Henry I Henry IAfter having originally inherited only money at the death of his father in 1087, Henry seized the throne of England on the death of his brother William II in 1100. In 1106, he won Normandy from his other brother Robert (who was held in captivity by until his death in 1134) after defeating him in the Battle of Tinchebrai. The nickname of "Beauclerc" by which he is commonly known is not contemporary [see DNB].
Date of Birth: 1068.
[OV; Will. Malmes.; see Chibnall's comments at OV vol. 5, p. 295,
n. 3]
Place of Birth: Perhaps at Selby.
[Monast. Angl., 3: 485, a late source]
Date of Death: 2 December 1135.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 33 (v. 2, pp. 256-7); Chr. Rob. Tor., s.a.
1135; Ex Obituario Gemmeticensi, RHF 23: 422]
Place of Death: Lyon-la-Forêt (Saint-Denis).
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 33 (v. 2, pp. 256-7); R. Dic. i, 247]
Father:
William "the
Conqueror", d. 1087, king of
England.
[e.g., GND; OV iii (vol. 2, pp. 104-5), iv (vol. 2, pp.
224-5), OV v, 11 (vol. 3, pp. 114-7); Will. Malmes. iii, 274 (p.
503)]
Mother:
Matilda of Flanders, daughter of Baldwin V, count of Flanders.
[GND; OV iii (vol. 2, pp. 104-5), iv (vol. 2, pp. 224-5),
OV v, 11 (vol. 3, pp. 114-7); Will. Malmes. iii, 274 (p. 503)]
Spouses:
(1) m. 11 November 1100, Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III, king of Scotland.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 10 (v. 2, pp. 216-7: year only); GND 2,
217, citing ASC E s.a. 1100, Florence ii, 47, Will. Malmes. 2,
470, and OV iv, 272, v., 298]
(2) m. 1121 [Rog. Hov. i, 214 (at the purification of St. Mary)] Adeliza,
daughter of Godfrey, count of Louvain.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 246-9)]
Children:
by Matilda of Scotland:
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 11 (v. 2, pp. 216-9)]
Matilda, d. 10 September 1167, claimant to the throne of
England, m (1) Emperor Henry V; (2) Geoffrey V, count of Anjou.
William "the Aetheling",
drowned in the White Ship, 25 November 1120 [GND
(Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (vol. 2, pp. 248-9); OV vii, 25 (vol. 6, pp.
294-304), m. June 1119 [OV xii, 15 (vol. 6, pp. 224-5)], Mathilde,
daughter of Foulques V,
count of Anjou [Sim. Durh. 2: 257-8, 267].
Known mothers of
illegitimate children of Henry I:
The following women are known to have been mother of at least one
illegitimate child of Henry I. See White, Thompson (2003), and
the individual children below for more details.
NN, evidently a relative of Philip
Gai and Nigel son of William.
Mother of Robert, earl of Gloucester.
Ansfride, widow of Anskill.
Mother of Richard, d. 1120.
Conjectured by White (without solid evidence) to be mother of
Fulk and of Juliana, wife of Eustace de Pacy (de Breteuil).
Sibyl [Corbet?], who later m. Herbert
Fitz Herbert.
Mother of Reginald de Dunstanville, earl of Cornwall.
Generally named as Sibyl Corbet, the first name from a lawsuit of
her grandson in the early 13th century, the surname because earl
Reginald referred to an Alice Corbet as his maternal aunt.
Thompson suggests that Robert Corbet was only Sibyl's stepfather,
and that Sibyl's father was an earlier Reginald de Dunstanville
[Thompson (2003), 143-5]. Although Thompson's scenario is
conjectural, based on circumstantial evidence, her comments do
serve to emphasize that the name of Sibyl Corbet that has often
been assigned to Reginald's mother is based only on indirect
evidence. Four other children appeared on White's list of her
children (William, Gundred, Rohese, Sibyl), but her son William
and daughter Rohese were probably not by Henry, Gundred was a
daughter of neither her nor Henry, and the case making Sibyl,
Queen of Scotland a daughter of Sibyl is a weak onomastic
argument. See below for more details.
