

THE NORMAN KINGS OF ENGLAND

Harold II was the last of the Saxon Kings of England. His successor, William I, based his claim to the English throne upon a promise made to him more than a decade before 1066 by Edward the Confessor, who is said to have told William that he, Edward, would make him his successor.

In 1064, Earl Harold was shipwrecked upon the coast of Normandy. William kept him in honorable captivity until he had sworn upon he had sworn upon holy relics to do all in his power to enforce William's claim to the English throne. William knew very well that at that time it seemed that Harold, the most powerful man in England next to the king, would be designated Edward's successor, which was what in fact happened. When, in the autumn on 1065, Edward was seen to be dying, the Witan considered all claimants and decided that Harold, as the only man with the strength and maturity that befitted him to rule England, was the natural choice. Edward, on his deathbed, accordingly left his crown to Harold, who seized power in defiance of his oath to William.

William thereupon gathered an army, sailed to England, and defeated Harold on the 14th of October, 1066 at the battle of Hastings - it should actually be called the Battle of Senlac Ridge, as that was where it took place. Hastings is 11 miles away.

At that time, there was only one living male representative of the ancient line of the Kings of Wessex, and that was a child known as Edgar the Atheling. He was the grandson of Edmund II. The Witan in London set him up as king as soon as they received the news of William's victory at Hastings, but it quickly became obvious that Edgar's impeccable claim to the throne would be no match for William's determination to wear the crown of England. Edgar submitted to William within 6 weeks, and William was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

A new royal dynasty had been founded; the joining of England with Normandy brought England very much into the forefront of European affairs. William's followers received lands and honors, and thus founded aristocratic dynasties of their own in their new realm. A new order prevailed, England was feudalized, its Church overhauled, and its legal system; and all things Saxon were disdained by the conquering Normans.

William's claim to the English throne had very little basis in dynastic terms. His great-aunt Emma had been wife to both Ethelred II and Canute. William's wife Matilda was a descendent of King Alfred. And that was all. William's own ancestor, Rollo, who founded the duchy of Normandy in the 10th century, had been a Viking pirate. It was left to William's son, Henry I, to ally himself in blood to the ancient line of Cerdic; in 1100, he married Edith, the niece of Edgar the atheling, much to the disgust of his Norman barons, who sneeringly referred to the royal couple as 'Godric and Godgifu', old Saxon names now fallen into disrepute. Yet the marriage was popular with the common people, who were, after all, Saxon, and later Kings would acknowledge that it was fitting that the blood of Cerdic flowed in their veins.

Family/Spouse: Edith Swanneshals. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harold married of Mercia Ealdgyth about 1052 in York, England. Ealdgyth (daughter of Earl of Mercia III Ælfgar and Ælgifu) was born about 1034 in Mercia, England; died after 1086 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Edith married King of England Edward "The Confessor" on 23 Jan 1045. Edward (son of King of England Æthelred II "The Unready" and of Normandy Emma) was born about 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, England; died on 5 Jan 1066 in London, England; was buried in Westminster Palace, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was abducted by Sweyn and whom she contracted an uncanonical marriage.

Family/Spouse: of Wessex Sveyn. Sveyn (son of Godwin and Gytha Thorgilsdottir) was born about 1023; died on 29 Sep 1052 in Lycia, Constantinople, Byzantium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was created an earl in 1043.

Family/Spouse: of Wessex Elgiva. Elgiva (daughter of Godwin and Gytha Thorgilsdottir) was born about 1025; died about 1066. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was created Earl of Northumbria in c. 1055. In that year, or later, he was also created Earl of Northampton and Nottingham. He was deprived of his earldoms on 3rd October, 1065. He was killed on the 25th of September, 1066, at the Battle of Stamford bridge in Northumberland, fighting his brother Harold II in alliance with Harold Hardraada, King of Norway.

Family/Spouse: of Flanders Judith. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was said to have been a monk at Rheims in France.

Notes:

She is said to have been a Nun at either St. Omer in France, or at Bruges in Flanders.

Notes:

He was created Earl of East Anglia in 1057.

Notes:

He created Earl of Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire
in c. 1057

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]

Richard married Adelise Peverel about 1089 in of Isle Of Wight, Hampshire, England. Adelise (daughter of de Nottingham William Peverel and Adeline) was born about 1069 in of Nottinghamshire, England. [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]

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]

Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notes:

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

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]

Notes:

The sources conflict on who was Gisele's father. Some show Otto William of Burgundy, grandson of Gerbega; another shows William I of Burgundy. I have picked the Stammtafeln version.

