Part 6.5 Links to.Queen Matilda of Flanders

Queen Matilda of Flanders

Queen Matilda is the 25th great grandmother.

Matilda, or Maud, was the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders and Adèle of France, herself daughter of Robert II of France. According to legend, when Duke William II of Normandy (later known as William the Conqueror) sent his representative to ask for Matilda's hand in marriage, she told the representative that she was far too high-born to consider marrying a bastard.

 After hearing this response, William rode from Normandy to Bruges, found Matilda on her way to church, dragged her off her horse by her long braids, threw her down in the street in front of her flabbergasted attendants and rode off. Another version of the story states that William rode to Matilda's father's house in Lille, threw her to the ground in her room (again, by her braids), and hit her (or violently battered her) before leaving. Naturally, Baldwin took offense at this but, before they could draw swords, Matilda settled the matter by refusing to marry anyone but William; even a papal ban by Pope Leo IX at the Council of Reims on the grounds of consanguinity did not dissuade her. William and Matilda were married after a delay in c. 1051-2. A papal dispensation was finally awarded in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II. Lanfranc, at the time prior of Bec Abbey, negotiated the arrangement in Rome and came only after William and Matilda agreed to found two churches as penance.

There were rumors that Matilda had been in love with the English ambassador to Flanders, a Saxon named Brihtric, who declined her advances. Whatever the truth of the matter, years later when she was acting as Regent for William in England, she used her authority to confiscate Brihtric's lands and throw him into prison, where he died.



When William was preparing to invade England, Matilda outfitted a ship, the Mora, out of her own money and gave it to him. This indicated that she must have owned rich lands in Normandy to be able to do so. Additionally, William entrusted Normandy to his wife during his absence. Matilda successfully guided the duchy through this period in the name of her fourteen-year-old son; no major uprisings or unrest occurred.
Even after William conquered England and became its king, it took her more than a year to visit her new kingdom. Even after she had been crowned queen, she would spend most of her time in Normandy, governing the duchy, supporting her brother's interests in Flanders, and sponsoring ecclesiastic houses there. She only had one of her children in England; Henry was born in Yorkshire when Matilda accompanied her husband in the Harrying of the North.

Matilda of Flanders, queen consort of England and wife of William the Conqueror,by Carle Elshoecht (1850)

Matilda was crowned queen on May 11, 1068 in Westminster during the feast of Pentecost, in a ceremony presided over by the archbishop of York. Three new phrases were incorporated to cement the importance of English consorts, stating that the Queen was divinely placed by God, shares in royal power, and blesses her people by her power and virtue.

For many years it was thought that she had some involvement in the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry (commonly called La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde in French), but historians no longer believe that; it seems to have been commissioned by William's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and made by English artists in Kent.

Matilda bore William nine or ten children. William was believed to have been faithful to her and never produced a child outside of their marriage. Despite her royal duties, Matilda was deeply invested in her children's well-being. All were known for being remarkably educated. Her daughters were educated and taught to read Latin at Sainte-Trinité in Caen founded by Matilda and William in response to the recognition of their marriage. For her sons, she secured Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury of whom she was an ardent supporter. Both she and William approved of the Archbishop's desire to revitalize the Church.

She stood as godmother for Matilda of Scotland, who would become Queen of England after marrying Matilda's son Henry I. During the christening, the baby pulled Queen Matilda's headdress down on top of herself, which was seen as an omen that the younger Matilda would be queen some day as well.

Matilda fell ill during the summer of 1083 and passed away in November 1083. Her husband was present for her final confession. Without her presence, a distraught William became increasingly tyrannical until his death four years later in 1087.

Contrary to the belief that she was buried at St. Stephen's, also called l'Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen, Normandy, where William was eventually buried, she is entombed at l'Abbaye aux Dames, which is the Sainte-Trinité church, also in Caen. Of particular interest is the 11th century slab, a sleek black stone decorated with her epitaph, marking her grave at the rear of the church.
It is of special note since the grave marker for William was replaced as recently as the beginning of the 19th century.

Reputed to be 4'2" (127 cm) tall, Matilda was England's smallest queen, according to the Guinness Book of Records. However, in 1819 and 1959, Matilda's incomplete skeleton was examined in France, and her bones were measured to determine her height. The 1819 estimate was under five feet, while the 1959 estimate was 5' (152 cm) tall. A reputed height of 4' 2" (127 cm) appeared at some point after 1959 in the non-scientific literature, misrepresenting the 1959 measurement.

King Henry I

 Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to 1135. Henry was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henry's older brothers William Rufus and Robert Curthose inherited England and Normandy respectively, but Henry was left landless. Henry purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert, but was deposed by William and Robert in 1091. Henry gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with William against Robert. Henry was on hand when William died in a hunting accident in 1100, and he seized the English throne, promising at his coronation to correct many of William's less popular policies. 

Henry married Matilda of Scotland, but continued to have a large number of mistresses, by whom he had many illegitimate children.

Henry's control of England was disputed by Robert, who invaded in 1101. The campaign ended in a negotiated settlement that confirmed Henry as king. The peace was short-lived, and Henry invaded the Duchy of Normandy in 1105 and 1106, finally defeating Robert at the Battle of Tinchebray. Henry kept Robert imprisoned for the rest of his life. Henry's control of Normandy was challenged by Louis VI of France, Baldwin of Flanders and Fulk of Anjou, who promoted the rival claims of Robert's son, William Clito, and supported a major rebellion in the Duchy between 1116 and 1119. Following Henry's victory at the Battle of Brémule, a favourable peace settlement was agreed with Louis in 1120.


Henry was a harsh but effective ruler, skilfully manipulating the barons in England and Normandy. In England, he drew on the existing Anglo-Saxon system of justice, local government and taxation, but strengthened it with additional institutions, including the royal exchequer and itinerant justices.
Normandy was also governed through a growing system of justices and an exchequer. Many of the officials that ran Henry's system were "new men", relatively low-born individuals who rose up the ranks as administrators. Henry encouraged ecclesiastical reform, but became embroiled in the investiture controversy in 1101 with Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, which was resolved through a compromise solution in 1105. He supported the Cluniac order and played a major role in the selection of the senior clergy in England and Normandy.

Henry's only legitimate son and heir, William Adelin, drowned in the White Ship disaster of 1120, throwing the royal succession into doubt. Henry took a second wife, Adeliza, in the hope of having another son, but their marriage proved childless. In response to this, Henry declared his daughter, Matilda, as his heir and married her to Geoffrey of Anjou. Relationships between Henry and the couple became strained, and fighting broke out along the border with Anjou. Henry died on 1 December 1135 after a week of illness. Despite his plans for Matilda, the King was succeeded by his nephew, Stephen of Blois, resulting in a period of civil war known as the Anarchy.

Henry was probably born in England in 1068, in either the summer or the last weeks of the year, possibly in the town of Selby in Yorkshire. His father was William, who had originally been the Duke of Normandy and then, following the invasion of 1066, become the King of England, with lands stretching into Wales. The invasion had created an Anglo-Norman elite, many with estates spread across both sides of the English Channel. These Anglo-Norman barons typically had close links to the kingdom of France, which was then a loose collection of counties and smaller polities, under only the minimal control of the king. Henry's mother, Matilda, was the daughter of Robert II of France, and she probably named Henry after her nephew, King Henry I of France.

Henry was the youngest of William and Matilda's four sons. Physically he resembled his older brothers Robert Curthose, Richard and William Rufus, being, as historian David Carpenter describes, "short, stocky and barrel-chested", with black hair. As a result of their age differences and Richard's early death, Henry would have probably seen relatively little of his older brothers. He probably knew his sister, Adela, well, as the two were close in age.  There is little documentary evidence for his early years; historians Warren Hollister and Kathleen Thompson suggest he was brought up predominantly in England, while Judith Green argues he was initially brought up in the Duchy. He was probably educated by the Church, possibly by Bishop Osmund, the King's chancellor, at Salisbury Cathedral; it is uncertain if this indicated an intent by his parents for Henry to become a member of the clergy.
It is also uncertain how far Henry's education extended, but he was probably able to read Latin and had some background in the liberal arts. He was given military training by an instructor called Robert Achard, and Henry was knighted by his father on 24 May 1086.

In 1087 William was fatally injured during a campaign in the Vexin. Henry joined his dying father near Rouen in September, where the King partitioned his possessions between his sons. The rules of succession in western Europe at the time were uncertain; in some parts of France, male primogeniture, in which the eldest child would inherit a title, was growing in popularity. In other parts of Europe, including Normandy and England, the tradition was for lands to be divided up, with the eldest son taking patrimonial lands—usually considered to be the most valuable—and younger sons being given smaller, or more recently acquired, partitions or estates.
In dividing his lands, William appears to have followed the Norman tradition, distinguishing between Normandy, which he had inherited, and England, which he had acquired through war. William's second son, Richard, had died in a hunting accident, leaving Henry and his two brothers to inherit William's estate. Robert, the eldest, despite being in armed rebellion against his father at the time of his death, received Normandy. England was given to William Rufus, who was in favour with the dying king. Henry was given a large sum of money, usually reported as £5,000, with the expectation that he would also be given his mother's modest set of lands in Buckinghamshire and Gloucestershire. William's funeral at Caen was marred by angry complaints from a local man, and Henry may have been responsible for resolving the dispute by buying off the protester with silver.

Robert returned to Normandy, expecting to have been given both the Duchy and England, to find that William Rufus had crossed the Channel and been crowned king. The two brothers disagreed fundamentally over the inheritance, and Robert soon began to plan an invasion of England to seize the kingdom, helped by a rebellion by some of the leading nobles against William Rufus. Henry remained in Normandy and took up a role within Robert's court, possibly either because he was unwilling to openly side with William Rufus, or because Robert might have taken the opportunity to confiscate Henry's inherited money if he had tried to leave. William Rufus sequestered Henry's new estates in England, leaving Henry landless.

In 1088, Robert's plans for the invasion of England began to falter, and he turned to Henry, proposing that his brother lend him some of his inheritance, which Henry refused. Henry and Robert then came to an alternative arrangement, in which Robert would make Henry the count of western Normandy, in exchange for £3,000. Henry's lands were a new countship based around a delegation of the ducal authority in the Cotentin, but it spread out further across the Avranchin, with control over the bishoprics of both. This also gave Henry influence over two major Norman leaders, Hugh d'Avranches and Richard de Redvers, and the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, whose lands spread out further across the Duchy. Robert's invasion force failed to leave Normandy, leaving William Rufus secure in England. 

Henry quickly established himself as count, building up a network of followers from western Normandy and eastern Brittany, whom historian John Le Patourel has characterised as "Henry's gang". His early supporters included Roger of Mandeville, Richard of Redvers, Richard d'Avranches and Robert Fitzhamon, along with the churchman Roger of Salisbury. Robert attempted to go back on his deal with Henry and re-appropriate the county, but Henry's grip was already sufficiently firm to prevent this. Robert's rule of the Duchy was chaotic, and parts of Henry's lands became almost independent of central control from Rouen.


During this period, neither brother seems to have trusted Henry. Waiting until the rebellion against William Rufus was safely over, Henry returned to England in July 1088. He met with the King but was unable to convince him to grant him his mother's estates, and travelled back to Normandy in the autumn. While he had been away, however, Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux, who regarded Henry as a potential competitor, had convinced Robert that Henry was conspiring against the duke with William Rufus. On landing, Odo seized Henry and imprisoned him in Neuilly-la-Forêt, and Robert took back the county of the Cotentin.  Henry was held there over the winter, but in the spring of 1089 the senior elements of the Normandy nobility convinced Robert to release him.

Although no longer formally the count of Contentin, Henry continued to control the west of Normandy. The struggle between Henry's brothers continued. William Rufus continued to put down resistance to his rule in England, but began to build a number of alliances against Robert with barons in Normandy and neighbouring Ponthieu. Robert allied himself with Philip I of France.  In late 1090 William Rufus convinced Conan Pilatus, a powerful burgher in Rouen, to rebel against Robert; Conan was supported by most of Rouen and made appeals to the neighbouring ducal garrisons to switch allegiance as well.

Robert issued an appeal for help to his barons, and Henry was the first to arrive in Rouen in November. Violence broke out, leading to savage, confused street fighting as both sides attempted to take control of the city. Robert and Henry left the castle to join the battle, but Robert then retreated, leaving Henry to continue the fighting.  The battle turned in favour of the ducal forces and Henry took Conan prisoner. Henry was angry that Conan had turned against his feudal lord. He had him taken to the top of Rouen Castle and then, despite Conan's offers to pay a huge ransom, threw him off the top of the castle to his death. Contemporaries considered Henry to have acted appropriately in making an example of Conan, and Henry became famous for his exploits in the battle.

In the aftermath, Robert forced Henry to leave Rouen, probably because Henry's role in the fighting had been more prominent than his own, and potentially because Henry had possibly asked to be formally reinstated as the count of the Contentin. In early 1091, William Rufus invaded Normandy with a sufficiently large army to bring Robert to the negotiating table.


