Emma de Falaise

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• From Gen-Medieval Archives. ¹⁹³
From: "Chris Phillips" <cgp@medievalgenealogy.org.uk>
Subject: Re: Richard de Curcy of Newenham, Oxon - Same as Nuneham Courtenay?
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 21:52:58 +0100

I had a chance to look at the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, vol. 5, pp,. 237-240, today.

This does confirm that Nuneham Courtenay was known as Newenham before the mid-18th century, and that it is the same manor held by the Courcys shown in the chart in CP.

However, the route by which it came to the Courtenays is given as follows:

William III de Courcy (d. 1176) married Gundreda de Warenne (d. 1224), who held Nuneham as her dower.

The heirs were initially the daughters, Joan and Margaret, of William and Gundreda's daughter Alice, by two marriages.

Eventually, in a partition, Nuneham fell to Margaret (d. 1252), who had married firstly Baldwin de Riviers, son of William, Earl of Devon, and secondly Fawkes de Braut.

Margaret's grandson and heir, Baldwin de Riviers, Earl of Devon (d. 1262) was succeeded by his sister Isabel de Forz, who died without surviving issue in 1293.

The succession to Isabel's estates was long disputed between Hugh de Courtenay, who claimed as her heir through her grandfather Baldwin, and Warin de Insula/de Lisle (and later his son and heir Robert), who claimed as her heir through her grandmother Margaret/Margery [Cal. Close Rolls, 1307-1313, pp. 273, 274].

The basis of Warin's claim is shown in the chart pedigree in CP viii, between pages 48 and 49 - Warin's grandfather, Robert de Lisle, had married Alice, daughter and eventual heir (or in her issue heir) of Henry FitzGerold, the brother of Warin FitzGerold, who was the husband of Alice de Courcy and father of Margaret.

For Hugh's relationship, see the chart on CP iv 335 - Hugh's great grandfather Robert de Courtenay married Mary, the sister of of Baldwin de Reviers, husband of Margaret.

The curious thing is that according to the Close Roll (and also Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 5, p. 202 - both cited by the VCH), it was found by inquisition that Newenham ought to descend to Hugh de Courtenay "as nearest heir to the said Isabella as of the inheritance falling to her of the part of Baldwin, her grandfather and kinsman of the said Hugh". This despite the fact that it clearly came from Baldwin's wife Margaret, and before that from her mother Alice, who was unrelated to either of the claimants. At any rate, there's no indication of any involvement of Hugh's great great grandmother Hawise (de Courcy?) in his claim to Newenham.

On the question of who was the William de Courcy shown as the father of this Hawise in CP's chart at iv 317 (albeit with a query whether his name was actually Geoffrey de Crunes), it's worth noting a relevant difference between the accounts of the Courcys given by VCH and by Domesday Descendants (p. 428).

DD gives:
(1) William I (son of Richard and Wandelmode) = Emma de Falaise; he d. c.
1114
(2) William II = Avice, dau and coheir of William Meschin; he d. bef. 1130
(3) William III = Gundrada de Warenne; he d. 1171
(4) William IV, came of age 1189, d. 1194 s.p.

VCH gives:
(1) William I = Emma de Falaise; he d. bef. 1130
(2) William II, prob. d. by 1155
(3) William III = 2ndly Gundrada de Warenne; he d. 1176
[Nothing is said about William IV as Nuneham was held in dower by Gundrada
until her death in 1224]

I have no idea which set of dates is more correct (the chart in CP viii agrees in making William II die c. 1130). On either account, if the William de Courcy shown as Hawise's father is one of these, it can only be William II, and that only if he survived Avice and remarried to Maud d'Avranches.

Chris Phillips

Emma married William de Courcy, son of Richard Seigneur de Courcy and Unknown. (William de Courcy was born about 1072 in Nuneham Courtenay, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England and died about 1114 in Stogursey, Williton, Somerset, England.)