Maud de Somery

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 9 Jun 1302

Family/Spouse: Henry de Erdington. Henry (son of Giles de Erdington, Dean of St. Peter College) was born in of Erdington, Aston, Warwickshire, England; died before 26 Mar 1282. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Henry de Erdington was born about 1274 in of Erdington, Aston, Warwickshire, England; died after 1340.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1272
• Alternate death: Bef 27 Aug 1273

Notes:

Fought at Evesham on the King's side, according to the CP entry on his son-in-law Ralph Basset. Earlier, according to The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, he was taken prisoner with the King at the battle of Lewes.

Roger married Nichole d'Aubigny before 22 Nov 1232. Nichole (daughter of William d'Aubigny and Mabel of Chester) was born in of Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire, England; died about 1240. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 20 Jan 1247

Notes:

Also called Colette.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 29 Sep 1210
• Alternate death: 1211

Notes:

Note that although Dudley town is in Worcestershire, Dudley Castle was across the county border in Staffordshire.

Ralph married Margaret le Gras before 1194. Margaret (daughter of William le Gras and (Unknown) Marshal) died after 14 Jun 1247. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Margaret Marshal.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Mar 1221, near Rome
• Alternate death: Bef 30 Mar 1221, Cainell, near Rome

Notes:

Earl of Arundel; Earl of Sussex. Chief Butler of England; Privy Councillor; Judge in the King's Court 1198, 1200, 1218. A King's man at Runnymede.

Went on Crusade in 1218; was present at the siege of Damietta.

"In the beginning he was one of King John's favourites, but he joined the baronial party opposing the King in 1216 after the sealing of the Magna Carta. According to the Barnwell Chronicle, when the barons met in London in 1216 to plan the division of England among them, they assigned to d'Aubigny the government of Lincolnshire. In 1217 he switched his support back to the young Henry III." [Leo van de Pas]

From Complete Peerage I:236-38:

William (d'Aubigny), Earl of Sussex, and Earl of Arundel, s. & h. He was a favorite of King John, whose concession of the Kingdom to the Pope, 15 May 1213, he witnessed, and whom he accompanied to Runnymede, 15 June 1215. (d) When, however, King John abandoned Winchester, 14 June 1216, to Louis (afterwards Louis VIII) of France, he joined that Prince, but (consistently taking the winning side) returned to his allegiance 14 July 1217, after the Royalist victory at Lincoln. Shortly afterwards he acted as Justiciar, the young King, Henry III, having restored to him his forfeited possessions. He m. Mabel, 2nd da. of Hugh (le Meschin, surnamed Kevelioc), Earl of Chester, by Bertrade, da. of Simon, Count of Evreux in Normandy. She, in her issue, was (1232) one of the four coheirs to her br. Ranulph (surnamed Blundeville), Earl of Chester. He embarked in the crusade of 1218, and was at the taking of Damietta in Nov. 12 19, but d. at Cainell, near Rome, ("quoddam oppidulum Kainel nomine") shortly before 30 Mar. 1221 (when the news reached England) and was bur. at Wynmondham Priory.

(d) His namesake of Belvoir became one of the sureties for the King's observance of Magna Charta as 'William d'Aubigny, Sheriff of Warwick and Leicester.'

William married Mabel of Chester. Mabel (daughter of Hugh of Chester and Bertrade de Montfort) died before 1232. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Mabel le Meschin.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1196

John married Hawise Paynel. Hawise (daughter of Ralph Paynel and (Unknown) de Ferrers) died before 1209. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1210

Notes:

Also called William le Cras; William Crassus.

Seigneur of Soulangy in Normandy. Seneschal of Mortain 1193-4; Seneschal of Normandy 1203-4.

William married (Unknown) Marshal. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Earl of Arundel, also styled earl of Sussex. Hereditary Chief Butler of England; Privy Councillor; Constable of Windsor Castle 1191-3.

According to Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans (citation details below), he was a crusader.