The two brothers signed a treaty at Rouen, granting William Rufus a range of lands and castles in Normandy. In return, William Rufus promised to support Robert's attempts to regain control of the neighbouring county of Maine, once under Norman control, and help in regaining control over the Duchy, including Henry's lands. They nominated each other as heirs to England and Normandy, excluding Henry from any succession while either one of them lived.

War now broke out between Henry and his brothers. Henry mobilised a mercenary army in the west of Normandy, but as William Rufus and Robert's forces advanced, his network of baronial support melted away. Henry focused his remaining forces at Mont Saint Michel, where he was besieged, probably in March 1091. The site was easily defensible, but lacked fresh water. The chronicler William of Malmesbury suggested that when Henry's water ran short, Robert allowed his brother fresh supplies, leading to remonstrations between Robert and William Rufus. The events of the final days of the siege are unclear: the besiegers had begun to argue about the future strategy for the campaign, but Henry then abandoned Mont-Saint Michel, probably as part of a negotiated surrender. He left for Brittany and crossed over into France.

Henry's next steps are not well documented; one chronicler, Orderic Vitalis, suggests that he travelled in the French Vexin, along the Normandy border, for over a year with a small band of followers. By the end of the year, Robert and William Rufus had fallen out once again, and the treaty of Rouen had been abandoned. In 1092, Henry and his followers seized the Normandy town of Domfront.
Domfront had been previously controlled by Robert of Bellême, but the inhabitants disliked his rule and invited Henry to take over the town, which he did in a bloodless coup. Over the next two years, Henry re-established his network of supporters across western Normandy, forming what Judith Green terms a "court in waiting". By 1094, he was allocating lands and castles to his followers as if he was the Duke of Normandy. William Rufus began to support Henry with money, encouraging his campaign against Robert, and Henry used some of this to construct a substantial castle at Domfront.
William Rufus crossed into Normandy to take the war to Robert in 1094, and when progress stalled, called upon Henry for assistance. Henry responded, but travelled to London instead of joining the main campaign further east in Normandy, possibly at the request of the king, who in any event abandoned the campaign and returned to England. Over the next few years, Henry appears to have strengthened his power-base in western Normandy, visiting England occasionally to attend at William Rufus's court. In 1095 Pope Urban II called the First Crusade, encouraging knights from across Europe to join. Robert joined the Crusade, borrowing money from William Rufus in order to do and granting the King temporary custody of his part of the Duchy in exchange. The King appeared confident of regaining the remainder of Normandy from Robert, and Henry appeared ever closer to William Rufus, the pair campaigning together in the Norman Vexin between 1097 and 1098.

Taking the throne, 1100

Henry became King of England following the death of William Rufus while hunting. On the afternoon of 2 August 1100, the King had gone hunting in the 

New Forest, accompanied by a team of huntsmen and a number of the Norman nobility, including Henry. An arrow was fired, possibly by the baron Walter Tirel, which hit and killed William Rufus. Numerous conspiracy theories have been put forward suggesting that the King was deliberately murdered; most modern historians reject these, as hunting was a risky activity, and such accidents were common. Chaos broke out, and Tirel fled the scene for France, either because he had fired the fatal shot, or because he had been incorrectly accused and feared that he would be made a scapegoat for the King's death.

Henry rode to Winchester where an argument ensued as to who now had the best claim to the throne. William of Breteuil championed the rights of Robert, who was still abroad, returning from the Crusade, and to whom Henry and the barons had given homage in previous years. Henry argued that, unlike Robert, he had been born to a reigning king and queen, thereby giving him a claim under the right of porphyrogeniture. Tempers flared, but Henry, supported by Henry de Beaumont and Robert of Meulan, held sway and convinced the barons to follow him. He occupied Winchester Castle and seized the royal treasury that was being held there. 

Henry was hastily crowned king in Westminster Abbey on 5 August by Maurice, the Bishop of London, as Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had been exiled by William Rufus, and Thomas, the Archbishop of York, was in the north of England at Ripon. In accordance with English tradition and in a bid to legitimise his rule, Henry issued a coronation charter laying out various commitments. The new king presented himself as having restored order to a trouble-torn country. He announced that he would abandon William Rufus's policies towards the Church, which had been seen as oppressive by the clergy; he promised to prevent royal abuses of the barons' property rights, and assured a return to the gentler customs of Edward the Confessor; he asserted that he would "establish a firm peace" across England and ordered "that this peace shall henceforth be kept".


In addition to his existing circle of supporters, many of whom were richly rewarded with new lands, Henry quickly co-opted many of the existing administration into his new royal household.^[85] William Giffard, William Rufus's chancellor, was made a bishop, and the prominent sheriffs Urse d'Abetot, Haimo Dapifer and Robert Fitzhamon continued to play a senior role in government.^[85] By contrast, the unpopular Ranulf Flambard, the Bishop of Durham and a key member of the previous regime, was imprisoned in the Tower of London and charged with corruption.^[86] The late king had left many church positions unfilled, and Henry set about nominating candidates to these, in an effort to build further support for his new government.^[87] The appointments needed to be consecrated, and Henry wrote to Anselm, apologising for having been crowned while the Archbishop was still in France and asking him to return at once.

Henry's first wife, Matilda of Scotland

On 11 November 1100 Henry married Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland. Henry was now around 31 years old, but late marriages for noblemen were not unusual in the 11th century. The pair had probably first met earlier the previous decade, possibly being introduced through Bishop Osmund of Salisbury. Historian Warren Hollister argues that Henry and Matilda were emotionally close, but their union was also certainly politically motivated. Matilda had originally been named Edith, an Anglo-Saxon name, and was a member of the West Saxon royal family, being the niece of Edgar the Ætheling, the great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside and a descendent of Alfred the Great.
For Henry, marrying Matilda gave his reign increased legitimacy, and for Matilda, an ambitious woman, it was an opportunity for high status and power in England.
Matilda had been educated in a sequence of convents, however, and may well have taken the vows to formally become a nun, which formed an obstacle to the marriage progressing. Matilda, who did not wish to be a nun, appealed to Anselm for permission to marry Henry, and the archbishop established a council at Lambeth Palace to judge the issue. Despite some dissenting voices, the council concluded that although Matilda had lived in a convent, she had not actually become a nun and was therefore free to marry, a judgement that Anselm then affirmed, allowing the marriage to proceed. Matilda proved an effective queen for Henry, acting as a regent in England on occasion, addressing and presiding over councils, and extensively supporting the arts. The couple soon had two children, Matilda, born in 1102, and William Adelin, born in 1103; it is possible that they also had a second son, Richard, who died young. Following the birth of these children, Matilda preferred to remain based in Westminster while Henry travelled across England and Normandy, either for religious reasons or because she enjoyed being involved in the machinery of royal governance.

Henry had a considerable sexual appetite and enjoyed a substantial number of sexual partners, resulting in a large number of illegitimate children, at least nine sons and 13 daughters, many of whom he appears to have recognised and supported. It was normal for unmarried Anglo-Norman noblemen to have sexual relations with prostitutes and local women, and kings were also expected to have mistresses. Some of these relationships occurred before Henry was married, but many others took place after his marriage to Matilda.^[  Henry had a wide range of mistresses from a range of backgrounds, and the relationships appear to have been conducted relatively openly.^[  He may have chosen some of his noble mistresses for political purposes, but the evidence to support this theory is limited.

Treaty of Alton, 1101-02

                                                

By early 1101, Henry's new regime was established and functioning, but many of the Anglo-Norman elite still supported Robert, or would be prepared to switch sides if Henry's elder brother appeared likely to gain power in England. In February, Flambard escaped from the Tower of London and crossed the Channel to Normandy, where he injected fresh direction and energy to Robert's attempts to mobilise an invasion force.^[  By July, Robert had formed an army and a fleet, ready to move against Henry in England. Upping the stakes in the conflict, Henry seized Flambard's lands and, with the support of Anselm, Flambard was removed from his position as bishop. Henry held court in April and June, where the nobility renewed their oaths of allegiance to him, but their support still appeared partial and shaky.
With the invasion imminent, Henry mobilised his forces and fleet outside Pevensey, close to Robert's anticipated landing site, training some of them personally in how to counter cavalry charges. Despite English levies and knights owing military service to the Church arriving in considerable numbers, many of his barons did not appear. Anselm intervened with some of the doubters, emphasising the religious importance of their loyalty to Henry. Robert unexpectedly landed further up the coast at Portsmouth on 20 July with a modest force of a few hundred men, but these were quickly joined by many of the barons in England. Instead of marching into nearby Winchester and seizing Henry's treasury, however, Robert instead paused, which gave Henry time to march quickly west and intercept the invasion force.
The two armies met at Alton where peace negotiations began, initiated either by Henry and Robert, or by the barons, and probably supported by Flambard. The brothers then agreed to the Treaty of Alton, under which Robert released Henry from his oath of homage and recognised him as king; Henry renounced his claims on western Normandy, except for Domfront, and agreed to pay Robert £2,000 a year for life; if either brother died without a male heir, the other would inherit their lands; the barons supporting either side who had seen their lands seized by the King or Duke would have them returned, and Flambard would be reinstated as bishop; the two brothers would campaign together to defend their territories in Normandy. Robert remained in England for a few months more with Henry before returning to Normandy.
Despite the treaty, Henry set about inflicting severe penalties on the barons who had stood against him during the invasion. William de Warenne, the Earl of Surrey, was accused of fresh crimes, which were not covered by the Alton amnesty, and was banished from England. In 1102 Henry then turned against Robert of Bellême and his brothers, the most powerful of the barons, accusing him of 45 different offences. Robert escaped and took up arms against Henry. Henry besieged Robert's castles at Arundel, Tickhill and Shrewsbury, pushing down into the south-west to attack Bridgnorth. His power base in England broken, Robert accepted Henry's offer of banishment and left the country for Normandy.

Conquest of Normandy, 1103-06

Henry's network of allies in Normandy became stronger during 1103. Henry married Juliana, one of his illegitimate daughters, to Eustace of Breteuil, and another daughter, Matilda, to Rotrou, the Count of Perche, on the Normandy border. Henry attempted to win over other members of the Normandy nobility and gave other English estates and lucrative offers to key Norman lords. Duke Robert continued to fight Robert of Bellême, but the Duke's position worsened, until by 1104, he had to ally himself formally with Bellême in order to survive. Arguing that Duke Robert had broken the terms of their treaty, Henry crossed over the Channel to Domfront, where he met with senior barons from across Normandy, eager to ally themselves with the King. Henry confronted his brother and accused him of siding with his enemies, before returning to England.

Normandy continued to disintegrate into chaos. In 1105, Henry sent his friend Robert Fitzhamon and a force of knights into the Duchy, apparently to provoke a confrontation with Duke Robert. Fitzhamon was captured, and Henry used this as an excuse to invade, promising to restore peace and order. Henry had the support of most of the neighbouring counts around Normandy's borders, and King Philip of France was persuaded to remain neutral.  Henry occupied western Normandy, and advanced east on Bayeux, where Fitzhamon was being held. The city refused to surrender, and Henry besieged it, burning it to the ground. Terrified of meeting the same fate, the town of Caen switched sides and surrendered, allowing Henry to advance on Falaise, which he took with some casualties. Henry's campaign stalled, and the King instead began peace discussions with Robert. The negotiations were inconclusive and the fighting dragged on until Christmas, when Henry returned to England.

Henry invaded again in July 1106, hoping to provoke a decisive battle. After some initial tactical successes, Henry turned south-west towards the castle of Tinchebray.^[  Henry besieged the castle and Duke Robert, supported by Robert of Bellême, advanced from Falaise to relieve it.  After attempts at negotiation failed, the Battle of Tinchebray occurred, probably on 28 September. The battle lasted around an hour, and began with a charge by Duke Robert's cavalry; the infantry and dismounted knights of both sides then joined the battle. Henry's reserves, led by Elias, the Count of Maine and Alan, the Duke of Brittany, attacked the enemy's flanks, routing first Bellême's troops and then the bulk of the ducal forces. Duke Robert, was taken prisoner, but Bellême escaped.

Henry mopped up the remaining resistance in Normandy, and Robert ordered his last garrisons to surrender. Reaching Rouen, Henry reaffirmed the laws and customs of Normandy and took homage from the leading barons and citizens. The lesser prisoners taken at Tinchebray were released, but Robert and several other leading nobles were imprisoned indefinitely. Henry's nephew, Robert's son William Clito, was only three years old and was released to the care of Helias of Saint-Saens, a Norman baron. Henry reconciled himself with Robert of Bellême, who gave up the ducal lands he had seized and rejoined the royal court. Henry had no way of legally removing the Duchy from his brother Robert, and initially Henry avoiding using the title "duke" at all, emphasising that, as the King of England, he was only acting as the guardian of the troubled Duchy.

Henry inherited the kingdom of England from William Rufus, giving him a claim of suzerainty over Wales and Scotland, and acquired the Duchy of Normandy, a complex entity with troubled borders. The borders between England and Scotland were still uncertain during Henry's reign, with Anglo-Norman influence pushing northwards through Cumbria, but Henry's relationship with King David of Scotland was generally good, partially due to Henry's marriage to his daughter. In Wales, Henry used his power to coerce and charm the indigenous Welsh princes, while Norman Marcher Lords pushed across the valleys of South Wales. Normandy was controlled via various interlocking networks of ducal, ecclesiastical and family contacts, backed by a growing string of important ducal castles along the borders. Alliances and relationships with neighbouring counties along the Norman border were particularly important to maintaining the stability of the Duchy. 

