Adelaide of Normandy

Adelaide of Normandy (or Adeliza) ( 1030 – bef. 1090) was the ruling Countess of Aumale in her own right in 1069–1087. She was the sister of William the Conqueror.

Life Born 1030, Adelaide was an illegitimate daughter of the Norman duke Robert the Magnificent. Adelaide's brother or half-brother, Robert's son and successor William the Conqueror, was likewise illegitimate.

Adelaide's first marriage to Enguerrand II, Count of Ponthieu potentially gave William a powerful ally in upper Normandy. But at the Council of Reims in 1049, when the marriage of William with Matilda of Flanders was prohibited based on consanguinity, so were those of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne and Enguerrand of Ponthieu, who was already married to Adelaide. Adelaide's marriage was apparently annulled c. 1049/50 and another marriage was arranged for her, this time to Lambert II, Count of Lens, younger son of Eustace I, Count of Boulogne forming a new marital alliance between Normandy and Boulogne. Lambert was killed in 1054 at Lille, aiding Baldwin V, Count of Flanders against Emperor Henry III.

Now widowed, Adelaide resided at Aumale, probably part of her dower from her first husband, Enguerrand, or part of a settlement after the capture of Guy of Ponthieu, her brother-in-law. Odo seems to have been something of a disappointment as he appears on only one of the Conqueror's charters and received no land in England; his wife being a tenant-in-chief in her own right. In 1086, as Comitissa de Albatnarla, one of the very few Norman noblewomen to have held lands in England at Domesday as a tenant-in-chief. She was also given the lordship of Holderness which was held after her death by her third husband, Odo, the by then disinherited count of Champagne; the lordship then passed to their son, Stephen.

Family

Adelaide married three times; first to Enguerrand II, Count of Ponthieu (died 25 October 1053), Saint-Aubin-sur-Scie, Normandy, France by whom she had a daughter:

Adelaide (or Adelisa), of Aumale living 1096, She married, secondly, Lambert II, Count of Lens (died 1054);

Adelaide married, thirdly, in 1060, Odo, Count of Champagne (d. aft. 1096), by whom she had a son:

Stephen, Count of Aumale. Stephen married Hawise (b 1084) at Wigmore, daughter of Ralph de Mortimer (b 1055) France, (father Roger b 1020-1084) Lord of Wigmore and Seigneur de St. Victor-en-Caux, and Mélisende. Their children were :

1. Adelize León formerly Aumale Born after 1100. Daughter of Etienne (Champagne) de Troyes and Hawise (Mortimer) de Troyes Sister of Enguerrand d'Aumale, William (Aumale) le Gros, Agnes (Aumale) Bruce and Mathilde (Aumale) de Picquigny Wife of Herve II of Léon Children Mother of Guihomar de León Died 1130 before age 30

2. William (c. 1101 – 1179), Count of Aumale; married Cecily of Skipton, daughter of William fitz Duncan. Named Hawise le Gros

3. Étienne, (born c. 1112) mentioned 1150; married the daughter of Roger Mortimer b France their son was William Crassus who inherited from his uncle Chipping Sodbury manor, the mill and market he followed William Marshal to Kilkenny Ireland. Primogeniture to the Grace family Courtstown Kilkenny.

4. Enguerrand or Ingelran de Aumale, mentioned 1150

5. Agnès (c. 1117 – after 1170), married William de Roumare († 1151), son of William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln. By him she had a son named William. As his widow she secondly married (1128) Adam I de Brus, Lord of Skelton, the son of Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale. By him she had a son named Adam.

6. Mathilde d'Aumâle, who married Gérard de Picquigny