"William d'Aubigny, Earl of Sussex, s. and h., n 1176/7, was confirmed in that dignity, but the Castle and Honour of Arundel having, in accordance with the policy of Henry II, been retained by the Crown, on the death of the last holder, he did not obtain restoration of them till Richard I restored them to him, 27 June 1190, when (according to the admission of 1433 abovenamed) he became Earl of Arundel. He was, however, styled Earl of Arundel before he received possession of the Castle and Honour, namely, on 18 Sep. 1189, and on 26 Nov. of the same year he witnessed King Richard's Charter as 'Will. Earl of Arundel.' He received also at the same time, the third penny of the pleas of Sussex in the precise words of the grant made to his father. In 1191 he was made Custos of Windsor Castle, and in 1194 one of the Receivers of the money raised for the King's ransom. He m. Maud, widow of Roger (de Clare), Earl of Hertford (who had d. 1173), da. and h. of James de St. Hilaire du Harcouet, by Aveline, his wife. He d. 24 Dec. 1193, and was bur. at Wymondham Priory." [Complete Peerage I:235-36]

William married Maud de St. Hilary. Maud (daughter of James de St. Hilary du Harcourt and Aveline) was born in of Field Dalling, Norfolk, England; died on 24 Dec 1193; was buried in Priory of Great Carbrooke, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1195

Notes:

Also called Maud de St. Hilaire du Harcouet.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1147, Merionethshire, Wales

Notes:

Earl of Chester. Also known as Hugh le Meschin; Hugh de Meschines; Hugh of Kevelioc; Hugh de Cyveiliog.

1908 DNB entry on Hugh of Kevelioc:

[By Thomas Frederick Tout.]

HUGH (D. 1181) called HUGH of CYVEILIOG, palatine Earl of Chester, was the son of Ranulf II, Earl of Chester, and of his wife Matilda, daughter of Earl Robert of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I. He is sometimes called Hugh of Cyveiliog, because, according to a late writer, he was born in that district of Wales (Powel, Hist. of Cambria, p. 295). His father died on 16 Dec. 1153, whereupon, being probably still under age, he succeeded to his possessions on both sides of the Channel. These included the hereditary viscounties of Avranches and Bayeux. Hugh was present at the council of Clarendon in January 1164 which drew up the assize of Clarendon (Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 138). In 1171 he was in Normandy (Eyton, Itinerary of Henry II, p. 158).

Hugh joined the great feudal revolt against Henry II in 1173. Aided by Ralph of Fougeres, he utilised his great influence on the north-eastern marches of Brittany to excite the Bretons to revolt. Henry II despatched an army of Brabant mercenaries against them. The rebels were defeated in a battle, and on 20 Aug. were shut up in the castle of Dol, which they had captured by fraud not long before. On 23 Aug. Henry II arrived to conduct the siege in person (Hoveden, ii. 51). Hugh and his comrades had no provisions (Jordan Fantosme in Howlett, Chron. of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, iii. 221). They were therefore forced to surrender on 26 Aug. on a promise that their lives and limbs would be saved (W. Newburgh in Howlett, i. 176). Fourscore knights surrendered with them (Diceto, i. 378). Hugh was treated very leniently by Henry, and was confined at Falaise, whither the Earl and Countess of Leicester were also soon brought as prisoners. When Henry II returned to England, he took the two earls with him. They were conveyed from Barfleur to Southampton on 8 July 1174. Hugh was probably afterwards imprisoned at Devizes (Eyton, p. 180). On 8 Aug., however, he was taken back from Portsmouth to Barfleur, when Henry II went back to Normandy. He was now imprisoned at Caen, whence he was removed to Falaise. He was admitted to terms with Henry before the general peace, and witnessed the peace of Falaise on 11 Oct. (Fœdera, i. 31).

Hugh seems to have remained some time longer without complete restoration. At last, at the council of Northampton on 13 Jan. 1177, he received grant of the lands on both sides of the sea which he had held fifteen days before the war broke out (Benedictus, i. 135; Hoveden, ii. 118). In March he witnessed the Spanish award. In May, at the council at Windsor, Henry II restored him his castles, and required him to go to Ireland, along with William Fitzaldhelm and others, to prepare the way for the king's son John (Benedictus, i. 161). But no great grants of Irish land were conferred on him, and he took no prominent part, in the Irish campaigns. He died at Leek in Staffordshire on 30 June 1181 (ib. i. 277; Monasticon, iii. 218; Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 29). He was buried next his father on the south side of the chapter-house of St. Werburgh's, Chester, now the cathedral.