Henry ruled through the various barons and lords in England and Normandy, whom he manipulated skilfully for political effect. Political friendships, termed amicitia in Latin, were important during the 12th century, and Henry maintained a wide range of these, mediating between his friends in various factions across his realm when necessary, and rewarding those who were loyal to him. Henry also had a reputation for punishing those barons who stood against him, and he maintained an effective network of informers and spies who reported to him on events.^[  Henry was a harsh, firm ruler, but not excessively so by the standards of the day. Over time, Henry increased the degree of his control over the barons, removing his enemies and bolstering his friends until the "reconstructed baronage", as historian Warren Hollister describes it, was predominantly loyal and dependent on Henry.


Henry's itinerant royal court comprised various parts. At the heart was Henry's domestic household, called the domus; a wider grouping was termed the familia regis, and formal gatherings of the court were termed curia. The domus was divided into several parts. The chapel, headed by the chancellor, looked after the royal documents, the chamber dealt with financial affairs and the master-marshal was responsible for travel and accommodation. The familia regis included Henry's mounted household troops, up to several hundred strong, who came from a wider range of social backgrounds, and could be deployed across England and Normandy as required. Initially Henry continued his father's practice of regular crown-wearing ceremonies at his curia, but they became less frequent as the years passed. Henry's court was grand and ostentatious, financing the construction of large new buildings and castles with a range of precious gifts on display, including the King's private menagerie of exotic animals, which he kept at Woodstock. Despite being a lively community, Henry's court was more tightly controlled than those of previous kings. Strict rules controlled personal behaviour and prohibited members of the court from pillaging neighbouring villages, as had been the norm under William Rufus.

Henry was responsible for a substantial expansion of the royal justice system. In England, Henry drew on the existing Anglo-Saxon system of justice, local government and taxes, but strengthened it with additional central governmental institutions. Roger of Salisbury began to develop the royal exchequer after 1110, using it to collect and audit revenues from the King's sheriffs in the shires. Itinerant justices began to emerge under Henry, travelling around the country managing eyre courts, and many more laws were formally recorded. Henry gathered increasing revenue from the expansion of royal justice, both from fines and from fees.

The first Pipe Roll that is known to have survived dates from 1130, recording royal expenditures. Henry reformed the coinage in 1107, 1108 and in 1125, inflicting harsh corporal punishments to English coiners who had been found guilty of debasing the currency. In Normandy, Henry restored law and order after 1106, operating through a body of Norman justices and an exchequer system similar to that in England. Norman institutions grew in scale and scope under Henry, although less quickly than in England. Many of the officials that ran Henry's system were termed "new men", relatively low-born individuals who rose up the ranks as administrators, managing justice or the royal revenues.

Henry's ability to govern was intimately bound up with the Church, which formed the key to the administration of both England and Normandy, and this relationship changed considerably over the course of his reign. William the Conqueror had reformed the English Church with the support of his Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, who formed a close colleague and advisor to the King. Under William Rufus this arrangement had collapsed, the King and Archbishop Anselm had become estranged and Anselm had gone into exile. Henry also believed in Church reform, but on taking power in England he became embroiled in the investiture controversy.

The argument concerned who should invest a new bishop with his staff and ring: traditionally, this had been carried out by the king in a symbolic demonstration of royal power, but Pope Urban II had condemned this practise in 1099, arguing that only the papacy could carry out this task, and declaring that the clergy should not give homage to their local temporal rulers. Anselm returned to England from exile in 1100 having heard Urban's pronouncement, and informed Henry that he would be complying with the Pope's wishes. Henry was in a difficult position. On one hand, the symbolism and homage was important to him; on the other hand, he needed Anselm's support in his struggle with his brother Duke Robert. 

Anselm stuck firmly to the letter of the papal decree, despite Henry's attempts to persuade him to give way in return for a vague assurance of a future royal compromise. Matters escalated, with Anselm going back into exile and Henry confiscating the revenues of his estates. Anselm threatened excommunication, and in July 1105 the two men finally negotiated a solution. A distinction was drawn between the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the prelates, under which Henry gave up his right to invest his clergy, but retained the custom of requiring them to come and do homage for the temporalities, the landed properties they held in England. Despite this argument, the pair worked closely together, combining to deal with Duke Robert's invasion of 1101, for example, and holding major reforming councils in 1102 and 1108.


A long running dispute between the Archbishops of Canterbury and York flared up under Anselm's successor, Ralph d'Escures.^] Canterbury, traditionally the senior of the two establishments, had long argued that the Archbishop of York should formally promise to obey their Archbishop, but York argued that the two episcopates were independent within the English Church and that no such promise was necessary. Henry supported the primacy of Canterbury, in order to ensure that England remained under a single ecclesiastical administration, but the Pope preferred the case of York. The matter was complicated, however, by Henry's personal friendship with Thurstan, the Archbishop of York, and the King's desire that the case not end up in a papal court, beyond royal control.

Henry badly needed the support of the Papacy in his struggle with Louis of France, however, and therefore allowed Thurstan to attend the Council of Rheims in 1119, where Thurstan was then consecrated by the Pope with no mention of any duty towards Canterbury.^] Henry believed that this went against assurances Thurstan had previously made and exiled him from England until the King and Archbishop came to a negotiated solution the following year.

Even after the investiture dispute, the King continued to play a major role in the selection of new English and Norman bishops and archbishops. Henry appointed many of his officials to bishoprics and, as historian Martin Brett suggests, "some of his officers could look forward to a mitre with all but absolute confidence". Henry and his queens' chancellors became bishops of Durham, Hereford, London, Lincoln, Winchester and Salisbury. Henry increasingly drew on a wider range of these bishops as advisors - particularly Roger of Salisbury - breaking with the earlier tradition of relying primarily on the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The result was a cohesive body of administrators through which Henry could exercise careful influence, holding general councils to discuss key matters of policy. This stability shifted slightly after 1125, when Henry began to inject a wider range of candidates into the senior positions of the Church, often with more reformist views, and the impact of this generation would be felt in the years after Henry's death. 

Like other rulers of the period, Henry donated to the Church and patronised various religious communities, but contemporary chroniclers did not consider him an unusually pious king. Henry's personal beliefs and piety may, however, have developed during the course of his life. Henry had always taken an interest in religion, but in his later years he may have become much more concerned about spiritual affairs. If so, the major shifts in his thinking would appear to have occurred after 1120, when his son William Adelin died, and 1129, when his daughter's marriage teetered on the verge of collapse. 

As a proponent of religious reform, Henry gave extensively to reformist groups within the Church. Henry was a keen supporter of the Cluniac order, probably for intellectual reasons. He donated money to the abbey at Cluny itself, and after 1120 gave generously to Reading Abbey, a Cluniac establishment.^[205] Construction on Reading began in 1121, and Henry endowed it with rich lands and extensive privileges, making it a symbol of his dynastic lines.


He also focused effort on promoting the conversion of communities of clerks into communities of Augustinian canons, the foundation of leper hospitals, expanding the provision of nunneries, and the charismatic orders of the Savigniacs and Tironensians. He was a keen collector of relics, sending an embassy to Constantinople in 1118 to collect Byzantine items, some of which were donated to Reading Abbey.

Normandy faced an increased threat from France, Anjou and Flanders after 1108. Louis VI succeeded to the French throne in 1108 and began to reassert central royal power. Louis demanded that Henry give homage to him and that two disputed castles along the Normandy border be placed into the control of neutral castellans. Henry refused, and Louis responded by mobilising an army After some arguments, the two kings agreed a truce and retreated without fighting, leaving the underlying issues unresolved. Fulk V[1] assumed power in Anjou in 1109 and began to rebuild Angevin authority. Fulk also inherited the county of Maine, but refused to recognise Henry as his feudal lord and instead allied himself with Louis. Robert II of Flanders also briefly joined the alliance, before his death in 1111.

In 1108, Henry betrothed his eight-year-old daughter, Matilda, to Henry V, the future Holy Roman Emperor. For King Henry, this was a prestigious match with the Empire; for Henry V, it was an opportunity to restore his financial situation and fund an expedition to Italy, as he received a dowry of £6,666 from England and Normandy. Raising this money proved challenging, and required the implementation of a special "aid", or tax, in England. Matilda was crowned Henry V's queen in 1110.
Henry responded to the French and Angevin threat by expanding his own network of supporters beyond the Norman borders. Some Norman barons deemed unreliable were arrested or dispossessed, and Henry used their forfeited estates to bribe his potential allies in the neighbouring territories, in particular Maine. Around 1110, Henry attempted to arrest the young William Clito, but William's mentors moved him to the safety of Flanders before he could be taken.
Around this time, Henry probably began to style himself as the Duke of Normandy. Robert of Bellême turned against Henry once again, and when he appeared at Henry's court in 1112 in a new role as a French ambassador, he was arrested and imprisoned.

Rebellions broke out in France and Anjou between 1111 and 1113, and Henry crossed into Normandy to support his nephew, Count Theobald of Blois, who had sided against Louis in the uprising. In a bid to diplomatically isolate the French King, Henry betrothed his young son, William Adelin, to Fulk's daughter Matilda, and married his illegitimate daughter Matilda to Conan III, the Duke of Brittany, creating alliances with Anjou and Brittany respectively Louis backed down and in March 1113 met with Henry near Gisors to agree a peace settlement, giving Henry the disputed fortresses and confirming Henry's overlordship of Maine, Bellême and Brittany.

Meanwhile, the situation in Wales was deteriorating. Henry had conducted a campaign in South Wales in 1108, pushing out royal power in the region and colonising the area around Pembroke with Flemings. By 1114, some of the resident Norman lords were being attacked, while in Mid-Wales, Owain ap Cadwgan blinded one of the political hostages he was holding, and in North Wales Gruffud ap Cynan threatened the power of the Earl of Chester. Henry sent three armies into Wales that year, with Gilbert FitzRichard leading a force from the south, Alexander, King of Scotland, pressing from the north and Henry himself advancing into Mid-Wales. Owain and Gruffud sued for peace, and Henry accepted a political compromise. Henry reinforced the Welsh Marches with his own appointees, strengthening the border territories.

Concerned about the future succession, Henry began to try to convince Louis VI to accept his son, William Adelin, as the legitimate future Duke of Normandy, in exchange for his son's homage. Henry crossed into Normandy in 1115 and assembled the Norman barons to swear loyalty; he also almost managed to convince King Louis to affirm William's right to the Duchy in exchange for a large sum of money, but the deal fell through and Louis, backed by his ally Baldwin of Flanders, instead declared that he considered William Clito the legitimate heir to the Duchy.

War broke out after Henry returned to Normandy with an army to support Theobald of Blois, who was under attack from Louis. Henry and Louis raided each other's towns along the border, and a wider conflict then broke out, probably in 1116.

Henry was pushed back onto the defensive as French, Flemish and Angevin forces began to pillage the Normandy countryside. Amaury III of Montfort many other barons rose up against Henry, and there was a plot from within his own household to assassinate the King. Henry's wife, Matilda, died in early 1118, but the situation in Normandy was sufficiently pressing that Henry was unable to return to England for her funeral.

Henry responded by mounting campaigns against the rebel barons and deepening his alliance with Theobald. Baldwin of Flanders was wounded in battle and died in September 1118, easing the pressure on Normandy from the north-east. Henry attempted to crush a revolt in the city of Alençon, but was met by Fulk and the Angevin army, who defeated Henry and his forces. Forced to retreat from Alençon, Henry's position deteriorated alarmingly, as his resources became overstretched and further barons abandoned his cause. Early in 1119, Eustace of Breteil and Henry's daughter, Juliana, threatened to join the baronial revolt. Hostages were exchanged in a bid to avoid conflict, but relations broke down and both sides mutilated their captives. Henry attacked and took the town of Breteil, despite Juliana attempting to kill her father with a crossbow. In the aftermath, Henry dispossessed the couple of almost all of their lands in Normandy.

Henry's situation improved in May 1119 when he convinced Fulk to switch sides, by finally agreeing to marry William Adelin to Fulk's daughter, Matilda, and paying Fulk a large sum of money. Fulk left for the Levant, leaving the County of Maine in Henry's care, and the King was free to focus on crushing his remaining enemies. During the summer Henry advanced into the Norman Vexin, where he encountered Louis's army, resulting in the Battle of Brémule. Henry appears to have deployed scouts and then deployed his troops into several carefully formed lines of dismounted knights. Unlike Henry's forces, the French knights remained mounted and hastily charged the Anglo-Norman positions, breaking through the first rank of the defences but then becoming entangled in the second line of knights.

