| Sources |
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- [source4071142924] Michael Neuman, http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=clcaldwell&id=I28003&style=TABLE
Caldwell and related families, (Publication Date: 30 JAN 2014
Media: Website / URL).
- [source4071147362] L8MB-PBB
FamilySearch.org, (Publication Date: 15 APR 2023
Media: Website / URL).
Adeliza or Adelicia of Louvain was the daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Landgrave of Brabant and Count of Louvain and Brussels and his wife Ida of Chiny, a descendant of the Emperor Charlemagne.
Known as 'the fair maiden of Brabant', Adeliza was renowned for her beauty, in his 'Historia Anglorum' the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon refers to Adeliza's beauty, "A jewel grows pale on you, a crown does not shine. Put adornment aside, for nature provides your adornment."
When William the Atheling, the only legitimate son of King Henry I of England drowned in the sinking of the White Ship on 25 November 1120, Henry urgently needed a male heir to succeed to his throne. The fifty three year old King Henry took the seventeen year old Adelicia as his second wife on 24 January 1121. Henry I's first wife, Matilda of Scotland, had died in 1118. Despite the reputation he had acquired for begetting illegitimate children, Henry's marriage to his first queen had produced only two children, William the Atheling and a daughter Matilda, who had been sent to Germany to marry the Holy Roman Emperor as an eight year old child. After the death of her husband the Emperor, he recalled his daughter, by now known as the Empress, to England. Henry named her as his heiress and made the barons swear fealty to her.
Henry of Huntingdon recorded that the new queen accompanied Henry to London at Pentecost. The fifteen year marriage of Adelicia and Henry never produced children. Unlike Henry's first wife Matilda, Adeliza appears to have played a very passive role. While Matilda issued some thirty-one charters and writs during her reign, during Adeliza's fifteen-year marriage to Henry I she issued one, and she only attested 13 of Henry's many charters, even though they were almost always together.
After the death of her husband the king on 1 December 1135, the throne was usurped by his nephew Stephen of Blois. Adeliza retired to the Benedictine convent of Wilton Abbey, near Salisbury. She attended the dedication of Henry's tomb at Reading Abbey on the first anniversary of his death. At about that time, she founded a leper hospital dedicated to Saint Giles at Fugglestone St Peter, Wiltshire. On the first anniversary of Henry I's death, Adeliza give the manor of Aston to the Abbey of Reading, and endowed them with lands "to provide for the convent and other religious pweaona [sic] coming to the abbey on the occasion of the anniversary of my lord King Henry." She also added the gift of a church a few years later.
Henry I provided generously for his widow, she was given the revenues of Rutland, Shropshire and a large district of London, with possession of the city of Chichester. Henry also gave the manor of Aston to Adeliza "as his queen and wife." Landholdings that were part of Adeliza of Louvain's dower include Waltham in Essex, an estate in south-east England, with areas in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Middlesex. She had property in Devon. As a gift from Henry I, she was given a property in Ashleworth, a component of the royal estate of Berkley. In 1126 the whole county of Shropshire was given to her.
Three years after Henry I's death, in 1138, Adeliza married for a second time to William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, the son of William d'Aubigny and Maud le Bigod. The D'Aubigny's were royal stewards and held an important position at court. The couple lived at Adelicia's castle of Arundel on the Norfolk coast. Although there were no children from her first marriage Adeliza presented her second husband with seven children, Alice, William, Olivia, Reynor, Geoffrey, Henry, and Agatha d' Aubigny. Adeliza and William's descendants include Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the second and fifth queens of Henry VIII. The descendants of Adeliza and William still own Castle Rising and Arundel Castle to the present day.
England was plunged into a bloody Civil War when Matilda, the daughter and appointed heir of Henry I, challenged her cousin Stephen for the throne. Adeliza received her step-daughter at her home in Arundel, along with Matilda's illegitimate half-brother Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, the chief supporter of her cause, in defiance of her husband's wishes, William d'Aubigny was a staunch supporter of Stephen.
She later betrayed them both and handed them over to King Stephen, John of Worcester recorded that "she feared the king's majesty and worried that she might lose the great estate she held throughout England." He also mentions Adeliza's attempts to pacify King Stephen, "she swore on oath that his enemies had not come to England on her account but that she had simply given them hospitality as persons of high dignity once close to her."