Hugh's liberality to the church was not so great as that of his predecessors. He granted some lands in Wirral to St. Werburgh's, and four charters of his, to Stanlaw, St. Mary's, Coventry, the nuns of Bullington and Greenfield, are printed by Ormerod (i. 27). He also confirmed his mother's grants to her foundation of Austin Canons at Calke, Derbyshire, and those of his father to his convent of the Benedictine nuns of St. Mary's, Chester (Monasticon, vi. 598, iv. 314). In 1171 he had confirmed the grants of Ranulf to the abbey of St. Stephen's in the diocese of Bayeux (Eyton, p. 158). More substantial were his grants of Bettesford Church to Trentham Priory, and of Combe in Gloucestershire to the abbey of Bordesley, Warwickshire (Monasticon, vi. 397, v. 407).

Hugh married before 1171 Bertrada, the daughter of Simon III, surnamed the Bald, count of Evreux and Montfort. He was therefore brother-in-law to Simon of Montfort., the conqueror of the Albigenses, and uncle of the Earl of Leicester. His only legitimate son, Ranulf III, succeeded him as Earl of Chester [see Blundevill, Randulf de]. He also left four daughters by his wife, who became, on their brother's death, co-heiresses of the Chester earldom. They were: (1) Maud, who married David, earl of Huntingdon, and became the mother of John the Scot, earl of Chester from 1232 to 1237, on whose death the line of Hugh of Avranches became extinct; (2) Mabel, who married William of Albini, earl of Arundel (d. 1221); (3) Agnes, the wife of William, earl Ferrers of Derby; and (4) Hawise, who married Robert de Quincy, son of Saer de Quincy, earl of Winchester. Hugh was also the father of several bastards, including Pagan, lord of Milton; Roger; Amice, who married Ralph Mainwaring, justice of Chester; and another daughter who married R. Bacon, the founder of Roucester (Ormerod, i. 28). A great controversy was carried on between Sir Peter Leycester and Sir Thomas Mainwaring, Amice's reputed descendant, as to whether that lady was legitimate or not. Fifteen pamphlets and small treatises on the subject, published between 1673 and 1679, were reprinted in the publications of the Chetham Society, vols. lxxiii. lxxix. and lxxx. Mainwaring was the champion of her legitimacy, which Leycester had denied in his 'Historical Antiquities.' Dugdale believed that Amice was the daughter of a former wife of Hugh, of whose existence, however, there is no record. A fine seal of Earl Hugh's is engraved in Ormerod's 'Cheshire,' i. 32.

[Benedictus Abbas and Roger de Hoveden (both ed. Stubbs in Rolls Ser.); Howlett's Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I (Rolls Ser.); Eyton's Itinerary of Hen. II; Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 26-32; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 40-1; Dugdale's Monasticon, ed. Ellis, Caley, and Bandinel; Doyle's Official Baronage, i. 364; Beamont's introduction to the Amicia Tracts, Chetham Soc.]

[DNB, Editor, Sidney Lee, Macmillan Co., London & Smith, Elder & Co., NY, 1908, vol. x, pp. 164-5]

Hugh married Bertrade de Montfort in 1169. Bertrade (daughter of Simon de Montfort and Maud) was born about 1155; died after 31 Mar 1227. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1156

Notes:

Also called Bertrade of Evreux. CP notes that at her wedding she was given away by King Henry II "because she was his own cousin." In fact she and the king were second cousins once removed, Simon de Montfort and Agnes d'Evreaux being his great-great grandparents and her great-grandparents.

Notes:

A supporter of the Empress Maud.

Ralph married (Unknown) de Ferrers. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Ancestral Roots calls her "prob. dau. of Robert de Ferrers, d. 1139."

Notes:

Also called John the Marshal.

Wikipedia:

"John FitzGilbert the Marshal of the Horses [...] was a minor Anglo-Norman nobleman during the reign of King Stephen, and fought in the 12th century civil war on the side of Empress Matilda. Since at least 1130 and probably earlier, he had been the royal marshal to King Henry I. When Henry died, John FitzGilbert swore for Stephen and was granted the castles of Marlborough and Ludgershall, Wiltshire during this time. Along with Hamstead Marshal, this gave him control of the valley of the River Kennet in Wiltshire. Around 1139, John changed sides and swore for the Empress Matilda. In September 1141, Matilda fled the siege of Winchester and took refuge in the Marshal's castle at Ludgershall. While covering her retreat from Winchester, John Marshal was forced to take refuge at Wherwell Abbey. The attackers set fire to the building, and John lost an eye to dripping lead from the melting roof.

