Bastards of Henry I, part 1: Introduction and Bibliography
Stewart Baldwin
on the accounts of Geoffrey White in CP and Kathleen Thompson in the
Journal of Medieval History. I have checked the references in those
cases where I had easy access to the primary sources, and have offered
my tentative opinions as to which of the alleged bastards do or do not
belong on the list. I have made no attempt to provide a complete list
of citations (see White and Thompson for a start on this), but only to
outline those sources which are sufficient to document each case.
In addition to this introduction, Part 1 gives a list of abbreviations
for the citations. Parts 2 through 4 list the children, and Part 5
the known mothers. The children have been separated into three lists,
the proven sons in Part 2, proven daughters in Part 3, and possible
and/or disproven children in Part 4. For purposes of this tentative
list I have listed the sons with capital letters, the daughters with
lowecase letters, and the uncertain cases with numbers in parentheses.
(In each case, W# and T# show the numbers given in the enumerations of
White and Thompson, respectively.) In two cases (Henry and Adeliza), I
included them on the "proven" list because I think that the cases are
sufficient despite some small lingering doubt.
For those playing the "counting" game, I have included 8 sons and 10
daughters on the "proven" list, which would seem to produce a bare
minimum of 16 if you remove the two for whom a bit of doubt has been
expressed. If "probable" is the desired criterion, then I would put
the number at 19 (the 18 in Parts 2 and 3 plus the wife of Fergus of
Galloway). If one assumes that the two possible duplications in fact
represent distinct children, and include the others who have not been
clearly disproven, we get an apparent maximum of 24 candidates, but
with no good reason to believe that all of the doubtful cases would
turn out to be children of Henry.
Bibliographical Abbreviations:
The following abbreviations are used in my citations. In cases where
I did not have easy access to a source, I have sometimes given them in
the form "[source A], citing [source B]" (meaning that I have not
examined source B and that I am only reporting what source A says
about source B's statements).
AC = Annales Cambriae
Angot = A. Angot, "Génenalogies féodale mayennaises du xi au xiii
siècle".
de Broussilon = Bertrand de Broussillon, "La Maison de Laval", 5
vols. (Paris, 1895-1903).
Chr. Mon. Abington = Joseph Stevenson, ed., "Chronicon Monasterii de
Abington", 2 vols. (Roll Series 2, London, 1858).
Dugdale = Caley, Ellis, Bandinel, eds., [William Dugdale's]
"Monasticon Anglicanum", 6 vols. (London, 1830).
EHR = English Historical Review.
Giraldus Cambrensis = J. S. Brewer, ed., "Giraldi Cambrensis Opera", 8
vols. (Rolls Series 21, London, 1861).
GND = Guillaume de Jumièges, Gesta Normannorum Ducum, as edited in
Elisabeth van Houts, ed. & trans., The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of
William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, 2 vols.,
(Oxford, 1992).
GND(RT) = Robert de Torigny's additions to GND.
PL = Migne, Patrologiae (Latin).
Simeon of Durham = Thomas Arnold, ed., "Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia",
2 vols., (Rolls Series 75, London, 1882).
Thompson = Kathlenn Thompson, "Affairs of State: the illegitimate
children of Henry I", Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003), 129-151.
White = Geoffrey H. White, "Henry I's Illegitimate children", CP, xi,
Appendix D, 105-121.
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Stewart Baldwin
Chris Phillips
Stewart Baldwin wrote:
> This preliminary account of the bastards of Henry I is primarily based
> on the accounts of Geoffrey White in CP and Kathleen Thompson in the
> Journal of Medieval History. I have checked the references in those
> cases where I had easy access to the primary sources, and have offered
> my tentative opinions as to which of the alleged bastards do or do not
> belong on the list. I have made no attempt to provide a complete list
> of citations (see White and Thompson for a start on this), but only to
> outline those sources which are sufficient to document each case.
Many thanks for that very useful summary of the evidence (particularly
useful to me as I still haven't been able to see Thompson's article, which
is in a number which doesn't seem to have been received by the London
Library for some reason).
Below are a few comments. I suspect in most cases they are things you're
already aware of, but omitted owing to time and/or space constraints. But I
thought they'd be worth posting just in case.
> d. Mabel, m. Guillaume Gouet III [W4, T4].
> [GND(RT) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1), which does not give her name;
> Thompson 148 mentions charter evidence giving her name (which was not
> Eustacie).]
I haven't seen this charter evidence, for which Todd Farmerie in a previous
discussion provided the reference K. Thompson, "The Formation of the County
of Perche: the Rise and Fall of the House of Gouet" [pp. 299-314 in K.S.B.
Keats-Rohan, ed., Family trees and the roots of politics (1997)], but from
that discussion I got the impression that the charters name a Mabel as wife
of William Gouet, but do not specify her as a daughter of Henry. So perhaps
there's some residual doubt as to whether it's the same wife. But maybe
other evidence makes this clear.
> e. Constance/Maud, m. Roscelin de Beaumont [W5, T5].
> [GND(RT) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1), which does not give her name;
> Chr. RT (Maud); White states that Delisle cites a charter giving her
> name as Constance.]
Elsewhere, the CP article on Tony [vol. 12, part 1, p. 768, note j
(continued on p. 769)] prints an extract from the text of a confirmation of
King John in 1199 to this daughter's granddaughter Constance, in which the
land concerned is described as "terra illa quam Rex Henricus primus avus
Regis Henrici patris nostri dedit cum villa predicte Suthauth' Constancie
filie sue et Avie ... predicte Constancie in liberum maritagium" [citing E.
Lega-Weekes, Trans. Devonshire Assn, xxxiv, pp. 588-89 (from the original
charter), with missing words supplied from Rot. Chart. p. 20].
[Thanks to Rosie Bevan for pointing this reference out to me previously
off-list.]
> g. Isabel [W7, T7].
> [GND(RT) viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1), which does not give her name;
> White states that charter evidence proves her name to be Isabel]
> Her mother was Isabel, sister of Waleran, count of Meulan [GND(RT)
> viii, 29 (v. 2, pp. 250-1)], and daughter of Robert de Beaumont, count
> of Meulan and earl of Leicester, who m. Gilbert de Clare, earl of
> Pembroke.
(And White refers back to vol. 10, Appendix H, p. 102, where the charter
evidence is briefly discussed.)
Chris Phillips