In 1150, Adeliza left William d'Aubigny to enter the monastery of Afflighem in Flanders. One of her brothers was also living at the monastery. The annals at the monastery mention her death, which occurred in 1151, and her place of burial site is not known with certainty. Some traditions imply she was buried at the monastery of Afflighem, however a donation made by her brother Joscelin of Louvain to Reading Abbey would seem to indicate that she was buried there with her first husband, Henry I.
http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/normans_17.html
- [source4071147365] Adeliza of Louvain, "Find A Grave Index", (Media: Website / URL).
Name Adeliza of Louvain
Death Date 23 Apr 1151
Birth Date 1103
Event Type Burial
Event Place Affligem, Arrondissement Halle-Vilvoorde, Flemish Brabant Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium
Cemetery Affligem Abbey
Photograph Included Y
Note Contains Biography
---
English Queen Consort. She was the second wife of King Henry I. Adeliza was a daughter of Godfrey I, Duke of Lower Lorraine, Landgrave of Brabant, Margrave of Antwerp, and Count of Brussels and Leuven (Louvain). She was married to King Henry I of England on January 24, 1121. The marriage occurred in no small part due to the fact that the King's only legitimate son and heir had died on November 25, 1120 in the sinking of the White Ship in the English Channel during a trip from France to England, near the Norman coast, off Barfleur. The groom, approximately thirty-five years older than the bride, who was probably in her late teens, was hopeful of producing another legitimate male heir. Ironically, Henry had fathered over two dozen illegitimate children, but only one of his legitimate children, a daughter, survived from his first marriage. His daughter, Matilda, was first married to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V, and was widely referred to as the Empress Matilda, even after her second marriage to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. The young Adeliza traveled extensively with her husband, but she never bore the king a child. As queen, she played a very limited role politically, but was active as a patron of the arts. The king bestowed extensive estates upon her and she is known to have gifted land to the church in addition to founding a leper hospital at Fugglestone St. Peter, Wiltshire. Three years following the death of the king, she was married in 1138 to William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, with whom she had children. The period following the reign of King Henry I is known as the Anarchy. Although Henry I had declared his daughter, Matilda, his heir in the event he died without a legitimate male heir and the Anglo-Norman barons had sworn to recognize her as such at Westminster in 1126, he was instead succeeded by his nephew, Stephen of Blois. This resulted in a civil war to determine the succession of the English throne between Matilda and King Stephen. It resulted in lawlessness throughout England and the erosion of royal authority. During this period, Adeliza is known to have housed her former step-daughter, the Empress Matilda, at her home, Arundel Castle, following Matilda's return to England on August 31, 1139. This act placed Adeliza in a difficult situation as her second husband was a supporter of King Stephen. It resulted in the castle being besieged by King Stephen and posed the threat that Adeliza might lose her lands in being seen as supporting her former step-daughter. Upon the personal appeal of Adeliza and her disavowal of any disloyalty, King Stephen halted the siege and permitted Matilda and her retinue to safely depart. The former queen retired to Affligem Abbey in modern-day Belgium in 1150 where she died in 1151.
"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV9-B1XS : 12 December 2022), Adeliza of Louvain, ; Burial, Affligem, Arrondissement Halle-Vilvoorde, Flemish Brabant Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium, Affligem Abbey; citing record ID 8397370, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVV9-B1XS
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8397370/adeliza_of_louvain
- [source4071147366] The Medieval Lands Project, "ADELISA de Louvain", (Publication Date: 29 NOV 2021
Media: Website / URL).
