- Countess of Surrey
Biography
Gundred, Countess of Surrey was born 1053 in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, France to Gerbod (1020) and died 27 May 1085 Castle Acre, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom of unspecified causes. She married William de Warenne (c1040-1088) 1066 JL in England, United Kingdom.
Her Tournai marble memorial, illustrated in Charles Boutell's Christian monuments in England and Wales (1854)
Native to either Fleming or Normandy, this young 11th century maiden followed the Norman Army of WIlliam the Conqueror where soon after the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066 married one of his greatest warriors, William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. He soon became one of the wealthiest land barons in England. Together they founded Lewes Priory in Sussex.[1]
Parentage and Siblings
Most likely natives of Flanders, Gundred was a sister to Gerbod the Fleming, later the 1st Earl of Chester. This made her the daughter of Gerbod (1020-?). This family was the hereditary advocate of the Abbey of St. Bertin at St. Omer. [2][3][4][5] This identification is made directly by Orderic Vitalis, [6] as well as the chronicle of Hyde Abbey.[7]
Gundred had another brother, Frederick of Oosterzele-Scheldewindeke (c1048-1070), who was killed c.1070 by Hereward the Wake.[8]
Lewes Castle and Church
By 1070, Gundred and William de Warenne (c1040-1088)' were married and settled themselves at Lewes in Sussex where they began rebuilding Lewes Castle as their primary home. [9] For many years, William was very busy in the Norman subjugation of the rest of England and at times was one of the principle governors of the land when the King returned to Normandy.
Sometime between 1078 and 1082, Gundred and William set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, visiting monasteries and other holy places along the way. But when they reached Burgundy, their trip was interrrupted by a war between Henry IV of France and Pope Gregory VII. [10][11]
The couple stopped for a a season at Cluny Abbey where the service of the monks there made such an impression on them, that they decided to form a monastery back in England. Hugh of Cluny, then abbot of Cluny, arranged for some monks to return with them to help start this new abbey. This group included Lazio, who would become the first abbot. This new house of worship became known as Lewes Priory.dedicated to St Pancras.[12][13]
Gundred died in childbirth on 27 May 1085 at Castle Acre, Norfolk, one of her husband's estates. She was buried in the chapter house of Lewes Priory, where her husband was himself later buried.[14]
Family
She married William de Warenne (c1040-1088), 1st Earl of Surrey. She apparently died in childbirth at Castle Acre, Norfolk, England. Her name has also been recorded as Gundreda.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Edith de Warenne (1075-aft1125) | 1075 | 1125 | Girard de Gournay (c1076-1099) Dreux III de Monchy (1080-) |
| William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey (1080-1138) | 1080 Bellencombre, France | 11 May 1138 Lewes, Sussex, England, United Kingdom | Elizabeth de Vermandois (c1081-1131) |
| Reginald de Warenne (1082-?) | |||
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Gerbod the Fleming, Earl of Chester (1049-1071) | |||
| Gundred (1053-1085) | 1053 Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, France | 27 May 1085 Castle Acre, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom | William de Warenne (c1040-1088) |
Vital Records
Lewes Gravestone
- Location : Lewes Priory, East Sussex, England
- William de Warenne at Find A Grave
- Gundred Countess of Surrey at Find A Grave
The remains of William de Warenne (c1040-1088) and his wife Gundred (latinised as Gundrada) were found in small leaden caskets in the excavation of the site of the Priory during the building of the Brighton to Lewes Railway in 1845. These remains had been removed from their original resting place before the High Altar of the Priory Church, and re-interred in those caskets in the floor of the Chapter House when it was built in the thirteenth century.
The remains of William and Gundred were buried again in the floor of the chapel, under the original grave slab of Gundred. This had been found in the eighteenth century, face down, as a common paving stone in nearby Isfield Church. It was for many years thought that Gundred was a daughter of William the Conqueror but this cannot now be sustained. She died in 1085 at Castle Acre, Norfolk, apparently her favourite home. Her remains were brought back to Lewes to be buried in the Priory Church which she and her husband founded. The tomb slab is stylistically of the period of re-interment rather than of the original burial, and is considered to be an important piece of roman-esque art.
