Gundred, Countess of Surrey

Gundred or Gundreda (Latin: Gundrada) (died 27 May 1085) was the Flemish-born wife of an early Norman baron, William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. She and her husband established Lewes Priory in Sussex.

Life Gundred was almost certainly born in Flanders, and was a sister of Gerbod the Fleming, 1st Earl of Chester, and thus daughter of Gerbod, hereditary advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin. She is explicitly so called by Orderic Vitalis, as well as the chronicle of Hyde Abbey. She was also the sister of Frederick of Oosterzele-Scheldewindeke, who was killed c.1070 by Hereward the Wake.

Gundred married before 1070 William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey (d. 20 June 1088), Gundred and her husband set out for Rome, visiting monasteries along the way. In Burgundy they were unable to go any farther due to a war between Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. They visited Cluny Abbey and were impressed with the monks and their dedication. William and Gundred decided to found a Cluniac priory on their own lands in England. They sent to Hugh, the abbot of Cluny, for monks to come to England at their monastery. Hugh was reluctant yet eventually sent several monks, including Lazlo, who became the first abbot. The house they founded was Lewes Priory, dedicated to St Pancras. Gundred died in childbirth on 27 May 1085 at Castle Acre, Norfolk, one of her husband's estates, and was buried at the chapter house of Lewes Priory.

Tombstone Two leaden cists containing the remains of Gundred and her husband; chalk lithograph by F. W. Woledge after a drawing by R. H. Nibbs, 1845 In the course of the centuries which followed, both tombstones disappeared from the priory. In 1774 Edward Clarke discovered Gundred's in Isfield Church (seven miles from Lewes), over the remains of Edward Shirley, Esq., who died in 1550. William Burrell had it removed on 2 October 1775 to St John's Church, Southover, where it was placed on display.

In 1845, during excavations through the Priory grounds for the Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway, the lead chests containing the remains of the Earl and his Countess were discovered and were deposited temporarily beneath Gundred's tombstone.

Family The children of William de Warenne and Gundred were:

William II de Warenne (d. 11 May 1138), buried in Lewes Priory. Reginald de Warenne, an adherent of Robert of Normandy. and second Drew de Monchy. suggested Gundred was a daughter of William the Conqueror by his spouse Matilda of Flanders, but this is not accepted by most modern historians. The early-19th-century writer Thomas Stapleton had argued she was a daughter of Matilda born prior to her marriage to Duke William. This theory sparked a debate consisting of a series of published papers. It culminated with those of Edmond Chester Waters and Edward Augustus Freeman, who argued the theories could not be supported. Nonetheless, this purported relationship between Gundred and the Conqueror continues to appear, despite being dismissed by modern scholars.