Ancestry of Petronella de Grandmesnil (rather long)

[Chris Phillips]

This is by way of a postscript to the discussion a few months ago about the
ancestry of Petronella, heiress of the Norman honor of Grandmesnil, and
wife of Robert, Earl of Leicester (d.1190). I have finally got round to
looking at all the references people were kind enough to suggest (and a few
more), and thought I would post the comments below, in the hope they might
be useful.

To recap briefly, Petronella has long been known to have been a great
granddaughter of Hugh de Grandmesnil, the Domesday tenant [1], and more
recently it has been discovered [2] that Petronella’s father was called
William. Assuming that William was a descendant of Hugh in the male line,
the question is: which of Hugh’s five sons was the father of William?

Firstly, as Richard Borthwick pointed out during the previous discussion,
Keats-Rohan [3] says that Petronella’s father William was the son of Robert
(Hugh’s eldest son), by his second wife Emma [daughter of Robert] de
Stuteville. A similar descent was tentatively suggested in the Complete
Peerage, on the basis that it was Robert who had inherited the honor of
Grandmesnil (although CP did not know the name of Petronella’s father, and
wrongly guessed that he was called Hugh). If Keats-Rohan’s identification
is based on direct evidence rather than inference, the question should be
finally settled next year when vol.2 of ‘Domesday People’ appears.

In the meantime, what I’ve been able to find, for what it’s worth, is as
follows.

Nearly all the genealogical evidence about the family derives from the
Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis [4]. This includes an overall
survey of the family written (possibly as a later edition to the work)
after the death of Robert, the eldest son of Hugh, around 1136.
Unfortunately, Robert’s heir is not named. However, there is no indication
that he died without issue; at any rate, his longevity is contrasted with
the fate of his younger brothers: ‘not one of them [the brothers] except
Robert lived to old age or enjoyed peaceful prosperity for very long’.

Orderic does mention one grandson of Hugh who was called William. This was
the son of Hugh’s son William, who went to Apulia and married Mabel,
daughter of Robert Guiscard. The fullest accounts of the Apulian branch I
have seen are those of Chalandon [5] and Jamison [6]. On this evidence, the
younger William does not seem a very likely candidate as the father of
Petronella. The elder William was dead by 1114 [7]. His initial heir seems
to have been the younger William, but he was succeeded by his brother
Robert by the late 1120s (apparently by 1127 [5]). Perhaps it could still
be argued that an infant daughter of William (Petronella?) might be passed
over in favour of his adult brother. But as Petronella married in the
mid-to-late 1150s [8], presumably she would have been born around the late
1130s, so that, even given this special pleading, the Apulian William would
have died 10-20 years too early to be her father.

Returning to the Norman branch, I came across a couple of documents which
may refer to the William who was the father of Petronella:

(i) A charter of Henry II (1157) confirms to the hospital of Falaise (among
other lands) ‘the chapel of Vilers and the land, given them by Hugh de
Merlaio and William de Grentmesnil and other prudhommes of that vill’ [9]

(ii) A charter (undated), abstracted by Lechaude d’Anisy [10], by which
Beatrix de Rye gives to St Jean of Falaise various pieces of land in
Beauvane-en-Montabart, for the well-being of her mother Emma and of her
brother William de Grentemesnil, and confirms their gifts to this abbey.
(Her son is later named as William de Rye.)

Unfortunately, Beatrix’s charter is not dated, although if the abstract is
accurate in referring to St Jean as an abbey, it must at least be later
than May 1160 [11]. Perhaps someone with more specialist knowledge can
comment on the dating. But granted that both charters refer to the same
house, it seems probable that they refer to the same William de
Grandmesnil. This would be in the right time-frame to be the father of
Petronella.

If this identification is correct, Beatrix’s mother Emma could be the Emma,
daughter of Robert de Stuteville, who was the second wife of Robert de
Grandmesnil (Hugh’s eldest son) (and this is precisely the parentage for
William stated by Keats-Rohan [3]). Perhaps it is also worth noting that
the name Beatrix occurs in the de Stuteville family; in fact according to
Clay’s reconstruction [12], Beatrix was the mother of Emma de Stuteville.
On this basis, the Beatrix de Rye of the charter would have been named
after her maternal grandmother.

I realise none of this is at all conclusive, although it does seem
consistent with a straightforward inheritance of the honor of Grandmesnil
by Robert the eldest son of Hugh, followed by Robert’s son William, and
finally, through William’s daughter Petronilla, by the ‘Beaumont’ earls of
Leicester.

Any comments and criticism will be gratefully received.

Chris Phillips

References
[1] J.H.Round, Cal. Docs France no 653.
[2] D.Crouch, ‘The Beaumont Twins’, p.91, citing Ctl St-Evroult, ii, fo 33v.
[3] K.S.B.Keats-Rohan, ‘Domesday People’ (1999), p.263.
[4] ed. M.Chibnall (1980).
[5] F.Chalandon, ‘Histoire de la Domination Normande en Italie et en
Sicile’ (1907).
[6] E.M.Jamison, ‘Some Notes on the Anonymi Gesta Francorum ...’ (1939), in
‘Studies on the History of Medieval Sicily and South Italy (1992), p.291.
[7] Although [5] cites a supposed charter to which William is a party in
1122, [6] mentions at least three documents between 1114 and 1117 which
imply he is dead.
[8] Complete Peerage, ‘Leicester’, citing J.H.Round, Cal. Docs France no 1062.
[9] J.H.Round, Cal. Docs France no 1157.
[10] Lechaude d’Anisy, ‘Extrait des Chartes, et Autres Actes, Normands ou
Anglo-Normands, qui se trouvent dans les archives du Calvados’ (1834) i
232, no 9.
[The French text is:
Beatrix de Rye, par une charte sans date, donne a Saint-Jean-de-Falaise,
avec le consentement de son fils, diverses pieces de terre a
Beauvane-en-Montabart, pour le salut d’Emma, sa mere, et de Guillaume de
Grentemesnil, son frere, et confirme en meme temps les donations que ces
deux derniers avaient faites a cette abbaye. La charte porte que Beatrix
recut pour cette concession, non seulement diverses sommes d’argent, mais
encore trois palefrois et une vache pour elle; et pour son fils Guillaume
de Rye, un cheval du prix de cent dix sols angevins. Cette charte porte
egalement qu’elle la scella de son propre sceau et qu’elle le fit confirmer
aux assises de Falaise par les gens du roi, Guillaume de Creully, Henri de
Pont-Audemer, Michel Belet et Julien de Rye. (Ce sceau est brise).]
[11] Before this date the house had been a priory. A.Meriel, ‘Histoire de
l’Abbaye Royale de Saint-Jean-de-Falaise’ (1883).
[12] C.T.Clay (ed.) Early Yorkshire Charters, vol.ix, p.2 (1952). Beatrix
certainly seems likely to have been an ancestress of the Emma who married
Robert de Grandmesnil. But it is difficult to reconcile in detail the entry
form the Liber Vitae of Durham with Clay’s pedigree (see separate posting)..