Henry I "Beauclerc" King of England

  Information about this person:

• Web Reference: The House of Normandy - Henry I 'Beauclerc' .

• Web Reference: King Henry I.

• Web Reference: From Stuart Baldwin, Henry I, King of England & Duke of Normandy.

• Web Reference: Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Henry I , King of England.

• Henry I's Illegitimate Children. ¹⁴¹
Henry I and Charles II were the only Kings of England to beget a large brood of bastards. Besides his 2, or possibly 3, legitimate children, it seems fairly certain that he was the father of at least 9 sons and 11 daughters. Moreover it is possible that one of the 9 sons really represents brothers of the same name; and finally it remains doubtful whether a certain unnamed daughter of the King was identical with one of the 11 or was yet another addition to his extensive family.

No complete catalogue of Henry's bastards is given by any contemporary writer. However, Robert de Torigny, in his additions to the Gesta Normannoram Ducum of William de Jumieges, enumerates 6 sons, mentioning the marriage of the first, gives the marriages of 6 daughters, of whom he names only three, and refers to another daughter, also unnamed, who was still unmarried when he wrote. Particulars of Henry's other children have to be collected from different sources.

It is impossible to set out the names of the children in the order in which they were born, as the date of birth is not known for any of them; nor is it possible to arrange them according to their maternal parentage, for in most instances this is not recorded. Indeed, Robert de Torigny does not name the mother of any of the 13 children whom he enumerates except the unmarried daughter, although his omissions may occasionally be made good from other sources.

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.

(1) Robert the King's Son, styled also de Caen. 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 Dictionary of Biography 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. The name and identity of whose mother are uncertain. He was born, probably circa 1090; cr. in 1122 (June-Sep.) Earl of Gloucester and he married Maud (named also Mabel and Sibyl) daughter and heir of Robert Fitz Hamon, Lord of Glamorgan, by Sibyl, daughter of Roger (de Montgomery), 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. He died 31 Oct 1147 at Bristol and was buried at the Priory of St. James, Bristol.

(2) Richard, whose mother was Ansfride, a lady of unknown parentage, widow of Anskiill, a knight who was a tenant of Abingdon Abbey. He was born ante 1101, served against the French in 1119, and was captured at Los Andelys. He was set free with his comrades by King Louis, because they had taken sanctuary in the church of Notre Dame du Grand Andely. He was with his father at the siege of Evreux and the battle of Bremule, 20 Aug. 1119. In September, he was sent to raise the siege of Breteuil. He was betrothed to Amice, daughter 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. He d. s.p. immediately afterwards, being drowned in the wreck of the White Ship, 25 Nov. 1120 and his body was washed up many days later, far from the scene of the shipwreck. Amice married Robert, 2^nd Earl of Leicester.

(3) Rainald of Dunstanville, whose mother was Sibyl, named also Adela and Lucy, daughter and in her issue coheir of Robert Corbet, of Alcester, county of Warwick, and Longden, Salop. Sibyl, after her liaison with Henry I, married Herbert Fitz Herbert. Rainald held land in Wiltshire in 1130. He was created, circa Apr. 1141, Earl of Cornwall, by his half-sister the Empress Maud. He married Beatrice, daughter and heir of William Fitz Richard. He died spms. leg. 1 Jul 1175 at Chertsey, Surrey, when his Earldom reverted to the Crown, and was buried, at Reading Abbey.

(4) Robert, the King's son, whose mother Ede or Edith was apparently daughter of Forn, probably identical with Forn Sigulfson, lord of Greystoke (Cumberland) and a tenant-in-chief in co. York. Edith, after her liaison with Henry I, married Robert de Oilli, a royal Constable and constable of Oxford Castle. Robert held land in Devonshire in 1130. He supported his half-sister, the Empress Maud, in the Civil War. He was a great tenant-in-chief, his servitium debitum being 100 knights. He married Maud, dame du Sap in Normandy, widow of William de Courcy, and daughter and heir of Robert d'Avranches, by whom he had an only daughter. He died 31 May 1172.

(5) Gilbert, still young and unmarried in (?) 1142. Nothing more is known of him.

(6) William de Tracy or Tracey, whose mother is unknown, and who died soon after his father, leaving (by an unknown wife) a daughter and heir.

(7) Henry the King's son, whose mother was Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, Prince of South Wales where Henry was born, and wife of Gerald de Windsor. He was slain during Henry II's invasion of Anglesey in 1157, leaving (by an unknown wife) 2 sons.

(8) Fulk the King's son, and Richard the tutor, witnessed a gift to Abingdon Abbey by William, son of Anskill and Ansfride, the mother of Henry I's son. Richard, all abovenamed; the gift being made in consideration of his mother having been buried, in the abbey. The obvious inference is that Folk was a younger son 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 died young.

(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.

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.