 Surrounded, the French army began to collapse. Henry was hit by a sword blow in the melee, but his armour protected him. Louis and William Clito escaped from the battle, leaving Henry to return to Rouen in triumph.^[2
The war slowly petered out after the battle, and Louis took the dispute over Normandy to Pope Callixtus II's council in Reims that October. Henry faced a number of French complaints concerning his acquisition and subsequent management of Normandy, and despite being defended by Geoffrey, the Archbishop of Rouen, Henry's case was shouted down by the pro-French elements of the council. Calixtus, declined to support Louis, however, and merely advised the two rulers to seek peace. Amaury de Montfort came to terms with Henry, but Henry and William Clito failed to find a mutually satisfactory compromise. In June 1120, Henry and Louis formally made peace on advantageous terms to the English King: William Adelin gave homage to Louis, and in return Louis confirmed William's rights to the Duchy.

Succession crisis, 1120-23

 

Early 14th-century depiction of the sinking of the White Ship on 25 November 1120

Henry's succession plans were thrown into chaos by the sinking of the White Ship on 25 November 1120. Henry left the port of Barfleur for England in the early evening, leaving William Adelin and many of the younger members of the court to follow on that night in a separate vessel, the White Ship. Both the crew and passengers were drunk and, just outside the harbour, the ship hit a submerged rock. The ship sank, killing as many as 300 people, with only one survivor, a butcher from Rouen. Henry's court was initially too scared to report William's death to the King. When he was finally told, he collapsed with grief.

The disaster left Henry with no legitimate son, with his various nephews the closest male heirs. Henry announced he would take a new wife, Adeliza of Louvain, opening up the prospect of a new royal son, and the two were married at Windsor Castle in January 1121. Henry appears to chosen her because she was attractive and came from a prestigious noble line. 

Adela seems to have been fond of Henry and joined him in his travels, probably to maximise the chances of her conceiving a child. The White Ship disaster initiated fresh conflict in Wales, where the drowning of Richard, Earl of Chester, encouraged a rebellion led by Maredudd ap Bleddyn. Henry intervened in North Wales that summer with an army, and despite the King being hit by a Welsh arrow, the campaign reaffirmed royal power across the region.

With William dead, Henry's alliance with Anjou - which had been based on his son marrying Fulk's daughter - began to disintegrate. Fulk returned from the Levant and demanded that Henry return Matilda and her dowry, a range of estates and fortifications in Maine. Matilda left for Anjou, but Henry argued that the dowry had in fact originally belonged to him before it came into the possession of Fulk, and so declined to hand them back to Anjou. Fulk married his daughter Sibylla to William Clito, and granted them Maine. Once again, conflict broke out, as Amaury de Montfort allied himself with Fulk and led a revolt along the Norman-Anjou border in 1123. Amaury was joined by several other Norman barons, headed by Waleran de Beaumont, one of the sons of Henry's old ally, Robert of Meulan.

Henry despatched Robert of Gloucester and Ranulf le Meschin to Normandy and then intervened himself in late 1123. Henry began the process of besieging the rebel castles, before over-wintering in the Duchy. In the spring, campaigning began again. Ranulf received intelligence that the rebels were returning to one of their bases at Vatteville, allowing him to ambush them en route at Rougemontiers; Waleran charged the royal forces, but his knights were cut down by Ranulf's archers and the rebels were quickly overwhelmed. Waleran was captured, but Amaury escaped capture.
Henry mopped up the remainder of the rebellion, blinding some of the rebel leaders - at the time, considered a more merciful punishment than execution - and recovering the last rebel castles. Henry paid Pope Calixtus a large amount of money, in exchange for the Papacy annulling the marriage of William Clito and Sibylla on the grounds of consanguinity. 

Planning the succession, 1124-34

 

Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (l) and the Empress Matilda (r)

Henry and his new wife did not conceive any children, generating prurient speculation as to the possible explanation, and the future of the dynasty began to appear at risk. Henry may have begun to look amongst his nephews for a possible heir. He may have considered Stephen of Blois as a possible option, and, possibly in preparation for this, he arranged a beneficial marriage for Stephen to a wealthy heiress, Matilda. Theobald of Blois, his close ally, may have also felt that he was in favour with Henry. William Clito, who was King Louis's preferred choice, remained opposed to Henry and was therefore unsuitable. Henry may have also considered his own illegitimate son, Robert of Gloucester, as a possible candidate, but English tradition and custom would have looked unfavourably on this.

Henry's plans shifted when the Empress Matilda's husband, the Emperor Henry, died in 1125. King Henry recalled his daughter to England the next year and declared that, should he die without a male heir, she was to be his rightful successor. The Anglo-Norman barons were gathered together at Westminster at Christmas 1126, where they swore to recognise Matilda and any future legitimate heir she might have. Putting forward a woman as a potential heir in this way was unusual: opposition to Matilda continued to exist within the English court, and Louis was vehemently opposed to her candidacy.

Fresh conflict broke out in 1127, when Charles, the childless Count of Flanders, was murdered, creating a local succession crisis. Backed by King Louis, William Clito was chosen by the Flemings to become their new ruler. This development potentially threatened Normandy, and Henry began to finance a proxy war in Flanders, promoting the claims of William's Flemish rivals. In an effort to disrupt the French alliance with William, Henry mounted an attack into France in 1128, forcing Louis to cut his aid to William. William died unexpectedly in July, removing the last major challenger to Henry's rule and bringing the war in Flanders to a halt. Without William, the baronial opposition in Normandy lacked a leader.
 A fresh peace was made with France, and the King was finally able to release the remaining prisoners from the revolt of 1123, including Waleran of Meulan, who was rehabilitated into the royal court.

Meanwhile, Henry rebuilt his alliance with Fulk of Anjou, this time by marrying Matilda to Fulk's eldest son, Geoffrey. The pair were betrothed in 1127 and were married the following year. It is uncertain whether Henry intended Geoffrey to have any future claim on England or Normandy, and he was probably keeping his son-in-law's status deliberately uncertain. Similarly, although Matilda was granted a number of Normandy castles as part of her dowry, it was not specified when the couple would actually take possession of them. Fulk left Anjou for Jerusalem in 1129, declaring Geoffrey the Count of Anjou and Maine.

The marriage proved difficult, as the couple did not particularly like each other and the disputed castles proved a point of contention, resulting in Matilda returning to Normandy later that year. Henry appears to have blamed Geoffrey for the separation, but in 1131 the couple were reconciled. Much to the pleasure and relief of Henry, Matilda then gave birth to a sequence of two sons, Henry and Geoffrey, in 1133 and 1134.

Relations between Henry, Matilda and Geoffrey became increasingly strained in the last few years of the King's life. Matilda and Geoffrey suspected that they lacked genuine support in England, and proposed to Henry in 1135 that the king should hand over the royal castles in Normandy to Matilda whilst he was still alive and insist on the Norman nobility swearing immediate allegiance to her, thereby giving the couple a much more powerful position after Henry's death. Henry angrily declined to do so, probably out of a concern that Geoffrey would try to seize power in Normandy. A fresh rebellion broke out amongst the barons in southern Normandy, led by William, the Count of Ponthieu, whereupon Geoffrey and Matilda intervened in support of the rebels.

Henry campaigned throughout the autumn, strengthening the southern frontier, and then travelled to Lyons-la-Forêt in November to enjoy some hunting, still apparently well. There Henry fell ill — according to the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, he ate an excessive number of lampreys against his physician's advice — and his condition worsened over the course of a week. Once the condition appeared terminal, Henry gave confession and summoned Archbishop Hugh of Amiens, who was joined by Robert of Gloucester and other members of the court. In accordance with custom, preparations were made to settle Henry's outstanding debts and to revoke outstanding sentences of forfeiture. The King finally died on 1 December 1135. Henry's corpse was taken to Rouen accompanied by the barons, where it was embalmed; his entrails were buried locally at Port-du-Salut Abbey, and the preserved body was taken onto England, where it was interned at Reading Abbey.
Despite Henry's efforts, the succession was disputed. When news began to spread of the King's death, Geoffrey and Matilda were in Anjou, supporting the rebels in their campaign against the royal army, which included a number of Matilda's supporters such as Robert of Gloucester. Many of these barons had taken an oath to stay in Normandy until the late king was properly buried, which prevented them from returning to England. The Norman nobility discussed declaring Theobald of Blois king. Theobald's younger brother Stephen of Blois, however, quickly crossed from Bolougne to England, accompanied by his military household. With the help of his brother, Henry of Blois, he seized power in England, being crowned king on 22 December. The Empress Matilda did not give up her claim to England and Normandy, leading to the prolonged civil war known as the Anarchy between 1135 and 1153.

Historians of Henry have drawn on a range of sources, including the accounts of chroniclers; other documentary evidence, including early pipe rolls; and surviving buildings and architecture.
The three main chroniclers to describe the events of Henry's life were William of Malmesbury, Orderic Vitalis and Henry of Huntingdon, but each incorporated extensive social and moral commentary into their accounts, and borrowed a range of literary devices and stereotypical events from other popular works. Other chroniclers include Eadmer, Hugh the Chanter, Abbot Suger and the authors of the Welsh Brut.

Not all royal documents from the period have survived, but there are a number of royal acts, charters, writs and letters, along with some early financial records. Some of these have since been discovered to be forgeries, and others had been subsequently amended or tampered with.

Late medieval historians seized on selected chroniclers' accounts of Henry's education, and gave him the title of Henry "Beauclerc", an theme echoed in the analysis of Victorian and Edwardian historians such as Francis Palgrave and Henry Davis. The historian Charles David dismissed this argument in 1929, showing the more extreme claims for Henry's education to be without foundation. Modern histories of Henry commenced with Richard Southern's work in the early 1960s, followed by extensive research during the rest of the 20th century into a wide number of themes from his reign in England, and a much more limited number of studies of his rule in Normandy. Only two major, modern biographies of Henry have been produced, Warren Hollister's posthumous volume in 2001, and Judith Green's 2006 work.

Historians' interpretation of Henry's personality has altered over time. Earlier historians such as Austin Poole and Richard Southern considered Henry as a cruel, draconian ruler. More recent historians, such as Hollister and Green, view his implementation of justice much more sympathetically, particularly when set against the standards of the day, but even Green has noted that Henry was "in many respects highly unpleasant", and Alan Cooper has observed that many contemporary chroniclers were probably too scared of the King to voice much criticism. Historians have also debated the extent to which Henry's administrative reforms genuinely constituted an introduction of what Hollister and John Baldwin have termed systematic, "administrative kingship", or whether his outlook remained fundamentally traditional. 

Legitimate

 

Henry and his first wife, Matilda, had at least two legitimate children:

1. Matilda, born in 1102, died 1167.
2. William Adelin, born in 1103, died 1120.
3. Possibly Richard, who, if he existed, died young.

 Henry and his second wife, Adeliza, had no children.

Illegitimate

Henry had a number of illegitimate children by various mistresses.

Sons

1.      Robert of Gloucester, born in the 1090s.

2. Richard, born to Ansfride, brought up by Robert Bloet, the Bishop of Lincoln.
3. Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall, born in the 1110s or early 1120s, possibly to Sibyl Corbet.
4.  Robert the King's son, born to Ede, daughter of Forne.
5. Gilbert, possibly born to an unnamed sister or daughter of Walter of Gand.
6. William de Tracy, possibly born in the 1190s.
7. Henry the King's son, possibly born to Nest ferch Rhys.
8. Fulk the King's son, possibly born to Ansfride.
9. William, the brother of Sybilla de Normandy, probably the brother of Reginald de Dunstanville

Daughters

1. Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche.
2. Matilda FitzRoy, Duchess of Brittany.^]
3. Juliana, wife of Eustace of Breteil, possibly born to Ansfrida.
4. Mabel, wife of William Gouet.
5. Constance, Vicountess of Beaumont-sur-Sarthe.
6. Aline, wife of Matthew de Montmorency.
7. Isabel, daughter of Isabel de Beaumont, Countess of Pembroke.
8. Sybilla de Normandy, Queen of Scotland, probably born before 1100.
9. Matilda Fitzroy, Abbess of Montvilliers.
10. Gundrada de Dunstanville
11. Possibly Rohese, wife of Henry de la Pomerai
12. Emma, wife of Guy of Laval.
13. Adeliza, the King's daughter.
14. The wife of Fergus of Galloway.
15. Possibly Sibyl of Falaise.

Of importance is Mathilda Adelaide Princess of England (24^th great grandmother).  King Henry’s daughter with Matilda.  Through her mother’s lineage, her ancestry can be traced all the way back to the First Kings of Ireland, and through the Kings of Scotland.  This line commences in the year 00BC. 

I wonder if all those warriors ever realised they were fighting against their own cousins?

With his mistress Nest Verch Rhys,

 King Henry I     had a son Henry Fitz Roy.

Henry FitzRoy (b. c.1100-1104, d. 1158) was an illegitimate son of Henry I of England by Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last king of Deheubarth (d. 1093), and his wife, Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn.

He held lands from his royal father in Narberth and Pebidiog.
 Upon his death in battle in 1158, his lands passed to his oldest son, Meilyr, later Lord Chief Justice of Ireland for his cousin, King Henry II.

