Individual Details
Herleva of Falaise
(Ca 1012 - 1050)
thePeerage.com
Herleva de Falaise1
F, #102168, b. circa 1012, d. circa 1050
Last Edited=11 Jan 2007
Herleva de Falaise was born circa 1012.1 She was the daughter of Fulbert (?) and Duxia (?).1 She married Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie, son of Richard II, 4th Duc de Normandie and Judith de Bretagne.2 She married Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville between 1029 and 1035.3 She died circa 1050.3 She was buried at Abbey of St. Grestain, France.3
She was also known as Herleve.4 She was also known as Arlotta. She was also known as Arlette.
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie
William I 'the Conqueror', King of England+ b. bt 1027 - 1028, d. 9 Sep 1087
Adeliza de Normandie, Comtesse d'Aumale+1 b. 1029, d. bt 1087 - 1090
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville
Emma de Contville+4
Muriel de Burgo1
Isabella de Burgo+1
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain+ b. bt 1030 - 1031, d. 8 Dec 1090
Odo de Bayeaux, Earl of Kent b. bt 1031 - 1035, d. Feb 1097
Citations
[S106] Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online http://www.daml.org/2001/01/gedcom/royal92.ged. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
[S125] Richard Glanville-Brown, online, Richard Glanville-Brown (RR 2, Milton, Ontario, Canada), downloaded 17 August 2005.
[S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 39. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 164. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
****************
Sources for Herleve of Falaise
1 American Society of Genealogists, The Genealogist, Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 1989, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 4.
2 Fraser, ed. Antonia, The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, New York: Alfred A. Knopf (1975), 24, 26.
3 Hemingway, Patricia S., The Hemingways: Past and Present and Allied Families, Rev. Ed., Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc. (1988), 5.
4 Morris, Jean, The Monarchs of England, New York: Charterhouse (1975), 15.
5 Richardson, Douglas, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Salt Lake City, Utah: Douglas Richardson (2013), Vol. V, p. 481.
6 Roberts, Gary Boyd, The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. (2008), 562-569.
7 Weis, Frederick Lewis, et. al., Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company (2004), 126.
8 Wikipedia, "Herleva", (accessed 02/21/2010).
********************
From Wikipedia:
Herleva (c. 1003 – c. 1050) also known as Herleve,[1] Arlette,[2] Arletta[3] and Arlotte,[4] and Harlette had three sons – William I of England, who was fathered by Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and Odo of Bayeux and Robert, Count of Mortain, who were both fathered by Herluin de Conteville. All became prominent in William's realm.
Contents
1 Life
1.1 Relationship with Robert the Magnificent
1.2 Marriage to Herluin de Conteville
2 Death
3 References
4 Notes
Life
The background of Herleva and the circumstances of William's birth are shrouded in mystery. The written evidence dates from a generation or two later, and is not entirely consistent, but of all the Norman chroniclers only the Tours chronicler asserts that William's parents were subsequently joined in marriage.[5] The most commonly accepted version says that she was the daughter of a tanner named Fulbert from the town of Falaise, in Normandy. The meaning of filia pelletarii burgensis[6] is somewhat uncertain, and Fulbert may instead have been a furrier, embalmer, apothecary, or a person who laid out corpses for burial.[7]
Some argue that Herleva's father was not a tanner but rather a member of the burgher class.[8] The idea is supported by the appearance of her brothers in a later document as attestors for an under-age William. Also, the Count of Flanders later accepted Herleva as a proper guardian for his own daughter. Both of these would be nearly impossible if Herleva's father was (and therefore her brothers were[citation needed]) a tanner, which would place his standing as little more than a peasant.
Orderic Vitalis described Herleva's father Fulbert as the Duke's Chamberlain (cubicularii ducis).[9]
Relationship with Robert the Magnificent
From: "The Normans, From Raiders To Kings" by Lars Brownworth, Chapter 4.
According to one legend, still recounted by tour guides at Falaise, it all started when Robert, the young Duke of Normandy, saw Herleva from the roof of his castle tower. The walkway on the roof still looks down on the dyeing trenches cut into stone in the courtyard below, which can be seen to this day from the tower ramparts above. The traditional way of dyeing leather or garments was to trample barefoot on the garments which were awash in the liquid dye in these trenches. Herleva, legend goes, seeing the Duke on his ramparts above, raised her skirts perhaps a bit more than necessary in order to attract the Duke's eye. The latter was immediately smitten and ordered her brought in (as was customary for any woman that caught the Duke's eye) through the back door. Herleva refused, saying she would only enter the Duke's castle on horseback through the front gate, and not as an ordinary commoner. The Duke, filled with lust, could only agree. In a few days, Herleva, dressed in the finest her father could provide, and sitting on a white horse, rode proudly through the front gate, her head held high. This gave Herleva a semi-official status as the Duke's mistress.[citation needed]
She later gave birth to his son, William, in 1027 or 1028.