Gisela married Count of Maurienne and Savoy, Marquis of Turin Humbert II de Maurienne in 1090 in Savoy, France. Humbert (son of Count of Savoy Amadeus (Amadeo) de Maurienne, II and Joan de Geneva) was born about 1062 in of Savoie, France; died on 17 Oct 1103; was buried on 19 Oct 1103. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Gisela married Marquess of Montferrat Renier in 1105 in Bourgogne, Marne, France. Renier was born about 1084 in of Bourgogne, France; died in May 1135. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Matilda married Duke of Burgundy Eudes I "The Red" Borel de Bourgogne in 1077/1098 in Burgundy, France. Eudes (son of Duke of Burgundy Henry Capet and Countess of Barcelona Sibylle) was born in 1058 in Burgandy, France; died on 23 Mar 1103 in Tarsus, Cilicia, Asia Minor. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Murdered

Stephen married of Lorraine Beatrix about 1087. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sibylla married Duke of Burgundy Eudes I "The Red" Borel de Bourgogne in 1080. Eudes (son of Duke of Burgundy Henry Capet and Countess of Barcelona Sibylle) was born in 1058 in Burgandy, France; died on 23 Mar 1103 in Tarsus, Cilicia, Asia Minor. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Raymond married Countess of Castile Urraca in 1087 in Toledo, Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Urraca (daughter of King of Castile and Leon Alfonso VI "The Brave" and of Burgundy Constance Capet) was born in Apr 1079 in Castile, Leon, Castilla-Leon, Spain; died on 8 Mar 1126 in Saldaña, Palencia, Castilla-Leon, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ermentrude married Duke of Alsace-Lorraine II Thierry about 1089. II (son of Count of Alsace-Lorraine Gerard, Count of Metz and Chatenois Duke of Lorraine I and of Namur Hedwig) was born about 1044 in Bar-le-Duc, Meuse, Lorraine, France; died on 23 Jan 1115. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Ida Clementia
• Death: 1133, Nottinghamshire, England

Ida married Robert, Count of Flanders II in 1096 in Flanders, Belgium, Netherlands. Robert (son of Robert, Count of Flanders and Artois I and Gertrud Wettin) was born in 1065 in Ghent, Flanders, Belgium; died on 5 Oct 1111 in Brie, Meaux, Seine-et-Marne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Adelaide de Crecy. Adelaide was born in 1026 in Corbeil, Marne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Walter married Elizabeth about 1064 in of Isleworth, Middlesex, England. Elizabeth was born about 1040 in of Isleworth, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Hawise de Mortimer. Hawise (daughter of Ralph de Mortimer and Millicent de Ferrers) was born about 1073. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Rohese married Eudo de Rie about 1088. Eudo (son of Baron de Rie Hubert de St Clair and Albreda De Preaux) was born in 1047 in Ryes near Bayeux, Calvados, Normandy, France; died after 12 Jul 1080 in Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Heir in England; granted Cardigan in Wales.

Lord of Tunbridge, founded Priory of Clare, Lord of Cardigan

Gilbert de Tonebruge, who resided at Tonebruge and inherited all his father's lands in England, joined in the rebellion of Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, but observing the king (William Rufus) upon the point of falling into an ambuscade, he relented, sought pardon, and saved his royal master. We find him subsequently, however, again in rebellion in the same reign and fortifying and losing his castle at Tunbridge. Hem. In 1113, Adeliza, dau. of the Earl of Cleremont, and had issue, Richard, his successor, Gilbert, Walter, Hervey, and Baldwin. Gilbert de Tonebruge, who was a munificent benefactor to the church, was s. by his eldest son, Richard de Clare. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 119, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]

Gilbert m. Adeliza, dau, of the Earl of Claremont, and was father of Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford, and Gilbert de Clare, created Earl of Pembroke. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 230, Giffard, Earls of Buckingham]

