Unknown Mistresses of King Henry I of England
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The children connected to the mothers here belong to a variety of Henry I's 'UNKNOWN' mistresses. Illegitimate children with known mothers are connected to their appropriate families.
Mistresses of Henry I of England
King Henry I was evidently devoid of racial prejudices in the choice of his mistresses. Of the six whose names are known, the 2 Ediths must have been English; Ansfride and Sibyl Corbet were presumably Norman. Nest was Welsh; Isabel de Beaumont was Norman on one side, French on the other.
No complete catalogue of Henry’s bastards given by any contemporary writer. But Robert de Torigny, in additions to Gesta Normannoram Ducum of William de Jumieges, claims 6 sons, mentioning m. first; mentions marriages of 6 dau. but only names 3, and refers to another unnamed and unmarried dau.
DOB unknown for all illegitimate children. Mothers unknown/unrecorded. Torigny does not name mother of any children except unmarried dau. but omissions occasionally good from other sources.
- Richard of Lincoln (raised by Robert Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln).
- Juliana of Fontevrault
- Fulk FitzRoy
- Matilda (Mary) m. Rotrou II Count of Perche. Issue.
- Edith Greystoke (c.1152)
- Robert FitzEdith, Baron of Okenhampton m. Matilda, Dame du Sap
- Elizabeth de Beaumont or Isabella de Meulan, Countess of Pembroke[1]
- Isabel (d. Single)
- Nesta verch Rhys of (Deheubarth) Windsor (Nesta, Princess of Deheubarth)[1]
- Henry FitzRoy
- Robert de Caen, Earl of Gloucester
- Reginald of Dustanville
- William m. Alice
- Sybilla m. Alexander of Scotland
- Gundrada
- Rohese m. Henry de la Pomerei
- Children of Unknown Mistresses[1]
- William Tracy
- Constance (Matilda) m. Richard or Roscelin, Viscount of Beaumon-le-Maine. Issue
- Gilbert
- Matilda m. Conan III, Duke of Brittany. Issue.
- Alice (Aline) m. Matthew de Montmorenci, Constable of France. Issue.
- dau ___ once betrothed to William de Warrene
- Joan (Elizabeth) m. Fergus of Galloway. Issue.
- Emma m. Guy de Laval
- dau. ____ betrothed to Hugh FitzGervais c.1110AD
- Sybilla of Falaise m. Baldwin de Boullers
Illegitimate Sons
The sons were as follows, nos. 1 to 6 being those named by Robert de Torigny. He states that no. 1 was the eldest son, and it is certain from other evidence that no. 2 was the 2nd son ; but it is doubtful how far the others follow any chronological or other order.
It seems likely that no. 6 was 3rd of the six, because when Robert wrote, probably not earlier than 1142, nos. 3, and 5 were still young and unmarried (or so he says); but no. 6 had died soon after his father, being then a married man, leaving issue.
Where the 3 remaining sons should be inserted is again uncertain; but no. 8 should probably follow no. 2, and no. 9 come after no. 3, each pair being apparently children of the same mother.
On the other hand, it is possible that Henry had two or more mistresses simultaneously.
Henry’s benefactions to the Church caused the monkish historians to palliate his sins and to find excuses for his lust; but they could not avert the fatal consequence. When the White Ship was wrecked on the deadly rock, a boat was launched and the King’s only legitimate son and heir was being rowed to safety. It was the cries of his illegitimate half-sister, the Countess of Perche, which induced him to return to the wreck, where they sank together. [THE COMPLETE PEERAGE, Volume XI, Appendix D, pp. 105-121]
Robert de Caen
- Mother: name and identity uncertain
- m. Maud (named also Mabel and Sibyl)
(g) da. and h. of Robert FitzHamon, LORD of GLAMORGAN by Sibyl, da. of Roger (de Montgomery), 1st EARL of SHREWSBURY; d. 31 Oct. 1147 at Bristol; bur. at the Priory of St. James, Bristol. For fuller particulars of Robert and for his issue, see ante, vol. v, pp. 683-86, sub Gloucester.[4]
(f) The statement by Pezet, cited ante, vol. v, p. 683, that she was Sibyl, dau. of Robert Corbet, a burgess of Caen, seems to arise from confusion with Henry I’s mistress Sibyl, dau. of Robert Corbet of Alcester (see below).
