Maud of Meulan

Notes:

Also called Maud de Beaumont.

Family/Spouse: William Lovel. William (son of Ascelin Goel and Isabel de Breteuil) was born in of Ivry, Normandy, France; died before 1170. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William Lovel was born in of Minster Lovel, Oxfordshire, England; died before 1213.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1049

Notes:

Also known as Robert de Beaumont. Count of Meulan. Created Earl of Leicester.

* One of the only fifteen "Proven Companions" of William the Conqueror at Hastings.

* Inherited the title Count of Meulan when his mother died in 1081; paid homage for it to Philip I of France and sat as a French peer in the parliament at Poissy.

* A member of the royal hunting party in the New Forest, 2 Aug 1100, during which William II was accidentally killed by an arrow. Pledged allegiance to Henry I, who created him Earl of Leicester in 1107.

* Excommunicated by Paschal II during the Investiture Controversy. Excommunication later revoked by Anselm, exiled archbishop of Canterbury; revocation later ratified by Paschal.

* Lived to be the last surviving Norman nobleman who was at Hastings.

Robert married Isabel de Vermandois in 1096. Isabel (daughter of Hugues le Grand and Adèle de Vermandois) died before Jun 1147. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef Jul 1147

Notes:

Countess of Leicester. Also called Elizabeth de Vermandois.

Royal Ancestry says she was living c. 1138 and that she died "13 (or 17) February, sometime before June 1147, when her son, William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey, left on crusade." Several sources say she died in the priory of Lewes, Sussex.

Via her two husbands and thirteen children, descent from her is so common among modern people with traceable medieval ancestry that Douglas Richardson once jokingly asserted the existence of an exclusive lineage organization called the Society of Non-Descendants of Isabel de Vermandois. Of the 19 root people in this database with demonstrable descent from any monarch, only three would be eligible for membership in such a group.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 29 Nov 1094

Notes:

Slew Roger de Tosny during the civil wars in the early part of Duke William's reign. Not at Hastings, but he is said to have furnished ships for the crossing. Remained in Normandy as the principal adviser of the Duchess Maud. Died as a monk.

Roger married Adeline de Meulan. Adeline (daughter of Waleran III and Oda) died on 8 Apr 1081; was buried in Abbey of Bec, Eure, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Was Adeline/Adelinde (wife of Roger de Beaumont who died 1094) a daughter of Oda, wife of Waleran? Peter Stewart's answer on 9 Dec 2016:

This is not known as a certainty from direct evidence, but seems most likely.

Oda had five children by the time her husband Waleran of Meulan tried to have their marriage annulled, and she had died by the time he occurs with a second wife in 1033.

Adela (or Adelina) was evidently the eldest daughter of Waleran, as her son Robert (born ca 1046) inherited Meulan. She was described a sister of Hugo, Waleran's heir, who was named as his son in the 1033 charter before the second wife. As far as we know Waleran had only two sons by his second wife.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 18 Oct 1102, Tarsus, Cilicia

Notes:

Count of Crépy. Count of Vermandois and Valois. Duke of France.

Also called Hugh "Magnus".

The place where he died, in what is now south-central Turkey, is the same Tarsus as in "Saul of Tarsus," before he turned into St. Paul.

Post to SGM by Nathaniel Lane Taylor, 22 Jan 2004, about the battle in which Hugues died:

[I]t was I who first first posted the death date & circumstances on Hugh of Vermandois when I started this whole messy thread. But the 1101 date is clearly correct, because Hugh died of wounds after the battle in which a Crusader force was annihilated at Heraklea (Asia Minor) in late September of 1101. There is no mistaking the year, in the chronology of the first Crusade's aftermath. Runciman (2:28-29) does not provide a precise date for that battle, but it was one of three major failures of Western forces the Summer and Fall of 1101. See generally his History of the Crusades, vol. 2, chapter 2, "The Crusades of 1101." On the battle at Heraklea, he says:

"Early in September they [see below] entered Heraclea, which they found deserted as Konya had been. Just beyond the town flowed the river, one of the few Anatolian streams to flow abundantly throughout the summer. The Christian warriors, half-mad from thirst, broke their ranks to rush to the welcoming water. But the Turkish army lay concealed in the thickets on the river banks. As the crusaders surged on in disorder, the Turks sprang out on them and surrounded them. There was no time to reform ranks. Panic spread through the Christian army. Horsemen and infantry were mixed in a dreadful stampede; and as they stumbled in their attempt to flee they were slaughtered by the enemy. The duke of Aquitaine, followed by one of his grooms, cut his way out and rode into the mountains. After many days of wandering through the passes he found his way to Tarsus. Hugh of Vermandois was badly wounded in the battle; but some of his men rescued him and he too reached Tarsus. But he was a dying man. His death took place on 18 October and they buried him there in the Cathedral of St Paul. He never fulfilled his vow to go to Jerusalem. Welf of Bavaria only escaped by throwing away all his armor. After several weeks he arrived with two or three attendants at Antioch. Archbishop Thiemo [of Salzburg] was taken prisoner and martyred for his faith. The fate of the Margravine of Austria is unknown. Later legends said that she ended her days a captive in a far-off harem, where she gave birth to the Moslem hero Zengi. More probably she was thrown from her litter in the panic and trampled to death."

