Adeliza of Louvain
Encyclopedia
Adeliza of Louvain, sometimes known in England as Adelicia of Louvain, also called Adela and Aleidis; (1103 – 23 April 1151) was queen consort
of the Kingdom of England
from 1121 to 1135, the second wife of Henry I
. She was the daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Landgrave
of Brabant and Count of Louvain and Brussels.
on 2 February 1121, when she is thought to have been in her late teens and Henry was fifty-three. It is believed that Henry only married again because he wanted a male heir. Despite holding the record for the most illegitimate children of a British monarch, Henry had only one legitimate son, William Adelin, who predeceased his father on 25 November 1120 in the White Ship
disaster.
Adeliza was reputedly quite pretty and her father was Duke of Lower Lotharingia. These were the likely reasons she was chosen. However, no children were born during the marriage.
by Philip de Thaon, were dedicated to her. She is said to have commissioned a verse biography of King Henry; if she did, it is no longer extant.
When Henry died on 1 December 1135, Adeliza retired temporarily to the Benedictine
convent
of Wilton Abbey
, near Salisbury
. She was present at the dedication of Henry's tomb at Reading Abbey
on the first anniversary of his death. At about that time, she founded a leper hospital dedicated to Saint Giles
at Fugglestone St Peter
, Wiltshire
.
in 1139, who had been one of Henry's chief advisors. She brought with her a Queen's dowry, including the castle of Arundel
. King Stephen of England
created d'Aubigny Earl of Arundel and Earl of Lincoln
.
Although her husband was a staunch supporter of Stephen during the Anglo-Norman civil war, her own personal inclination may have been toward her stepdaughter's cause, the Empress Matilda
. When Matilda sailed to England in 1139, she appealed to her stepmother for shelter, landing near Arundel and was received as a guest of the former Queen.
).
She died in the abbey
and was buried in the abbey church next to her father, Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, (d.1139). The abbey necrology situates her tombstone next to the clockwork. An 18th century floor plan of the church shows her tombstone located halfway up the left nave
. Her grave was demolished however during the French Revolution
(abt. 1798). Her bones had been found and she was reburied in the cloister of the re-erected Affligem abbey.
Although it is clear that the former queen and Joscelin were very close, he may actually have been an illegitimate son of Adeliza's father and thus her half-brother. His children took their name from their mother's lineage, and their descendants include the medieval Earls of Northumberland
.
Adeliza also gave a dowry to one of her cousins when she married in England.
Adeliza also became an active patron of the church during her second marriage, giving property to Reading Abbey in honour of her late husband and to several other smaller foundations.
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of the Kingdom of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
from 1121 to 1135, the second wife of Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
. She was the daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Landgrave
Landgrave
Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...
of Brabant and Count of Louvain and Brussels.
Marriages
Adeliza married Henry I of EnglandHenry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
on 2 February 1121, when she is thought to have been in her late teens and Henry was fifty-three. It is believed that Henry only married again because he wanted a male heir. Despite holding the record for the most illegitimate children of a British monarch, Henry had only one legitimate son, William Adelin, who predeceased his father on 25 November 1120 in the White Ship
White Ship
The White Ship was a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived. Those who drowned included William Adelin, the only surviving legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England...
disaster.
Adeliza was reputedly quite pretty and her father was Duke of Lower Lotharingia. These were the likely reasons she was chosen. However, no children were born during the marriage.
Queen
Adeliza, unlike the other Anglo-Norman queens, played little part in the public life of the realm during her tenure as queen consort. Whether this was personal inclination or because Henry preferred to keep her nearby in the hope she'd conceive, is unknown. She did, however, leave a mark as a patron of literature and several works, including a bestiaryBestiary
A bestiary, or Bestiarum vocabulum is a compendium of beasts. Bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, birds and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson...
by Philip de Thaon, were dedicated to her. She is said to have commissioned a verse biography of King Henry; if she did, it is no longer extant.
When Henry died on 1 December 1135, Adeliza retired temporarily to the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
of Wilton Abbey
Wilton Abbey
Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury on the site now occupied by Wilton House. A first foundation was made as a college of secular priests by Wulfstan, Ealdorman of Wiltshire, about 773, but after his death was changed into a convent for twelve...
