William I "Longsword"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notes:

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]