The Deheubarth Branch

Deheubarth (lit. "Right-hand Part", thus "the South") was a regional name for the realms of south Wales, particularly as opposed to Gwynedd (Latin: Norwallia). It is now used as a shorthand for the various realms united under the House of Dinefwr, but that Deheubarth itself was not considered a proper kingdom on the model of Gwynedd, Powys, or Dyfed^[5] is shown by the fact it was rendered in Latin as dextralis pars or as Britonnes dexterales ("the Southern Britons") and not as a named land.^[6] In fact, in the oldest British writers, "Deheubarth" was used for all of modern Wales to distinguish it from Y Gogledd or Hen Ogledd, the northern lands whence Cunedda and the Cymry originated

Deheubarth was united around 920 by Hywel Dda out of the territories of Seisyllwg and Dyfed, which had come into his possession. Later on, the Kingdom of Brycheiniog was also added. Caerleon was previously the principal court of the area, but Hywel's dynasty fortified and built up a new base at Dinefwr, giving them their name.
After the high-water mark set by Hywel, Dinefwr was repeatedly overrun. First, by the Welsh of the north and east: by Llywelyn ap Seisyll of Gwynedd in 1018; by Rhydderch ab Iestyn of Morgannwg in 1023; by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Gwynedd in 1041 and 1043. In 1075, Rhys ab Owain and the noblemen of Ystrad Tywi succeeded in treacherously killing their English-backed overlord Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. Although Rhys was quickly overrun by Gwynedd and Gwent, his cousin Rhys ap Tewdwr – through his marriage into Bleddyn's family and through battle – reëstablished his dynasty's hegemony over south Wales just in time for the second wave of conquest: a prolonged Norman invasion under the Marcher Lords. In 1093, Rhys was killed in unknown circumstances while resisting their expansion into Brycheiniog and his son Gruffydd was briefly thrown into exile.

Following the death of Henry I in 1136, Gruffydd formed an alliance with Gwynedd for the purpose of a revolt against Norman incursions. He took part in Owain Gwynedd and Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd's victory over the English at Crug Mawr. The newly-liberated region of Ceredigion, though, was not returned to his family but annexed by Owain.

The long and capable rule of Gruffydd's son the Lord Rhys – and the civil wars that followed Owain's death in Gwynedd – briefly permitted the South to reassert the hegemony Hywel Dda had enjoyed two centuries before. On his death in 1197, though, Rhys redivided his kingdom among his several sons and none of them ever again rivalled his power. By the time Llywelyn the Great won the wars in Gwynedd, in the late 1100s, lords in Deheubarth merely appear among his clients.

Following the conquest of Wales by Edward I, the South was divided into the historic counties of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire by the Statute of Rhuddlan.

In the arena of the church, Sulien was the leader of the monastic community at Llanbadarn Fawr in Ceredigion. Born ca. 1030, he became Bishop of St. David's in 1073. Both of his sons followed him into the service of the church. At this time the prohibition against the marriage of clerics was not yet established. His sons produced a number of manuscripts and original Latin and vernacular poems. They were very active in the ecclesiastical and political life of Deheubarth. One son, Rhygyfarch (Latin: Ricemarchus) of Llanbadarn Fawr, wrote the Life of Saint David and another, Ieuan, was a skillful scribe and illuminator. He copied some the works of Augustine of Hippo and may have written the Life of St. Padarn.

Rhys ap Tewdwr, a member of the House of Dinefwr, claimed the throne of Deheubarth following the death of his second cousin Rhys ab Owain in battle against Caradog ap Gruffydd in 1078.
He was a grandson of Cadell ab Einion ab Owain ab Hywel Dda, and a great-grandson of Einon ab Owain, thus a descendant of Hywel Dda, king of the Britons.^[1] He married Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon daughter of Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of the Mathrafal dynasty of Powys, by whom he had four sons, Gruffudd, Hywel ap Rhys, Goronwy and Cadwgan, and a daughter Nest (who married Gerald de Windsor Constable of Pembroke, progenitors of the FitzGerald and de Barry dynasties of Ireland. These celebrated Hiberno-Norman, or Cambro-Norman, families have been Peers of Ireland since at least the 14th century.

The English variant of Tewdwr is Tudor. Henry Tudor, King of England was a matrilineal descendant of Rhys ap Tewdwr.

Ancestry Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn (c. 1020 – c. 1069) was a Welsh prince, the son of Cynfyn ap Gwerstan and brother of King Bleddyn of Powys. Through his mother Angharad, he was half-brother to King Gruffydd ap Llywelyn as well. Following the 1063 invasion of Wales by Harold and Tostig Godwinson that overthrew Gruffydd, Rhiwallon and Bleddyn jointly received Powys and Gwynedd on condition of faithfully serving Edward the Confessor "everywhere by water and by land".
In August 1067, Rhiwallon and Bleddyn joined Eadric the Wild in an attack upon Herefordshire as part of the Saxon resistance to the the recent Norman Conquest of England. In 1069 or 1070, the two brothers fought the battle of Battle of Mechain against Gruffydd's sons Maredudd and Idwal. Though victorious, Rhiwallon was slain in battle and left Bleddyn sole prince of North Wales.

In 1081 Caradog ap Gruffydd invaded Deheubarth and drove Rhys to seek sanctuary in the St David's Cathedral.  Rhys however made an alliance with Gruffydd ap Cynan who was seeking to regain the throne of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, and at the Battle of Mynydd Carn in the same year they defeated and killed Caradog ap Gruffydd and his allies Trahaearn ap Caradog of Gwynedd and Meilyr ap Rhiwallon.

The same year William the Conqueror visited Deheubarth, ostensibly on a pilgrimage to St David's, but with a major show of power as well, traversing the width of southern Wales, and it seems likely he came to an arrangement with Rhys, whereby Rhys paid him homage and was confirmed in possession of Deheubarth. Rhys paid William £40 a year for his kingdom, ensuring good future relations with William that lasted until the end of his lifetime. Rhys was content with the arrangement as it meant that he only had to deal with the jealousy of his fellow Welsh princes.

In 1088 Cadwgan ap Bleddyn of Powys attacked Deheubarth and forced Rhys to flee to Ireland. However Rhys returned later the same year with a fleet from Ireland and defeated the men of Powys in a battle in which two of Cadwgan's brothers, Madog and Rhiryd, were killed.

In 1091 he faced another challenge in the form of an attempt to put Gruffydd, the son of Maredudd ab Owain, on the throne of Deheubarth. Rhys was able to defeat the rebels in a battle at St. Dogmaels, killing Gruffydd.

Rhys was unable to withstand the increasing Norman pressure. The Welsh Bruts state that "Rhys ap Tewdwr, king of Deheubarth, was slain by the Frenchmen who were inhabiting Brycheiniog." The Brut y Tywysogion adds and with him fell the kingdom of the Britons. This passage lends evidence to the belief that the conquest of Brycheiniog (Brecon), led by Bernard de Neufmarche, was mostly finished by Eastertide 1093. The battle of Brecon opened the way to the conquest of Deheubarth.
Upon Rhys's death, the Normans seized much of South Wales, and fighting over the spoils with the chieftains of Powys and Gwynedd. Eventually, Rhys's oldest son, Gruffydd, was allowed to inherit a small portion of his father's kingdom.

Rhys's daughter Nest was briefly one of the numerous concubines of Henry I, to whom she bore a son, and thereafter the wife of Gerald FitzWalter of Pembroke; their sons and grandsons, the FitzGerald conquerors of Ireland, were known collectively as the "sons of Nest". Through his son Gruffydd, Rhys was an ancestor of the Tudor dynasty.   She is our great grandmother.

Henry FitzRoy Prince of England married Alice Fitz Walcher of Durham  She was the daughter of Walcher, Bishop of Durham.                       

They had a daughter Amabilis Fitzhenry. B 1150 – 1185 in Killdare Ireland.

She married Lord Walter De Ridelisford b 1140 d 1226 from Carriebenan Kildare Ireland.    He is the 23rd great grandfather

Henry Fitz Roy was the half brother of Mathilda, Adelaide Princess of England. She was the daughter of King Henry I and his wife  Matilda.

Through her marriage to Geoffrey Viscount Anjou Plantagenet, they had a son King Henry II of England.    King Henry is the 24^th great grandfather.  These two families intertwine.

Walter de Riddlesford 1140 –1226) was an Anglo-Norman lord granted in Ireland the baronies of Bray, County Wicklow and Kilkea, County Kildare between 1171 and 1176.

De Riddlesford was born in Carriebenan, Kildare, Ireland. He married Amabilis Fitzhenry (born ca. 1150 in Ireland).  He built a motte and bailey fortress on the site of what is now Kilkea Castle in County Kildare in 1181.

He died in 1226 and was succeeded by his son Walter de Ridelsford (born 1204 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England). His granddaughter, Emmeline, married Hugh de Lacy, 1st Earl of Ulster (as his second wife) and, then, Stephen Longespee, grandson of Henry II of England.

Sir Walter de Riddlesford built a motte and bailey castle there in 1181. A grand daughter of his married Maurice Fitzgerald, 3rd baron of Offaly, and so the Manor of Kilkea came into the possession of the Fitzgeralds and was to remain in the family for over 700 years.

Thomas de Rokeby (died 1356) the Justiciar of Ireland, used the castle as his military base, and died here.

The castle is particularly, associated with Gerald, the 11th Earl of Kildare known as the "Wizard Earl", who became the male representative of the Geraldines when only twelve years of age after his half brother "Silken Thomas" the 10th earl, was executed at Tyburn in 1537. The "Wizard Earl" was sent to the continent to be educated, and following his return to Kildare his interest in alchemy caused much interest among his neighbours around Kilkea Castle and he was said to possess magic powers.

The Earl died in 1585 and is supposed to return to the castle every seventh year mounted on a silver-shod white charger. In 1634 the castle was leased to the Jesuit Order by the widow of the 14th Earl of Kildare and they remained there until 1646. That year the order entertained the Archbishop Rinuccini, Papal Nuncio to the Confederation of Kilkenny at Kilkea.

In the early eighteenth century the 19th Earl of Kildare decided to make Carton House the family seat and Kilkea Castle was leased to a succession of tenants. One of these tenants was Thomas Reynolds, a Dublin silk merchant, who was a "friend" of the Kildare hero of 1798, Lord Edward FitzGerald, through whom Reynolds had become a United Irishman, only to become an informer. His role as informer did not prevent the castle which had been recently done up in fine style being sacked by military during the rebellion. After a fire in 1849 the 3rd Duke of Leinster, Lord Walter was a founder member of the Kildare Archaeological Society in 1891 and undoubtedly the greatest antiquarian Kildare has ever had. He was editor of the "Journals of the Association of the Preservation of the Memorial of Dead in Ireland" from 1904 until his death in 1923. After Carton was sold in 1949 Kilkea Castle became the seat of the 8th Duke of Leinster.

The castle and estate was finally sold by the Fitzgerald family in the early 1960s. Kilkea Castle was then run successfully as a hotel for decades, but entered Examinership in 2009, a victim of the 2008–2010 Irish financial crisis. It is now closed

Lord Walter and Amabilis had a son Walter de Ridelisford born 1190 – 1244.  He married Annora Alinore Vitrie b 1206 d 1225.  They had a daughter

Emaline “Countess of Ulster” de Ridelisford.  B 1223 Kildare Ireland d 1276 Salisbury England.

She married Stephen Longspee b 1216 d 1260.

Deapite such a name Stephen Longspee was the son of William Longspee the 3^rd Earl of Salisbury and his wife Ela.

William was the illegitimate son of King Henry II with his concubine Countess Ida. 

Relationship to Henry II

Ida de Tosny was a royal ward and mistress of King Henry II, by whom she was mother of one of his illegitimate sons - William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, (b c. 1176-March 7, 1226). For many years, until the discovery of a charter of William mentioning "Comitissa Ida, mater mea" (engl. "Countess Ida, my mother", it was assumed that Rosamund Clifford, a previous mistress of Henry's, was the mother, but painstaking genealogical detective work has since shown otherwise.

Ida was not the first English royal ward to be taken as mistress by a King who was her guardian; that honour probably belongs to Isabel de Beaumont (Elizabeth de Beaumont), daughter of Robert de Beaumont, who fought at the Battle of Hastings with the Conqueror. That king's youngest son made Beaumont's daughter his mistress.

William and Ela Longspee

William Longespée, jure uxoris 3rd Earl of Salisbury (c. 1176 – 7 March 1226) was an English noble, primarily remembered for his command of the English forces at the Battle of Damme and for remaining loyal to King John. His nickname "Longespée" is generally taken as a reference to his great size and the outsize weapons he wielded.    He is 22nd great grandfather.

He was an illegitimate son of Henry II of England. His mother was unknown for many years, until the discovery of a charter of William mentioning "Comitissa Ida, mater mea" (engl. "Countess Ida, my mother").

This Ida de Tosny, a member of the prominent Tosny or Toesny family, later (1181) married Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk.

King Henry acknowledged William as his son and gave him the Honour of Appleby, Lincolnshire in 1188. Eight years later, his half-brother, King Richard I, married him to a great heiress, Ela of Salisbury, 3rd Countess of Salisbury in her own right, and daughter of William of Salisbury, 2nd Earl of Salisbury.

