Adele of Flanders

Adele married St. Canute IV, King of Denmark about 1081. Canute (son of Swein II Estridsson, King of Denmark) was born about 1043; died on 10 Jul 1086. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Ingegerd of Denmark was born between 1081 and 1085.

Notes:

Count of Flanders.

Robert married Gertrude of Saxony in 1063. Gertrude (daughter of Bernard II and Eilika of Schweinfurt) was born about 1030; died on 4 Aug 1113. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 1012
• Alternate birth: 1012

Notes:

Count/Marquess of Flanders 1035-1067; Regent of France 1060-1067.

Also known as Baudouin de Flandre, Baldwin "De l'Isle"; Baldwin of Lille; Balduinus Insulanus; Balduinus Pius.

Baldwin married St. Adele of France in 1028 in Paris, France. Adele (daughter of Robert II, King of France and Constance of Provence, Queen Consort of France) was born between 1010 and 1015; died on 8 Jan 1079; was buried in Abbey of Messines, Ypres, Flanders. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1003
• Alternate birth: Abt 1009, Ypres, Flanders
• Alternate death: Abt 1063

Notes:

Also called Adela; Aelis; Alais; Adelaide; Adelheid; Alix; Adela the Holy; Adela of Messines. Countess of Auxerre; Countess of Cotentin.

Notes:

Also called Berthold. Duke of Saxony.

Bernard married Eilika of Schweinfurt about 1020. Eilika (daughter of Henry of Schweinfurt and Gerberge) was born about 1004; died after 1055. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1005
• Alternate death: Aft 1059

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between 980 and 985
• Alternate death: 30 May 1035
• Alternate death: 1037

Notes:

Count of Valenciennes 1007. Count/Marquess of Flanders 987/988-1035.

Also called Baudouin IV le Barbu, Balduinus Barbatus.

Excommunicated in 987 for having abandoned his wife.

Baldwin married Otgiva of Luxembourg about 1005. Otgiva (daughter of Giselbert) was born about 995; died on 21 Feb 1030. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 21 Feb 1036

Notes:

She may have been instead the daughter of Frederick, brother to the Giselbert shown as her father here -- in which case her ancestry would be the same except for the immediately preceding generation. Stewart Baldwin discusses the issue here.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 27 Mar 971, Orléans, Loiret, France
• Alternate birth: 27 Mar 972, Orléans, Loiret, France

Notes:

Called "The Pious."

Robert married Constance of Provence, Queen Consort of France about May 1004. Constance (daughter of Guillaume I "le Liberateur" and Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou) was born between 985-990; died on 22 Jul 1034 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried in Abbey of Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 986
• Alternate death: 25 Jul 1032, Château Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France

Notes:

Also called Constance de Toulouse; Constance of Arles.

"Queen Constance was not someone to be caught with down a dark alley, or even a well-lit street -- she was a violent termagant who once poked out a priest's eye with a stick when undertaking crowd control at a heresy trial. She fomented war between her sons over the succession after Robert II's death." [Peter Stewart, SGM, 3 Jun 2022]

Notes:

Also called Benno. Duke of Saxony.

Bernard married Hildegard about 990. (daughter of Heinrich I "The Bald" and Hildegard von Reinhausen) was born between 974 and 977; died on 3 Oct 1011. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Margrave of the Nordgau.

Henry married Gerberge. Gerberge was born about 970; died after 1036. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From Leo van de Pas:

Gerberge was the wife of Heinrich von Schweinfurt, Markgraf auf der Nordgau. According to the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg, Gerberge was the sister of an otherwise unidentified Otto, and that is evidently the slender thread on which various authors have tried to base her ancestry. The statement that she was the daughter of Heribert, Graf im Kinziggau, assumes that this Otto was Otto von Hammerstein (a plausible, but unproven, conjecture), and other guesses as to the identity of this Otto can lead to other guesses for her parentage. "Unknown" would appear to be the safest choice.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 23 and 30 Mar 988
• Alternate death: 23 Mar 988
• Alternate death: 30 Mar 988

Notes:

Marquess of Flanders 964/965-987/988; Lay-abbot of Saint-Bertin.

Arnulf married Rozala of Italy, Queen Consort of France in 968. Rozala (daughter of Berengario II, King of Italy and Willa of Arles) was born between 945 and 955; died on 13 Dec 1003; was buried in Abbey of Saint-Pierre, Ghent, Flanders. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Rozela; Susanna of Ivrea; Susanna of Italy.

Notes:

Count of Vaudrevange/Wallerfangen (in Moselgau).

"He died of wounds received in Pavia after the coronation of the emperor as king of Italy on 18 May 1004." [Royal Ancestry]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Aft 939
• Alternate birth: 941

Notes:

Nicknamed le Grand or Capet. First of the Capetian kings of France.

Hugues married Adélaïde, Queen Consort of France in 968. Adélaïde (daughter of Guillaume "Tête-d'Étoupe" and Adèle of Normandy) died on 15 Jun 1003. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 15 Jun 1004
• Alternate death: 15 Jun 1005
• Alternate death: 15 Jun 1006

Notes:

Also called Alix.