Gilbert married Adeliza (Alice) de Clermont about 1086. Adeliza (daughter of Count of Clermont Hugh de Clermont and Margaret de Roucy) was born about 1072 in Clermont, Beauvais, Oise, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Emma married William d'Avranches, Baron of Okehampton in 1065 in Avranches, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France. William (son of Guillaume d'Avranches and Beatrice de Buillt) was born in 1037 in Avranches, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France; died in 1087 in Okehampton, Devon, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Guillaume d'Arques. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Beatrice married Sheriff of Lincoln Thorold de Taillebois about 1065 in of Lincolnshire, England. Thorold was born about 1040 in of Spalding, Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Wolfric de Hatton, 1st Baron Hatton of Runcorn. Wolfric (son of Ivo, Vicomte de Cotentin and Emma) was born in 1055 in Cotentin, Manche, Basse-Normandie, France; died in 1100 in Runcorn, Cheshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Roger married Amice de Montbrey in 1040 in Aubigny, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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

Maud married Duke of Burgundy Hugh II "the Peaceful" in 1103/1135 in Bourgogne, Marne, France. Hugh (son of Duke of Burgundy Eudes I "The Red" Borel de Bourgogne and of Burgundy Matilda) was born about 1088 in Burgundy, France; died in 1142. [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: Richard FitzGilbert de Clare. Richard (son of Gilbert de Clare, Count of Brionne and Gunnora d'Anjou) was born on 10 Aug 1030 in Saint-Martin-de-Bienfaite-la-Cressonnière, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 14 Nov 1090 in St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, England; was buried in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harold married Margaret d'Avranches about 1084. 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]

Family/Spouse: Emma FitzOsbern. Emma (daughter of Earl of Hereford William FitzOsbern and Adeliza (Adelina) de Toeni) was born about 1059 in Breteuil, France; died after 1095. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 1055, Varenne near Bellencombre, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France

Notes:

[From "The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families"]

For this identification see Mr. Loyd's paper 'The Origin of the Family of Warenne' in Yorkshire Arch. Journal, vol. xxxi, pp. 97-113. The hamlet of Varenne lies on the river Varenne c. 2 miles S of Arques and c. 13 miles N of Bellencombre. The latter place, arr. Dieppe, cant. Bellencombre, where there was a castle, became the caput of the Warenne honour in Normandy.

WILLIAM DE WARREN

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

"De Garenes i vint Willeme" is all we learn from Wace about his appearance at Hastings, except that his helmet fitted him admirably, "Mult li sist bien et chief li helme;" for the mention of which interesting circumstance I suspect the gallant knight is more indebted to rhyme than to record — to the art of poetry rather than to the skill of his armourer. Fortunately we have made his acquaintance some time previous to the Conquest, and there are circumstances of much more importance and interest connected with him than the well-fitting of his helmet. His parentage has been variously represented, and that of his wife the subject of the keenest controversy.

To begin with the beginning. Without bewildering the reader with the conflicting accounts of the early contemporary chroniclers, and the unsatisfactory conclusions of more recent writers, I will at once refer to the earliest mention of William de Warren in history that I am aware of, which occurs in Orderic Vital's account of the battle of Mortemer and its results in 1054. "Duke William," he tells us, "being enraged by the shelter and safe conduct granted by Roger de Mortemer, who commanded the Norman forces on that occasion, to the Comte de Montdidier, who had fought on the side of the French and taken refuge in the Castle of Mortemer, banished Roger from Normandy and confiscated all his possessions;" but being afterwards reconciled to him he restored them to him, with the exception of the Castle of Mortemer, which the Duke gave to William de Warren, "one of his loyal young vassals," whom Orderic makes the Conqueror describe as a cousin or kinsman of De Mortemer, acknowledging no consanguinity to himself.

The probabilities are that he was the son of a Ralph de Warren, a benefactor to the abbey of La Trinité du Mont about the middle of thee 11th century, who, as well as Roger de Mortemer, Nicholas de Basqueville, Walter de St. Martin, and many others, were the issue of some of the numerous nieces of the Duchess Gonnor ("Nepotes plures predicta Gunnora"), who have been inaccurately set down as kinsmen instead of distant connections of her great-grandson the Conqueror.

William de Warren, to whom the Duke of Normandy gave the Castle of Mortemer, was a young man, we are told, at that period, and would, therefore, scarcely have attained the prime of life in 1066. He is named amongst the principal persons summoned to attend the Council at Lillebonne, when the invasion of England was decided upon, and was no doubt present in the great battle, for his services in which he received as his share of the spoil some three hundred manors, nearly half that number being in the county of Norfolk.

In 1067, on the King's departure for Normandy, William de Warren was joined with Hugh de Grentmesnil, Hugh de Montfort, and other valiant men in the government of England, under the superior jurisdiction of the Earl-bishop Odo and William Fitz 0sbern.