During the reign of King John, Salisbury was at court on several important ceremonial occasions, and held various offices: sheriff of Wiltshire, lieutenant of Gascony, constable of Dover and warden of the Cinque Ports, and later warden of the Welsh Marches. He was then, circa 1213, appointed sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

He was a commander in the king's Welsh and Irish expeditions of 1210–1212. The king also granted him the honour of Eye in Suffolk.

In 1213, Salisbury led a large fleet to Flanders, where he seized or destroyed a good part of a French invasion fleet anchored at or near Damme. This ended the invasion threat but not the conflicts between England and France. In 1214, Salisbury was sent to help Otto IV of Germany, an English ally, who was invading France. Salisbury commanded the right wing of the army at their disastrous defeat in that year at the Battle of Bouvines, where he was captured.

By the time he returned to England, revolt was brewing amongst the barons. Salisbury was one of the few who remained loyal to John. In the civil war that took place the year after the signing of the Magna Carta, 


Salisbury was one of the leaders of the king's army in the south. He was made High Sheriff of Wiltshire again, this time for life. After raising the siege of Lincoln with William Marshall he was also appointed High Sheriff of Lincolnshire (in addition to his current post as High Sheriff of Somerset) and governor of Lincoln castle. However, after the French prince Louis (later Louis VIII) landed as an ally of the rebels, Salisbury went over to his side. Presumably, he thought John's cause was lost.

Tomb of William Longespée in Salisbury Cathedral

After John's death and the departure of Louis, Salisbury, along with many other barons, joined the cause of John's young son, now Henry III of England. He held an influential place in the government during the king's minority and fought in Gascony to help secure the remaining part of the English continental possessions. He was appointed High Sheriff of Devon in 1217 and High Sheriff of Staffordshire and Shropshire in 1224. Salisbury's ship was nearly lost in a storm while returning to England in 1225, and he spent some months in refuge at a monastery on the French island of Ré.
He died not long after his return to England at Salisbury Castle. Roger of Wendover alleged that he was poisoned by Hubert de Burgh. He was buried at Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.

William Longespée's tomb was opened in 1791. Bizarrely, the well-preserved corpse of a rat which carried traces of arsenic, was found inside his skull. The rat is now on display in a case at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.

A terracotta statue of Longespée, dating from 1756, is located in the Great Hall of Lacock Abbey in Lacock, Wiltshire, England. A likeness of his wife Ela is also on display, while several other statues are believed to show their children.

Ela of Salisbury, 3rd Countess of Salisbury (1187 – 24 August 1261) was a wealthy English heiress and the suo jure Countess of Salisbury, having succeeded to the title in 1196 upon the death of her father, William FitzPatrick, 2nd Earl of Salisbury. Her husband William Longespée, an illegitimate half-brother of kings Richard I of England and John of England assumed the title of 3rd Earl of Salisbury by right of his marriage to Ela, which took place in 1196 when she was nine years old. 

Ela held the post of High Sheriff of Wiltshire for two years after William's death, then became a nun, and eventually Abbess of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire which she had founded in 1229.

Ela was born in Amesbury, Wiltshire in 1187, the only child and heiress of William FitzPatrick, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, Sheriff of Wiltshire and Eléonore de Vitré (c.1164- 1232/1233). In 1196, she succeeded her father as suo jure 3rd Countess of Salisbury. There is a story that immediately following her father's death she was imprisoned in a castle in Normandy by one of her paternal uncles who wished to take her title and enormous wealth for himself. According to the legend, Ela was eventually rescued by William Talbot, a knight who had gone to France where he sang ballads under windows in all the castles of Normandy until he received a response from Ela.

In 1198, Ela's mother married her fourth husband, Gilbert de Malesmains.

In 1196, the same year she became countess and inherited her father's numerous estates, Ela married William Longespée, an illegitimate son of King Henry II of England, by his mistress Ida de Tosny, who later married Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk. Longespee became 3rd Earl of Salisbury by right of his wife. The Continuator of Florence recorded that their marriage had been arranged by King Richard I of England, who was William's legitimate half-brother.

Together William and Ela had at least eight or possibly nine children:

• William II Longespée, titular Earl of Salisbury (c.1209- 7 February 1250), married in 1216 Idoine de Camville, daughter of Richard de Camville and Eustache Basset, by whom he had four children. William was killed while on crusade at the Battle of Mansurah.
• Richard Longespée, clerk and canon of Salisbury.
• Stephen Longespée, Seneschal of Gascony and Justiciar of Ireland (1216–1260), married as her second husband 1243/1244 Emmeline de Ridelsford, daughter of Walter de Ridelsford and Annora Vitré, by whom he had two daughters: Ela, wife of Sir Roger La Zouche, and Emmeline (1252–1291), the second wife of Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Lord of Offaly.
• Nicholas Longespée, Bishop of Salisbury (died 28 May 1297)
• Isabella Longespée (died before 1244), married as his first wife shortly after 16 May 1226, William de Vescy, Lord of Alnwick, by whom she had issue.
• Petronilla Longespée, died unmarried
• Ela Longespée, who first married Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick, and then married Philip Basset. No issue.
• Ida Longespée, married firstly Ralph who was son of Ralph de Somery, Baron of Dudley, and Margaret, daughter of John Marshal;she married secondly William de Beauchamp, Baron of Bedford, by whom she had six children, including Maud de Beauchamp, wife of Roger de Mowbray.
• Ida II de Longespée (she is alternatively listed as William and Ela's granddaughter: see notes below), married Sir Walter FitzRobert, son of Robert Fitzwalter, by whom she had issue including Ela FitzWalter, wife of William de Odyngsells. Ela's and Williams's grandsons include William de Clinton and John de Grey.
• Mary Longespée, married. No issue.
• Pernel Longespée.

In 1225, Ela's husband William was shipwrecked off the coast of Brittany, upon returning from Gascony. He spent months recovering at a monastery on the Island of Ré in France. He died at Salisbury Castle on 7 March 1226 just several days after arriving in England. Ela held the post of Sheriff of Wiltshire for two years following her husband's death.

Three years later in 1229, Ela founded Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. In 1238, she entered the abbey as a nun; she was made Abbess of Lacock in 1240, and held the post until 1257. The Book of Lacock recorded that Ela founded the monasteries at Lacock and Henton. During her tenure as abbess, Ela obtained many rights for the abbey and village of Lacock.
Ela, Countess of Salisbury died on 24 August 1261 and was buried in Lacock Abbey. The inscription on her tombstone, originally written in Latin, reads:

Below lie buried the bones of the venerable Ela, who gave this sacred house as a home for the nuns. She also had lived here as holy abbess and Countess of Salisbury, full of good works
Her numerous descendants included English kings Edward IV and Richard III, Mary, Queen of Scots, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Sir Winston Churchill, Diana, Princess of Wales, the Dukes of Norfolk, and the English queen consorts of King Henry VIII; Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.   And Us!

Ela has been described as having been "one of the two towering female figures of the mid-13th century", the other one being Margaret de Quincy, Countess of Lincoln.

From such famous parents their son Stephen Longspee and Emaline de Ridelisford Countess of Ulster married and had a daughter Ela Longspee.   Ela was born 1246 d 1276.

Ela Longspee married Sir Roger La Zouche  b 1242  d 1285  He was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire.  

They had a son Sir Alan La Zouche b 1257 d 1314  Alan married Eleanor De Seagrave b 1270 d 1314.  

Alan la Zouche became the 1^st Baron of Ashby.    Sir Alan La Zouche is the 21^st great grandfather.

They had a daughter Maud La Zouche b 1290 d 1349

Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby (9 October 1267 – shortly before 25 March 1314) was born at North Molton, Devonshire, the only son of Roger La Zouche and his wife, Ela Longespee, daughter of Stephen Longespee and Emmeline de Ridelsford. He received seisin of his father's lands after paying homage to the king on October 13, 1289. Alan was governor of Rockingham Castle and steward of Rockingham Forest.
church there, as was testified by his uncle "Henry la Zuche, clerk" and several local and other gentry and clerics at his proof-of-age inquisition in 1289 which enabled him to exit royal wardship:

"Alan son and heir of Roger la Zusche alias la Zuch, la Souche. Writ to Peter Heym and Robert de Radington, to enquire whether the said Alan, who is in the king's wardship, is of full age, as he says, or not, The eve of St. Margaret (20 June), 17 Edw. I. The said Alan, who was born at North Molton and baptized in the church there, was 21 on the day of St. Denis, 16 Edw.

The Abbot of Lyleshull ( Lilleshall Abbey in Shropshire, to which he gave the advowson of North Molton Church in 1313) says the said Alan was born in Devon on the feast of St. Denis, and was 22 at that feast last past, and he knows it because he was keeper of a grange of Alan's father at Assheby four years ago, and knew from his father and mother that he was then 18. The prior of Repindon agrees, and knows it because his predecessor was created prior in the same year and was prior for twelve years, and he himself has now been prior for ten years

. The prior of Swaveseye agrees, for he has been prior for twenty years, and saw him (Alan) before his creation when he was 2 years old. The prior of Ulvescroft agrees, for he has enquired from religious men, and especially from the nuns of Gracedieu who dwell near Alan's father's manor of Assheby. Brother William Ysnach of Gerendon agrees, for he sued the pleas of the house for nearly twenty-two (?) years, and Alan was born at the feast of St. Denis preceding. Geoffrey prior of Brackele agrees, for he was always with Alan's ancestors and ... twenty-four years ago, and within two years following Alan was born.

 Richard le Flemyng, knight, (probably of Bratton Fleming) agrees, and knows it from the wife of William de Raleye (probably of Raleigh, Pilton) who nursed Alan. John Punchardon, knight, (probably of Heanton Punchardon) agrees, for he held his land for such a time. Alfred de Suleny, knight, agrees, for his firstborn son was born on the same day. John de Curteny, knight, (i.e. Courtenay) agrees, for his mother died at Easter before Alan was born. William (?) de Sancto Albino, knight, agrees, for his brother gave him certain land, which he has held for twenty-one years, and one year previously Alan was born.

 William L'Estrange (Latinised as "Extraneus"), knight, agrees, for his (Alan's ?) father made him a knight sixteen years ago last Christmas, when Alan carried the sword before him, and was then 6 years old, except between Christmas and St. Denis. Robert de Crues, knight, agrees, for he has a daughter of the same age. Henry la Zuche, clerk, agrees, for he is his uncle, and likewise knows it from him who was at that time parson of the church of Hamme. Walter parson of Manecestre agrees, for the church of Karlingford in Ireland was given to him nearly twenty-two years ago, and when the news came to him in Devon Alan's mother lay in childbed. Robert parson of Pakinton agrees, for he was instituted into his vicarage at the Purification last past now twenty-two years ago, and Alan was born at the feast of St. Denis following.

Alan La Zouche died without any sons shortly before at the age of 46, and his barony fell into abeyance among his daughters. 


Alan was in Gascony with King Edward I of England in October 1288, when he was one of the hostages given by the king to Alfonso of Aragon for the fulfillment of certain agreements. He was in Scotland in the King's service in June 1291. In April 1294 he had a writ of protection from the King when he travelled overseas with the King's daughter, Eleanor of Bar. He served in Gascony in 1295 and 1296, and was present at the action around Bordeaux on 28 March 1296, when his standard bearer was captured by the French. In 1297 he was summoned for service in Flanders, and attended Councils in Rochester and London in that year.

He was summoned for service against the Scots in 1297-1313. He fought in the Vanguard at the Battle of Falkirk on 22 July 1298. King Edward's army at that battle consisted of 12,000 infantry, including 10,000 Welsh, and 2,000 cavalry. William Wallace, the Scottish leader accepted battle in a withdrawn defensive position. Wallace had few cavalry and few archers; but his solid "schiltrons" (circles) of spearmen were almost invincible. The armoured cavalry of the English vanguard were hurled back with severe losses. Edward brought up his Welsh archers in the intervals between the horsemen of the second line, concentrating their arrows on specific points in the Scottish schiltrons. It was into these gaps that the English knights forced their way, and once the Scottish order was broken the spearmen were quickly massacred.

Alan was at the siege of Caerlaverock Castle in July 1300. His presence is recorded in the contemporary "Caerlaverock Poem", being an early roll of arms:

Aleyn de la Souche tresor Signiioit ke fust brians
Sa rouge baniere a besans
Car bienscai ki a dependu Tresor plus ke en burce pendu

"Sa rouge baniere a bezants" (as re-stated in modern French) "his red banner bezantée", is the description of the coat of arms he bore at the siege.

He was summoned to Edward II's coronation on 18 January 1307/08. In December of that year he had a protection to go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. He was the Constable of Rockingham Castle and the Keeper of the forests between the bridges of Oxford and Stamford.
He married Eleanor de Segrave, daughter of Nicholas de Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave. They had the following daughters:

Elena, married Alan de Charlton

• Maud, married Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand
• Elizabeth, married John Ingham (1320-12 Dec. 1365), son of Oliver de Ingham (1294–1344)

Rockingham Castle is a former royal castle and hunting lodge in Rockingham Forest a mile to the north of Corby, Northamptonshire.  