Her origins are contested. At the Henry Project, Stewart Baldwin considers her a "probable" daughter of William/Guillaume III "Tête-d'Étoupe" ("Towhead"), Duke of Aquitaine, who was also William I of Poitou, "possibly" by Adèle/Gerloc, daughter of Rollo of Normandy. Regarding William III as her father, Baldwin writes "No definitive solution is possible on the known evidence, but this parentage is more likely than the alternatives." He presents a long summary of the competing arguments for and against this model. We follow the Henry project, but in this case we note some strong arguments against this ancestry for the wife of Hugh Capet.

From Peter Stewart, 22 Jun 2010, on soc.genealogy.medieval:

The evidence that Hugo Capet's wife was a daughter of Guilhem III, duke of Aquitaine (Guilhem I as count of Poitou) is late and unsatisfactory but nonetheless straightforward enough.

The evidence that she was related to the ducal family of Normandy is more satisfactory and also straightforward.

However, that this relationship came about through Adela/Gerloc is somewhat less satisfactory, and muddied to a degree by contradictions in the sources for this mysterious personage.

Dudo says that Guilhem III proposed his own marriage to a sister of William Longsword of Normandy in the course of a gathering to hunt mating deer near Rouen, attended amongst others by Hugo Capet's father Hugo Magnus described as duke and leading man of the kingdom—the title and position were accorded to him ca 936. William reportedly called his sister a 'girl' at the time, suggesting that she was perhaps ca. 14 and born well after the conversion of her father Rollo to Christianity. Yet William of Jumièges later gave her the pagan name Gerloc, which appears rather anomalous considering that even William (who must have been ca. 20 years older than her) never occurs with any Norse name.

I would not accept the unsupported word of Dudo for anything at all, including his own existence. He was an outstanding nincompoop, and relied for this period on the memories of people who clearly did not have the story of Rollo's life and family straight in the first place.

Dudo's contemporary Ademar of Chabannes, who certainly knew more about the ducal family in Aquitaine though not that in Normandy, says that Rollo's daughter married Ebles Manzer and was mother of Guilhem III/I ("filius Rannulfi, Eblus manzer, Arvernis et Pictavis simul comes promotus est...Acceptaque in conjugium Adala, filia Rosi [sic] Rotomagensis comitis., genuit ex ea Willelmum Caput Stupe.") The monks of Saint-Maixent, where Guilhem's younger brother Ebles was abbot from 936 (NB around the time that Dudo placed the marriage to Guilhem III/I), followed Ademar and made him also a son of Ebles Manzer and the daughter of Rollo ("Eblus filius Ramnulfi...acceptaque in conjugio Adela, filia Rolli Rothomagensis, genuit ex ea Willelmum Caput Stupæ et episcopum Ebulum".)

We don't know much about the marriages of Ebles Manzer—in the 890s he appears to have had a wife named Aremburgis and by February 911 he was married to a lady named Emillana, probably the same as the Countess Alaina who later became a nun. Guilhem III/I occurs with a wife named Adeleidis in the early 950s. There is no evidence apart from Dudo, Ademar and William of Jumièges that any of these women (or perhaps another who does not occur in charters) was a daughter of Rollo and also had the name Gerloc.

There are such wide gaps in our knowledge of these genealogies that trying to fill in a "Norman ancestry alleged for Adelaide" from the fact that her grandson was somehow related to Edward the Confessor is a stretch too far.

From Peter Stewart, 22 Dec 2020, on soc.genealogy.medieval:

The question of the family origin of Hugo Capet's wife has been raised here before, and I have given reasons for doubting her connection to the dukes of Aquitaine.

A further point has just occurred to me that as far as I know has not been brought into the discussion here or in print before:

In 1025 after Robert II (the only son of Hugo and Adelais) had declined to become king of Italy, Guilhem V of Aquitaine decided to support the candidacy of his own eldest son. To further this he asked for support from the king to prevent opposition from Germany, offering inducements to Robert (1,000 pounds and 100 mantles) and to the queen (500 pounds).

But he put forward the request indirectly, through the queen's first cousin Fulco Nerra of Anjou. A letter to the king, written by St Fulbert of Chartres for Fulco on behalf of Guilhem, sets out the terms of the proposal asking the king to reply to Fulco so that he could relay the answer to Guilhem.

This round-about procedure through a proxy related to the king's wife would seem somewhat odd if Guilhem had been a nephew of Adelais, and his alternative candidate for the Lombard crown therefore the king's first cousin once removed.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 994

Notes:

Count of Arles, 967. Marquess of Provence from before 967 to 993-94. Sometimes enumerated as Guillaume II.

