(Unknown) of Maine

Notes:

Possibily named Bilechild.

(Unknown) married Ranulf I of Poitou about 845. Ranulf (son of Gerard d'Auvergne) was born about 815; died in Oct 866. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 855, of Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France

Notes:

Duke of Aquitaine.

Family/Spouse: (Unknown Mistress of Ranulf II). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 870
• Alternate death: 934

Notes:

Also called Ebles Mancer. Duke of Aquitaine; Count of Poitou.

"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." [Peter Stewart on soc.genealogy.medieval, 22 Jun 2010]

Ebalus married Aremburge in 892. Aremburge died before Feb 911. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ebalus married Emillana before Feb 911. [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: 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.

Adélaïde married Hugues Capet, King of France in 968. Hugues (son of Hugues "Le Grand" and Hedwig of Saxony) was born about 940; died on 24 Oct 996 in "Les Juifs" near Prasville, Eure-de-Loire, France; was buried in Abbey of Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Called "Fierebras," "Iron-Arm." Count of Poitou.

William married Emma of Blois in 968. Emma (daughter of Thibaut I of Blois and Luitgarde de Vermandois) was born in 950; died about 1003. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1013

Notes:

Also called Avoise, Edith, Hadvisa.

Hedwig married Reginar IV in 996. Reginar (son of Reginar III "Longneck" and Adela) was born about 950; died in 1013. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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 Rozala of Italy, Queen Consort of France between 989 and 990, and was divorced between 991 and 993. 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]

Robert married Bertha of Burgundy between 25 Oct 996 and Feb 997, and was divorced before May 1004. Bertha (daughter of Conrad I, King of Burgundy and Matilda of the West Franks) was born about 965; died after 1010. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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]

Notes:

Count of Poitou. Duke of Aquitaine.

Family/Spouse: Agnes of Burgundy. Agnes (daughter of Otto-William of Burgundy and Ermentrude de Roucy) was born about 995; died on 10 Nov 1068; was buried in Abbey of St. Nicolas de Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Hainaut.

Family/Spouse: Mathilde de Verdun. Mathilde (daughter of Herman von Enham and Mathilde) died about 1039. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Ebles I de Roucy. Ebles (son of Giselbert) was born about 980; died on 11 May 1033. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Hainaut.

Family/Spouse: Matilde de Lorraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Advisa; Adele of France.

Hedwig married Renaud I de Nevers on 25 Jan 1016. Renaud (son of Landry de Maers and Matilda of Burgundy) was born about 990; died on 24 May 1040 in Sainte-Vertu, Burgundy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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 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.

Adele married Richard III on 10 Jan 1027. Richard (son of Richard II and Judith of Brittany) was born in 1001; died on 5 Aug 1027. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Adele married Baldwin V in 1028 in Paris, France. Baldwin (son of Baldwin IV "The Bearded" and Otgiva of Luxembourg) was born about 1010; died on 1 Sep 1067; was buried in Lille, Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 21 May 1076

Notes:

"The Old." Duke of Burgundy.

"In 1025, with the death of his eldest brother Hugh Magnus, he and Henry rebelled against their father and defeated him, forcing him back to Paris. In 1031, after the death of his father the king, Robert participated in a rebellion against his brother, in which he was supported by his mother, Constance of Arles. Peace was only achieved when Robert was given Burgundy (1032). Throughout his reign, he was little more than a robber baron who had no control over his own vassals, whose estates he often plundered, especially those of the Church. He seized the income of the diocese of Autun and the wine of the canons of Dijon. He burgled the abbey of St-Germain at Auxerre. In 1055, he repudiated his wife, Helie of Semur, and assassinated her brother Joceran and murdered her father, his father-in-law, Lord Dalmace I of Semur, with his own hands. In that same year, the bishop of Langres, Harduoin, refused to dedicate the church of Sennecy so as not "to be exposed to the violence of the duke." [Wikipedia]

Robert married Helie of Semur about 1033. Helie (daughter of Dalmas I of Semur and Aremburge de Vergy) was born about 1015; died after 1055 in Priory of the Holy Trinity of Marcigny-lès-Nonnains, Burgundy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Ermengarde of Anjou about 1048. Ermengarde (daughter of Foulques III "Nerra" and Hildegarde de Lorraine) was born about 1018; died on 18 Mar 1076. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Peter-William (Pierre-Guillaume). Count of Poitiers; Duke of Aquitaine.

Family/Spouse: Ermensinde de Longwy. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

As Count of Poitou, he was called William VI; as Duke of Aquitaine, William VIII. Also Duke of Gascony.

Guy-Geoffrey married Hildegarde of Burgundy in 1069. Hildegarde (daughter of Robert I and Ermengarde of Anjou) was born about 1050; died after 1104. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Agnes of Aquitaine.

Agnes married Heinrich III, Holy Roman Emperor on 21 Nov 1043. Heinrich (son of Conrad II "The Salic", Holy Roman Emperor and Gisele of Swabia) was born on 28 Oct 1016; died on 5 Oct 1056 in Bodfeld, Harz, Germany; was buried in Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Béatrice married Raymond I of Melgueil before 1055. Raymond (son of Bernard III de Melgueil and Adèle de Substantion) died before 1079. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between 1015 and 1020
• Alternate death: 1063

Adele married Hildouin IV de Montdidier in 1031. Hildouin (son of Hildouin III) was born about 1005; died in 1063. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Hainaut.