In 1074, on the breaking out of the rebellion of Roger, Earl of Hereford, and Ralph, Earl of Norfolk, we find him associated with Richard de Bienfaite as Chief Justiciaries of England, and summoning the rebels to appear before the King's High Court; and on their refusal, William de Warren with Robert, son of William Malet, marched against Earl Ralph, and routing the rebels at Fagadune, pursued them to Norwich, taking many prisoners, whom, according to the barbarous practice of the age, they mutilated by chopping off the right foot—an unmistakable proof that the sufferers had taken a step in the wrong direction.

Of his personal prowess no special anecdote has been preserved, and it is as the husband of the mysterious Gundred, or Gundrada, that his name has descended to the present day with any special interest attached to it.

Whether the hand of this lady was bestowed upon him previously to his services at Senlac, or as a part of his reward for them, does not appear, and our ignorance of the date of their marriage has been the principal obstacle in the way of those who have so hotly disputed her relationship to William the Conqueror, for could we even arrive at an approximate date it might enable us to calculate her probable age at that period, and whether she was born before or after 1053, on which fact depends the whole question.

That they were married before 1078 is certain, as in that year they founded the Priory of Lewes in Sussex, and we have the charters of King William, which he granted to that establishment for the health of the souls of his lord and ancestor, King Edward, of his father Count-Robert, of his own soul and that of his wife, Queen Matilda, and of all their children and successors, and for the souls of William de Warren and his wife Gundrada, his (William's) daughter and their heirs.

The words "my daughter" — "filiæ meæ" — would be decisive of her being the acknowledged child of the King; but independently of their being scarcely legible, it is contended that they are in a different and later hand; and there is this to be observed, which I do not remember having seen noticed, that the King has just previously used the expression "our children and successors" (filiorum atque successorum nostrorum"), so that his particularising Gundrada as "my daughter" would imply that she was not by his wife Matilda.

Exactly in opposition to this is the declaration of William de Warren himself, in whose charter to the priory, granted after the death of Gundred in childbirth (6 kalends of June, 1085), he states his donations to be for the salvation of the souls, amongst others, of his lady Queen Matilda, mother of his wife ("matris uxoris meæ"), excluding in turn King William from any share in her parentage. Was she then the sister of Gherbod the Fleming, Earl of Chester, as Orderic Vital distinctly describes her, without the slightest allusion to her parents? And, if so, was Queen Matilda the mother of both by a previous marriage, which has been utterly ignored by contemporary writers, and never yet established by recent investigators? Mr. Freeman accepts that interpretation, and I can advance no argument in dispute of it. It is much more likely, as he observes, that a stepfather should call the daughter of his wife his daughter, than that a husband should speak of the mother of his wife in anything but a strictly literal sense.

Then how are we to account for the universal silence of the chroniclers, native and foreign, on the subject? Mr. Freeman quotes the instance of their apparent ignorance of the marriage of Robert the Devil with the widow of UIf; but this is a much more important case. We have the unequivocal declaration of William de Warren, that Queen Matilda was the mother of his wife, and unless that charter is spurious, of which there is not the slightest suspicion, the evidence to that extent is conclusive.

But we have not yet done with riddles. Amongst the benefactors of Bermondsey, I find one Richard Guett, recorded as brother of the Countess of Warren, and the donor of the manor of Cowyke to the monks of that abbey, 11th of Rufus, A.D. 1098.

Gundred at that period had been dead thirteen years; but that she is the person alluded to there can be no doubt, as she is styled only "Comtesse Warenne;" whereas Isabelle de Vermandois, wife of her son, the second William, was Countess of Warren and Surrey.