(g) Her name seems to have been Maud (Round, Cal. Docs., no. 799; Orderic, vol. iii, p. 318); but she is called Mabel by William of Malmesbury, Hist. Nevella (Rolls Ser.), pp. 529, 587, and by Robert of Gloucester (Rolls Ser.), II 8876, 8883, and Sibyl by Robert de Torigny, in his additions to Will. de Jumieges, p. 306. As Earl Robert claimed to be a banner-bearer (signifer) of the see of Bayeux by hereditary right (Rec. des Hist. de France, vol. xxiii, p. 700), that office was probably hereditary in his wife’s family, and may have been appurtenant to the lands which she inherited.
Richard of Lincoln
- Richard son of Ansfride, raised by Robert Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln.
(2) RICHARD (b. ante 1101)
- mother was Ansfride, a lady of unknown parentage, widow of Anskiill, a knight who was a tenant of Abingdon Abbey.
served against the French in 1119, and was captured at Los Andelys, but was set free with his comrades by King Louis, because they had taken sanctuary in the church of N.D. du Grand Andely;
with his father at the siege of Evreux and the battle of Bremule, 20 Aug. 1119; and in Sep. was sent to raise the siege of Breteuil.
betrothed to Amice, da. of Ralph de Gael, LORD of MONTFORT in Brittany and BRETEUIL in Normandy, with whom he was to receive all her father’s Norman lands; but he d. s.p. immediately afterwards, being drowned in the wreck of the White Ship, 25 Nov. 1120 (h), and Amice m. Robert, 2nd EARL of LEICESTER. (see ante vol. vii, pp. 529-30, sub Leicester).
(h) His body washed up many days later, far from the scene of the shipwreck.
Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall
Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall (b. 1110s or early 1120s) possibly to Sibyl Corbet
(3) RAINALD of DUNSTANVILLE,
- Mother: Sibyl >> alias: Adela and Lucy, da. and in her issue coh. of Robert Corbet, of Alcester, co. Warwick, and Longden, Salop;
After affair with Henry I, Sibyl m. Herbert FitzHerbert.
Rainald held land in Wiltshire in 1130.
c. Apr. 1141: EARL OF CORNWALL[5]
m. Beatrice, da. and h. of William FitzRichard.
d. spms. leg. 1 July 1175 at Chertsey, Surrey, when his Earldom reverted to the Crown
burial: Reading Abbey.
For fuller particulars see ante, vol. iii, p. 429, sub Cornwall.
Robert FitzRoy (d. 31 May 1172)
- Robert the King's son, born to Ede, dau of Forne.
(4) ROBERT the King’s son
mother: Ede or Edith
- dau. of Forn, probably identical with Forn Sigulfson, lord of Greystoke (Cumberland) and a tenant-in-chief in co. York;
- after her affair with Henry I she m. Robert de Oilli, a royal Constable and constable of Oxford Castle.
held land in Devonshire in 1130. supported half-sister EMPRESS Maud, in the Civil War. great tenant-in-chief, his servitium debitum being 100 knights.
m. Maud. (Issue: 1 dau.)
- dame du Sap in Normandy
- widow of William de Courcy
- dau. and h. of Robert de Avranches.
d. 31 May 1172.
Gilbert
- Gilbert, possibly born to unnamed sister or dau of Walter of Gand.
(5) GILBERT, still young and unmarried in (?) 1142. Nothing more is known of him.
William de Tracy
- William de Tracy, possibly born in the 1090s.
(6) WILLIAM de Tracy or Tracey
mother: unknown,
d. soon after his father, leaving (by unknown wife) dau. and heir named Grace:
Grace m. John de Sudeley, of Sudeley Castle and Toddington, co. Gloucester, 3rd s. of Harold de Ewias, lord of Ewias (co. Hereford) and Sudeley, s. and h. of Ralph, Earl of Hereford, s. of Dreu, Count of the French Vexin, by Godgifu, sister of Edward the Confessor.
1st son, Ralph de Sudeley, suc. his father at Sudeley;
2nd son, William of Toddington, took his mother's name of Tracy or Tracey; hence Ralph de Sudeley confirmed a gift of his brother William de Tracy to Gloucester Abbey.
The direct line of Tracy of Toddington became extinct on the death of Henry (Tracy), 8th Viscount Tracy, in 1797; but cadets of this very ancient house may still exist. [Note: According to Ancestral Roots (line 222-27), Grace was not a daughter of William, but of unknown parents; and Grace's son John was b. bef 1114 ("of age by 1135", admittedly from a "bef 1130" marriage, but there is no way Grace fits as daughter of William "b. c 1190" with a son born that early. Therefore I have Grace's father as an unknown Henry de Tracy.]