Edith, possibly daughter of
Forn [Monast. Angl., 6: 251], later wife of
Robert de Oilli.
She was not same as the Edith who was mother of Matilda, wife of
Rotrou of Perche.
Mother of Robert "filius Regis", d. 1172, and possibly
also of Adeliza.
Nest ferch Rhys ap Tewdwr,
wife of Gerald of Windsor.
Mother of Henry, d. 1157.
Edith.
Mother of Matilda, who m. Rotrou, count of Perche, she was not
the same person as Edith, wife of Robert de Oilli, above.
Isabel de Beaumont, daughter
of Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester; she later m. Gilbert de
Clare, earl of Pembroke.
Mother of Isabel.
Illegitimate children:
This account of the bastards of Henry I is a revised version of a posting to soc.genealogy.medieval on the same subject, and is primarily based on the similar accounts of Geoffrey White in CP and Kathleen Thompson [Thompson (2003)]. I have checked the references in those cases where I had easy access to the primary sources, and have offered my tentative opinions as to which of the alleged bastards do or do not belong on the list. I have made no attempt to provide a complete list of citations (see White and Thompson for a start on this), but only to outline those sources which are sufficient to document each case. I have not always agreed with White and/or Thompson, and the assignments here should be in some cases considered tentative.
Robert "filius Regis" or
"de Caen", d. 1147, earl of Gloucester, m. Maud
(or Mabel or Sibyl) [White 106], daughter
of Robert Fitz Hamon. lord of Glamorgan.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 248-9), and many
other sources] He is called the eldest by Robert de Torigny. His
mother was evidently a relative of Philip Gai and of Nigel son of
William, both of whom appear in the sources as relatives of
Robert. [Thompson (2003), 142-3], and there does not appear to be
any reason to regard him as a son of Sibyl Corbet.
Richard, d. with (half) brother William
in the White Ship, 25 November 1120 [see
above under William].
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 248-9)]
Son of Ansfrid [Chr. Mon. Abington ii, 37, 122-3]
Rainald (Reginald) de Dunstanville, d.
1175, earl of Cornwall.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 248-9); White
108, note (a), cites a charter in which Earl Rainald refers to
his maternal aunt Alice Corbet.]
Son of a woman [Sibyl in later sources] who later married Herbert
Fitz Herbert [see Thompson (2003), 143-5].
Robert "filius Regis", d.
1172.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 248-9)]
Son of Eda/Edith, later wife of Robert de Oilli [Sim. of Durh.
ii, 310; Monast. Angl., 6: 251; White 109, citing the cartulary
of Oseney Abbey.]
Gilbert.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 248-9)]
Thompson speculates that his mother may have been an unnamed
sister of Walter de Gand whom Henry took as a mistress according
to thirteenth century evidence, but the only "evidence"
is onomastic (Walter's father being named Gilbert), a weak
argument.
William de Tracy, d. soon after 1135.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1)]
Henry "filius Regis", d.
1157.
[Girald. Camb. i, 58-9]
Son of Nest ferch Tewdwr, wife of Gerald of Windsor. The B
manuscript of Annales Cambriae, in the account of his
death, calls him son of Gerald, stating that some would wish him
to be a son of Henry I [AC (s.a. 1157: "... Henricus
filius Geraldi occisus est, velut alii volunt, filius Henrici
regis ..."], suggesting that the author of the annal
did not believe the connection to Henry, but this is the only
known indication of doubt in the early sources. The Welsh
vernacular annals call him a son of Henry I with no indication of
doubt. Since Giraldus was a relative, his word has greater
weight, and it seems highly probable that he was Henry's son.
Fulk "filius Regis".