Then who was this Richard Guett? Was he another child of Matilda of Flanders, a brother or halfbrother of Gherbod and Gundred, or a brother-in-law, for the old writers pay little attention to these nice distinctions, as we have seen in the case of Odo of Champagne? Had Matilda of Flanders as many husbands as Adelaide, Countess of Ponthieu, and, like her, issue by each? What was the real cause of the inhibition of her marriage with William, Duke of Normandy, — its delay for six years? What truth is there in the story of her unreturned affection for the Angio-Saxon Brihtric Meaw, and of her vindictive conduct to him after she became Queen of England? I have hesitated to believe in the popular tradition that Duke William grossly assaulted the daughter of Baldwin in the street or in her own chamber, not that I have any doubt about his being capable of such an outrage, but because he was too politic to commit it, and she was not the woman to have forgiven it, assuming that the offence was the simple refusal of his hand on the ground of his illegitimacy. It is obvious, however, that the early life of Matilda is involved in mystery, and it is highly probable that a clearer insight into it would enable us to account for much which we now reject as legend, or fail to reconcile with acknowledged facts. If there be any foundation for the story of William's brutality, the outburst of ungovernable fury might have been due to a much greater provocation than has been assigned for it. Brihtric, the son of Algar or Alfar, sumamed Meaw (Snow), from the extreme fairness of his complexion, an Anglo-Saxon Thegn, possessor of large domains in England, had been sent on an embassy from King Edward the Confessor to the Connt of Flanders. Matilda, we are told, fell desperately in love with him, and offered herself to him in marriage! Either disgusted by her forwardness, or preferring another, he declined the flattering proposal. "Hell hath no fury like a woman foiled," and she kept her wrath warm till she was in a position to ruin the man she had so passionately loved. She had no sooner become the Queen of England than she induced William to confiscate, on some pretence, all Brihtric's estates, and obtained the greater proportion for herself. The unfortunate Thegn was arrested at his house at Hanley, in Worcestershire, on the very day Saint Wulfstan had consecrated a chapel of his building, dragged to Winchester, and died in a dungeon! The truth of this story is supported by the impartial evidence of Domesday, in which Hanley and the principal manors held by Brihtric in the time of King Edward are recorded as the possessions of Queen Matilda, and the remainder passed to Fitz Hamon.

After her hand had been rejected by the noble Saxon, it is presumed she became the wife of a Fleming, named Gherbod, who appears to have held the hereditary office of Advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin, in St. Omers, and by whom she had at least two children, viz., Gherbod, to whom William gave the earldom of Chester, and Gundred, "the sister of Gherbod," and wife of William de Warren. Was this a clandestine or an informal marriage, which, as it has never been acknowledged by any chronicler, contemporary or other, might have been unknown to the Duke of Normandy, when he proposed to one whom he believed to be the maiden daughter of the Count of Flanders, and the corporal chastisement inflicted, however unworthy of a man, passed over, sub silentio, for prudential reasons, by the parties wlio had been guilty of a disgraceful suppression of facts? The subsequent marriage under such circumstances will awaken no surprise in any one who has studied the character of William. Utterly unscrupulous, destitute of every generous, noble, or delicate feeling, every action of his life was dictated by POLICY alone. An alliance with the Count of Flanders might be considered by the crafty schemer sufficiently advantageous to warrant his overlooking any objectionable antecedents in the conduct of a granddaughter of a king of France, his first discovery of which had provoked his savage nature into a momentary ebullition of fury. Her being the mother of two children was a point in her favour with a man whose sole motive for marrying was the perpetuation of a dynasty, and the fair prospect of legitimate issue, in whose veins the blood of the Capets should enrich that of the Furrier of Falaise, would overcome any hesitation at espousing the widow of an Advocate of St. Bertin. On the other hand, Count Baldwin would be too happy to embrace the opportunity of reinstating his daughter in a position befitting her birth, and, as well as the lady herself, gladly condone past insults for future advantages and the hope of smothering, in the splendour of a ducal wedding, the awkward whispers of scandal.

I have said thus much simply to show the view that may be taken of these mysterious circumstances, in opposition to the rose-coloured representations of some modern historians, who, upon no stronger evidence, elevate the Conqueror into a model husband, and describe Matilda as the perfection of womankind. To return to Gundred: her mother, Matilda, the third child of parents who were married in 1027, could not well have been born before 1030, and would therefore be some three years younger than the Conqueror.

In 1047, the time named as that of the Duke's first proposal, she would have been seventeen, and at that age either passionately in love with Brihtric, or already the youthful bride of the Advocate of St. Bertin.

In either case her rejection of William — and in the latter the Papal inhibition — is perfectly understandable. Assuming the marriage, she could scarcely have been the mother of the younger Gherbod and his sister Gundred before 1050; and the Countess of Warren, who died in childbed in 1085, would, according to this calculation, have then been in her thirty-fifth year. These dates are fairly presumable, and are uncontradicted by any circumstances that I am aware of.

