Brief lives of women who reigned or ruled in their own right or by marriage by providing their a) proprietary titles, b) parents/pedigree, c) patrimony and properties, d) persona or personality, e) powers exercised, f) patronages and g) progeny or posterity.
ALEIDA VAN CULEMBORG (1440-1471)
Proprietary Title: Vrouwe van St.Maartensdijk
ALICE DE BELMAIS
a.k.a. Isabel de Belmais
Notes: "...The manor of Tong, with Ranulph's other possessions, now devolved to Alice (de Belmais), his sister, who, having married Alan la Zouche son of Geoffrey, Vicomte of Rohan, in Brittany, upon his death, Tong passed to the La Zouche's descendants of this heiress." (Anderson: 41)
ALICE DE CHESNEY (d. bef. 1199)
Notes: "In 1086 Ralf [de Chesney] was an under-tenant of William de Warenne in Sussex and Norfolk. The elder line ended in an heiress Alice, who died before 1199, having married Geoffrey de Say, who died in 1214." (Loyd, p. 27)
ALICE DE LACY (1281-1348)
Proprietary Titles: 4th Countess of Lincoln and Salisbury, 1311-1348; Countess of Lancaster, Leicester and Derby.
Parents/Pedigree: Only daughter and heiress of Henry de Lacy (1251-1311), Earl of Lincoln and Salisbury, and Margaret Longespee (first daughter and heir of William Longespee.
Partners/Progeny: Thomas of England (1276-1322), Earl of Lancaster, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln and Salisbury, Seneschal of England. No issue.
Properties: " . . . Alice countess of Lincoln, who by hereditary right from her father Henry earl of Lincoln held the manors of Burcester and Midlington, departed this life without issue on...October the 2nd in the 67th year of her age. . . ." (Kennett, Vol. 2: 97)
"Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in right of Alice his wife, sole daughter and heir of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, doing his fealty had livery of the Castle of Denbigh, and all other the lands of her inheritance... The chosen head of the Barons, he was taken prisoner by the King's troops, and beheaded at Pntefract on April 11th, 1321. His widow continued to possess her inheritance until, marrying in 1323 the knight Ebule lo Strange without the royal license, she was dispossessed of it, whereby her estate, which had been valued at 10,o000 marks per annum, was now reduced to less than 3,000. The King, Edward II, then granted the forfeited manors of Middleton and Burcester to his favourite, Hugh despenser, the younger: but, upon the execution of the latter in 1326, these mnors were again escheated to the Crown, and four years later restored to Sir Ebulo le Strange and Alice his wife." (Blomfield, p. 26)
Notes: "With the exception, of course, of the Princesses of the Royal Family, there was no maided in England in whose veins ran blood so noble as in those of Alicia de Lacy, daughter of Henry Earl of Lincoln and his wife, the Lady Margaret de Clifford, Countess of Salisbury. Beisdes the earldom of Lincoln, she inherited from her father the barony of Halton and the Honour of Clitheroe...." (Holt, p. 48)
ALICE DE RUMILLY (d.1212/15)
Proprietary Title: Lady of Allerdale
Parents/Pedigree: Daughter of William fitz Duncan, Earl of Moray, and of Alice le Meschin, Lady of Skipton.
Partners/Progeny: Married (1) Gilbert Pippart; (2) Robert de Courtenay, with whom she had a son, William de Courtenay (d.1215)
Notes: "...His nephew, William FitzDuncan, married Alice de Rumilly, the heiress of Egremont and Skipton. William himself inherited Allerdale, and thus acquired a great band of territory running across northern England from Cumbria into Yorkshire...." (Green, p.123)
Notes: "Alice Romley, the third daughter and coheir of William Fitz Duncan was therefore the fourth Lady of Allerdale: but having no children alive at her death she gave away divers A(sic) manors and lands to houses of religion, and to her friends and kinsmen. She had a son, named William, who was drowned in Craven coming home from hunting or hawking... She had also three daughters, Alice, Avice, and Mavice, who died all unmarried, and without children; wherefore the inheritance was after her death parted between the house of Albermarl and Reginald Lucy, Baron of Egremont, descending to her sister's children and their posterity...." (Hutchinson, p. 109)
ALICE DE TOENI (1284-1324)
[Bio1]
Proprietary Title: Lady Toeni of Flamstead, 1309, succeeding her brother, Robert de Toeni (1276-1309), who died childless.