[Chr. Mon. Abington ii, 122-3]
White [110] would make him a son of Ansfrid, based on the fact
that he appears in the same document as her and her son Richard
(d. 1120, above). Thompson considers it unlikely that he was
Ansfrid's son, since the source does not explicitly say that Fulk
was her son.
Matilda (Maud), d. in the White Ship,
25 November 1120, m. 1103, Rotrou, count of
Perche.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1)]
Her mother was Edith [White 112, citing Pipe Roll 31 Hen. I, p.
155]
Matilda (Maud), m. Conan III,
duke of Bretagne (Brittany).
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1)]
Juliane, m. 1103, Eustace de
Pacy, lord of Bréteuil and Pacy.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1);White 114
states that it is "not unlikely" that her mother was
Ansfrid, but the evidence offered for this is weak.]
NN [probably Mabel],
m. William Gouet III, lord of Montmirail.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1), which does not give
her name; Thompson (2003), 148 mentions charter evidence
giving her name; As pointed out by Chris Phillips in a posting to
soc.genealogy.medieval on 28 November 2003, an alternate
possibility is that William was married twice, once to a daughter
of Henry and once to a woman named Mabel]
Constance or Matilda,
m. Roscelin de Beaumont.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1, name not given); Chr.
Rob. Tor., s.a. 1168 ("Mathild[is]"); For Constance as
the name, see under the "Tony" account in CP 12:768
(with thanks to Rosie Bevan for this reference, passed on to the
soc.genealogy.medieval newsgroup by Chris Phillips)]
[Alice], m. Mathieu de
Montmorency.
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1, name not given)]
The primary source for her name is unclear from the accounts of
White and Thompson.
Isabel
[GND (Rob. Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1), which does
not give her name; White states that charter evidence proves her
name to be Isabel, and refers back to vol. 10, Appendix H, p.
102, where the charter evidence is briefly discussed. (Thanks to
Chris Phillips for correcting this oversight on my part)] Her
mother was Isabel, sister of Waleran, count of Meulan [GND (Rob.
Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1)], and daughter of Robert de
Beaumont, count of Meulan and earl of Leicester, who m. Gilbert
de Clare, earl of Pembroke.
Sybil, d. 12 or 13 July 1122 [Sim. of Durh. ii, 265; Chroncle
of Melrose, in ESSH 2, 165 (13 July)], m. Alexander
I, king of Scotland.
White attributes her as a daughter of Sibyl Corbet, but as
Thompson points out, without sufficient evidence.
Matilda (Maud), abbess of
Montivilliers.
[White 118, citing "Chron. Valassense, ed.
Somménhill, p. 20"]
Was confused with Henry's daughter by Isabel de Beaumont [White
118]
Adeliza.
[Thompson (2003), 150, citing a charter from Eynsham Cartulary,
I, no. 64, in which she appears as "Adeliza filia
Reg'".] "Reg'" could be an abbreviation of either
"Regis" ("of the King") or
"Reginaldi", and Thompson points out that no Reginald
appears in the charter. As was pointed out in postings of 15
November 2003 to the soc.genealogy.medieval newsgroup by John P.
Ravilious and Rosie Bevan, the charter in question involved
several Oilli relatives, and the following charter also involving
the Oilli's was witnessed by the king's illegitimate son Robert
(whose mother Eda/Edith married Robert de Oilli) suggesting not
only that Adeliza was in fact the king's daughter, but that
Eda/Edith would make a good candidate for her mother.
NN (probable daughter), m. Fergus,
lord of Galloway.
There are a number of contemporary sources
in which a child or grandchild of Fergus of Galloway is called a
relative of a Plantagenet king of England, without spelling out
the exact relationship [see, e.g., Anderson (1908), 257-8, who quotes Benedict of St. Peterborough; Rog.
