Eleanor of Normandy
| Eleanor of Normandy | |
|---|---|
| Countess consort of Flanders | |
| Born | c. 1012 |
| Died | 1071 (aged 60–61) |
| Spouse | Baldwin IV of Flanders |
| Issue | Judith |
| House | Normandy |
| Father | Richard II of Normandy |
| Mother | Judith of Brittany |
Eleanor of Normandy (c. 1012 - 1071) was a Countess consort of Flanders. She was born between the years 1011 and 1013 in Normandy, the daughter of Richard II, Duke of Normandy and his wife, Judith of Brittany.[1] Eleanor had two sisters and three brothers, including Robert I, Duke of Normandy, whose illegitimate son was William the Conqueror. In 1017, when Eleanor was still a child, her mother Judith died. Duke Richard married secondly Poppa of Envermeu, by whom he had two more sons.
In 1031 she married, as his second wife, Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders,[2] who was about 30 years her senior. He had a son and heir, Baldwin, by his first marriage to Ogive of Luxembourg. Eleanor was styled Countess of Flanders upon her marriage to Baldwin, and together they had one daughter:[3]
- Judith (1033 – 5 March 1094),[4] married firstly Tostig Godwinson,[5] Earl of Northumbria, by whom she allegedly had issue; and secondly Welf I, Duke of Bavaria,[6] by whom she had surviving issue.
Eleanor died in Flanders sometime after 1071. Her husband had died in 1035, two years after the birth of their only child.
Despite her common nomenclature it is not certain that Eleanor was her proper name.[7] Eleanor of Aquitaine, who lived a century later (and married as her second husband Henry II of England, the great-great-grandson of Eleanor of Normandy's brother Robert), is the first individual in recorded history known to bear the name Eleanor.
References
- ^ "Emma of Ivry, c.1008-1080", Charlotte Cartwright, Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400: Moving beyond the Exceptionalist Debate, editor Heather J. Tanner, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 94
- ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, editor Michael Swanton, Routledge, 1998, 298
- ^ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Flanders, retrieved 6 March 2010
- ^ Mary Dockray-Miller,The Books and the Life of Judith of Flanders, Routledge, 2015, 5
- ^ Mary Dockray-Miller,The Books and the Life of Judith of Flanders, Routledge, 2015, 8
- ^ Mary Dockray-Miller,The Books and the Life of Judith of Flanders, Routledge, 2015, 74
- ^ "Medieval Lands Project: NORMANDY,DUKES". Foundation for Medieval Genealogy.
ELEONORE de Normandie. The Genealogica Comitum Flandriæ Bertiniana refers to "filiam secundi Ricardi ducis Normannorum" as wife of "Balduinum Barbatum" after the death of Ogiva[214]. The Annalista Saxo states that the mother of Judith was "cognatione beati Ethmundi regis", without naming her or giving a more precise origin[215]. Guillaume de Jumièges records that Duke Richard and Judith had three daughters, of whom the second (unnamed) married "Baudouin de Flandre"[216]. The primary source which confirms her name has not yet been identified.