Some historians suggest Herleva was first the mistress of Gilbert of Brionne with whom she had a son, Richard. It was Gilbert who first saw Herleva and elevated her position and then Robert took her for his mistress.
Marriage to Herluin de Conteville
Herleva later married Herluin de Conteville in 1031. Some accounts maintain that Robert always loved her, but the gap in their social status made marriage impossible, so, to give her a good life, he married her off to one of his favourite noblemen.[citation needed]
Another source suggests that Herleva did not marry Herluin until after Robert died, because there is no record of Robert entering another relationship, whereas Herluin married another woman, Fredesendis, by the time he founded the abbey of Grestain.[a]
From her marriage to Herluin she had two sons: Odo, who later became Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, who became Count of Mortain. Both became prominent during William's reign. They also had at least two daughters: Emma, who married Richard LeGoz or Richard Goz (count or viscount of Avranches), and a daughter of unknown name who married William, lord of la Ferté-Macé.[10]
Death
According to Robert of Torigni, Herleva was buried at the abbey of Grestain, which was founded by Herluin and their son Robert around 1050. This would put Herleva in her forties around the time of her death. However, David C. Douglas suggests that Herleva probably died before Herluin founded the abbey because her name does not appear on the list of benefactors, whereas the name of Herluin's second wife, Fredesendis, does.[11]
References
Portal icon Normandy portal
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 15
Freeman, Edward A. The History of the Norman Conquest of England (1867), p. 530
Palgrave, Sir Francis. The History of Normandy and of England (1864), p. 145
Abbott, Jacob. William the Conqueror (1903), p. 41
"Dux Robertus, nato dicto Guillelmo, in isto eodem anno matrem pueri, quam defloraverat, duxit in uxorem." (When the said William had been born, in that same year Duke Robert took as his wife the boy's mother, whom he had deflowered.) quoted in Edward Augustus Freeman, 1870 The History of the Norman Conquest of England: II. The reign of Eadward the Confessor Note U: The Birth of William1, p615.
Chronicle of St-Maxentius (quoted Freeman 1870:611).
van Houts, Elisabeth M. C., 'The Origins of Herleva, Mother of William the Conqueror', English Historical Review, vol. 101, pp. 399–404 (1986)
McLynn, Frank. 1066: The Year of the Three Battles. pp. 21–23 (1999) ISBN 0-7126-6672-9
van Houts, Elisabeth M. C., 'The Origins of Herleva, Mother of William the Conqueror', English Historical Review, vol. 101, pp. 399–404 (1986); Crouch, David 'The Normans- The History of a Dynasty' Hambledon 2002 at pp 52–53 and p58
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 381
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 382
-- MERGED NOTE ------------
From thePeerage.com
Herleva de Falaise1
F, #102168, b. circa 1012, d. circa 1050
Last Edited=11 Jan 2007
Herleva de Falaise was born circa 1012.1 She was the daughter of Fulbert (?) and Duxia (?).1 She married Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie, son of Richard II, 4th Duc de Normandie and Judith de Bretagne.2 She married Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville between 1029 and 1035.3 She died circa 1050.3 She was buried at Abbey of St. Grestain, France.3
She was also known as Herleve.4 She was also known as Arlotta. She was also known as Arlette.
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie
William I 'the Conqueror', King of England+ b. bt 1027 - 1028, d. 9 Sep 1087
Adeliza de Normandie, Comtesse d'Aumale+1 b. 1029, d. bt 1087 - 1090
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville
Emma de Contville+4
Muriel de Burgo1
Isabella de Burgo+1
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain+ b. bt 1030 - 1031, d. 8 Dec 1090
Odo de Bayeaux, Earl of Kent b. bt 1031 - 1035, d. Feb 1097
Citations
[S106] Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online http://www.daml.org/2001/01/gedcom/royal92.ged. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
[S125] Richard Glanville-Brown, online, Richard Glanville-Brown (RR 2, Milton, Ontario, Canada), downloaded 17 August 2005.
[S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 39. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 164. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
Herleva de Falaise1
F, #102168, b. circa 1012, d. circa 1050
Last Edited=11 Jan 2007
Herleva de Falaise was born circa 1012.1 She was the daughter of Fulbert (?) and Duxia (?).1 She married Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie, son of Richard II, 4th Duc de Normandie and Judith de Bretagne.2 She married Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville between 1029 and 1035.3 She died circa 1050.3 She was buried at Abbey of St. Grestain, France.3
She was also known as Herleve.4 She was also known as Arlotta. She was also known as Arlette.