(1) Maud, whose mother was Edith, of whom nothing, is known. She married in 1103, Rotrou, Comté de Perche, styled "the Great," son and heir of Geoffrey, comté de Perche, by Beatrice, daughter of Hilduin, comté de Montdidier and (jure uxoris) comté de Roucy. Rotrou had gone on the 1^st 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 Bellême, which he had long before claimed as his hereditary right. The King granted him the Bellême 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 Plantagenêt. Maud was drowned in the wreck of the White Ship, 25 Nov. 1120, leaving 2 daughters: Rotrou married, 2^nd, before 1127, Hawise, daughter of Walter de Salisbury, and sister of Patrick, 1^st Earl of Salisbury. He died in 1144 at the siege of the Tower of Rouen (20 Jan to 23 Apr) by Geoffrey Plantagenêt, and his widow married, as his 2^nd wife, Robert, 1^st comté de Dreux, 3^rd son of Louis VI "le Gros," King of France; which Robert styled himself comté de Perche and Seigneur de Bellême during the minority of his stepson.

(2) Maud, who m. Conan III, duc de Bretagne, son of Alan Fergant, duc de Bretagne, by his 2^nd wife, Ermengard, daughter of Fulk IV, comté d'Anjou. Maud had 1 son and 2 daughters.

(3) Juliane, who married in 1103, Eustace de Pacy, styled also de Breteuil. Lord of Breteuil and Pacy, illegitimate son of William on Breteuil, 1^st son of William Fitz Osbern, 1st Earl of Hereford. In 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 the King pardoned her and her husband. A few years later she became a nun at Fontevrault. Eustace died at the beginning of Lent, 1136. They had issue 2 sons and 2 daughters.

(4) ?Eustacie?, who m. William Gouet III, Lord of Montmirail and other fiefs in that part of Perche which, at a much later date, became known as Perche-Gouet; who was 2^nd but 1^st surviving son and heir 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 brother, 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. In 1114, as William Gouet junior (juvenem), he was one of the nobles (optimates) of Theobald, comté de Chartres, whom the Count called in to advise him. In 1116, with his father and mother, he gave judgement in a dispute between the abbey of Marmoutier and Gaston de Brou. He succeeded his father, probably about 1117. He has been confused with his father, and with his son and heir, William Gouet IV, with whom the line ended.

(5) Constance, named also Maud, who married Roscelin de Beaumont, hereditary vicomteé of Maine, styled Vicomté de Beaumont, Lord of Beaumont-le-Vicomté (alias Beaumont-sur-Sarthe), Fresnay and Ste.-Suzanne, son of Ralph de Beaumont, by sister of Guy de Laval. Henry I gave South Tawton (Devon), to Roscelin de Beaumont in marriage with his daughter Constance. They had 2 sons.

(6) Alice, named also Aline, who married Matthew de Montmorenci, 1^st son and heir of Bouchard de Montmorenci, by his 1^st wife, Agnes, daughter of Yves II, comté de Beaumont-sur-Oise. She died after having sons by Matthew, who married 2^nd, Adelaide, widow of Louis VI "le Gros," King of France, daughter of Humbert II, comté de Savoy, by Gisele, daughter of William, comté de Burgundy; by whom he had no issue. Matthew was Constable of France.

(7) Isabel, whose mother was Isabel (or Elizabeth), daughter of Robert (de Beauchamp), Count or Meulan and 1^st Earl of Leicester, by Isabel (or Elizabeth), daughter 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).

(8) Sibyl, whose mother was probably Sibyl Corbet. She married 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. She d. s.p., suddenly, 12 or 13 July 1122, on the island of Loch Tay. Alexander died s.p. 23 Apr 1124 and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey, being succeeded by his brother David.

(9) Maud, abbess of Montivilliers, is called a sister of the Empress Maud 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. This appears to be unreasonable, as the writer of the Valasse Chronicle was a contemporary.

~Cockayne's Complete Peerage, (Appendix D), Vol. XI, pp. 105-121

Henry married Ætheling ingen Mail Coluim, daughter of Máel Coluim mac Donnchadha Ard-rí Alban and Saint Margaret Atheling of England Queen Of Scots, on 11 Nov 1100 in Westminster Abbey, London, England ^160,528.^,883 (Ætheling ingen Mail Coluim was born in 1079-1080 in Dunfermline, Scotland,¹⁶⁰ died on 1 May 1118 in Westminster Palace, London, England ^160,528 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England.)

Henry had a relationship with Isabella de Beaumont, daughter of Sir Robert de Beaumont Earl of Leicester and Isabella de Vermandois Countess of Leicester ¹⁴¹.^,160 (Isabella de Beaumont died after 1172 in England/France ¹⁴¹.)

Henry next married Nest verch Rhys Princess of Deheubarth, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr Mawr Prince of South Wales and Gwladus verch Rhiwallon. (Nest verch Rhys Princess of Deheubarth was born about 1073 in Dynevor, Wales.)

Henry next had a relationship with Sibyl Corbet Lady of Alcester, daughter of Robert Corbet and Unknown. (Sibyl Corbet Lady of Alcester was born circa 1090 and died after 1157.)