Although the genealogy of early Ponthieu and Boulogne is scanty (and the 12th century versions unreliable, because of their efforts to tie the ruling houses of Boulogne and Ponthieu into earlier noble houses), it is most likely that Guy, the Bishop of Amiens, was the uncle (and not the brother) of Enguerrand II and his brother Guy I of Ponthieu. Count Enguerrand II's and Guy I's father Hugh II was the son of Enguerrand I by an earlier marriage: Enguerrand I evidently married a Boulognnais countess, the wife of Arnold II, who died in battle: from this later marriage came Guy and his brother Fulk (later abbot of Forest l'Abbaye), and probably a Robert.
Bishop Guy was educated for a career in the church at the abbey of St Riquier and was one of its most brilliant students. His teacher was abbot Enguerrand (called "the wise" d. 9 December 1045). Guy may have been an archdeacon by 1045, and was bishop by 1058. "His predecessor to the episcopate of Amiens, Fulk II, was caught up in the emerging struggle between the secular clergy, dominated by the political contentions of the great feudal families, and the reforming popes, with their bias in favour of monastic houses, which they often rendered exempt from episcopal jurisdiction." When Guy became bishop of Amiens he inherited the legal struggles of his predecessor; this eventually resulted in Guy being suspended from his duties as bishop, although he continued to rule the see as lord.
He was in this state of papal disfavour at the time of the Norman Conquest. This may have been the (contributing) reason why bishop Guy composed the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio ("Song of the Battle of Hastings"), as an effort to flatter the new Norman king of England, William I, who was then in very high favor with the pope. But if so, bishop Guy's poem failed in its purpose. He was highly enough thought of at the Norman court to be assigned as Matilda of Flanders's chaplain when she went over to England for her coronation in 1068. But when bishop Guy died in 1075, he still had not regained his bishopric.
Sources
The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio of Bishop Guy of Amiens, edited by Catherine Morton and Hope Muntz, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1972.
The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio of Bishop Guy of Amiens, edited and translated by Frank Barlow, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999.
Harold Godwinson, also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England. His death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England.
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.
Ponthieu was one of six feudal counties that eventually merged to become part of the Province of Picardy, in northern France. Its chief town is Abbeville.
Hugh II was the count of St. Pol in Artois, after having succeeded his brother Guy I who died without issue. He was the son of Hugh I. He participated in the First Crusade (1096–99) with his son Enguerrand, where they both won fame as military leaders. Being vassals of Eustace III of Boulogne, they probably travelled east in his company, among the retinue of Godfrey of Bouillon.
The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio is a 20th-century name for the Carmen Widonis, the earliest history of the Norman invasion of England from September to December 1066, in Latin. It is attributed to Guy, Bishop of Amiens, a noble of Ponthieu and monastically-trained bishop and administrator close to the French court, who eventually served as a chaplain for Matilda of Flanders, William the Conqueror's queen. Bishop Guy was an uncle to Guy I, Count of Ponthieu, who figures rather prominently in the Bayeux Tapestry as the vassal of Duke William of Normandy who captured Harold Godwinson, later to become King Harold II of England, in 1064.
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.
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.
Hugh II of Ponthieu was count of Ponthieu and lord of Abbeville, the son of Enguerrand I of Ponthieu. Evidently, Hugh II was the half-brother of Guy, who became the bishop of Amiens; Fulk, who became the abbot of Forest l'Abbaye; and Robert. However, it is possible that both Robert and Hugh II were the sons of Enguerrand's first wife, and Guy and Fulk the sons of a later wife that Enguerrand I married when he was in his forties.
Enguerrand I was the son of Hugh I of Ponthieu and Gisela, daughter of Hugh Capet.
Hugh I of Ponthieu, died circa 1000. He was also known as Hugo Miles.
Arnold II is a Count of Boulogne identified by Morton and Muntz as the one slain in battle by Count Enguerrand I of Ponthieu. Frank Barlow prefers to retain the traditional identification of the slain count as Baldwin I of Boulogne. However, he admits that the identification is "uncertain." In any case, the widow (Adelvie?) of Baldwin / Arnold then married Count Enguerrand I.
Saint-Riquier is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
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.
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.
Frank Barlow was an English historian, known particularly for biographies of medieval figures. His subjects included Edward the Confessor, Thomas Becket and William Rufus.
Hilduin I, Count of Montdidier. It is unknown who the parents of Hilduin were. Hilduin was the founder of the House of Montdidier, which produced the Counts of Montdidier, Dammartin and Roucy.
Hilduin III, Count of Montdidier, Seigneur de Ramerupt, son of Hilduin II, Count of Arcis-sur-Aube. He was a member of the House of Montdidier. Virtually nothing is known about his life.
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.
The Burning of Southwark was a battle fought in Southwark during the Norman Conquest of England in October 1066.
The coronation of William the Conqueror as King of England took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 25 December 1066, following the Norman Conquest of England. It was the first coronation which can be proved to have been held at Westminster. In May 1068, William's wife, Matilda of Flanders, was also crowned at the abbey.
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