The following is one of the many translations of the inscription: "Illustrious branch of Ducal race in brought into England's Church balsamic grace pious as Mary and as Martha kind to generous deeds she gave her virtuous mind. Though the cold tomb her Martha's part receives. Her Mary's better part forever lives. 0 Holy Pancras keep with greater care. A mother who has made her sons thy heir. On the sixth calends of June's fateful morn the marble frame by inward struggles torn freed the pure soul which upward bent its way to realms of love and seeds of endless joy. "
See Also
- Gundred
- Warren Family
- Warenne Family Ancestry
- Warren in Sussex
- G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/1, page 494. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
- Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/1, page 496.
- BP2003 volume 2, page 2820. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as.
- Gundreda at thePeerage
- Gundred, Countess of Surrey - Geni.com
- wikipedia:en:Gundred, Countess of Surrey
- Barlow, Frank, The Feudal Kingdom of England 1012 - 1216, London, 1955
- Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Peerage, Vol. iv, p. 670 Chart:Surrey or Warenne before 1135…
- Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday People, a Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166 (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1999), p. 480
- Moriarty, George Andrews, The Plantagenet Ancestry (Mormon Pioneer Genealogy Society, Salt Lake City, UT, 1985), p. 184
Norgate, Kate (1890). "Gundrada de Warenne". In Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900. 23. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 338.- Schwennicke, Detlev, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europaischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 4, Das Feudale Frankreich und Sien Einfluss auf des Mittelalters (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1989), Tafel 699
- Weis, Frederick Lewis, The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215, ed: Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., William R. Beall, 5th Edition (Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999), Line 158-1
External links
- The Lewes Priory Trust Photo Gallery (copyrighted images)
- The Gundrada Chapel, Southover Church, Lewes, East Sussex
- Tomb of Gundred in 1787 The Gentleman's Magazine
References
- ^ G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, vol. xii/1 (The St. Catherine Press, London, 1953), p. 494
- ^ Early Yorkshire Charters, ed: William Farrer, Charles Travis Clay, Volume VIII - The Honour of Warenne (The Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 1949), pp. 40-46
- ^ Anderson, Freda (1992). "Uxor Mea: The First Wife of the First William of Warenne". Sussex Archaeological Collections 130: 107–8. DOI:10.5284/1086107.
- ^ Elisabeth van Houts, 'Epitaph of Gundrada of Warenne', Nova de Veteribus, Mitel-und neulateinische Studien fur Paul Gerhard Schmidt (K.G. Saur, Munchen Leipzig, 2004), p. 372
- ^ P. Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Histoire de la maison royale de France et des grands officiers de la Couronne, V.6 (Estienne Loyson, 1674), p. 26
- ^ Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Translated by Thomas Forester, Vol. ii, (Henry G. Bohn, London, MDCCCLIV (1854), p. 49
- ^ Hyde Abbey, Liber Monasterii de Hyda: Comprising a Chronicle of the affairs of England, (Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, London, 1866), Introduction, p. xcvii. Note: the anonymous Hyde chronicler identified two of Gundred's brothers, Gerbod, Earl of Chester and Frederick.
- ^ Elisabeth van Houts, 'Frederick, Brother-in-Law of William of Warenne', Anglo-Saxon England, Vol. 28 (1999), pp. 218-220
- ^ Elisabeth van Houts, 'The Warenne View of the Past 1066-1203)', Anglo-Norman Studies XXIV, Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2003, Vol. 26 (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2004), p. 104 & n. 8
- ^ Elisabeth van Houts, 'The Warenne View of the Past 1066-1203)', Anglo-Norman Studies XXIV, Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2003, Vol. 26 (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2004), p. 104 & n. 8
- ^ Early Yorkshire Charters, ed: William Farrer, Charles Travis Clay, Volume VIII - The Honour of Warenne (The Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 1949), p. 4
- ^ B. Golding, 'The Coming of the Cluniacs', Anglo-Norman Studies III; Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1980, Vol. iii (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1981), pp. 65, 67
- ^ Early Yorkshire Charters, ed: William Farrer, Charles Travis Clay, Volume VIII - The Honour of Warenne (The Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 1949), pp. 50-55
- ^ G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, vol. xii/1 (The St. Catherine Press, London, 1953), p. 495 note (b)
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