Gerbod the Fleming, of Oosterzele, 1st Earl of Chester , was a hereditary advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin at Saint-Omer, County of Flanders (now Department Pas-de-Calais, France) and Earl of Chester in 1070. [1]
Gerbod the Fleming, of Oosterzele, 1st Earl of Chester , was a hereditary advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin at Saint-Omer, County of Flanders (now Department Pas-de-Calais, France) and Earl of Chester in 1070. [1]
Gerbod of Oosterzele was the son of another Gerbod, hereditary advocate of the abbey of Saint-Bertin. [1] [2] [3] Among the fourteen tenants-in-chief from Flanders, Gerbod the Fleming was one of the most prominent. [4] His family held the lordships of Oosterzele and Scheldewindeke, the overlordship of Arques and territorial rights in Saint-Omer. [5]
In 1066, he was in the service of William the Conqueror, [6] most probably at the battle of Hastings, [3] and, between 1067 and 1070, was created Earl of Chester, holding a large portion of that county along with the city of Chester forming the county palatine of Chester. [7] His brother, Frederic, was a tenant-in-chief in East Anglia and his sister Gundred married William I de Warenne, later 1st Earl of Surrey, whose caput was Castle Acre in Norfolk. [1] [5] [8] [9]
Gerbod was mentioned as being a part of the reduction of Cheshire in 1070 by the Conqueror, at which time Gerbod was given the Earldom of Chester. Orderic Vitalis reports that Gerbod was harassed by both English and Welsh in his new position and he may have been glad to return to Flanders later that same year. [10] This may have been due to concerns having to do with the death of the Count of Flanders, Baldwin VI, and the subsequent civil war. [11]
According to Orderic Vitalis, he fought in the battle of Cassel in February 1071 in Flanders where he fell into the hands of his enemies and was held captive. William I, seeing the earldom vacant, used his imprisonment as a reason for giving the earldom of Chester to Hugh 'Lupus' d'Avranches. [12] The Hyde Chronicle reported Gerbod died a prisoner. [13]
However, an English and a Norman source both state that Gerbod was not imprisoned following Cassel, [9] Instead he fled to Rome to seek forgiveness for the sin of killing Arnulf III, Count of Flanders, his liege lord during the battle. Pope Gregory VII sent him to Hugh, Abbot of Cluny. [14] [15] Gerbod remained at Cluny becoming a distinguished monk within its ecclesiastical community. [15]
Prior to becoming a monk, Gerbod married Ada (last name unknown), [lower-alpha 1] with whom he had at least three children.
Hugh d'Avranches, nicknamed le Gros or Lupus, was from 1071 the second Norman Earl of Chester and one of the great magnates of early Norman England.
Baldwin V was Count of Flanders from 1035 until his death. He secured the personal union between the counties of Flanders and Hainaut and maintained close links to the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, which was overthrown by his son-in-law, William the Conqueror, near the end of his life.
Baldwin VI, also known as Baldwin the Good, was Count of Hainaut from 1051 to 1070 and Count of Flanders from 1067 to 1070.
Robert I, known as Robert the Frisian, was count of Flanders from 1071 until his death in 1093. He was a son of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, and the younger brother of Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders. He usurped the countship after defeating his nephew Arnulf III and his allies, which included King Philip I of France, Count Eustace of Boulogne and the counts of Saint-Pol and Ardres at the Battle of Cassel. He subsequently made peace with Philip, who became his stepson-in-law, but remained hostile to his sister Matilda and her husband William the Conqueror, who was king of England and duke of Normandy.
William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, Lord of Breteuil, was a relative and close counsellor of William the Conqueror and one of the great magnates of early Norman England. FitzOsbern was created Earl of Hereford in 1067, one of the first peerage titles in the English peerage. He is one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. His chief residence was Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, one of many castles he built in England.
William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, Lord of Lewes, Seigneur de Varennes, was a Norman nobleman created Earl of Surrey under William II Rufus. He is among the few known from documents to have fought under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, he held extensive lands in 13 counties, including the Rape of Lewes, a tract now divided between the ceremonial counties of East Sussex and West Sussex.
William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey was the son of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife Gundred. He was more often referred to as Earl Warenne or Earl of Warenne than as Earl of Surrey.
Arnulf III was Count of Flanders from 1070 until his death at the Battle of Cassel in 1071.
William III of Ponthieu also called William Talvas. He was seigneur de Montgomery in Normandy and Count of Ponthieu.
Gundred or Gundreda was the Flemish-born wife of an early Norman baron, William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. She and her husband established Lewes Priory in Sussex.
Ralph de Gaël was the Earl of East Anglia and Lord of Gaël and Montfort. He was the leading figure in the Revolt of the Earls, the last serious revolt against William the Conqueror.
Elizabeth of Vermandois, was a French noblewoman, who by her two marriages was the mother of the 1st Earl of Worcester, the 2nd Earl of Leicester, the 3rd Earl of Surrey, and of Gundred de Warenne, mother of the 4th Earl of Warwick.
Robert de Mowbray, a Norman, was Earl of Northumbria from 1086 until 1095. Robert joined the 1088 rebellion against King William II on behalf of Robert Curthose, but was pardoned and later led the army that killed Malcolm III of Scotland at Alnwick. In 1095, he conspired to put Stephen of Aumale on the throne, was besieged by the king, and captured. As punishment, his marriage was dissolved and his lands confiscated, given to the new husband of his former wife, while Mowbray was imprisoned for life and later became a monk.
Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut, was a ruling countess of Hainaut from c. 1050 until 1076, in co-regency with her husband Baldwin VI of Flanders and then her son Baldwin II of Hainaut. She was also countess of Flanders by marriage to Baldwin VI between from 1067 to 1070. She ruled Flanders as regent during the minority of her son Arnulf III in 1070–1071.
William the Conqueror had men of diverse standing and origins under his command at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. With these and other men he went on in the five succeeding years to conduct the Harrying of the North and complete the Norman conquest of England.
The Battle of Cassel was fought in February 1071 between Robert I of Flanders and his nephew, Arnulf III. The battle was a victory for Robert, and Arnulf was killed in the battle.
Events from the 1140s in England.
Folcard or Foulcard was a Flemish hagiographer.
Ernulf de Hesdin, also transcribed as Arnulf and Ernulphe, was a French knight who took part in the Norman conquest of England and became a major landholder under William the Conqueror and William Rufus, featuring prominently in the Domesday Book. He was disgraced as a suspected rebel and died while taking part in the First Crusade as part of the army of Robert Curthose.
The de Warenne family were a noble family in England that included the first Earls of Surrey, created by William the Conqueror in 1088 for William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, who was among his companions at the Battle of Hastings. The family originated in Normandy and, as Earls, held land there and throughout England. When the senior male-line ended in the mid-12th century, the descendants of their heiress adopted the Warenne surname and continue as Earls of Surrey for another two centuries. Several junior lines also held land or prominent offices in England and Normandy.