ADELISA de Louvain ([1103/06]-Afflighem Abbey 23/24 Mar or 23 Apr 1151, bur Afflighem Abbey). The Genealogia Ducum Brabantiæ Heredum Franciæ names (in order) "Alaida…Anglorum regina…comitissa de Cleves Ida…[et] Clarissia virgo" as the three daughters of "Godefridus Cum-barba"[124]. The Balduini Ninovensis Chronicon records the marriage of "Henricus rex Anglorum" and "Athelam filiam Godefridi ducis Lotharingie" in 1121[125]. The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the marriage "IV Kal Feb" [1121] of King Henry and "Atheleidem filiam Godefridi ducis Lotharingæ puellam virginem" and her coronation as queen "III Kal Feb"[126]. Orderic Vitalis names her and her father[127]. The Continuatio Chronici Afflegemiensis records that “Godefridus cum barba Dux Lotharingiæ…filia…Aleidis” married “Regi Angliæ” in 1121, died “IX Kal Mai” and was buried at Afflighem after the death of her second husband[128]. The castle and honour of Arundel was settled on Queen Adelisa after her first husband died. Robert of Torigny records that "Willermi de Albinaio quem vocant comitem de Arundel" married "Aelizam reginam relictam Henrici senioris regis Anglorum"[129]. She became a nun at Affleghem Abbey, near Aalst in Brabant in [1149/50]. The Annals of Margan record the death in 1151 of “Adelidis, regina secunda Henrici regis”[130]. The Continuatio Chronici Afflegemiensis records that “Godefridus cum barba Dux Lotharingiæ…filia…Aleidis” died “IX Kal Mai” and was buried at Afflighem after the death of her second husband[131]. The necrology of Lyre monastery records the death "25 Mar" of "Adelicia regina"[132]. m firstly (Royal Chapel, Windsor Castle 29 Jan or 2 Feb 1121) as his second wife, HENRY I King of England, son of WILLIAM I King of England & his wife Mathilde de Flandre ([Selby, Yorkshire Sep 1168]-Saint-Denis le Ferment, Forêt d’Angers near Rouen 1/2 Dec 1135, bur Reading Abbey, Berkshire). m secondly ([1136/Sep 1139]) WILLIAM d’Aubigny [de Albini], son of WILLIAM d’Aubigny Lord of the manor of Buckenham, Norfolk & his wife Maud le Bigod (-Waverley Abbey, Surrey 12 Oct 1176, bur Wymondham Priory, Norfolk). He was created Earl of Arundel [1142].
http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BRABANT,%20LOUVAIN.htm#AdelisaLouvaindied1151
- [source4071147367] Wikipedia, "Adeliza of Louvain", (Publication Date: 02 FEB 2022
Media: Website / URL).
Adeliza of Louvain,[1] sometimes known in England as Adelicia of Louvain,[2] also called Adela and Aleidis; (c. 1103 – March/April 1151)[3] was Queen of England from 1121 to 1135, as the second wife of King Henry I. She was the daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Louvain.
Henry was some 35 years older than his bride, who was about 18 when they married. He already had children, though no surviving son, from his first marriage to Matilda of Scotland, as well as several illegitimate ones. As his second marriage produced no children, the decision was made to leave the throne to his daughter, the Empress Matilda; an oath was sworn by the clergy, members of the royal family, including Adeliza, as well as English nobles to recognise Matilda as Henry's heir upon his death. After his death Adeliza spent three years based in a convent, then married again and had seven children by William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel. But a year before her death at the age of forty-eight she left her husband to move to the Affligem Abbey in Brabant, where she died in 1151.
Adeliza's royal marriage seems to have been successful, apart from the failure to produce a new heir. The flow of Henry's illegitimate children seems already to have ceased by the time of the marriage, and they spent most of their marriage together, which was by no means inevitable in royal marriages of the period. She seems to have been influential in the promotion of French poetry and other arts at court, but played little part in politics.
Early life and family
Adeliza was renowned for her beauty, reflected in the epithet 'the fair maiden of Brabant'. The chronicler Henry of Huntingdon also mentions Adeliza's beauty in an interlude in his Historia Anglorum, stating, "A jewel grows pale on you, a crown does not shine. Put adornment aside, for nature provides your adornment..."[4]
Adeliza's father was Godfrey I, Count of Louvain (1095–1139), Landgrave of Brabant, and Duke of Lower Lotharingia (1106–1128), an ally of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. After the death of Adeliza's mother, Ida of Chiny, Godfrey married Clementia of Burgundy, the mother of Baldwin VII, Count of Flanders, who had fought with the French against the Normans in 1118.[5] Adeliza's illegitimate brother, Joscelin of Louvain, married the heiress to the Percy fortune. He is often referred to as an "opportunist".[6]
Queenship
Plans for Adeliza's marriage to Henry I of England may have begun when she was as young as sixteen, even before Henry's only legitimate son, William Adelin, died on 25 November 1120 in the White Ship disaster.[7] However, Henry's need for a new male heir expedited the marriage plans and the couple wed on 24 January 1121. Apparently in addition to her beauty, Henry was also attracted to Adeliza as a wife because she was a descendant of Charlemagne.[5] It is thought that Henry's only surviving legitimate child Empress Matilda, from his first wife Matilda of Scotland, may have been involved in arranging his second marriage, due to the fact that she was with him near the time that it was being negotiated.[5] Henry of Huntingdon mentions the royal couple in his Historia Anglorum, stating that the new queen accompanied Henry to London at Whitsun (that is, 29 May 1121).[8] Adeliza appears to have travelled extensively with Henry, probably to increase the chances of her conception.[9] Despite their close contact, however, Adeliza and Henry never produced a child.