 

History

The site on which the castle stands has been used in the Iron Age, Roman period and by the invading Saxons also used by the Normans, Tudors and also used in the Medieval Period. This is because its position on elevated ground provides clear views of the Welland Valley from a strong defensible location.

William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a wooden Motte and Bailey at Rockingham in the 11th century shortly after the Norman Invasion of Britain. Within three decades, William II replaced it with a stone castle. A stone keep was added to the large motte and the outer bailey was enclosed by a curtain wall. The castle was then used as a Royal retreat throughout the Norman and Plantagenet periods. Nearby Rockingham Forest was especially good for hunting wild boar and deer.

In 1270 Henry III strengthened the castle with the addition of a twin D-tower gatehouse. But less than a century later Edward III became the last monarch to visit the castle while it was possessed by The Crown.

"Ashby" is a word of Anglo-Danish origin, meaning "Ash-tree farm" or "Ash-tree settlement". The Norman French addition dates from the years after the Norman conquest of England, when the town became a possession of the La Zouche family during the reign of Henry III.

Ashby de la Zouch Castle was built in the 12th century. The town and castle came into the possession of the Hastings family in 1464 and William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings enhanced its fortifications from 1473. In the English Civil War the town was one of the Royalists' chief garrisons under the control of Colonel Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough and commander of the North Midlands Army. When the town fell after a long siege in March, 1646 it was counted a great relief to the surrounding towns and villages.

A cold and wet day and there is not much left of Ashby-de-la-Zouch castle

Baron Zouche is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England.

Genealogy

The de la Zouche family descended from Alan de la Zouche, sometimes called Alan de Porhoët and Alan la Coche (c. 1093-1150), a Breton who settled in England during the reign of Henry II. He was the son of Vicomte Geoffrey I de Porhoët and Hawisa of Brittany. He married Adeline (Alice) de Belmeis, daughter of Phillip de Belmeis and Maud la Meschine and died at North Molton in North Devon. He obtained Ashby in Leicestershire (called after him Ashby-de-la-Zouch) by his marriage. His son was Roger la Zouche (c. 1175 – bef. 14 May 1238). Roger La Zouche became the father of Alan la Zouche (1205–1270) and Eudo La Zouche. Alan was justice of Chester and justice of Ireland under Henry III of England. He was loyal to the king during the struggle with the barons, fought at the Battle of Lewes and helped to arrange the peace of Kenilworth. As the result of a quarrel over some lands with John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, he was seriously injured in Westminster Hall by the earl and his retainers, and died on August 10, 1270.

Eudo La Zouche  married Millicent de Cantilupe. Alan's grandson, Alan la Zouche, was summoned to Parliament on 6 February 1299 as Baron la Zouche of Ashby. He was governor of Rockingham Castle and steward of Rockingham Forest. However, this barony fell into abeyance on his death in 1314. Another grandson of Alan de la Zouche was William la Zouche, Lord of Haryngworth, who was summoned to Parliament as Baron Zouche, of Haryngworth, on 16 August 1308.

His great-great-great-grandson, the fifth Baron, married Alice Seymour, 6th Baroness St Maur, and assumed this peerage in her right. Their son succeeded to both titles; his stepmother, Elizabeth St. John, was an aunt of the future Henry VII, a connection which proved useful to later members of the family. The seventh Baron was attained in 1485 for loyalty to Richard III but was eventually restored to his title and a portion of his lands. On the death in 1625 of the eleventh and twelfth Baron, the peerages fell into abeyance between the latter's daughters Hon. Elizabeth and Hon. Mary.
However, in 1815 the Barony of Zouche was called out of abeyance in favour of Sir Cecil Bishopp, 8th Baronet, of Parham Park (see Bishopp baronets of Parham), who became the twelfth Baron Zouche. Through his mother he was a descendant of the aforementioned Hon. Elizabeth. The Barony of St Maur, however, remains in abeyance to this day. His two sons had died before him and on his death in 1828 he was succeeded in the Baronetcy by a cousin, while the Barony of Zouche once again fell into abeyance, this time between his two daughters Hon. Harriet Anne Curzon and Katherine Annabella, Lady Brooke-Pechell.

His eldest son Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil Bisshopp had died in 1813 at age 30 at Ontario, Canada, from wounds received in action against the Americans in the War of 1812.
The abeyance was terminated the following year in favour of Hon. Harriet Anne, who became the thirteenth Baroness. Known as Baroness de la Zouch, she was the wife of Hon. Robert Curzon, younger son of Assheton Curzon, 1st Viscount Curzon. Her son was the fourteenth Baron.

On his death the title passed to his son, the fifteenth Baron, and then to the latter's sister, the sixteenth Baroness. She never married and was succeeded by her second cousin, the seventeenth Baroness, the granddaughter of a younger son of the thirteenth Baroness. She was succeeded by her grandson, the eighteenth and (As of 2010) present Baron, who had already succeeded his father as 12th Baronet in 1944.

Another grandchild of the original Alan de la Zouche, Joyce la Zouche, married Robert Mortimer of Richard's Castle; one of their younger sons, William la Zouche, took the name of la Zouche and bought Ashby-de-la-Zouch from Alan in 1304, the latter to hold it until his death (1314). On December 26, 1323, he was created, by writ, Baron Zouche of Mortimer. This peerage became abeyant in 1406.

Sir Alan La Zouche and Eleanor had a daughter Maud La Zouche b 1290 d 1349.

She married Robert de Holand b 1285 d 1328.  They had a son Robert de Holland b 1312 d 1373.

He married Hargaret Hetton b 1314 d 1340.  They had a daughter Jane Holland b 1338 d 1372.  She married  William Molyneux b 1300 d 1372. 

William was a direct descendant of Lord Randal le Roter de Thornton 1162 d 1244 and Amicia De Kingsley 1172 – 1244.

European Royal Ancestoral Families

Siegfried (or Sigefroy) (c. 922 – 28 October 998) is considered the first count of Luxembourg. He was actually count in the Moselgau and the Ardennes. He was also the advocate of the abbeys of Saint-Maximin de Trêves and Saint-Willibrord d'Echternach. He is speculated to be the son of Count Palatine Wigeric of Lotharingia and Cunigunda. He is the founder of the House of Luxembourg, a cadet branch of the House of Ardennes.
He had possessions from his father in Upper Lorraine. At the centre of his dominions he constructed the fortress of Luxembourg in 963. A town soon grew up around the castle. Though he used the title of count, the title "count of Luxembourg" was only applied to William some 150 years later.
Around 950, he married Hedwig of Nordgau (937–992), daughter of Eberhard IV of Nordgau. They had the following issue:

• Henry I of Luxembourg
• Siegfried, cited in 985
• Frederick I, Count of Salm and Luxembourg, married Ermentrude of Gleiberg, daughter of Heribert I, Count of Gleiberg and Ermentrud (Imizi).
• Dietrich, bishop of Metz
• Adalberon, canon of Trier
• Gislebert (d.1004), count in the Moselgau
• Cunigunda, married Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
• Eve, married Gerard, Count of Metz
• Ermentrude, abbess
• Luitgarde, married Arnulf, Count of Holland
• a daughter, married Thietmar

Robert II (27 March 972 – 20 July 1031), called the Pious (French: le Pieux) or the Wise (French: le Sage), was King of the Franks from 996 until his death. The second reigning member of the House of Capet, he was born in Orléans to Hugh Capet and Adelaide of Aquitaine.

Immediately after his own coronation, Robert's father Hugh began to push for the coronation of Robert. "The essential means by which the early Capetians were seen to have kept the throne in their family was through the association of the eldest surviving son in the royalty during the father's lifetime," Andrew W. Lewis has observed, in tracing the phenomenon in this line of kings who lacked dynastic legitimacy. Hugh's claimed reason was that he was planning an expedition against the Moorish armies harassing Borrel II of Barcelona, an invasion which never occurred, and that the stability of the country necessitated a co-king, should he die while on expedition.

Ralph Glaber, however, attributes Hugh's request to his old age and inability to control the nobility.^[4] Modern scholarship has largely imputed to Hugh the motive of establishing a dynasty against the claims of electoral power on the part of the aristocracy, but this is not the typical view of contemporaries and even some modern scholars have been less sceptical of Hugh's "plan" to campaign in Spain.^[5] Robert was eventually crowned on 25 December 987. A measure of Hugh's success is that when Hugh died in 996, Robert continued to reign without any succession dispute, but during his long reign actual royal power dissipated into the hands of the great territorial magnates.
Robert had begun to take on active royal duties with his father in the early 990s. In 991, he helped his father prevent the French bishops from trekking to Mousson in the Kingdom of Germany for a synod called by Pope John XV, with whom Hugh was then in disagreement.

As early as 989, having been rebuffed in his search for a Byzantine princess, Hugh Capet arranged for Robert to marry Rozala, the recently-widowed daughter of Berengar II of Italy, many years his senior, who took the name of Susanna upon becoming Queen. She was the widow of Arnulf II of Flanders, with whom she had two children. Robert divorced her within a year of his father's death in 996. He tried instead to marry Bertha, daughter of Conrad of Burgundy, around the time of his father's death. She was a widow of Odo I of Blois, but was also Robert's cousin. For reasons of consanguinity, Pope Gregory V refused to sanction the marriage, and Robert was excommunicated. After long negotiations with Gregory's successor, Sylvester II, the marriage was annulled.

Finally, in 1001, Robert entered into his final and longest-lasting marriage to Constance of Arles, the daughter of William I of Provence. Her southern customs and entourage were regarded with suspicion at court. After his companion Hugh of Beauvais urged the king to repudiate her as well, knights of her kinsman Fulk Nerra had Beauvais murdered. The king and Bertha then went to Rome to ask Pope Sergius IV for an annulment so they could remarry. After this was refused, he went back to Constance and fathered several children by her. Her ambition alienated the chroniclers of her day, who blamed her for several of the king's decisions. However, they remained married until his death in 1031.
Robert, however, despite his marital problems, was a very devout Catholic, hence his sobriquet "the Pious." He was musically inclined, being a composer, chorister, and poet, and making his palace a place of religious seclusion, where he conducted the matins and vespers in his royal robes. However, to contemporaries, Robert's "piety" also resulted from his lack of toleration for heretics: he harshly punished them. Indeed, he is credited with advocating forced conversions of local Jewry, as well as mob violence against Jews who refused. Furthermore, Robert reinstated the Roman imperial custom of burning heretics at the stake.

The kingdom Robert inherited was not large, and in an effort to increase his power, he vigorously pursued his claim to any feudal lands which became vacant, which action usually resulted in war with a counter-claimant. In 1003, his invasion of the Duchy of Burgundy was thwarted and it would not be until 1016 that he was finally able to get the support of the Church and be recognized as Duke of Burgundy.

The pious Robert made few friends and many enemies, including his own sons: Hugh Magnus, Henry, and Robert. They turned against their father in a civil war over power and property.
Hugh died in revolt in 1025. In a conflict with Henry and the younger Robert, King Robert's army was beaten and he retreated to Beaugency outside Paris, his capital. He died in the middle of the war with his sons on 20 July 1031 at Melun. He was interred with Constance in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son Henry, in both France and Burgundy.

Children

Robert had no children from his short-lived marriage to Susanna. His illegal marriage to Bertha gave him one stillborn son in 999, but only Constance gave him surviving children:

• Hedwig (or Advisa), Countess of Auxerre (c. 1003 – after 1063), married Renauld I, Count of Nevers on 25 January 1016 and had issue.
• Hugh Magnus, co-king (1007 – 17 September 1025)
• Henry I, successor (4 May 1008 – 4 August 1060)
• Adela, Countess of Contenance (1009 – 5 June 1063), married (1) Richard III of Normandy and (2) Count Baldwin V of Flanders.
• Robert (1011 – 21 March 1076)
• Odo or Eudes (1013–c.1056), who may have been mentally retarded and died after his brother's failed invasion of Normandy
• Constance (born 1014, date of death unknown), married Manassès de Dammartin.

Robert also left an illegitimate son: Rudolph, Bishop of Bourges.

Hedwig (or Advisa) of France (c. 1003–1063) was the daughter of Robert II of France and Constance of Arles. She married Renauld I, Count of Nevers 1000–1040 on 25 January 1016, they had the following children:

• William I of Nevers (c. 1030-1083/1097)
• Henry of Nevers (died 1067)
• Guy of Nevers (died 1067)
• Robert of Nevers Baron of Craon (c. 1035-1098)
• Adelaide of Nevers

Rollo

Duke of Normandy
Reign	911–927
Predecessor	None
Successor	William I
House	House of Normandy
Born	c. 846
Died	c. 931 (Aged 72) Normandy
Burial	Rouen Cathedral

Rollo (c. 846 – c. 931), baptised Robert and so sometimes numbered Robert I to distinguish him from his descendants, was a Norse nobleman of Norwegian or Danish descent who was founder and first ruler of the Viking principality which soon became known as Normandy. His descendants were the Dukes of Normandy, and following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, kings of England.
The name "Rollo" is a Latin translation from the Old Norse name Hrólfr, mode rn Icelandic name Hrólfur and Scandinavian name Rolf (cf. the latinization of Hrólfr into the similar Roluo in the Gesta Danorum), but Norman people called him by his popular name Rou(f) (see Wace's Roman de Rou). Sometimes his name is turned into the Frankish name Rodolf(us) or Radulf(us) or the French Raoul, that are derived from it.