"In 1152, John had a celebrated confrontation with King Stephen, who had besieged him at Newbury Castle. After John had broken an agreement to surrender, Stephen threatened to kill his son, whom John had given as a hostage. John refused, saying he could make more sons, but Stephen apparently took pity on the young boy and did not kill him. The boy grew up to be William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, a legendary figure in medieval lore, and one of the most powerful men in England."

John married Sybil de Salisbury. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Sibel d'Evreux.

Died on a 3 June, year unknown.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 12 Oct 1176, Waverley Abbey, Surrey, England

Notes:

Earl of Lincoln; Earl of Arundel. Hereditary Chief Butler of England; Privy Councillor to Henry I.

Also called William d'Albini; William "Strong Hand".

"William d'Aubigny de Albiniaco or in the Anglo-Latin of Dugdale and other writers, de Albini, surnamed 'the strong hand,' Lord of the manor of Buckenham, Norfolk, son and heir of William D'Aubigny (died 1139), Pincerna Regis by Maud, daughter of Roger le Bigod, probably by his 2nd wife, Alice, sister and coheir of William de Tosny, Lord of Belvoir, daughter of Robert de Tosny of the same, was b. early in the reign of Henry I. On his marriage with the Queen Dowager, he acquired with her, in 1138 or 1139, the Castle and Honour of Arundel, which had been settled on her in dower, whereby it may be considered that, according to the admission of 1433, he became Earl of Arundel. There is conclusive evidence from various charters, that at, or about the time of, and probably soon after, his said marriage, he was recognised as Earl of Lincoln, and he may be assumed to have been so created in the summer of 1139. In this year he gave shelter to the Empress Maud, at Arundel Castle, but ever after adhered to Stephen. He can be shown to have very soon lost the Earldom of Lincoln, and in 1141 he attested a charter of Stephen as Earl of Sussex, (being from time to time thereafter so described, as, e.g. where he witnesses a charter to the Abbey of Barking under that name) and may be assumed to have been so created by Stephen in 1141, after that King had regained his freedom. Early in 1142, the Earldom of Lincoln had already passed to another, viz. William de Roumare. In his own later charters he is styled, and in a charter, before 1150, of the Queen Dowager to the Abbey of Reading, she styles him Earl of Chichester. He was influential in arranging the treaty of 1153, whereby the Crown continued with King Stephen for life, though the inheritance thereof was secured to Henry II. To this instrument he subscribed as "Comes Cicestrie." Henry II, by a grant undated, but supposed to have been in 1155 (the year after his accession), confirms to him as 'William, Earl of Arundel, the Castle of Arundel, with the whole honour of Arundel and all its appurtenances,' and, by the same instrument, bestows on him the third penny of the pleas of the county of Sussex unde Comes est. No doubt, however, he was more generally known as "Earl of Arundel," and as such (only) he is spoken of by his son and heir (who styles himself Earl of Sussex) in a charter to the Priory of Wymondham; and as Earl of Arundel (only) he is described in the record of his death in the Annals of Waverley. He was justly held in great esteem by Henry II, and was one of the embassy to Rome in 1163/4, and to Saxony (on the espousal of the Princess to the Duke of Saxony) in 1168. He was also in command of the Royal army in August 1173, in Normandy, against the King's rebellious sons, where he distinguished himself for his 'swiftness and velocity,' and, on 29 September following he assisted at the defeat, near Bury St. Edmunds, of the Earl of Leicester, who, with his Flemings, had invaded Suffolk. He m., in 1138 (the 3rd year of her widowhood) Adeliz, Queen Dowager of England (widow of Henry I), 1st daughter of Godefroy a? la Barbe, Duke of Lothier (i.e. Lorraine Inférieure), Count of Brabant and Louvain, by his 1st wife, Ide, daughter of Albert III, Count of Namur. His wife, the Queen Dowager, retired in 1150 to a nunnery at Afflighem, in South Brabant, where she d., and was bur. 23 April 1151, aged about 48. He survived her 25 years, and d. 12 October 1176, at Waverley Abbey, Surrey, and was bur., with his father, at Wymondham Priory, Norfolk. [Complete Peerage I:233-35, as corrected in Volume XIV.]