Henry FitzRoy
- Henry the King's son, possibly born to Nest ferch Rhys.
(7) Henry the King's son
mother: Nest, da. of Rhys ap TEWDWR, Prince of South Wales where Henry was born, and wife of Gerald de Windsor.
slain during Henry II’s invasion of Anglesey in 1157, leaving (by an unknown wife) 2 sons.
Fulk FitzRoy
- Fulk the King's son, possibly born to Ansfride.
(8) FULK the King's son, and Richard the tutor, witnessed a gift to Abingdon Abbey by William, s. of Anskill and Ansfride, the mother of Henry I’s s.
Richard, all abovenamed; the gift being made in consideration of his mother having been bur, in the abbey.
The obvious inference is that Folk was a yr. s. of Henry and Ansfride, and was being brought up at the abbey in charge of his tutor. In any event he must have been a son of Henry I.
Fulk probably became a monk at Abingdon or d. young.
William
- William, bros. of Sybilla de Normandy, probably bros. of Reginald de Dunstanville.
(9) WILLIAM, brother of the Queen [Sibyl of Scotland], who was one of Henry I’s illegitimate daughters (see below), was presumably a son of Sibyl Corbet, and may be supposed to have accompanied his sister to Scotland.
As "Willelmensus frater reginae", his name occurs among those of the witnesses to the foundation-charter (of doubtful authenticity) of Scone Priory, issued by Alexander I and Queen Sibyl, circa 1120; and again to a charter of Alexander for Scone in 1124.
Sibyl had d. s.p. in 1122 and Alexander d. s.p. in 1124, and as there is no more trace of William in Scotland, it is likely that he returned to England.
Probably he is William the King’s son who attested a charter of Robert de Toni, 1129-33.
In 1166 William frater comitis Reginaldi was holding half a knight’s fee in Devonshire under Robert the King’s son, and 4 fees in Cornwall, as William frater Comitis, under Earl Rainald of Cornwall. Earl Rainald’s brother attested 2 charters of the earl as "Willelmo fratre meo." and issued a charter as "Willelmus de Marisco frater Reginaldi comitis Cornubie," in which he mentions his wife Alice. He was living in 1187.
Illegitimate Daughters
The daughters were as follows, the first 7 being in the same order as in the list of Robert de Torigny; who gives the marriages of nos. 1 to 6, but omits the Christian names of 4, 5, 6 and 7.
Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche (d.25 Nov. 1120)
(1) MAUD
mother: Edith, of whom nothing is known
(b). m. 1103, Rotrou, COUNT of Perche, styled the Great, s. and h. of Geoffrey, Count of Perche, by Beatrice, da. of Hilduin, Count of Montdidier and (jure uxoris) Count of Roucy.
Rotrou had gone on the 1st Crusade in 1096. In 1105 and 1114 he went to Spain, to help his cousin Alfonso I, King of Navarre and Aragon, against the Moors.
In 1114 he assisted Henry I at the siege of Belleme, which he had long before claimed as his hereditary right. The King granted him the Belleme fiefs.
He was present at the death of his royal father-in-law in 1135. In 1137 Stephen gave him Moulins; but in 1141 he made terms with Geoffrey Plantagenet.
Maud was drowned in the wreck of the White Ship, 25 Nov. 1120, leaving 2 daughters.
Rotrou m.2, before 1127 Hawise, dau. of Walter de Salisbury, and sister of Patrick, 1st EARL OF Salisbury.
d. 1144 at the siege of the Tower of Rouen (20 Jan. to 23 Apr.) by Geoffrey Plantagenet, and his widow m., as his 2nd wife, Robert, 1st Count of Dreux, 3rd s. of Louis VI (Le Gros), King of France; which Robert styled himself Count of Perche and lord of Belleme during the minority of his stepson.
(b) As her dau m. 1103, can't be Forn's dau.
Matilda FitzRoy, Duchess of Brittany
(2) MAUD, who m. Conan III, Duke of Brittany, s. of Alan Fergant, Duke of Brittany, by his 2nd wife, Ermengard, da. of Fulk IV, Count of Anjou. Maud had 1 son and 2 daughters.
Juliana
wife of Eustace of Breteuil, possibly born to Ansfrida
(3) JULIANE m. 110, Eustace de Pacy, styled also de Breteuil.