No date has ever been assigned to the marriage of Gundred, but it is probable that it took place subsequent to the invasion, and about the same time that the earldom of Chester was bestowed on her brother Gherbod, with whom she may have come to England in the train of their mother, Matilda, on her visit in 1068, for there is not the slightest trace of Gherbod's presence at Hastings; and the magnificent gift of the County Palatine of Chester to a foreigner unknown to fame must have been owing to private family influence, as no service of any description is recorded for which it could be considered a merited reward.

In the foundation charter to Lewes, William de Warren himself tells us that he set out with his wife, Gundred, on a journey to Rome, but was unable to pass the German frontier in consequence of the war raging between the Emperor and the Pope. They therefore visited the Abbey of Cluni, where they were most hospitably entertained by the Prior and the community in the absence of Hugh, the Abbot. No date is mentioned, but the circumstances to which he alludes enable us to arrive at an approximate one.

in the Council of Worms, 23rd of January in that year, sentence of excommunication was passed upon the contumacious Kaiser, and his subjects absolved from their oath of fidelity; and in the following year, Henry, accompanied by his wife and infant son, Conrad, presented himself as a penitent before the walls of the Castle of Canossa, in Lombardy, where the Pontiff was then residing; and after remaining for three days, with naked feet and without food, in token of his contrition, was admitted, on the fourth, to the presence of the triumphant Pontiff, in consequence of the mediation of his cousin, the Countess Matilda, the Count of Savoy, and the Abbot of Cluni, who were at that period at Canossa with his Holiness.

This latter event occurred on the 26th of January, 1077, and we therefore know that Abbot Hugh was then in Lombardy. How long he was absent from Cluni on that occasion I cannot say, but we may fairly conjecture that William and Gundred were the guests of the Prior towards the close of the year 1076, or in the early part of 1077, in which latter year, they having long before resolved to found some religious house for the welfare of their souls, determined that, in gratitude for their reception at the Abbey of Cluni, it should rather be of the Cluniac order than any other. Having obtained the licence of King William, Abbot Hugh, at their request, sent over four of his monks, the principal of whom, named Lanzo, became the first Prior of St. Pancras at Lewes, which was founded and endowed by the Earl accordingly.

The Countess died, as before stated, in 1085, and was buried in the chapter-house at Lewes.

On the breaking out of Bishop Odo's rebellion, in the first year of the reign of Rufus, William, Earl of Warren, stood fast by the King, and served him most loyally both in the field and the council-chamber, for which good service he was created Earl of Surrey.

He enjoyed his new dignity but for a brief period, dying in 1089, 8 kalends of July (where, or of what disorder, is not stated), and was buried near his wife in the chapter-house of Lewes.

The discovery of their coffins a few years ago raised the controversy respecting the parentage of Gundred, which can scarcely even now be considered absolutely decided.

As in the case of Adelaide, Countess of Ponthieu, some charter or trustworthy document may yet be discovered which will clear up, by a simple fact, the mystery surrounding the early life of the Queen of the Conqueror, and not only enable us correctly to affiliate Gherbod and Gundred, but also to identify the hitherto unnoticed claimant to the honour of being one of their nearest relations, Richard Guett, the benefactor of Bermondsey, "brother of the Countess of Warren." From the register of Ely, in the Bodleian Library, Dugdale quotes the following tale of wonder: — " It is reported that this Earl William did violently detain certain lands from the monks of Ely, for which, being after admonished by the Abbot, and not making restitution, he died miserably; and though his death happened very far off the Isle of Ely, the same night he died, the Abbot, lying quietly in his bed, and meditating on heavenly things, heard the soul of the Earl in its carriage away by the Devil, cry out loudly and with a known and distinct voice, 'Lord have mercy upon me! Lord have mercy upon me!' and moreover that the next day the Abbot acquainted all the monks in Chapter therewith; and, likewise, that about four days after there came a messenger to them from the wife of the Earl with one hundred shillings for the good of his soul, who told them that he died the very hour the Abbot heard that outcry; but that neither the Abbot nor any of the monks would receive it, not thinking it safe for them to take the money of a damned person."

"If the first part of this story," adds honest old Norroy, " as the Abbot's hearing that noise, be no truer than the last, viz., that his lady sent them one hundred shillings, I shall deem it to be a mere fiction in regard the lady was certainly dead about three years before."

What appears more incredible to me is that there was not one monk to be found in the convent who would pocket the money "for the good of the soul" of the departed delinquent, who had "died miserably," — a statement which, taken in conjunction with the preternatural communication of the event to the holy Abbot, conveys to my mind an ugly idea of a guilty foreknowledge of it.

