William I, usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle to establish his throne, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose.
Year 1054 (MLIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
Rudolph, sometimes called Ralph, was the king of France from 923 until his death in 936. He was elected to succeed his father-in-law, Robert I, and spent much of his reign defending his realm from Viking raids.
The County of Aumale, later elevated to a duchy, was a medieval fief in Normandy. It was disputed between England and France during parts of the Hundred Years' War.
Robert de Bellême, seigneur de Bellême, seigneur de Montgomery, viscount of the Hiémois, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury and Count of Ponthieu, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy between the sons of William the Conqueror. He was a member of the powerful House of Bellême.
Geoffrey II, called Martel, son of Fulk the Black, was Count of Anjou from 1040 to 1060 and Count of Vendôme from 1032 to 1056. He fought battles against William VII, Duke of Aquitaine, Theobald I, Count of Blois, and William, Duke of Normandy. During his twenty-year reign Geoffrey II faced the ambitions of the Bishop of Le Mans, Gervais de Château-du-Loir, but was able to maintain his authority over the County of Maine. Martel founded the Abbey aux Dames in Saintonge and also -in collaboration with his wife Agnes- founded the Abbaye de la Trinité at Vendôme. The first mention of Geoffrey II in the Gesta Normannorum Ducum reads: "Geoffrey, count of the Angevins, nicknamed Martel, a treacherous man in every respect, frequently inflicted assaults and intolerable pressure on his neighbors."
William III of Ponthieu also called William Talvas. He was seigneur de Montgomery in Normandy and Count of Ponthieu.
Adelaide of Normandy was the ruling Countess of Aumale in her own right in 1069-1087. She was the sister of William the Conqueror.
Guy I of Ponthieu was born sometime in the mid- to late 1020s and died 13 October 1100. He succeeded his brother Enguerrand as Count of Ponthieu.
Mortemer is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Enguerrand II was the son of Hugh II count of Ponthieu. He assumed the county upon the death of his father on November 20, 1052.
The County of Ponthieu, centered on the mouth of the Somme, became a member of the Norman group of vassal states when Count Guy submitted to William of Normandy after the battle of Mortemer. It eventually formed part of the dowry of Eleanor of Castile and passed to the English crown. Much fought-over in the Hundred Years' War, it eventually passed to the French royal domain, and the title Count of Ponthieu became a courtesy title for the royal family.
Ranulph I de Mortimer was a Marcher Lord from the Montgomery lands in the Welsh Marches. In England, he was Lord of Wigmore in Herefordshire. In Normandy, he was the Seigneur of St. Victor-en-Caux. Ranulph was the founder of the English House of Mortimer of Wigmore. He acquired Wigmore Castle after William Fitz Osbern's son Roger de Breteuil joined the Revolt of the Earls of 1075. His lands and holdings in Herefordshire and Shropshire were granted to him by William the Conqueror before 1086.
Odo was Count of Troyes and of Meaux from 1047 to 1066, then Count of Aumale from 1069 to 1115. He was later also known as the count of Champagne and as Eudes II of Troyes.
Baldwin II of Boulogne was a son of Arnulf III, Count of Boulogne, whom he succeeded as count of Boulogne.
Henry I was King of the Franks from 1031 to 1060. The royal demesne of France reached its smallest size during his reign, and for this reason he is often seen as emblematic of the weakness of the early Capetians. This is not entirely agreed upon, however, as other historians regard him as a strong but realistic king, who was forced to conduct a policy mindful of the limitations of the French monarchy.
Roger I of Mortemer, founded the abbey of St. Victor en Caux in the Pays de Caux of Upper Normandy as early as 1074 CE. Roger claimed the castle of Wigmore, Herefordshire that was built by William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford. This castle became the chief barony of Roger's descendants. He was the first Norman ancestor to assume the name Mortimer, as in the place-name Mortemer-en-Brai, the land on which the village and castle was located.
Walter Gautier Giffard, Lord of Longueville, Normandy, was a Norman baron, a Tenant-in-chief in England, a Christian knight who fought against the Saracens in Spain during the Reconquista and was one of the 15 or so known companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Ralph IV was a northern French nobleman who amassed an extensive array of lordships lying in a crescent around the Île-de-France from the border of the Duchy of Normandy in the northwest to Champagne in the southeast.
de Montgomerie (Montgomery) is a prominent family of Anglo-Norman origin, belonging to both French and British nobility. At the turn of the 12th century, the family was one of the leading families, with Robert de Bellême being the wealthiest and most powerful magnate in England and Normandy. The House was succeeded by the House of Belleme.