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie
William I 'the Conqueror', King of England+ b. bt 1027 - 1028, d. 9 Sep 1087
Adeliza de Normandie, Comtesse d'Aumale+1 b. 1029, d. bt 1087 - 1090
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville
Emma de Contville+4
Muriel de Burgo1
Isabella de Burgo+1
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain+ b. bt 1030 - 1031, d. 8 Dec 1090
Odo de Bayeaux, Earl of Kent b. bt 1031 - 1035, d. Feb 1097
Citations
[S106] Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online http://www.daml.org/2001/01/gedcom/royal92.ged. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
[S125] Richard Glanville-Brown, online
[S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 39. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 164. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
****************
Sources for Herleve of Falaise
1 American Society of Genealogists, The Genealogist, Rockport, Maine: Picton Press, 1989, Vol. 10, No. 1, p. 4.
2 Fraser, ed. Antonia, The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, New York: Alfred A. Knopf (1975), 24, 26.
3 Hemingway, Patricia S., The Hemingways: Past and Present and Allied Families, Rev. Ed., Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc. (1988), 5.
4 Morris, Jean, The Monarchs of England, New York: Charterhouse (1975), 15.
5 Richardson, Douglas, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Salt Lake City, Utah: Douglas Richardson (2013), Vol. V, p. 481.
6 Roberts, Gary Boyd, The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. (2008), 562-569.
7 Weis, Frederick Lewis, et. al., Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company (2004), 126.
8 Wikipedia, "Herleva", (accessed 02/21/2010).
********************
From Wikipedia:
Herleva (c. 1003 – c. 1050) also known as Herleve,[1] Arlette,[2] Arletta[3] and Arlotte,[4] and Harlette had three sons – William I of England, who was fathered by Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and Odo of Bayeux and Robert, Count of Mortain, who were both fathered by Herluin de Conteville. All became prominent in William's realm.
Contents
1 Life
1.1 Relationship with Robert the Magnificent
1.2 Marriage to Herluin de Conteville
2 Death
3 References
4 Notes
Life
The background of Herleva and the circumstances of William's birth are shrouded in mystery. The written evidence dates from a generation or two later, and is not entirely consistent, but of all the Norman chroniclers only the Tours chronicler asserts that William's parents were subsequently joined in marriage.[5] The most commonly accepted version says that she was the daughter of a tanner named Fulbert from the town of Falaise, in Normandy. The meaning of filia pelletarii burgensis[6] is somewhat uncertain, and Fulbert may instead have been a furrier, embalmer, apothecary, or a person who laid out corpses for burial.[7]
Some argue that Herleva's father was not a tanner but rather a member of the burgher class.[8] The idea is supported by the appearance of her brothers in a later document as attestors for an under-age William. Also, the Count of Flanders later accepted Herleva as a proper guardian for his own daughter. Both of these would be nearly impossible if Herleva's father was (and therefore her brothers were[citation needed]) a tanner, which would place his standing as little more than a peasant.
Orderic Vitalis described Herleva's father Fulbert as the Duke's Chamberlain (cubicularii ducis).[9]
Relationship with Robert the Magnificent
From: "The Normans, From Raiders To Kings" by Lars Brownworth, Chapter 4.
According to one legend, still recounted by tour guides at Falaise, it all started when Robert, the young Duke of Normandy, saw Herleva from the roof of his castle tower. The walkway on the roof still looks down on the dyeing trenches cut into stone in the courtyard below, which can be seen to this day from the tower ramparts above. The traditional way of dyeing leather or garments was to trample barefoot on the garments which were awash in the liquid dye in these trenches. Herleva, legend goes, seeing the Duke on his ramparts above, raised her skirts perhaps a bit more than necessary in order to attract the Duke's eye. The latter was immediately smitten and ordered her brought in (as was customary for any woman that caught the Duke's eye) through the back door. Herleva refused, saying she would only enter the Duke's castle on horseback through the front gate, and not as an ordinary commoner. The Duke, filled with lust, could only agree. In a few days, Herleva, dressed in the finest her father could provide, and sitting on a white horse, rode proudly through the front gate, her head held high. This gave Herleva a semi-official status as the Duke's mistress.[citation needed]
She later gave birth to his son, William, in 1027 or 1028.
Some historians suggest Herleva was first the mistress of Gilbert of Brionne with whom she had a son, Richard. It was Gilbert who first saw Herleva and elevated her position and then Robert took her for his mistress.