"According to K.S.B. Keats-Rohan [Prosopon, no 9 (1998)], Roger le Bigod's children by Alice were born from the late 1090s onwards. If so, and if William were a grandson of the marriage, he must have been born rather later than suggested above." [Chris Phillips, Some Corrections and Additions to The Complete Peerage]

William married Alice of Louvain, Queen Consort of England between Dec 1136 and Aug 1139. Alice (daughter of Godfrey I of Brabant and Ida of Chiny and Namur) was born about 1103; died on 25 Mar 1151 in Afflighem Abbey, Brabant, Belgium; was buried in Reading Abbey, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Buried: Afflighem Abbey, Brabant, Belgium
• Alternate death: 26 Mar 1151, Afflighem Abbey, Brabant, Belgium
• Alternate death: 23 Apr 1151, Afflighem Abbey, Brabant, Belgium

Notes:

Also called Adeliza; Adelize; Athelice; Aeliz; Aleide; Aleyda; Aelidis; Adelide; Adelidis; Adelaidis.

In 1150 she retired to a nunnery at Afflighem, in South Brabant, where she died the next year.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1154

Notes:

Also called James de St. James. Holder of both English and Breton lands.

James married Aveline. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1100
• Alternate birth: Abt 1105, Guernon Castle, Normandy, France
• Alternate death: 17 Dec 1153, Gresley, Derbyshire, England

Notes:

Also called Ranulf of Chester. Earl of Chester. Vicomte d'Avranches.

Of his death, Complete Peerage says "being supposed to have been poisoned by his wife and William Peverell, of Nottingham", but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, while noting the claims that he died of poison, says nothing about his wife being involved.

"Most contemporary verdicts upon Ranulf were unfavourable. Although Orderic Vitalis acknowledged his resourcefulness and daring, the Gesta Stephani criticized ‘the cunning devices of his accustomed bad faith’ (Gesta Stephani, 192–3), and Henry of Huntingdon, through a speech supposedly by the royalist spokesman at the battle of Lincoln, called him ‘a man of reckless daring, ready for conspiracy...panting for the impossible’, prone to defeat or, at best, to Pyrrhic victories (Historia Anglorum, 734–5). Clearly, his strategy during the civil war was to take every opportunity to enhance his territorial position, especially in the north midlands, and such commitments as he made, either to the king or to the Angevins, were calculated to that end. Other magnates followed similar policies, but Ranulf (II) was exceptionally ruthless in pursuit of his ambitions, and accordingly he was hated by many and trusted by none." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Ranulph married Matilda of Gloucester before 1135. Matilda (daughter of Robert of Gloucester and Mabel fitz Robert) died on 29 Jul 1189. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Maud fitz Robert; Maud de Caen.

"Matilda may have played a central role in the capture of Lincoln Castle in December 1140, a key turning point in the conflict that set in train the series of events that led eventually to the capture of Stephen. While their husbands were besieging Lincoln Castle, Matilda and her sister-in-law Hawise, countess of Lincoln, made a friendly social visit to the wife of the castellan. Under the pretext of providing an escort for his wife's safe return to his armed camp, Earl Ranulf penetrated and captured the castle. On the subsequent approach of the king's army towards Lincoln, it is unclear whether Matilda held the castle while Ranulf attempted to rally support or whether she was captured. None the less Ranulf escaped from the castle leaving his wife and sons to face the besieging royalists. Robert, earl of Gloucester, went to the aid of Ranulf since he was worried about the safety of his daughter and grandchildren. In the subsequent battle of Lincoln on 2 February 1141 King Stephen was captured." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

It's worth noting that, at least as of 12 Mar 2017, the ODNB's entry on this Matilda begins with an extremely confused opening sentence that appears to be claiming that she was a daughter of Robert, illegitimate son of Henry I, by his wife Sibyl de Montgomery. In fact Sibyl was Robert's mother-in-law.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between 1180 and 1181

Notes:

Count of Evreux.

Simon married Maud. Maud died before 1168. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Fulk Paganel; Fulk Pagnell.

Shown as a son of William Paynel based on CP X:320, which says that it is "not unlikely" that he was a younger brother of Ralph Paynel who d. about 1100.

Fulk married Beatrice Fitz Ansculf. Beatrice (daughter of William Fitz Ansculf) was born in of Picquigny, Picardy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

According to Ancestral Roots, Fulk Paynel "m. an heir (poss. a dau., Beatrice) of William Fitz Ansculf (from Picquigny), his Domesday tenancy-in-chief, later known as the barony of Dudley, Worcester."

Notes:

A commander at the Battle of the Standard, following which he was created Earl of Derby by Stephen.