Parents/Pedigree: Only daughter of Ralph VII de Toeni (1255-1295), Lord Toeni of Flamstead, and of his wife Mary.
Partners/Progeny: Married (1) in 1300, when she was 16 years old, Sir Thomas Leybourne (d.1307), with whom she had a daughter, Juliana de Leybourned (1304-1367); (2) in 1310, as his 2nd wife, Guy de Beatuchamp (d.1315), 10th Earl of Warwick, with whom she had 2 sons and 5 daughters; and (3) in 1316, William la Zouche de Mortimer, 1st Lord Zouche de Mortimer, with whom she had a son and a daughter.
Notes: "...The earl remarried in 1310, to Alice de Tony, sister and heiress of Ralph de Tony, and therefore the heiress of the Tony inheritance. The value of the Tony inheritance is much disputed for Alice already had issue by Thomas de Leyburn, her first husband, and McFarlane maintains the earl ‘merely enjoyed her inheritance from their marriage in 1310 until his death five years later’. However, this is patently untrue as a glance at the Inquisitions Post Mortem of Earls Guy and Thomas will demonstrate. The manors of Walthamstow in Essex, Abberley in Worcestershire, Flamstead in Hertfordshire, Stratford Tony and Newton Tony in Wiltshire, Kirtling in Cambridgeshire, and the lordship of Painscastle in the Welsh Marches, were all to become valuable and important parts of the Beauchamp inheritance, although, as Sinclair rightly points out, the presence of a surviving Tony dowager meant that the earldom had only two-thirds of the inheritance until she died in 1340." (Barfield, Chap. 1)
Proprietary Title: Lady of Skipton
Parents/Pedigree: Daughter of William le Meschin, Lord of Copeland, and Cecilia de Rumilly, Lady of Skipton.
Partners/Progeny: Married (1) c1138 William FitzDuncan, Earl of Moray, son of Duncan II of Scotland and Ethelreda of Scotland, with whom she had a son and 3 daughters; married (2) Alexander FitzGerold.
ALICE D'EU (1192-1246)
Also known as: Alice de Lusignan
Proprietary Title: 8th Countess of Eu & 4th Lady of Hastings 1191-1246
Parents/Pedigree: Henry II of Eu & Matilda de Warenne
Partners/Progeny: Married 1213 Raoul I de Lusignan (1160/64/65-1219), Lord of Issoudun & Count of Eu (Raoul I of Eu)
Patrimony.Properties: "As Alice's mother, Matilda, had married again to Henry d'Estouteville of Eckington, Lord of Valmont and Rames in Normandy, and had a son, John, by d'Estouteville, it was JOhn, Alice's half-brother, therefore, who became heir to all the Warenne lands. Matilda held in her own right. This left Alice solely with the inheritance from her father. The struggle to obtain and hold on to this inheritance would be the driving force in Alice's adult life. Her mother's brother William de Warenne actively supported his niece in her fight to retain her paternal inheritance. In August 1209, Alice officially received the Comte of Eu from Philip II Augustus, King of France, when she also made a quitclaim of all rights to Neufchatel, Mortemer and Arques. Mortemer was part of the de Warenne ancestral lands in Normandy, given to William I de Warenne by William the Conqueror; suggesting that Alice was renouncing her own rights to the French de Warenne lands, as a granddaughter of Isabel de Warenne, Countess of Surrey." (Ladies of Magna Carta: 131)