There is a possibility, despite what the biography produced by Laura Wertheimer states, that Adeliza prayed to St. Romanus to aid her in conceiving a child; St. Romanus, according to legend, was 'born to parents miraculously cured of infertility', and in 1124, there was a double viewing of the relics of St. Romanus at Rouen Cathedral. We know about this from the Archives départementales de la Seine-Maritime G 3666 (more simply referred to as the G 3666), and Adeliza was certainly present in Rouen while the relics were present.[10]
Unlike Henry's first wife Matilda, Adeliza appears to have played a very passive role in the administration of the kingdom. While Matilda issued some thirty-one charters and writs during her queenship, during Adeliza's fifteen-year marriage to Henry I she issued one, and she only attested 13 of Henry's many charters, even though they were almost always together.[11]
Widowhood and remarriage
When Henry died on 1 December 1135, Adeliza retired temporarily to the Benedictine convent of Wilton Abbey, near Salisbury. She was present at the dedication of Henry's tomb at Reading Abbey on the first anniversary of his death. At about that time, she founded a leper hospital dedicated to Saint Giles at Fugglestone St Peter, Wiltshire.[15]
In 1138, three years after Henry I's death, Adeliza married William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, one of Henry I's advisors, and son of Guillaume d’Aubigny and Maud le Bigod.[16] Together, they lived at her castle of Arundel on the Sussex coast and had seven children.[17] Their names were (by order of birth), Alice, William, Olivia, Reynor, Geoffrey, Henry, and Agatha.
Relationship with Matilda
Although not a great deal is known about Adeliza's relationship with her stepdaughter, it is known she was present at the ceremony when Henry officially named Matilda as his heir presumptive, since the chronicler John of Worcester states that the Queen "swore [an oath] for the king's daughter... and agreed ... that if the king did not have an heir of either sex [......], but ... did not lack a survivor of each sex, then the survivor should inherit the kingdom.'"[18] After her second marriage, Adeliza received Matilda at her home in Arundel, along with Matilda's half-brother Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, in defiance of the wishes of her second husband who was a staunch supporter of King Stephen.[17] She later betrayed them and handed them over when King Stephen besieged the castle.[19] Trying to explain Adeliza's actions, John of Worcester suggests that "she feared the king's majesty and worried that she might lose the great estate she held throughout England". He also mentions Adeliza's excuse to King Stephen: "She swore on oath that his enemies had not come to England on her account but that she had simply given them hospitality as persons of high dignity once close to her."[19] In the end King Stephen yielded to an appeal from Adeliza, and permitted Matilda to depart and join her half-brother Robert at Bristol.[1]...
...Landholdings
Arundel Castle
Adeliza was given the revenues of Rutland, Shropshire and a large district of London, with possession of the city of Chichester.[20] Henry also gave the manor of Aston to Adeliza "as his queen and wife". Landholdings that were part of Adeliza of Louvain's estate included Waltham Abbey in Essex, and properties in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Middlesex, and Devon. As a gift from Henry I, she was given a property in Ashleworth, a component of the royal estate of Berkeley. In 1126 the whole county of Shropshire was given to her, even though it is not listed in the Pipe Roll.
Adeliza gave her brother Joscelin a large estate in Sussex called Petworth that was dependent on her castle of Arundel; much of the estate is still owned by his descendants, the Egremonts.[21] Henry also gave Adeliza lands that had previously been Matilda's including Waltham and Queenhithe. She had estates in Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Middlesex, Gloucestershire, and Devon. Her husband then granted her exemption from tax for those lands. In additions to those gifts, she was given a portion of the royal estate at Berkeley, and the county of Shropshire.[22]
After Henry died, Adeliza continued to exercise jurisdiction over her lands, retaining some of her property until 1150. In 1136, she endowed Reading Abbey with one hundred shillings a year from the revenues of Queenhithe.[23] On the first anniversary of Henry I's death, Adeliza gave the manor of Aston to the Abbey of Reading, and endowed them with lands "to provide for the convent and other religious pweaona [sic] coming to the abbey on the occasion of the anniversary of my lord King Henry." She added the gift of a church a few years later.[24]
Later years
In the last years of her life, Adeliza appears to have faded into obscurity. In 1150, Adeliza left William to enter the monastery of Affligem in Flanders. At least one of her brothers was also living at this monastery. The annals at the monastery are the only source to mention her death in 1151, and her burial site is unknown. Some traditions imply she was buried at the monastery, but a donation made by her brother Joscelin to Reading Abbey seems to suggest she was buried there with Henry I.[23]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adeliza_of_Louvain
Bartlett, Robert. England under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075 – 1225. Oxford: Clarendon, 2000.