Robert married Hawise. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Complete Peerage, Ancestral Roots, etc., show her as Hawise de Vitré, daughter of André I de Vitré (1055-1139) and Agnes de Mortain, but Keats-Rohan in Domesday Descendants says "there is no convincing evidence of her identity."

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1131

Notes:

King's Marshal. Royal Serjeant and Marshal to Henry I.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1147, Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire, England

Notes:

Also called Walter d'Evreux; Walter Fitz Edward; Walter the Sheriff. Hereditary sheriff of Wiltshire and constable of Salisbury Castle.

He died as a canon at Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire. [Royal Ancestry]

Walter married Sybil de Chaworth. Sybil (daughter of Patrick I de Chaources and Maud de Hesdin) died before 1147 in Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire, England; was buried in Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Sibella de Chaources, de Chanort.

"She died before her husband and was buried near the quire in Bradenstoke. He took the habit of a canon there, died in 1147, and was buried in the same grave as his wife." [Complete Peerage]

Notes:

Master butler to Henry I. Founded the priory of Wymondham, where he was buried.

William married Maud le Bigod. Maud (daughter of Roger I le Bigod and Adeliza de Tosny) died before 1139; was buried in Wymondham Priory, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 25 Jan 1140, Jerusalem

Notes:

Duke of Brabant. Count of Louvain. Duke of Lower Lorraine.

The Bearded ( "A La Barbe"); the Courageous; the Great.

Godfrey married Ida of Chiny and Namur about 1100. Ida (daughter of Otto II and Adelaide de Namur) was born about 1083; died between 1117 and 1122. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1116

Notes:

Complete Peerage erroneously gives her as a daughter of her maternal grandparents, Albert III, Comte de Namur, and Isa Billung. Reflecting more recent proofs, Ancestral Roots and Royal Ancestry both give her the correct parents.

Notes:

Ancestral Roots gives two different dates for this marriage: 149-24 says "abt. 1105" and 155-23 says "abt. 1100".

Notes:

Also called Hasculf, Harscoit. Seigneur de St.James et St. Hilaire du Harscouet.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Jan 1129
• Alternate death: 17 Jan 1129
• Alternate death: 27 Jan 1129

Notes:

Also called Randle; Ranulf de Briquessart; de Bricasard; Ranulf du Bessin; Ranulf of Chester.

Earl of Chester. Vicomte of Bayeux. Commander of the royal forces in Normandy, 1124.

"Ranulph le Meschin, styled also, 'de Briquessart,' Vicomte de Bayeux in Normandy, s. and h. of Ranulph, Vicomte de Bayeux, by Margaret, sister of Hugh (d'Avranches), Earl of Chester abovenamed, being thus 1st cousin and h. to the last Earl (whom he suc. as Vicomte d'Avranches, &c., in Normandy), obtained, after the Earl's death in 1120, the grant of the county palatine of Chester, becoming thereby Earl of Chester. He appears thereupon to have surrendered the Lordship of the great district of Cumberland, which he had acquired, shortly before, from Henry I. In 1124 he was Commander of the Royal forces in Normandy. He m. Lucy, widow of Roger Fitz-Gerold (by whom she was mother of William de Roumare, afterwards Earl of Lincoln). He d. 17 or 27 Jan. 1129, and was bur. at St. Werburg's, Chester. The Countess Lucy confirmed, as his widow, the grant of the Manor of Spalding to the monks of that place." [Complete Peerage III:166, incorporating corrections from volume XIV.]

Ranulf married Lucy of Bolingbroke about 1098. Lucy was born in of Spalding, Lincolnshire, England; died about 1138. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Lucy of Bolingbroke (died circa 1138) was an Anglo-Norman heiress in central England and, later in life, countess of Chester. Probably related to the old English earls of Mercia, she came to possess extensive lands in Lincolnshire which she passed on to her husbands and sons. She was a notable religious patron, founding or co-founding two small religious houses and endowing several with lands and churches. [...] Lucy, as widowed countess, founded the convent of Stixwould in 1135, becoming, in the words of one historian, 'one of the few aristocratic women of the late eleventh and twelfth centuries to achieve the role of independent lay founder.'" [Wikipedia]

Much controversy has ensued over her parentage. Appendix J to volume 7 of the Complete Peerage sums up the state of play in 1929: "The parentage of the Countess Lucy is one of the unsolved puzzles of genealogy. The only direct statements about it are in the Peterborough Chronicle and the pseudo-Ingulf’s Chronicle of Crowland, which agree in saying that she was daughter of Aelfgar, Earl of Mercia, and niece or grandniece of Thorold, sometime Sheriff of co. Lincoln. All that is certainly known is that she was niece of Robert Malet of Eye and of Alan of Lincoln, and that Thorold the Sheriff was a kinsman." The essay goes on to state that a good but not conclusive case can be made for her parents being Thorold the sheriff and an unnamed daughter of Robert Malet.

