NOTE O. p. 112. The Children of William and Matilda

About the number and order of the sons of William and Matilda there is no doubt. They were Robert, Richard, William, and Henry. There is no doubt that Richard was second in order. He is always put so in the lists, and Orderic (573 C) expressly calls him “Ricardus, filius ejus, qui post Rodbertum natus fuerat.” Sir Francis Palgrave must have been speaking hastily when (iii. 254) he called him “the fourth son.”

But about the daughters, their number, names, and order, the statements are most contradictory. I will first of all set forth the different accounts of the early writers.

All that William of Poitiers tells us (120) is that two brother Kings of Spain sought for a daughter of William in marriage, whose name is not given, and that they greatly disputed about her. Of the promise or offer of a daughter to Harold he says nothing directly, though he alludes to it in a later passage (145).

William of Jumièges (vii. 21) only says that William had four daughters, without giving their names. His continuator (viii. 34) also enumerates four. First (“primogenita”), Cecily, Abbess of Caen. Second, Constance, wife of Alan Fergant of Britanny. Third, Adelaide [Adelidis], who was betrothed to Harold, but died unmarried (“Heraldo proditori ante bellum Anglicum sponsata, sed, illo dignâ morte mulctato, nulli nupta, virgo jam nubilis obiit”). Fourth, Adela, wife of Stephen of Blois.

Orderic gives no less than four lists. The first time (484 D) he simply gives the names of four daughters, Adeliza, Constance, Cecily, and Hadala. The second time (512 D) the number is raised to five, and the names are Agatha, Constance, Adeliza, Adela, and Cecily. The third time (573 C) he gives little biographies of four daughters. 1st, Agatha, betrothed first to Harold, then to Amfurcius [Alfonso] of Gallicia, but who died a virgin. 2nd, Adelaide [Adelidis], who lived, seemingly as a nun, under the care of Roger of Beaumont (“Adelidis pulcherrima virgo jam nubilis devotè Deo se commendavit, et sub tutelâ Rogeri de Bellomonte sancto fine quievit”). 3rd, Constance, wife of Alan Fergant [Fergannus]. 4th, Adela, wife of Stephen. The fourth time (638 D) he gives a mere list, with the same names as in the second but in a different order, Agatha, Adeliza, Constance, Adela, and Cecily. He also (511 A) says that a daughter of William, whose name he does not mention, was promised in marriage to Earl Eadwine.

William of Malmesbury (iii. 276) says expressly that William had five daughters. 1st, Cecily the Abbess, who was living when he wrote—he wrote therefore before 1126. 2nd, Constance. 3rd, Adela. Of two others he did not know the names (“duarum nomina exciderunt”), one betrothed to Harold, the second to Alfonso, but both of whom died unmarried.

Wace (9650) knows only two daughters, “Ele” and Abbess Cecily. Ele is (10821) betrothed to Harold, but afterwards married to Count Stephen.

Lastly, in Domesday (49) we find incidental mention of a daughter Matilda. Her chamberlain Geoffrey (“Goisfridus Camerarius filiæ Regis”) had lands in Hampshire, which he held “de Rege W. pro servitio quod fecit Mathildi ejus filiæ.” She is also mentioned in an Encyclic Letter of the Nuns of the Holy Trinity at Caen (Mabillon, Ann. Ord. Ben. v. 690) along with her mother Matilda and her sisters Adelaide and Constance, as one for whom the prayers of the faithful are asked.

Now of all these, Cecily, Constance, and Adela need give us no trouble here. The history of all three is well ascertained, and will come in its proper place. But about the others, the contradictions are great. The names Adelidis and Adeliza are doubtless the same. We have then these statements.

1. Adeliza was betrothed to Harold, but died unmarried. (Cont. Will. Gem.)

2. Adeliza died unmarried under the care of Roger of Beaumont. (Ord. Vit.)

3. Agatha was betrothed, first to Harold and then to Alfonso, but died unmarried. (Ib.)

4. A nameless daughter betrothed to Harold died unmarried. (Will. Malms.)

5. A nameless daughter betrothed to Alfonso died unmarried. (Ib.)

6. A nameless daughter was betrothed to Eadwine. (Ord. Vit.)

7. Matilda appears without a history. (Domesday.)

The first question is whether the daughter betrothed to Harold and the daughter betrothed to Alfonso are the same. Orderic stands alone in identifying them. On the whole, the balance of evidence seems to me to lie the other way. I am inclined to think that it was Adeliza who was betrothed to Harold, and that it was another daughter who was betrothed to the Spanish King. Indeed they cannot be the same, if we accept the statement which William of Malmesbury (iii. 238) puts into Harold’s mouth in the course of the messages which passed between him and William, namely that the maiden to whom he had been betrothed had died before his election to the Crown (“liberatum se sacramento asserens, quod filia ejus quam desponderat citra nubiles annos obierat”). I am sorry nevertheless to give up Orderic’s (573 C, D) very pretty story, which recalls (or reverses) the well-known ballad of the Spanish Lady’s Love. She had seen and loved Harold, and preferred death rather than to give herself to another and an unknown bridegroom. But there is also the difficulty of the extreme youth of any daughter of William at any time to which we can assign Harold’s visit. I cannot think, with Baron Maseres (103), that the betrothed of Harold was Cecily.

According to Wace, the Adeliza or Adelaide betrothed to Harold was the same as Adela, afterwards Countess of Chartres. The two names, both coming from the adel or æðel root, might easily be confounded, and it would not be difficult to suppose that Harold’s betrothed had been on the one hand mistaken for the betrothed of Alfonso, and on the other hand divided into two, Adela and Adeliza. But all the other accounts seem pointedly to distinguish between Adela and the betrothed of Harold, whether she were called Adeliza or not.

I need not discuss the theory according to which Mr. Blaauw and Mr. Thorpe (Lappenberg, Norman Kings, 215) identify the Matilda of Domesday with Gundrada; but a view put forth by Mrs. Green (Princesses, i. 16, 407), who has gone minutely into the matter, is better worth examining. She holds that Matilda and Agatha are the same, that the name of Agatha is a mistake of Orderic, that this is the daughter who was betrothed to Eadwine, and that the story of her attachment to Harold arose from confounding one English lover with another. Again, by gaining the three or four years between the visit of Harold and the betrothal to Eadwine, the difficulty as to age is got over. Mrs. Green’s suggestion is at least ingenious. I have little doubt, as I shall show in my next volume, that the daughter who was betrothed to Eadwine is the same as the daughter who was betrothed to Alfonso. But I do not see the evidence for calling her Matilda.

Abbot Baldric, in his verses addressed to Abbess Cecily (Duchèsne, Rer. Franc, iv. 274), speaks of a sister of the Abbess, who was, in some unexplained way, connected both with Bayeux and with Angers. Mrs. Green identifies her also with Matilda. The lines are,

As both Abbot Baldric and William of Malmesbury found it impossible to remember the names of William’s daughters, I may perhaps be forgiven if I leave the name of the betrothed of Harold undetermined.