"Her husband, Raoul died on 1 May 1219 and was succeeded as Count of Er by their son, Raoul II, still only a child. It was left to Alice, now dowager countess, to administer the Eu inheritance. She paid 15,000 silver marks to the French King to receive the county of Eu in her own name and regained control of her English lands, entrusted to her uncle, the earl of Surrey, as her representative, following her husband's death." (Ladies of Magna Carta: 133)
"Alice was a shrewd political survivor and may well have used the clauses of Magna Carte, which safeguarded the lands of widows, to press her case for the restoration of Tickhill. However, with lands in France and England, two countries often at war, she found herself caught between a rock and a hard place. In 1225 she handed Tickhill Castle to Henry III, until the end of hostilities with France, as a means of safeguarding her lands. Nevertheless, this did not save her when she was ordered to levy troops for the French king, Louis IX, as Countess of Eu, and send her forces to fight for him. As a consequence, Henry III seized Tickhill Castle, although it was only permanently attached to the English crown after Alice's death." (Ladies of Magna Carta: 133)
Notes: " . . . In 1219 Alice Countess of Eu executed a charter acknowledging the terms upon which Philip Augustus had restored the comte of Eu to her; it sets out that the king retained to himself the fief of Bully which Robert de Mellevilla held of him in the bailiwick of Neufchatel. Alice, the heiress of the family, was great-great-granddaughter of William count of Eu by Beatrix sister of Roger de Busli, a marriage by which Roger's honour of Tickhill came to the counts of Eu." (Loyd: 21)
Patronages: "Alice was renowned for her wide patronage, both secular and religious, and has left numerous charters as testament. She was a benefactor of both French and English religious houses, including Battle Abbey and Christ Church, Canterbury in England and Eu and Foucarmont -- where her son would be laid to rest -- in France. Alice issued a charter in 1219, to Roche Abbey, which was witnessed by her uncle William, Earl de Warenne. She also granted an annual allowance to Loretta de Braose, Countess of Leicester, who wea living as a recluse at Hackington. Alice also granted several lands to others, such as Greetwell in the county of Lincoln, which had previously been held by Walter de Tylly in Alice's name and was given to Earl de Warenne in August 1225; the earl was to annually render a sparrowhawk to Philippa de Tylly in payment. In 1232 Alice issued a charter to Malvesin de Hersy, of Osberton. . . ." (Ladies of Magna Carta: 133)
ALICE OF JERUSALEM (c1106-)
Power Exercised: Princess-Regent of Antioch, 1130, 1135-1136
ALIENOR DE PORHOET (c1200-?)
Proprietary Title: Lady of Lannoue
ALIENOR DE VERMANDOIS (1152-after 1122)
Proprietary Titles: Countess of Vermandois and Valois, 1183-1214
Parents/Pedigree: She was the daughter of Raoul I "the Valiant" of Vermandois and his 3rd wife, Laurette of Lorraine. In 1214, she renounced her titles to the French Crown and entered a nunnery.
Progeny/Posterity: She was married 5 times to Godfrey of Hainaut, Count of Ostervant (d. 1163); c1167 to Guillaume IV of Nevers (d.1168); c1170 to Mathieu of Lorraine (1137-73), Count of Boulogne; c1175 to Mathieu III of Beaumont-sur-Oise (d.1208/09) and c1210 to Etienne II of Blois (d. 1252), Lord of Chatillon-sur-Loing.