Marriage to Herluin de Conteville
Herleva later married Herluin de Conteville in 1031. Some accounts maintain that Robert always loved her, but the gap in their social status made marriage impossible, so, to give her a good life, he married her off to one of his favourite noblemen.[citation needed]
Another source suggests that Herleva did not marry Herluin until after Robert died, because there is no record of Robert entering another relationship, whereas Herluin married another woman, Fredesendis, by the time he founded the abbey of Grestain.[a]
From her marriage to Herluin she had two sons: Odo, who later became Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, who became Count of Mortain. Both became prominent during William's reign. They also had at least two daughters: Emma, who married Richard LeGoz or Richard Goz (count or viscount of Avranches), and a daughter of unknown name who married William, lord of la Ferté-Macé.[10]
Death
According to Robert of Torigni, Herleva was buried at the abbey of Grestain, which was founded by Herluin and their son Robert around 1050. This would put Herleva in her forties around the time of her death. However, David C. Douglas suggests that Herleva probably died before Herluin founded the abbey because her name does not appear on the list of benefactors, whereas the name of Herluin's second wife, Fredesendis, does.[11]
References
Portal icon Normandy portal
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 15
Freeman, Edward A. The History of the Norman Conquest of England (1867), p. 530
Palgrave, Sir Francis. The History of Normandy and of England (1864), p. 145
Abbott, Jacob. William the Conqueror (1903), p. 41
"Dux Robertus, nato dicto Guillelmo, in isto eodem anno matrem pueri, quam defloraverat, duxit in uxorem." (When the said William had been born, in that same year Duke Robert took as his wife the boy's mother, whom he had deflowered.) quoted in Edward Augustus Freeman, 1870 The History of the Norman Conquest of England: II. The reign of Eadward the Confessor Note U: The Birth of William1, p615.
Chronicle of St-Maxentius (quoted Freeman 1870:611).
van Houts, Elisabeth M. C., 'The Origins of Herleva, Mother of William the Conqueror', English Historical Review, vol. 101, pp. 399–404 (1986)
McLynn, Frank. 1066: The Year of the Three Battles. pp. 21–23 (1999) ISBN 0-7126-6672-9
van Houts, Elisabeth M. C., 'The Origins of Herleva, Mother of William the Conqueror', English Historical Review, vol. 101, pp. 399–404 (1986); Crouch, David 'The Normans- The History of a Dynasty' Hambledon 2002 at pp 52–53 and p58
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 381
David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 382
-- MERGED NOTE ------------
From thePeerage.com
Herleva de Falaise1
F, #102168, b. circa 1012, d. circa 1050
Last Edited=11 Jan 2007
Herleva de Falaise was born circa 1012.1 She was the daughter of Fulbert (?) and Duxia (?).1 She married Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie, son of Richard II, 4th Duc de Normandie and Judith de Bretagne.2 She married Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville between 1029 and 1035.3 She died circa 1050.3 She was buried at Abbey of St. Grestain, France.3
She was also known as Herleve.4 She was also known as Arlotta. She was also known as Arlette.
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Robert I, 6th Duc de Normandie
William I 'the Conqueror', King of England+ b. bt 1027 - 1028, d. 9 Sep 1087
Adeliza de Normandie, Comtesse d'Aumale+1 b. 1029, d. bt 1087 - 1090
Children of Herleva de Falaise and Herluin de Conteville, Vicomte de Conteville
Emma de Contville+4
Muriel de Burgo1
Isabella de Burgo+1
Robert de Burgo, Count of Mortain+ b. bt 1030 - 1031, d. 8 Dec 1090
Odo de Bayeaux, Earl of Kent b. bt 1031 - 1035, d. Feb 1097
Citations
[S106] Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online http://www.daml.org/2001/01/gedcom/royal92.ged. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
[S125] Richard Glanville-Brown, online
[S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 39. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 164. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
Events
| Birth | Ca 1012 | ||||
| Death | 1050 | ||||
| Alt name | Herleva de Falaise | ||||
| Alt name | Arlotta | ||||
| Alt name | Arlette |
Families
| Spouse | Robert I "the Devil or the Magnificen" (1000 - 1035) |
| Child | William I "the Conqueror" "the Bastard" (1028 - 1087) |
| Child | Adeliza de Normandie (1029 - 1087) |
| Spouse | Herluin de Conteville ( - ) |
| Child | Emma de Contville ( - ) |
| Child | Robert de Burgo (1031 - 1090) |
| Father | Fulbert of Falaise ( - ) |
| Mother | Duxia (?) ( - ) |