Guillaume married Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou after 984. Adelaide-Blanche (daughter of Foulques II "Le Bon" and Gerberge) was born between 945 and 950; died in 1026 in Montmajour, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Wife of four husbands, and the ancestress of important comital families through three of her marriages, Adélaïde, alias Blanche, was also briefly queen of France, and the mother of another French queen. Yet, in the early nineteenth century, scholars were still confused about her identity. Her story has to be pieced together from various records which, for example, mention an Alaiz, mother of count Pons de Gévaudan, or a Blanca, wife of Louis V, king of France, or an Adelaidis, cui prenomen erat Candida, mother of queen Constance, and only in hindsight is it clear that these records refer to the same woman. The discovery of the work of the historian Richer in the 1830's added a key piece to the puzzle by mentioning three of Adélaïde's marriages, but historians were slow to take advantage of the new information. Nevertheless, by the late nineteeth century, historians had accepted that Adélaïde, alias Blanche, daughter of Foulques II of Anjou, had been successively married to Étienne de Brioude (at the time often incorrectly called count of Gévaudan), king Louis V of France, and Guillaume I (or II) of Provence, and that she was the mother by the last of queen Constance, wife of king Robert II of France, although the marriage to Raymond of "Gothia" was still widely doubted. More recently, in the face of clear proof that Adélaïde was the mother of Guillaume "Taillefer", count of Toulouse, it has been recognized that her marriage to the obscure Raymond was genuine." [The Henry Project]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 28 Mar 973

Notes:

Duke of Saxony.

Hermann married Oda. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died on a 15 March, year uncertain.

Notes:

Count of Stade; Count in the Heiangau.

Heinrich married Hildegard von Reinhausen. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died on an 11 June.

Notes:

"Berthold was mentioned in 941 as Count, in 960 as Count in the Radenzgau, in 961 as Count on the lower Naab, and in 973 as Count in the Volkfeld. In 976, after successful campaigns against Bohemia and Hungary, he was named as Margrave, and in 980 as Count of eastern Franconia." [Leo van de Pas]

Berthold married Eilika of Walbeck. Eilika (daughter of Lothar II von Walbeck and Mathilde von Arneburg) died on 19 Aug 1015 in Schweinfurt, Bavaria. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1 Jan 962

Notes:

Joint Count of Flanders; Lay-abbot of Saint-Bertin.

Baldwin married Mathilde of Saxony in 961. Mathilde (daughter of Hermann and Oda) died on 25 May 1009. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Margrave of Ivrea abt 928-950; King of Italy 950-961.

Berengario married Willa of Arles before 936. Willa (daughter of Boso of Tuscany and Willa) died after 963 in Bamberg, Bayern, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 4 Aug 966

Notes:

Also called Willa of Tuscany. Died as a nun.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 28 Oct 998

Notes:

Generally called Count of Luxembourg. The Henry Project lists his actual titles as: Lay-abbot of Echternach 949/950-973; Advocate of Saint-Maximum 981; Count in Moselgau 982.

"He died 27 (or 28) October, probably c. 998." [Royal Ancestry]

Siegfried married Hedwig about 955. Hedwig was born between 935 and 940; died on 13 Dec 992; was buried in Saint-Maximum, Trier, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 993

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 16 Jun 956, Deurdan, Ile-de-France, France

Notes:

Duke of the Franks. Also called Hugh Magnus (aka BEST MEDIEVAL NAME EVER, albeit one shared with his great-great grandson); Hugo Magnus; Hugh the Great.

Hugues married Hedwig of Saxony in 937. Hedwig (daughter of Heinrich I "The Fowler", King of Germany and St. Matilda) died after 958. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called William "Towhead". William III, Duke of Aquitaine; William I of Poitou.

Guillaume married Adèle of Normandy in 935. Adèle (daughter of Rollo and Poppa) died after Feb 942. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 14 Oct 962
• Alternate death: Aft 969

Notes:

Supposedly also called Geirlaug, Gerloc of Normandy. Widely said to have been a daughter of Rollo "of Normandy", by his supposed wife "Poppa", but various aspects of this are doubted by many. See the Henry Project for much measured discussion; also see Peter Stewart's comments on SGM in 2010, quoted in our entry for her (possible) (maybe) daughter Adélaïde, wife of Hugh Capet.

Notes:

Count of Arles, Provence, and Avignon.

Boso married Constance. Constance died between 961 and 965. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Constance of Viennois.

It has been speculated that she was the daughter of one Charles, son of Louis the Blind, Holy Roman Emperor. This Charles is called by many later chroniclers "Charles Constantine," but he was never called that in his lifetime. Also speculative is the idea that this Charles's mother was Anna of Constantinople, daughter of Byzantine emperor Leo VI and his wife Zoe Zaoutzaina, but the idea that the emperor Louis was ever married to this Anna is much in dispute.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between Sep 958 and Sep 960

Notes:

Count of Anjou. Common ancestor of William the Conqueror and his wife Maud.

Foulques married Gerberge in 937. Gerberge died before Sep 958. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Stade.

Lothar married Swanhilde. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died on a 13 December.

Notes:

Count of Walbeck.

Lothar married Mathilde von Arneburg. Mathilde died on 3 Dec 990. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]