, Adelaide Of Normandy

Adelaide of Normandy (or Adeliza) (c. 1030 – bef. 1090) was the sister ofWilliam the Conqueror and was Countess of Aumale in her own right.

She was a natural daughter of Robert the Magnificent,[a] Duke of Normandyand born c.1030[1] Elisabeth Van Houts, in her article Les femmes dansl’histoire du duché de Normandie (or Women in the history of ducalNormandy) mentions Countess Adelaide as one of those notable Norman womenwho were known to have exerted a strong influence on their childrenespecially with regard to passing on their own family history.[2]

Adelaide''s first marriage to Enguerrand II, Count of Ponthieu potentiallygave then Duke William a powerful ally in upper Normandy.[3] But at theCouncil of Reims in 1049, when the marriage of Duke William with Matildaof Flanders was prohibited based on consanguinity, so were those ofEustace II, Count of Boulogne and Enguerrand of Ponthieu, who was alreadymarried to Adelaide.[4] Adelaide''s marriage was apparently annulledc.1049/50 and another marriage was arranged for her, this time to LambertII, Count of Lens, younger son of Eustace I, Count of Boulogne forming anew marital alliance between Normandy and Boulogne.[5] Lambert was killedin 1054 at Lille, aiding Baldwin V, Count of Flanders against EmperorHenry III.[6] Now widowed, Adelaide resided at Aumale, probably part ofher dower from her first husband, Engurerand, or part of a settlementafter the capture of Guy of Ponthieu, her brother-in-law.[b][5] As adowager Adelaide began a semi-religious retirement and became involvedwith the church at Auchy presenting them with a number of gifts.[5] In1060 she was called upon again to form another marital alliance, thistime to a younger man Odo, Count of Champagne.[7] Odo seems to have beensomewhat of a disappointment as he appears on only one of the Conqueror''scharters and received no land in England; his wife being atenant-in-chief in her own right.[7]

In 1082 King William and Queen Matilda gave to the abbey of the HolyTrinity in Caen the town of Le Homme in the Cotentin with a provision tothe Countess of Albamarla (Aumale), his sister, for a life tenancy.[8] In1086, as Comitissa de Albatnarla,[8] as she was listed in the DomesdayBook, was shown as having numerous holdings in both Suffolk and Essex,[9]one of the very few Norman noblewomen to have held lands in England atDomesday as a tenant-in-chief.[10] She was also given the lordship ofHolderness which was held after her death by her 3rd husband, Odo, the bythen disinherited Count of Champagne; the lordship then passed to theirson, Stephen.[8] Adelaide died before 1090.[11]

Adelaide married three times; first to Enguerrand II, Count of Ponthieu(died 1053)[12] by whom she had issue:
Adelaide II, Countess of Aumale, m. William de Bréteuil, Lord ofBréteuil, son of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford.[8]

She married secondly Lambert II, Count of Lens (died 1054),[11] they hada daughter:
Judith of Lens, m. Waltheof Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria.[13]

Adelaide married thirdly in 1060 Odo II, Count of Champagne (d. aft.1096),[14] by whom she had a son:
Stephen, Count of Aumale.[14]