Lord of Breteuil and Pacy, illegitimate son of William on Breteuil, 1st s. of William (FitzOsbern), 1st EARL OF HEREFORD (ante, vol. vi, p. 449, note "c", sub Hereford).
1119: Eustace took part in the rebellion against Henry I, who besieged Juliane in Breteuil. She fled to Pacy, and in the autumn of 1119 she and her husband were pardoned by the King. A few years later she became a nun at Fontevrault.
Eustace d. at the beginning of Lent, 1136. They had issue 2 sons and 2 daughters.
Mabel/Eustacie
Mabel
wife of William Gouet
(4) ?Eustacie?
m. William Gouet III, LORD or MONTMIRAIL and other fiefs in that part of Perche which, at a much later date, became known as Perche-Gouet; who was 2nd but 1st surv. s. and h. of William Gouet II, LORD of Montmirail and Chateau-du-Loir, and (jure matris) of Alluye and Brou, by his wife Eustache, and was b. ante 1080.
His elder br. Hugh having d. v.p. he became the heir, and joined with his father and mother Eustache, and his brothers Robert and Matthew, in the foundation of the Priory of St. Gilles des Chateigniers as a cell of Tiron.
1114, as William Gouet junior (juvenem), he was one of the nobles (optimates) of Theobald, Count of Chartres, whom the Count called in to advise him.
1116, with his father and mother, he gave judgement in a dispute between the abbey of Marmoutier and Gaston de Brou.
He suc. his father, probably about 1117. He has been confused with his father, and with his s. and h., William Gouet IV, with whom the line ended. [Note: "Correction and Additions to CP" indicates that her name is Mabel.]
(k) R. de Torigny does not name her, and Marx does not try to ascertain her name; nor has it been found in charters. She is called Eustacie by Ramsay, presumably through confusion with her mother-in-law.
Constance
Vicountess of Beaumont-sur-Sarthe
(5) CONSTANCE, named also MAUD,
m. Roscelin de Beaumont, hereditary vicomte of Maine, styled Vicomte de Beaumont, Lord of Beaumont-le-Vicomte (alias Beaumont-sur-Sarthe), Fresnay and Ste.-Suzanne, s. of Ralph de Beaumont, by sister of Guy de Laval.
Henry I gave South Tawton (Devon), to Roscelin de Beaumont in marriage with his da. Constance. They had 2 sons.
Alice/Aline
wife of Matthew de Montmorency
(6) ALICE also ALINE
m. Matthew de Montmorenci, 1st s. and h. of Bouchard de Montmorenci, by his 1st wife, Agnes, da. of Yves II, Count of Beaumont-sur-Oise.
d. after having sons by Matthew, who m.2 Adelaide, widow of Louis VI (Le Gros), King of France, da. of Humbert II, Count of Savoy, by Gisele, da. of William, Count of Burgundy ... no issue. Matthew was Constable of France.
Isabel
- Isabel, dau of Isabel de Beaumont, Countess of Pembroke
(7) ISABEL
mother was Isabel (or Elizabeth), da. of Robert (de Beauchamp), Count or Meulan and 1st Earl of Leicester, by Isabel (or Elizabeth), da. of Hugh the Great, Count of Vermandois; which last-named Isabel m., 2ndly, William (de Warenne), 2nd Earl of Surrey (see ante, vol. vii, p. 526, sub Leicester).
The youngest of the Isabels was still unmarried when Robert de Torigny wrote, and so far as is known she never married. Her mother m. Gilbert (FitzGilbert, styled also de Clare), 1st Earl of Pembroke, and she seems to have lived with her mother during the life and after the death of her stepfather (see ante, vol. x, Appendix H, p. 102).
Sybilla, Queen of Scotland
- Sybilla de Normandy, Queen of Scotland, probably born before 1100
(8) SIBYL, whose mother was probably Sibyl Corbet.
m. Alexander I, King of Scotland, with whom she is said to have been joint founder of Scone Priory.
She gave "Beeth," a valuable property in Fifeshire, to the abbey of Dunfermline.
d. s.p., suddenly, 12 or 13 July 1122, on the island of Loch Tay.
Alexander d. s.p. 23 Apr. 1124 and was bur. at Dunfermline Abbey, being suc, by his br. David.
Matilda FitzRoy
- Matilda Fitzroy, Abbess of Montvilliers
(9) MAUD, abbess of Montivilliers, is called a sister of the Empress Mood by the Valasse Chronicle. Traditionally she was identified with Henry l’s daughter by Isabel de Beaumont, doubtless because Isabel’s daughter was the only one in Robert de Torigny’s list not recorded to be married to another person. The compilers of Gallia Christiana seem somewhat sceptical of Maud’s royal parentage; but this appears to be unreasonable, as the writer of the Valasse Chronicle was a contemporary.