Historical evidence

Rollo was a powerful Viking leader of contested origin. Dudo of Saint-Quentin, in his De moribus et actis primorum Normannorum ducum,^[3] tells of a powerful Danish nobleman at loggerheads with the king of Denmark, who had two sons, Gurim and Rollo; upon his death, Rollo was expelled and Gurim killed. William of Jumièges also mentions Rollo's prehistory in his Gesta Normannorum Ducum, but states that he was from the Danish town of Fakse. Wace, writing some 300 years after the event in his Roman de Rou, also mentions the two brothers (as Rou and Garin), as does the Orkneyinga Saga.

Norwegian and Icelandic historians identified Rollo instead with Ganger Hrolf (Hrolf, the Walker), a son of Rognvald Eysteinsson, Earl of Møre, in Western Norway, based on medieval Norwegian and Icelandic sagas. The oldest source of this version is the Latin Historia Norvegiae, written in Norway at the end of the 12th century. This Hrolf fell foul of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, and became a Jarl in Normandy. The nickname "the Walker", "Ganger" in Norse, came from being so big that no horse could carry him.

The question of Rollo's origins was a matter of heated dispute between Norwegian and Danish historians of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the run-up to Normandy's millennium anniversary in 1911. Today, the debate continues.             

Claimed Yngling lineage leading to Rollo

The Yngling "Fairhair dynasty" lineage introduced in Hversu Noregr byggðist ("How Norway was settled") and the Orkneyinga and Heimskringla sagas suggests a line of Rollo going back to Fornjót, the primeval "king" who "reigned over" Finland and Kvenland The claimed line leading to Rollo includes Rognvald Eysteinsson, the founder of the Earldom of Orkney

In 885, Rollo was one of the lesser leaders of the Viking fleet which besieged Paris under Sigfred. Legend has it that an emissary was sent by the king to find the chieftain and negotiate terms. When he asked for this information, the Vikings replied that they were all chieftains in their own right. In 886, when Sigfred retreated in return for tribute, Rollo stayed behind and was eventually bought off and sent to harry Burgundy.

Later, he returned to the Seine with his followers (known as Danes, or Norsemen). He invaded the area of northern France now known as Normandy.

In 911 Rollo's forces launched a failed attack on Paris before laying siege to Chartres. The appeals for help of the Bishop of Chartres, Joseaume, were answered by Robert, Marquis of Neustria, Richard, Duke of Burgundy and Manasses, Count of Dijon. On 20 July 911, at the Battle of Chartres, they defeated Rollo despite the absence of many French barons and also the absence of the French King Charles the Simple.

In the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911) with King Charles, Rollo pledged feudal allegiance to the king, changed his name to the Frankish version, and converted to Christianity, probably with the baptismal name Robert. In return, King Charles granted Rollo land between the Epte and the sea as well as parts of Brittany ^] and according to Dudo of St. Quentin, the hand of the King's daughter, Gisela, although this marriage and Gisela herself are unknown to Frankish sources.

 He was also the titular ruler of Normandy, centered around the city of Rouen. There exists some argument among historians as to whether Rollo was a "duke" (dux) or whether his position was equivalent to that of a "count" under Charlemagne.

According to legend, when required to kiss the foot of King Charles, as a condition of the treaty, he refused to perform so great a humiliation, and when Charles extended his foot to Rollo, Rollo ordered one of his warriors to do so in his place. His warrior then lifted Charles' foot up to his mouth causing the king to fall to the ground.

After 911, Rollo stayed true to his word of defending the shores of the Seine river in accordance to the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. However, he also continued to act like a Viking chief with attacks on Flanders.

After Charles was deposed by Robert I, Rollo considered his oath to the King of France to be over. It started a period of expansion westwards. Negotiations with French barons ended with Rollo being given Le Mans and Bayeux and continued with the seizure of Bessin in 924. The following year saw the Normans attack Picardy.


Rollo began to divide the land between the Epte and Risle rivers among his chieftains and settled there with a de facto capital in Rouen. Eventually Rollo's men intermarried with the local women, and became more settled as Normans.

Two spouses are reported for Rollo:

1. Poppa, said by chronicler Dudo of Saint-Quentin to have been a daughter of Count Berenger, captured during a raid at Bayeux. She was his mistress or wife perhaps by more danico They had issue:

• William Longsword, born "overseas".
• Gerloc, wife of William III, Duke of Aquitaine. Dudo fails to identify her mother, but later chronicler William of Jumieges makes this explicit.
• (perhaps) Kadlin, said by Ari the Historian to have been daughter of Ganger Hrolf, traditionally identified with Rollo. She married a Scottish King called Bjolan, and had at least a daughter called Midbjorg, she was taken captive by and married Helgi Ottarson.

2. (traditionally) Gisela of France (d. 919), the daughter of Charles III of France

Sometime around 927, Rollo passed the fief in Normandy to his son, William Longsword. Rollo may have lived for a few years after that, but certainly died before 933. According to the historian Adhemar, 'As Rollo's death drew near, he went mad and had a hundred Christian prisoners beheaded in front of him in honour of the gods whom he had worshipped, and in the end distributed a hundred pounds of gold around the churches in honour of the true God in whose name he had accepted baptism.' Even though Rollo had converted to Christianity, some of his prior religious roots surfaced at the end.

Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. Through William, he is an ancestor of the present-day British royal family, as well as an ancestor of all current European monarchs and a great many pretenders to abolished European thrones. A genetic investigation into the remains of Rollo's grandson Richard I and great-grandson Richard II has been announced, with the intention of discerning the origins of the famous Viking warrior.

The "Clameur de Haro" in the Channel Islands is, supposedly, an appeal to Rollo.

From Spain

The ancestors of Raoul De Tosny our 28^th Great grandfather came from Barcelona Spain in the 800’s and 300 years later,  one of their descendents became the concubine of King Henry II.

Sunifred Count De Urgel married Emesende De Urgel (came from Urgel).  They had a son Sunifred Count de Urgel b 875.  He married Wildnile Countess of Flanders, from France.  They had a son Count Suniario of Barcelona b 912 d 950.  He married Richilde De Rouergue.

She was the daughter of Count of Toulouse and Eudes and Adelaide de Toulouse.  The Count of Toulouse was the son of Odo of Toulouse and Garsinde De Albi.

We travelled around France in 2009, never knowing that my ancestors played an important part in history.  The De Rouergues came from an area known as the Midi-Pyrenees, a beautiful part of France!

Richilde and the Count had a son, Count of Barcelona, Borrel.  He married Luitgarde de Toulouse.

They had a son, Raimond Borrel of Barcelona.  972 – 1019.  He married Ermensinde De Carcassonne from the same area in the Aude region of France.  Ermensinde was the daughter of Roger I de Comminges and Adelaide De Rouergue.       Ermenside is the 27th Great grandmother. 

They had a daughter Godeheur (Godehilde) Borrel of Barcelona b 1003  d 1077.  She married

Roger I de Toeni, born 1000  d 1039 rom Conches, Seine-et-Marne in France.  His family story is quite interesting.

Roger I of Tosny or Roger of Hispania was a Norman nobleman of the House of Tosny who took part in the Reconquista of Iberia.

Roger was the son of Raoul de Tosny, seigneur de Conches. In 1013, Roger and his father Raoul guarded the castle at Tillières for Richard II, Duke of Normandy. A few years later, for an unknown reason, the pair were forced into exile. While his father gained a reputation for himself in Apulia, Roger did the same in fighting the Muslims in Iberia The small Christian states of Northern Iberia welcomed volunteers and adventurers who they could use to mount a strong force for the Reconquista. Roger was summoned by Ermesinde of Carcassonne, regent-countess of Barcelona after the death of her husband Ramon Borrell, to help her against the Muslim threat to her power.

Roger rushed to help, marrying Ermesende's daughter, terrorising the Saracens and capturing several towns and castles. Adémar de Chabannes gives an echo of the more or less legendary deeds of Roger in Iberia. He gained the nickname Mangeur de Maures (Moor-Eater). Adémar recounts that Roger took his captured Saracens each day and, in front of them, cut one of their number in two, boiling the first half and giving it to the other Muslims to eat, and pretending to take the other half into his own tent for him and his companions to eat. Then Roger allowed some of these prisoners to escape, to spread these horrific rumours.

Before 1024, Roger and his father gained permission from Richard II to return to Normandy, and Raoul died soon afterwards.

Roger de Tosny founded Conches-en-Ouche. He built its church of Sainte-Foy (before 1026) then the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Castillon (c. 1035) where monks from Fécamp Abbey were installed. This monastery was one of the first baronial foundations in Normandy The foundation charter reveals that the lord of Tosny gave it a small possession around Conches and his forest.

In 1035, Robert I's death began a troubled period in the duchy of Normandy. Civil wars multiplied and Roger (whose relations with his neighbours was already argumentative) was one of the main players in them. According to the Norman chroniclers, the lord of Tosny refused to serve the new duke, the future William the Conqueror, due to his being a bastard. He especially took advantage of the weakness of the duke's power by ravaging his neighbours' lands, notably

In 1035, Robert I's death began a troubled period in the duchy of Normandy. Civil wars multiplied and Roger (whose relations with his neighbours was already argumentative) was one of the main players in them. According to the Norman chroniclers, the lord of Tosny refused to serve the new duke, the future William the Conqueror, due to his being a bastard. He especially took advantage of the weakness of the duke's power by ravaging his neighbours' lands, notably those of Humphrey of Vieilles.

Humphrey sent his son Roger to face Roger of Tosny, and around 1040 the latter was killed in battle, and his two eldest sons died a few weeks later of their wounds.

Peace was re-established between the Tosny family and the neighbouring families. The widow Gotelina/Godehildis was forced to marry Richard, Count of Évreux.  Godehildis who married, after the death of Roger de Tosny, Richard, Count of Évreux

Children :

•  
• Helbert (died 1040 with his father), Elinand, (idem),
• Raoul II of Tosny, successor of his father
• Robert of Tosny, lord of Stafford
• Béranger l'Espagnol,
• Adelise, married Guillaume Fils Osbern
• Berthe, married Guy de Laval
• One other son

Their son Raoul II Lord Flamstead de Conches De Toeni b 1029 d 1101 m. Isabel de Montfort 1037 – 1102

They had a son Raoul de Tosny b 1078 d 1126.  He married Adelise of Northumbria 1076 – 1126

They had a son Roger de Conches de Tosny b 1104 d 1158.  He married Margaret de Beaumont b 1125 – 1185.  They had a daughter Countess Ida de Tosny b 1154 – 1204.

Ida became a concubine of King Henry II.

So how do all these Kings, Queens and Noble people fit into our lineage?

Ellen Molyneux married John Bond.  They were the parents of Mary Bond.

Mary Bond married John Herrick.

They had a son William.  He had a son named  Henry, who, for some reason or other decided to leave Leicester and seek his fame and fortune in the new Colony called America.  Well perhaps he missed out on both, because it seems researchers have no idea who he is!

Henry then married a lady named Editha Laskin, and they had a son named Henry.  Henry then had a son named Jonathan.  Jonathan had a son named Jonathan who married Bethiah Conant.  They had a son named John who married  Mehitable Tarbox.

Those two women, were each the sister of the DeGraw great grandmothers.

The DNA links are through the Herrick line, and most probably through Mary Bond.

Quite amazing!  

Note

In 2014, we “Walked in our Ancestor’s footsteps” in Ireland, Scotland and England.  The places we visited now hold a totally different meaning for me.

If I had known that my ancestors held roles of importance in the countries we have toured, it would have added a totally different dimension to our travels.

But not in my wildest imagination would I have ever thought that my brother in law and myself were linked through DNA!  Perhaps it was better learning the match was between ourselves, than if we had randomly tried matching other people.  After all there are over 2000 French Canadians who carry another of my great grandparents Scottish genes.

In the future our grandchildren will probably rely on the science of finding their ancestors, and my 14 year old grand-daughter Ella, when I told her of all the French matches, asked me "Which grandfather raped a French girl way back then?".

Bit of a different take on the outcomes!

I hope now that our grandchildren, and those of his siblings will be able to appreciate the role our ancestors have played in the past.

The Ancestors of Henry Irvin DeGraw A Thousand Years in the Making" is Part 7 of the series, of the Ancestors of the DeGraw Family from Michigan. 

The family history would not be able to be compiled, if it weren't for the input and research carried out by so many people over so many years.

The fact that their works can be read, and shared hundreds of years later, is nothing short of incredible.

This story is therefore, a compilation of available researchable events which included or impacted the lives of our ancestors.  To all those past researchers, we the lucky ones, who can find information from a pressing of keys on a keyboard, say "Thank you".  If at times though, we challenge you, it is because that over time, new facts emerge, and those new facts need to be included in the lives of those who went before.

Material sourced and compiled has been taken from Wikipedia.

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[1] 25th Great grandfather