Hov. i, 423], and these references form the basis of attempts to
determine the origin of the wife of Fergus of Galloway (who is
called Elizabeth in some late secondary sources, but there seems
to be no contemporary authority for her name). One interesting,
but unlikely, explanation for this relationship has been the
occasional statements that Fergus was married to a daughter of
King William Rufus, which can be traced back to a nineteenth
century source [Cumming (1857), 49], but the most common (and
evidently simplest) explanation would be that Fergus was married
to an otherwise unknown illegitimate daughter of Henry I. Not
only would that be the closest feasible relationship between the
two dynasties, but the obvious alternate suggestion that the wife
of Fergus was a member of the Scottish royal family (from which
Henry II was also descended) has the drawback that the
relationship would be more distant, and that no sources have been
produced stating that the Galwegian rulers were close kin to the
Scottish kings. Thus, the suggestion that Fergus was married to
an illegitimate daughter of Henry I remains the most likely
explanation of the known evidence.
NN (perhaps the same person as one of the above daughters), promised to William de Warenne.
[Letters of St. Anselm, iv, 84, in PL clix, 243]
The marriage never took place because of Anselm's objections on
the grounds of consanguinity. Whether or not she was one of the
daughters already listed above is unknown.
NN (perhaps the same person as one of the above daughters), potential wife of Hughes de
Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais.
[Thompson, citing Ivo of Chartres, Epistola cclxi, RHF, XV, 167]
Whether or not she was one of the daughters
already listed above is unknown.
In addition to the children listed above, various other children (and another mistress) have been attributed to Henry I, with varying degrees of probability.
Possible illegitimate
son (but more likely a mistake or duplication): William,
living 1187.
[White 110-1 discusses the likelihood that the William who was a
brother of Queen Sybil of Scotland was the same person as
William, brother of Rainald de Dunstanville (Red Book of the
Exc., Rolls Series, 253, 262); Finberg (1948), 365].
White's account is based on the assumption that indiviuals
described as siblings of bastards of Henry I were probably
children of Henry by the same mother (rather than just being
siblings with the same mother), and also assumes that the William
mentioned as a brother of Reginald was the same as William,
brother of Sibyl. As Thompson points out, there are chronological
problems with identifying the two, and in addition to the
possibility that the individual(s) in question was/were
sibling(s) only through the mother, there is the additional
possibility that the queen's brother may have been William de
Tracy, already listed as a son of Henry.
Supposed son by Matilda
of Scotland (probably a mistake): Richard.
[White 105, citing Gervaise of Canterbury
i, 92.] If he existed at all, he must have died young. It seems
likely that Gervaise was accidently turning Henry's illegitimate
son Richard (d. 1120 on the White Ship) into a legitimate son.
Supposed illegitimate daughters (unlikely):
Emma, m. Guy IV de
Laval.
[Angot (1942), 292-4]
This case depends on an epitaph calling her a daughter of the
king (of whom Henry I seems the only plausible choice for
chronological reasons): EMMA ANGLORUM REGIS FILIA DOMINAQUE
LAVALLENSIS. The case is complicated by the fact that Guy IV's
son Guy V was married to another Emma, daughter of earl Reginald
of Cornwall, and thus granddaughter of Henry I, suggesting that
the claimed parentage of Emma is a result of confusion. See also
the outline by Chris Phillips at http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/cp/p_henryisillegitimate.shtml.
Rohese, m. Henry de la Pomerai.
[White 119, citing a charter in which Rainald de Dunstanville
calls her his sister]
She was mentioned as a sister of earl Reginald of Cornwall, and
White assumed that they had the same father, but I believe that
Thompson is correct in stating that it is more likely that Rohese
was a daughter of Reginald's mother by Herbert fitz Herbert,
since no known record calls her a daughter of the king.
Falseley attributed daughters:
Gundred.