Crouch, David. The Normans: The History of a Dynasty. London: Hambledon and London, 2002.
Henry of Huntingdon. The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon: Comprising The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Accession of Henry II. Ed. Thomas Forester. Dyfed: Llanerch, 1991.
Hilton, Lisa. Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Elizabeth of York. New York: Pegasus Books, 2010.
Huneycutt, Lois L. Matilda of Scotland: A Study in Medieval Queenship. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2003.
Huneycutt, Lois L. "Adeliza (c.1103–1151)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Johns, Susan M. Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Realm. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2003.
Lees, Clare A., ed. The Cambridge History of Early Medieval English Literature. 1st ed. Cambridge: 2012. Cambridge Historie
- [source4071147368] Wikisource: Dictionary of National Biography, (Publication Date: 02 FEB 2022
Media: Website / URL).
ADELIZA of Louvain (d. 1151?), second queen of Henry I, was daughter of Godfrey (‘Barbatus’) of Louvain, duke of Brabant or Lower Lotharingia, descended in the male line from Charles the Great. The date of her birth is not known, but she is described as ‘puella’ in 1120. It was partly the report of her singular beauty (on which all the chroniclers are agreed), and partly ‘ob spem prolis adipiscendæ’ (Gervase, i. 92, Rolls Ser.), that Henry, then in his fiftieth year (and a widower since May 1118), sought her hand in the above year. The contract of marriage was signed 16 April 1120; but, owing to the delay in the bride's arrival, the marriage itself did not take place till 24 Jan. 1120–1, the royal pair being crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury six days later. It was on this occasion that Henry of Huntingdon (p. 243, Rolls Ser.) composed, in praise of her beauty, the elegiacs beginning:
Anglorum regina, tuos, Adeliza, decores
Ipsa referre parans musa stupore riget.
Of a gentle and retiring disposition she took no part in politics, but devoted herself to soothing and pacifying the disappointed and sullen king. She also interested herself greatly in the literary movement of the day, taking under her special patronage Geoffroi Gaimar, Philip du Than, the author of the ‘Voyage de St. Brandan,’ and David the Trouveur. On the death of Henry (1 Dec. 1135) she disappears from view; but it is probable that she retired to the castle of Arundel which, with its honour, had been left to her in dower for life. We find her residing there in 1139, when the empress landed in the neighbourhood, and was received into the castle ‘ab Adeliza quondam regis Henrici regina tunc autem amica (sic) vel uxore W. Comitis de Arundell’ (Gervase, ed. Stubbs, i. 110). The date of her marriage to William de Albini [see Albini, William de, d. 1176] is unknown; but as she left by him seven children, it cannot have been long after Henry's death. Her only recorded acts after 1139 are her foundation of the small priories of Pyneham and of the Causeway (De Calceto), and her benefactions to that of Boxgrove, all in Sussex, with her gifts to Henry's abbey of Reading and to the cathedral church of Chichester. To the latter she presented the prebend of West Dean in the year 1150, after which date there are no further traces of her. It is stated by Sandford that ‘she was certainly buried at Reading;’ but she has since been proved to have left her husband and retired to the abbey of Affligam near Alost, in Flanders, which had been founded by her father and uncle, and to which her brother Henry had withdrawn in 1149. Here she died on 23 March (the year not being recorded), and was buried: ‘Affligenam delata vivendi finem facit ix. kal. Aprilis et sepulta est e regione horologii nostri’ (Sanderus, Chorographia Sacra Brabantiæ). While lady of Arundel she had sub-enfeoffed her brother Joceline (‘the Castellan’) in the lordship of Petworth on the occasion of his marriage with the heiress of the Percies, by whom he was ancestor of the earls of Northumberland.
[Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England (1840), vol. i.; Lawrence's Memoirs of the Queens of England (1838), vol. i.; Henry Howard's Howard Memorials (1834), x.; Butkens' Trophées du Brabant, vol. i.; Sanderus' Chorographia Sacra Brabantiæ.]
[Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England (1840), vol. i.; Lawrence's Memoirs of the Queens of England (1838), vol. i.; Henry Howard's Howard Memorials (1834), x.; Butkens' Trophées du Brabant, vol. i.; Sanderus' Chorographia Sacra Brabantiæ.]
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Adeliza_of_Louvain
- [source01711] http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tamer&id=I10911.
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Abt 1115 - 1151 (~ 36 years)
[2]