The ODNB calls Lucy merely "heir of the honour of Bolingbroke". In 1995 Katharine Keats-Rohan made a case for the Thorold hypothesis, but Rosie Bevan argued on SGM that "the main sticking point [...] is that although Lucy is mentioned a few times as Thorold's heir she is not named as his daughter." Bevan went on to propose that the incomplete evidence could as easily be used to argue that Lucy's parents were William Malet (son of Robert) and a daughter of earl Alfgar III.

The one point on which everyone appears to agree is that one of Lucy's parents has to have been a Malet, because in 1153 the future Henry II promised the honour of Eye to Ranulph, earl of Chester, to be held as "Robert Malet the uncle of his mother [i.e., Lucy] held it."

Notes:

Earl of Gloucester. Also called Robert de Caen; Robert fitz Roy; Rufus; Robert "The Counsel".

Fought at Brémulé, 20 Apr 1119, where Henry I defeated Louis VI. Present at the death of Henry I in Dec 1135. Commander-in-chief for the Empress Maud from 1139 on. From Complete Peerage: "In 1140 he burnt Nottingham, and in Feb. 1141 he and his son-in-law, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, relieved Lincoln and took Stephen prisoner, sending him to Bristol. He accompanied Maud in her progress to Winchester and London, and when the citizens drove her out fled with her to Oxford. He took part in the fighting at Winchester and helped Maud escape from the city, but was captured 14 Sep. (1141) at Stockbridge and taken prisoner to Rochester. Shortly afterwards he was exchanged, without concessions on either side, for Stephen, who was set at liberty on 1 Nov., and Robert then joined Maud at Bristol, and with her proceeded to Oxford. In June 1142 Maud sent him over to her husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, to urge him to invade England. It would appear that on this occasion Robert entered into a treaty of alliance with Miles of Gloucester, Earl of Hereford. Geoffrey declined to help until he had conquered Normandy, whereupon Robert joined him in his campaign. On hearing that Maud was besieged in Oxford, Robert hurried back to help her, taking with him her son, afterwards Henry II. He captured Wareham and other places, and on Maud's escape from Oxford he and Henry met her at Wallingford, and they went to Bristol, which was Robert's chief residence till 1146. In 1143 Robert defeated Stephen at Wilton, and in 1144 blockaded Malmesbury, Stephen refusing battle; but Maud's party was now so much reduced that Stephen was able to take Faringdon, which Robert had fortified. In the spring of 1147 Robert took Henry, Maud's son, back to Wareham and sent him over to Anjou; and in the same year, he founded Margam Abbey." Shortly thereafter he died of a sudden fever, in the priory of St. James in Bristol, which he had earlier founded; his death effectively ended Maud's military campaign. The Dictionary of National Biography (1909) said that "his sister's cause almost invariably prospered when she allowed him to direct her counsels, and declined as soon as she neglected his advice."

He was highly literate, a patron of scholars and chroniclers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of Malmesbury, the latter of whom wrote the Historia Novella at his request. An enemy, Baldwin Fitz Gilbert, called him someone who "threatens much but does little, lionlike in his speech, but like a hare in his heart, great in eloquence but insignificant through laziness", which is pretty much the same insult lobbed by all of history's meatheads at people who are, like Robert, both well-spoken and ruthless at war. When Ralph Peters calls the slayer of Osama bin Laden, warlord of Libya and Afghanistan, commander of a secret empire of unimaginable violence, a "pussy", it's the voice of Baldwin Fitz Gilbert we hear. No matter how many cities you burn, if you also talk like an intellectual, some people will feel that you've let the meathead side down.

Robert married Mabel fitz Robert before 1122. Mabel (daughter of Robert fitz Hamon and Sibyl de Montgomery) died on 29 Sep 1157. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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Also called Mabel Fitz Hamon.

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Count of Evreux.

Amauri married Agnes de Garlande. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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The Blackmans of Knight's Creek calls her "a niece of Stephen de Garlande."