Gundred and her brother Reginald de Dunstanville are
mentioned in a Pipe Roll of 1130 [see White 108, 119]. She was
included by White on the assumptions that her brother was the
same as the earl of Cornwall and that they were siblings by the
same father. However, Thompson pointed out that the future earl
was still described as a young man in the late 1130's [GND (Rob.
Tor.) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 248-9)], and was therefore not the same
man as the Reginald on the 1130 Pipe Roll. (Thompson's conjecture
would place the Reginald and Gundred of 1130 as siblings of earl
Reginald's mother.)
Sibyl of Falaise.
Described only as a "neptis" (acc. "neptem")
of Henry, Thompson is correct in stating that she does not belong
the list [Thompson (2003), 150].
Possible mistress:
NN, sister of Walter
de Gand.
Mistress of Henry I according to unidentified thirteenth century
evidence, conjectured (without good evidence) by Thompson to have
been mother of: Gilbert [Thompson (2003), 146].
AC = Annales Cambriae.
Anderson (1908) = Alan Orr Anderson, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers A.D. 500 to 1286 (London, 1908, reprinted Stamford, 1991).
Angot (1942) = Angot, Généalogies féodales mayennaises du xi au xiii siècle (Laval, 1942).
Chr. Mon. Abington = Joseph Stevenson, ed., Chronicon Monasterii de Abington, 2 vols. (Roll Series 2, London, 1858).
Chr. Rob. Tor. = L. C. Bethemann, ed., Roberti de Monte Chronica (a continuation by Robert de Torigny of the chronicle of Sigebert de Gembloux), MGH SS 6, 476-535.
CP = The Complete Peerage.
Cumming (1857) = J. G. Cumming, "A Brief Notice of Manx Civil and Ecclesiastical History", Archaeologia Cambrensis 3rd ser. 3 (1857), 45-54.
DNB = Dictionary of National Biography.
ESSH = Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1922, reprinted Stamford, 1990). [Contains English translations of many of the primary records]
Finberg (1948) = H. P. R. Finberg, "Some Early Tavistock Charters", English Historical Review 62 (1948), 352-377.
Girald. Camb. = Brewer, Dimcok, Warner, eds., Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, 8 vols. (Rolls Series 21, 1861-91).
GND = Guillaume de Jumièges, Gesta Normannorum Ducum, as edited in Elisabeth van Houts, ed. & trans., The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, 2 vols., (Oxford, 1992). Citation is by book and chapter of Guillaume's work, with the volume and page number of the edition by van Houts in parentheses. Unless otherwise stated, references are to Guillaume's work, and not to later additions by such authors as Orderic Vitalis and Robert de Torigny.
GND (Rob. Tor.) = Additions to GND by Robert de Torigny.
Monast. Angl. = William Dugdale, ed. (new ed. by Caley, Ellis, Bandniel), Monasticon Anglicanum (London, 1817-30).
PL = P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, series Latina, 221 vols. (Paris, 1844-1859).
R. Dic. = William Stubbs, ed., Radulfi de Diceto Decani Lundonensis Opera Historica - The Historical Works of Master Ralph de Diceto Dean of London, 2 vols. (Rolls Series 68, London 1876).
RHF = Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France.
Rog. Hov. = William Stubbs, ed., Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene, 5 vols. (Rolls Series 51, 1868). For an English translation, see Henry T. Riley, trans., The Annals of Roger de Hoveden, 2 vols. (London, 1853). Citations are from the edition of Stubbs.
Sim. Durh. = Thomas Arnold, ed., Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, 2 vols. (Rolls Series 75, 1882-5).
SP = Scot's Peerage
Thompson (2003) = Kathleen Thompson, "Affairs of State: the illegitimate children of Henry I", Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003): 129-151.
White = Geoffrey H. White, "Henry I's Illegitimate children", CP 11, Appendix D (pp. 105-121).
Will. Malmes. = R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson, & M. Winterbottom, eds., William of Malmesbury - Gesta Regvm Anglorvm - The History of the English Kings, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1998).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
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