Family/Spouse: Richilde of Hainaut. Richilde was born between 1015 and 1020; died on 15 Mar 1086; was buried in Abbey of Hasnon, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Nevers.

Guillaume married Ermengarde de Tonnerre about 1039. Ermengarde (daughter of Renaud de Tonnerre) died before 1090. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Robert "The Burgundian." Died on the First Crusade.

Family/Spouse: Hawise de Sable. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philippe married Bertha of Holland, Queen Consort of France in 1072. Bertha (daughter of Floris I of Holland and Gertrude of Saxony) was born about 1055; died on 30 Jul 1093 in Montreuil-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Philippe married Bertrade de Montfort in 1093. Bertrade (daughter of Simon I de Montfort l'Aumary and Agnès d'Évreux) was born about 1070; died between 1115 and 1117. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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: 17 Jul 1070

Notes:

Count/Marquess of Flanders and (as Baldwin I) Count of Hainaut.

Baldwin married Richilde of Hainaut about 1055. Richilde was born between 1015 and 1020; died on 15 Mar 1086; was buried in Abbey of Hasnon, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 3 Nov 1083

Notes:

She was about four feet tall, probably accounting for the short stature reported of some of her children, notably including Robert "Curthose" and probably including William Rufus as well.

Matilda married William I, King of England about 1050. William (son of Robert I and Herleve) was born in 1027-1028 in Falais, Calvados, Normandy, France; died on 9 Sep 1087 in St. Gervais, near Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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]

Notes:

Called "The Gallant" (le Damoiseau).

Family/Spouse: (Unknown wife of Henry I of Burgundy). (Unknown died after 5 Jul 1074; was buried in Besançon, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1093

Constance married Alfonso VI, King of Leon, Castile, and Galicia in 1079. Alfonso (son of Ferdinand I, King of Leon and Sancha of Leon) was born about 1039; died on 1 Jul 1109 in Toledo, Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain; was buried in Royal Monastery of San Benito, Sahagun, León, Spain. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hildegarde married Guy-Geoffrey of Poitou in 1069. Guy-Geoffrey (son of William III of Poitou and Agnes of Burgundy) was born about 1024; died on 25 Sep 1086 in Chizé, Deux-Sèvres, Poitou-Charentes, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Clemence of Poitou.

Clementia married Conrad I of Luxembourg about 1073. Conrad (son of Giselbert of Luxembourg) was born about 1040; died on 8 Aug 1086. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 10 Feb 1127

Notes:

Also called Guilhèm de Peitieus; Guillaume de Poitiers. Duke of Aquitaine; also, as William VII, Count of Poitou. A leader of the Crusade of 1101, he is much more famous as the first troubador poet whose work has survived.

"Ab la dolcher del temps novel"
By William IX, Duke of Aquitaine

Out of the sweetness of the spring,
The branches leaf, the small birds sing,
Each one chanting in its own speech,
Forming the verse of its new song,
Then is it good a man should reach
For that for which he most does long.

From finest sweetest place I see
No messenger, no word for me,
So my heart can't laugh or rest,
And I don't dare try my hand,
Until I know, and can attest,
That all things are as I demand.

This love of ours it seems to be
Like a twig on a hawthorn tree
That on the tree trembles there
All night, in rain and frost it grieves,
Till morning, when the rays appear
Among the branches and the leaves.

So the memory of that dawn to me
When we ended our hostility,
And a most precious gift she gave,
Her loving friendship and her ring:
Let me live long enough, I pray,
Beneath her cloak my hand to bring.

I've no fear that tongues too free
Might part me from Sweet Company,
I know with words how they can stray
In gossip, yet that's a fact of life:
No matter if others boast of love,
We have the loaf, we have the knife!

Translated by A. S. Kline. © 2009; All Rights Reserved. This work may be freely reproduced, stored, and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose.

"For any of the later Provençals, i.e., the high-brows, we have to...'put ourselves into the Twelfth Century' etc. Guillaume, writing a century earlier, is just as much of our age as of his own."
[Ezra Pound, The Spirit of Romance]

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,
had brought the song up out of Spain
with the singers and viels...
[Ezra Pound, Canto VIII]

He is also remembered for his specularly public affair with a woman named Dangereuse, the wife of his vassal Aimery I of Châtellerault. Aside from its interest as pure medieval melodrama, he was the paternal grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Dangereuse was Eleanor's maternal grandmother.

Family/Spouse: Dangereuse. Dangereuse was born about 1079; died after 1119. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Philippa of Toulouse in 1094. Philippa (daughter of William IV of Toulouse and Emma of Mortain) died on 28 Nov 1117. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Rudolf von Rheinfelden. Rudolf (son of Kuno of Rheinfelden) was born about 1025; died on 15 Oct 1080 in Merseburg, Saxony. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Heinrich married Bertha of Turin on 13 Jul 1066. Bertha (daughter of Otto I of Savoy and Adelaide of Susa) was born in 1051; died on 27 Dec 1087 in Mainz, Hessen, Germany; was buried in Speyer Cathedral, Speyer, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Guillem IV de Montpellier. Guillem (son of Guillem III de Montpellier and Beliardis) was born about 1028. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Raymond I d'Anduze. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Comte de Melgueil.

Pierre married Almodis de Toulouse about 1065. Almodis (daughter of Pons II William and Almodis de La Marche) died about 1152. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died on a 30 April, year unknown.

Judith married Robert II d'Auvergne before 14 May 1068. Robert (son of Guillaume V d'Auvergne and Philippa) was born about 1030; died about 1096. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]