Individual Details
(1130 - 1203)
She was the great-granddaughter of the first Norman earl, William I and his Flemish wife Gundred. when her father died in the Holy Land c.1148 she inherited the earldom of Surrey and was married to William of Blois, the younger son of King Stephen, who became Earl in her right. The marriage occurred at a critical moment in The Anarchy as part of the king's attempt to control the de Warenne lands. The couple did not have any children and after William's death in 1159, William X, Count of Poitou sought her hand in 1162/3, but Thomas Becket refused a dispensationfrom affinity on the grounds of consanguinity. In April 1164, the countess married Hamelin of Anjou, a natural half-brother of King Henry II, who became jure uxoris Earl of Surrey. The countess lived an unusually long life, dying at age 73.
Events
Families