Runciman cites Albert of Aachen, 8.34-40 (pp. 579-82 in the edition he cites); and Ekkehard, 24-26 (pp. 30-32), among other material on the legend of the the Margravine of Austria, etc.

It is PNH's contention that this Hugh le Grand is the exact bellybutton of the Middle Ages. His father was a king of France; his mother was one of the daughters of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev; and his daughter Isabel married, as her first husband, one of the Conqueror's proven companions at Hastings. Another daughter, Agnes, married a marcher lord of northern Italy. Through his mother he was also descended from three canonized Kievan saints and two kings of Sweden. He married the last member of the Carolingian dynasty. He died on Crusade. He was called Hugues le Grand. Case closed.

Hugues married Adèle de Vermandois about 1080. Adèle (daughter of Herbert IV and Adela of Vexin) died in 1120; was buried on 28 Sep 1120 in Vermandois, Aisne, Picardy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 1120 and 1124

Notes:

Countess of Vermandois. Last member of the Carolingian dynasty.

According to Royal Ancestry, she died "28 September, between 1120 and 1124."

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 1050

Notes:

Also called Honfroy, Onfroi; Umfrid. A follower of Robert I, Duke of Normandy. Died as a monk at St. Pierre at Préaux, near Pont Audemer, which he had founded.

Humphrey married Aubreye. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Albreda de la Haye; Auberie; Alberée.

Notes:

Also called Galeran. Count of Meulan.

"The county of Meulan, in Normandy, France, appeared as an entity within the region of the Vexin when the otherwise unknown Count Waleran established an independent power base on a fortified island in the River Seine, around the year 1020. Waleran's origins are subject to several genealogical myths, not least that he had predecessors in his office." [Wikipedia]

Waleran married Oda. Oda died before 1033 in Notre-Dame de Coulombs, Eure-et-Loir, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Nothing is known of the family background of Waleran's first wife, Oda. All we know of her for certain is that she was mother of five children by 1024 and after her husband unsuccessfully tried to get their marriage annulled she died as a nun at Notre-Dame de Coulombs by 1033. You can safely disregard any internet genealogy that includes her as a sister of Herluin of Conteville, or that traces the lineage of a Jean of Conteville through imaginary Baldwins of Blois." [Peter Stewart, citation details below.]

Henri married Anne of Kiev, Queen Consort of France on 19 May 1051 in Rheims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Anne (daughter of Yaroslav I "The Wise", Grand Prince of Kiev and Ingegerd (St. Anna) of Sweden) was born in 1036 in Kiev, Ukraine; died after 1075. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1079

Notes:

Also known as Agnes of Kiev and Anna Yaroslavna.

According to Royal Ancestry, she died "5 Sept., between 1075 and 1078."

Notes:

Count of Vermandois and Valois.

Herbert married Adela of Vexin before 1068. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Adelaide of Vermandois; Adele of Valois.

Turulf married Duvelina. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Avelina; Eva; Dulceline; (mistakenly) "Duvelina de Crepon".

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]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 20 Feb 1054

Notes:

Also called Jaroslav I Vladimirovich. Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 to 1054.

Yaroslav married Ingegerd (St. Anna) of Sweden. Ingegerd (daughter of Olof Skötkonung, King of Sweden and Estrid of the Obotrites) died on 10 Feb 1050. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also known as Ingegerd (or Ingegarde, or Ingrid) Olofsdotter. Her christening name was Irina (Irene). For having initiated the building of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, she was later declared a saint under the name St. Anna. Her feast days are 10 February and 4 October.

Notes:

Count of Vermandois.

Otto married Parvi. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Pavie.

Raoul married Adele de Bar-sur-Aube. Adele (daughter of Nocher III) died in 1053. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Aelis.

Notes:

Also called Herbastus, Forester of Arque; Arfastus. His actual name is unknown; he appears in history only as the father of several people known to have been siblings.

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]

Notes:

The church in which he was buried, popularly known as the Church of the Tithe, was destroyed when the Mongols overran Kiev in 1240.

Vladimir married Rogneda of Polotsk in 980. Rogneda (daughter of Ragnvald, Prince of Polotsk) was born about 962; died in 1000. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Olof married Estrid of the Obotrites. Estrid was born about 979; died in 1035. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 955

Notes:

Count of Vermandois.

Herbert married Ermengarde before 987. Ermengarde died after 1018. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1035

Notes:

Given in some sources as a daughter of Reinald, Count of Bar-sur-Seine.

Notes:

Count of Amiens, Valois, and Crépy.

Raoul married Adèle de Breteuil. Adèle (daughter of Gilduin and Emmeline de Châteaudun) died on 11 Sep 1051. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Bar-sur-Aube.