, near Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
. She was present at the dedication of Henry's tomb at Reading Abbey
Reading Abbey
Reading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, my brother, and Queen Maud, my wife, and all my ancestors...
on the first anniversary of his death. At about that time, she founded a leper hospital dedicated to Saint Giles
Saint Giles
Saint Giles was a Greek Christian hermit saint from Athens, whose legend is centered in Provence and Septimania. The tomb in the abbey Giles was said to have founded, in St-Gilles-du-Gard, became a place of pilgrimage and a stop on the road that led from Arles to Santiago de Compostela, the...
at Fugglestone St Peter
Fugglestone St Peter
Fugglestone St Peter was a small village, manor, and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, lying between the town of Wilton and the city of Salisbury...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
.
Second marriage
As she was still young, she came out of mourning and married William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of ArundelWilliam d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel
William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Lincoln and 1st Earl of Arundel , also known as William d'Albini, was son of William d'Aubigny, 'Pincerna' of Old Buckenham Castle in Norfolk, and Maud Bigod, daughter of Roger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk.-Marriage and Issue:The younger William was an important member...
in 1139, who had been one of Henry's chief advisors. She brought with her a Queen's dowry, including the castle of Arundel
Arundel Castle
Arundel Castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England is a restored medieval castle. It was founded by Roger de Montgomery on Christmas Day 1067. Roger became the first to hold the earldom of Arundel by the graces of William the Conqueror...
. King Stephen of England
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
created d'Aubigny Earl of Arundel and Earl of Lincoln
Earl of Lincoln
Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England.-Earls of Lincoln, First Creation :*William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Lincoln and 1st Earl of Arundel Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England.-Earls of Lincoln, First...
.
Although her husband was a staunch supporter of Stephen during the Anglo-Norman civil war, her own personal inclination may have been toward her stepdaughter's cause, the Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...
. When Matilda sailed to England in 1139, she appealed to her stepmother for shelter, landing near Arundel and was received as a guest of the former Queen.
Later life
Adeliza spent her final years in the abbey of Affligem (landgraviat of Brabant), which she richly rewarded with landed estates (three English villages called Ideswordam, Westmerendonam and Aldeswurda, probably near to ArundelArundel
Arundel is a market town and civil parish in the South Downs of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Worthing east southeast, Littlehampton to the south and Bognor Regis to...
).
She died in the abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
and was buried in the abbey church next to her father, Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, (d.1139). The abbey necrology situates her tombstone next to the clockwork. An 18th century floor plan of the church shows her tombstone located halfway up the left nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
. Her grave was demolished however during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
(abt. 1798). Her bones had been found and she was reburied in the cloister of the re-erected Affligem abbey.
Family
One of Adeliza's brothers, Joscelin of Louvain, came to England and married Agnes de Percy, heiress of the Percy family.Although it is clear that the former queen and Joscelin were very close, he may actually have been an illegitimate son of Adeliza's father and thus her half-brother. His children took their name from their mother's lineage, and their descendants include the medieval Earls of Northumberland
Earl of Northumberland
The title of Earl of Northumberland was created several times in the Peerages of England and Great Britain, succeeding the title Earl of Northumbria. Its most famous holders were the House of Percy , who were the most powerful noble family in Northern England for much of the Middle Ages...
.
Adeliza also gave a dowry to one of her cousins when she married in England.
Descendants
Five of Adeliza and William's children were to survive to adulthood:- William d'Aubigny, 2nd Earl of ArundelWilliam d'Aubigny, 2nd Earl of ArundelWilliam d'Aubigny, 2nd Earl of Arundel was the son of William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel and Adeliza of Louvain, widow of Henry I of England....
, father to William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of ArundelWilliam d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of ArundelWilliam d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel was an English nobleman, a favourite of King John, and a participant in the Fifth Crusade.-Lineage:...
who was one of the twenty-five guarantors of the Magna CartaMagna CartaMagna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
. - Reynor d'Aubigny
- Henry d'Aubigny
- Alice, Countess of Eu (d. 11 September 1188), married John 5th Earl of Eu, (d. 26 June 1170).
- Olivia d'Aubigny (d.young)
- Agatha d'Aubigny (d.young)
- Geoffrey d'Aubigny.
Adeliza also became an active patron of the church during her second marriage, giving property to Reading Abbey in honour of her late husband and to several other smaller foundations.