Maud, Countess of Huntingdon

Last updated

Maud
Countess of Huntingdon
Queen consort of Scotland
Tenure1124–c.1130
Coronation April or May 1124
Bornc. 1072
Died1130/1131
Scotland
Burial
Spouse Simon de Senlis
m. c.1090; dec. c.1111
David I of Scotland
m. 1113; dec. c.1130
IssueMatilda of St Liz
Simon of St Liz
Waltheof of Melrose
Malcolm of Scotland
Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon
Claricia
Hodierna
Father Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria
Mother Judith of Lens

Maud, Countess of Huntingdon (c. 1074 – 1130/1131), or Matilda, was Queen of Scotland as the wife of King David I. She was the great-niece of William the Conqueror and the granddaughter of Earl Siward.

Contents

Biography

Maud was the daughter of Waltheof, the Anglo-Saxon Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, and his French wife Judith of Lens. Her father was the last of the major Anglo-Saxon earls to remain powerful after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and the son of Siward, Earl of Northumbria. Her mother was the niece of William the Conqueror, which makes Maud his grand-niece. Through her ancestors the Counts of Boulogne, she was also a descendant of Alfred the Great and Charles the Bald and a cousin of Godfrey of Bouillon.

She was married to Simon de Senlis (or St Liz) in about 1090. [1] Earlier, William had tried to get Maud's mother, Judith, to marry Simon. He received the honour of Huntingdon (whose lands stretched across much of eastern England) probably in right of his wife from William Rufus before the end of the year 1090. [2] [3]

She had three known children by him: [2]

  1. Matilda of St Liz (Maud) (d. 1140); she married Robert Fitz Richard of Tonbridge; she married secondly Saer De Quincy.
  2. Simon of St Liz (d. 1153)
  3. Saint Waltheof of Melrose (c. 1100–1159/1160)

Her first husband died some time after 1111 and Maud next married David, the brother-in-law of Henry I of England, in 1113. [1] [3] Through the marriage, David gained control over his wife's vast estates in England, in addition to his own lands in Cumbria and Strathclyde. [3] They had four children (two sons and two daughters): [1]

  1. Malcolm (born in 1113 or later, died young)
  2. Henry (c. 1114–1152)
  3. Claricia (died unmarried)
  4. Hodierna (died young and unmarried)

In 1124, David became King of Scots. Maud's two sons by different fathers, Simon and Henry, would later vie for the Earldom of Huntingdon. [3]

She died in 1130 or 1131 and was buried at Scone Abbey in Perthshire, but she appears in a charter of dubious origin dated 1147. [1]

Depictions in fiction

Maud of Huntingdon appears as a character in Elizabeth Chadwick's novel The Winter Mantle (2003), as well as Alan Moore's novel Voice of the Fire (1995) and Nigel Tranter's novel David the Prince (1980).

Related Research Articles

Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria was the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls and the only English aristocrat to be executed during the reign of William I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Huntingdon</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title was associated with the ruling house of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Northampton</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Earl of Northampton is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times.

David of Scotland was a Scottish prince and 8th Earl of Huntingdon. He was, until 1198, heir to the Scottish throne.

Waltheof was a 12th-century English abbot and saint. He was the son of Simon I of St Liz, 1st Earl of Northampton and Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon, thus stepson to David I of Scotland, and the grandson of Waltheof, Earl of Northampton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siward, Earl of Northumbria</span> 11th-century Earl of Northumbria in England

Siward or Sigurd was an important earl of 11th-century northern England. The Old Norse nickname Digri and its Latin translation Grossus are given to him by near-contemporary texts. It is possible Siward may have been of Scandinavian or Anglo-Scandinavian origin, perhaps a relative of Earl Ulf, although this is speculative and unclear. He emerged as a powerful regional strongman in England during the reign of Cnut. Cnut was a Scandinavian ruler who conquered England in the 1010s, and Siward was one of the many Scandinavians who came to England in the aftermath of that conquest. Siward subsequently rose to become sub-ruler of most of northern England. From 1033 at the latest Siward was in control of southern Northumbria, that is, present-day Yorkshire, governing as earl on Cnut's behalf.

Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon, feudal baron of Plympton in Devon, was the son of Richard de Redvers and his wife Adeline Peverel.

Judith of Lens was a niece of William the Conqueror. She was a daughter of his sister Adelaide of Normandy, Countess of Aumale and Lambert II, Count of Lens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry of Scotland</span> Scottish prince

Henry of Scotland was heir apparent to the Kingdom of Alba. He was also the 3rd Earl of Northumbria and the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. He was the son of King David I of Scotland and Queen Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon.

Simon I de Senlis, 1st Earl of Northampton and 2nd Earl of Huntingdonjure uxoris was a Norman nobleman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David I as Prince of the Cumbrians</span>

Before David I became the king of Scotland in 1124, he was the prince of the Cumbrians and earl of a great territory in the middle of England acquired by marriage. This period marks the beginning of his life as a great territorial lord. Circa 1113, the year in which King Henry I of England arranged his marriage to an English heiress and the year in which for the first time David can be found in possession of "Scottish" territory, marks the beginning of his rise to Scottish leadership.

Ada de Warenne was the Anglo-Norman wife of Henry of Scotland, Earl of Northumbria and Earl of Huntingdon. She was the daughter of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey by Elizabeth of Vermandois, and a great-granddaughter of Henry I of France. She was the mother of Malcolm IV and William I of Scotland.

Simon II de Senlis, 4th Earl of the Honour of Huntingdon and Northampton was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. He was the son of Simon I de Senlis, Earl of Huntingdon-Northampton and Maud, Countess of Huntingdon. He married Isabel, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester and they had a son Simon.

Matilda of Chester, Countess of Huntingdon was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman, sometimes known as Maud and sometimes known with the surname de Kevelioc. She was a daughter of Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester, and the wife of David of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sawtry Abbey</span>

Sawtry Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located between Sawtry and Woodwalton in Cambridgeshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1147 by Simon II de Senlis, Earl of Northampton, who was the grandson of Earl Waltheof and Judith, the niece of William the Conqueror who held the manor when the Domesday Survey was compiled. It is the only Cistercian abbey in the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fotheringhay Castle</span> Ruined castle in Fotheringhay, United Kingdom

Fotheringhay Castle, also known as Fotheringay Castle, was a High Middle Age Norman Motte-and-bailey castle in the village of Fotheringhay 3+12 miles (5.6 km) to the north of the market town of Oundle, Northamptonshire, England. It was probably founded around 1100 by Simon de Senlis, Earl of Northampton. In 1113, possession passed to Prince David of Scotland when he married Simon's widow. The castle then descended with the Scottish princes until the early 13th century, when it was confiscated by King John of England.

Sir David Olifard was the first recorded Justiciar, governing the southern half of Scotland south of the rivers Forth and Clyde. Olifard was godson to King David I of Scotland, whose life he saved at the Rout of Winchester in 1141. Olifard is the first known chief of Clan Oliphant today.

Simon III de Senlis, Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton was an English nobleman.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Weir, Alison (1995). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy, Revised Edition. London: Random House. ISBN   0-7126-7448-9. p. 192
  2. 1 2 Matthew Strickland, "Senlis, Simon (I) de", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. doi : 10.1093/ref:odnb/25091
  3. 1 2 3 4 G. W. S. Barrow, "David I (c.1085–1153)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2006 ; Maud (d. 1131): doi : 10.1093/ref:odnb/49353
Scottish royalty
Preceded by Queen consort of Scotland
1124–1130
Succeeded by