Lucy of Bolingbroke

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lucy of Bolingbroke († around 1138) was an Anglo-Norman heiress in central England and, towards the end of her life, Countess of Chester . She was believed to be related to the Anglo-Saxon Earls of Mercia , as she owned extensive land in Lincolnshire which was administered by her husbands and which she bequeathed to her sons. She was also a notable Christian benefactor who founded two small religious institutions and furnished several with land and church buildings.

ancestors

A Croyland Abbey document now believed to be forged names Thorold of Bucknall - who may be the same as her likely father Thorold, the Lincolnshire Sheriff - as a brother of Godgifu (Godiva), the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia . The same document contradicts itself, however, when it refers to Leofric and Godgifu's son, Ælfgar , as Thorold's cognatus (cousin). A later source from Coventry Abbey sees Lucy as the sister of the Earls Edwin and Morcar , while two unreliable sources, the Chronicle of Abbot Ingmund of Croyland ( Historia Croylandensis ) and the Peterborough Chronicle , make Lucy a daughter of Ælfgar. Keats-Rohan's explanation for these reports is misinformation that confuses Lucy with her ancestor, the mother of William Malets , who was related to the Godgifus family.

Contemporary historians are of the opinion that she was a daughter of Thorold, Sheriff of Lincoln and a daughter of William Malet († around 1071). She inherited an extensive group of estates around Spalding in Lincolnshire , perhaps as an inheritance from both the Malet family and the Lincoln family. These properties were later called the Honor of Bolingbroke .

Marriages

The heiress Lucy was married three times and widowed three times. Her first husband was Yves de Taillebois and they married around 1083. Yves took over her property as a husband and appears to have had holdings in extensive powers in Westmorland and Cumberland . Ivo died in 1094.

Her second marriage was with Roger de Roumare or Roger fitzGerold, from whom she had a son, William de Roumare , the future Earl of Lincoln , who inherited part of their property. and who is the ancestor of the Roumare family in Westmoreland. Roger died in 1097 or 1098.

Some time later, certainly before 1101, she was married to Ranulph le Meschin , later the Earl of Chester - their last and longest marriage. Her son Ranulph de Gernon, 2nd Earl of Chester succeeded his father as Earl of Chester, their daughter Alice married Richard FitzGilbert de Clare .

Church foundations

A widowed countess, Lucy founded the Convent of Stixwould in 1135 as one of the few aristocrats of the late 11th and 12th centuries to act as independent lay founders.

However, her religious activity was centered around Spalding Priory , a monastery of which her family was the first patron. This house, an offshoot of Crowland, was founded or re-established in 1085 by Lucy and her husband Yves de Taillebois. B. in the 1120s with her third husband Earl Ranulph the churches of Minting , Belchford and Scamblesby for Spalding Priory. In 1135 Lucy - now married for the last time - donated the Priory her own house in Spalding for permanent use by the monks. According to the reports, Lucy went to great lengths to ensure that after her death her sons would continue to run the foundations.

swell

  • Judith Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2002), ISBN 0-521-52465-2
  • Susan M. Johns, Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Realm, Manchester: Manchester University Press (2003), ISBN 0-7190-6304-3
  • Katherine SB Keats-Rohan, "Antecessor Noster: The Parentage of Countess Lucy Made Plain," Prosopon - Newsletter of the Unit for Prosopographical Research (2): 1-2 (1995) online
  • Edmund King (2004), "Ranulf (I), 3rd Earl of Chester (d. 1129)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), accessed November 7, 2008
  • Richard Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria, 1092–1136: A Lecture Delivered to Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society on April 9th, 2005 at Carlisle, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Tract Series No. XXI, Kendal: Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (2006) ISBN 1-873124-43-0
  • Ann Williams, GH Martin (ed.), Domesday Book: A Complete Translation, Alecto Historical Editions (Penguin Classics ed.), London, UK: Penguin Books Ltd (2003), ISBN 0-14-143994-7
  • Ann Williams, "Godgifu [Godiva] (d. 1067?)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), accessed November 7, 2008

Remarks

  1. ↑ so called by King, "Ranulf (I)"
  2. ↑ a b c d Keats-Rohan, "Antecessor Noster", p. 1
  3. ↑ Williams, "Godgifu"
  4. ↑ Johns, Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power , p. 76, no. 26; Keats-Rohan, "Antecessor Noster," pp. 1-2; Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , p. 36, Br 85.
  5. ^ Keats-Rohan, "Antecessor Noster", p. 2.
  6. ↑ a b King, "Ranulf (I)"
  7. ^ Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , pp. 36-7.
  8. ↑ For a discussion of Cumbria in Lucy's time, see Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , pp. 34–52; Yves de Taillebois' property in Lincolnshire is listed in the Domesday Book , cf. Williams & Martin (Eds), Domesday Book , pp. 909-14.
  9. ^ Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , p. 40.
  10. ^ King, "Ranulf (I)"; Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , p. 40.
  11. ^ Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , p. 41. No. 98.
  12. ↑ Green, Aristocracy , p. 369; Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , p. 41.
  13. ^ Sharpe, Norman Rule in Cumbria , p. 45.
  14. ↑ a b c d Johns, Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power , p. 60.
  15. ↑ Johns, Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power , p. 61.
personal data
SURNAME Lucy of Bolingbroke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Countess of Chester
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century
DATE OF DEATH around 1138