Gundrada de Dunstanville
(10) GUNDRED, The Pipe Roll of 130 mentions Gundred, sister of Rainald de Dunstanville. Nothing more is known of her. [Note: "Corrections and Additions to CP" indicates that the Rainald referred to here is not the illegitimate son of Henry I, but another Rainald de Dunstanville, and therefore Gundred is not an illegitimate daughter of Henry I either.]
Rohese
- Possibly Rohese, wife of Henry de la Pomerai
(11) ROHESE
m. no later than 1146, Henry de la Pomerai, a great Devonshire baron, s. and h. of Joscelin de la Pomerai. He fought for Henry I in the rebellion of 1123, and in the King’s later years was a deputy or assistant Constable in his Household. In 1136 he was one of Stephen’s commanders in Normandy. He prospered under Henry II. He was dead in 1167. His wife was probably living in 1175 or 1176.
They left sons, Henry and Joscelin. [Note: Ancestral Roots argues that Rohese was daughter of Sybil Corbet, but by her husband Herbert FitzHerbert, pointing out that her daughter married William de Tracy, who would have been the daughter's 1st cousin, if she were also descended from Henry I.]
Unknown dau.
(12) Finally there is the question of the identity of the unnamed daughter whom Henry I had agreed to give to William de Warenne. The King asked Anselm what he ought to do, seeing that the parties were related in the 4th generation on one side and in the sixth on the other.
There is no evidence as to whether the girl was one of the 11 daughters already enumerated or another. The archbishop protested against the marriage and it never took place. William de Warenne was probably the 2nd Earl of Surrey, the only man of that name known to be living at the time, who was 4th in descent from the common ancestors: the parents of Gunnor, Duchess of Normandy.
?Emma
- wife of Guy of Laval
?Joan/Elizabeth/Adeliza
Adeliza, the King's daughter
- wife of Fergus of Galloway
- Possibly Sibyl of Falaise
Mistaken Daughters
Henry I has been credited with 2 more daughters, for whom he was not responsible:
(i) Compiler misunderstood that the passage refers to Helie's marriage to a daughter of Duke Robert. The alleged 2nd marriage and the King’s alleged daughter are alike fictitious.
- "Epouse Ia fille naturelle de Robert Courte-Heuse Ensuite Ia fille naturelle de Henri Ire. IV, 232"; and under "Henri Ire": "Une de ses filles naturelles epouse Helie de Saint—Sums. IV, 232."[6]
(ii) Orderic, in his -account of the war between Henry I of England and Louis VI of France, speaks of William de Chaumont as the King’s son-in-law. This has been misunderstood as referring to the King of England, and William’s wife is included among Henry l’s daughters by Ramsay; but charter evidence proves that she was the daughter of the King of France
Links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Alison Weir
- ↑
- b. probably circa 1090;
- 1122 (June-Sep): EARL OF GLOUCESTER
- ↑
- (e) He attested charters regularly as Robert "filius, Regis"; but he is twice styled Robert de Caen (de Cadomo) by Orderic (ed. Le Prevost), vol. v, pp. 121, 122. The statement in the Dict. Nat. Biog. that Robert was born at Caen, citing Orderic, seems to be a deduction from these passages. That he was "known ... as Robert 'de Caen' from his birthplace" is also amassed by Round, Family Origins, p. 214.
- ↑ [Note: According to "Corrections and Additions to CP", another source indicates his mother is Nest verch Rhys, which is also discounted. Vol.V of CP (1926) indicates the mother was "Sibyl, daughter of Robert Corbet a burgess in Caen", but Vol.XI (1949), discounts that in note "f" below. The mother is officially unknown. Many say the mother of Robert was a French woman and that he was born in Caen.]
- ↑ creation by half-sister Empress Maud.
- ↑
- Entries in the Index to Le Prevost's edition of Orderic’s Historia Ecclesiastica, under "Helie de Saint-Saens,"
- Royal and Noble Genealogical Data. Brian Tompsett. March 25, 2001
- Complete Peerage: Possible that 1 of the 9 sons are brothers of same name; doubtful whether certain unnamed dau. identical with one of the 11 or another family addition.
- lllegitimate Children - At least 9 sons and 11 daughters. Order unknown.
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