Died:
Age: 33

William married Princess of England Gundred before 1077 in Normandy, France. Gundred was born about 1050 in Normandy, France; died on 27 May 1085 in Castle Acre, Norfolk, England; was buried in Priory of Lewes, Sussex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From "The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families":

William of Arques has been the subject of an exhaustive study by Professor D. C. Douglas in the introduction to his edition "The Domesday Monacharum of Christ Church Canterbury", where full references are given to the authorities; and it is unnecessary to go over the ground again. Briefly he held Folkestone, Kent, and was the son of Godfrey Vicomte of Arques. The identity of the tenant of Folkstone is established by the fact that it passed to Nigel de Monville who had married his daughter and coheiress Emma. He must not be confused with William of Arques, a monk of Moleme who was a counsellor of Robert Curthose, and still less with William, count of Arques, the uncle of William the Conqueror. The ruined castle of Arques-la-Bataille is well known.

Family/Spouse: Beatrice de Bolbec. Beatrice was born about 1035 in Longueville, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From the Complete Peerage, Vol. XII, Pt. 2, p. 361-62: "After the battle of Lincoln, 2 Feb. 1140/41, he joined the Empress Maud of his own free will. He served with her at the siege of Winchester in 1141; but early in 1142 he was with Stephen at Stamford. He does not seem to have taken any active part in the Civil War; but at an unknown date he allowed Warwick Castle to be garrisoned by Stephen's troops, and in 1153 he was with the King when he heard that the garrison had been tracked by Henry's knights and the Castle surrendered. Although he was not to blame, it is said that he was so overcome with shame and grief that he died suddenly. He founded the Templars' House and St. Michael's Hospital, both in Warwick, completed the foundation of Warwick Priory and was a benefactor to a large number of religious foundations."

Roger married Gundred de Warenne before 1130. Gundred (daughter of 2nd Earl of Surrey William II de Warenne and Isabel (Elizabeth ) de Vermandois) was born about 1109 in Surrey, Surrey, England; died about 1166 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England; was buried in Kelso, Roxburgh, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Amice de Gael in 1120/1151 in Brittany, France. Amice (daughter of Lord of Montfort Ralph de Gael and Emma Avice de Vermandois) was born in 1108 in Montford de Gael, Brittany, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Meulan.

Waleran married Agnes de Montfort about 1141. Agnes (daughter of Count Evereux Amaury, Seigneur de Montfort III and Countess de Rochefort Agnes de Garlende) was born about 1122 in Montfort-l'Amaury Castle, Ile-de-France, France; died on 15 Dec 1181. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Waleran married Matilda in 1136. Matilda (daughter of King of England Stephen de Blois and Countess of Boulogne Matilda de Talvas) was born about 1133; died in Tower of London, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married Constable of England Hervey de Montmorency in 1135. Hervey (son of Seigneur de Chateau-Bassett Bouchard II de Montmorency and Adeliza (Alice) de Clermont) was born about 1138; died in 1165. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married King of England Henry I "Beauclerc" about 1119. Henry (son of William I "The Conqueror", King of England and of Flanders Matilda) was born about Sep 1068 in Selby, Yorkshire, England; died on 1 Dec 1135 in Lyons-la-Foret, Normandy, France; was buried in Reading Abbey, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married 1st Earl of Pembroke Gilbert "Strongbow" FitzGilbert de Clare before 1130 in Tunbridge, Kent, England. Gilbert (son of Earl Hertford Gilbert FitzRichard de Clare and Adeliza (Alice) de Clermont) was born on 21 Sep 1100 in Tunbridge, Kent, England; died on 6 Jan 1147 in England; was buried in Tintern Abbey, Chapel Hill, Monmouthsire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Isabel married Earl of Huntingdon Simon de Senlis, Earl of Huntingdon II in 1141/1186 in of Leicestershire, England. Simon (son of Simon de Senlis, 1st Earl of Northampton and 2nd Earl of Huntingdon I and Maud Huntingdon) was born about 1098 in Northamptonshire, England; died in Aug 1153 in Northampton, Northamptonshire, , England; was buried in St Andrew's Priory. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Baron Hinckley Hugh de Grandmesnil. Hugh (son of Robert de Grandmesnil and of Bayeux Agnes de Briquessart) was born in 1092 in Grandmesnil, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; died on 10 Feb 1136 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]