Notes: "In 1182 Elisabeth de Vermandois died without children, thus depriving the count of Flanders of his original claim to the Vermandois lands. In the meantime, Alienor had remarried. Her new husband was Mathieu, count of Beaumont-sur-Oise and chamberlain in the royal household. Freed from the domination of the count of Flanders, Philip Augustus repudiated his confirmation of Elisabeth's concession of Vermandois, Amiens and Valois to her husband (the king asserted that he had acted under duress) and defended the claims of Alienor de Beaumont to her sister's inheritance... The struggle between the king and the count of Flanders culminated in the agreement at Boves (1185) by which a threefold division of the former lands of the count of Vermandois was made. The count of Flanders was permitted to hold Saint-Quentin and Peronne for his lifetime. Alienor de Beaumont retained Valois and the rest of Vermandois including Ribemont. But in compensation for his role in the affair, the kind was conceded the county of Amiens, along with Mont didier and Roua. Alienor probably conceded these lands in the form of the relief due to a feudal suzerain when a new enfeoffment took place. By 1185 Philip Augustus not only intervened as a potential heir in the successio0n of Vermandois, Valois and Amiens, but had also gained actual possession)..." (Baldwin, pp. 25-26)
ALINE BASSET (1237-1281)
[Gen1]
Proprietary Title: Baroness Basset
Parents/Pedigree: Sir Philip Basset (1185-1271) and of Hawise de Lovaine (1236-?).
Progeny/Posterity: She married (1) in c1250, Sir Hugh le Despenser, and (2) in 1271 Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk.
Notes: "Aline, the lessee, was the daughter and heiress of Philip, Baron Basset, of Wycombe, who died 1271. She was born 1245, and married, 1, Hugh le Despenser, who fell at Evesham in 1265. She married, 2, Roger Bigod, fourth Earl of Norfolk, and Earl Mareschal. Alina seems to have died 9 Edward I, when an inquisition was held upon her lands. The Earl married again about 18 Edward I. When she granted this lease, she must have been married to her second husband about four years. It is singular that, being a married woman, she should have taken a lease; but she was a great heiress, and probably deference was shown to her in the management of her own property, which lay near Dinas Powis." (Archaeologia cambrensis, p. 180)
Notes: "...Roger made a very substantial addition of his own by virtue of his marriage. At some point in the period 1265-71, he was wedded to Lady Aline la Despenser. Aline was the widow of Hugh Despenser, the loyal henchman of Simon de Montfort who had fought and fallen alongside his leader at Evesham... [I]t may be that the marriage of Roger and Aline was brokered by their fathers, both staunch royalists, in the months after Evesham... Whatever political or personal attractions recommended the match, it undoubtedly improved the fortunes of both parties. Aline gained a new husband and protector, set to become far wealthier than her previous partner. Roger, meanwhile had instantly acquired four new Midlan manors (Loughborough, Freeby and Hugglescote in Leicestershire, and Brnwell in Northamptonshire), and was also anticipating a far greater dividend, because his new wife was the sole heiress of the Basset fortune. When her father died in 1271, Aline inherited the manors of Lamarsch, Tolleshunt Knights, Tolleshunt Guisnes, Wix, South Weald and Layer de la Haye (Essex), Berwick Bassett, Woortton Bassett and Vastern (Wiltshire), Woking and Sutton Green (Surrey), Elsfield and Cassington (Oxfordshire), Aston Clinton and High Wycombe (Buckinghamshire), Soham (Cambridgeshire) and Speen (Berkshire). This extensive list, however, came with a crucial caveat. Aline had a son from her earlier marriage who stood to inherit everything in the event of her death...." (Morris, pp. 104-105)
ALIX DE BAUX (1367-1426)
Proprietary Titles: Countess of Avellino, Lady of Baux, Countess of Beaufort and Viscountess of Turenne.
Parents/Pedigree: Daughter and heiress of Raymond II of Baux and Jeanne de Beaufort.
Properties: Les Baux: The Barony of Les Baux consisted of seventy-nine towns or bourgs, which formed the territory called La Baussenique. It was confiscated by Louis III, Duke of Anjou, and Count of Provence in 1414, after having been ogoverned by one family from Pons des Baux, the first who appears in history, and who died in 970. The last male representative died in 1374, and his sister and heiress, Alice, married Conrad, Count of Freiburg, who died in 1414. She bequeathed the principality to her kinsman, William, Duke of Andria, but on account of his attachment to the opposed party, Louis III, seized on Les Baux. In 1642, Louis XIII, erected it into a marquisate, and gave it to Honore Grimaldi, Prince of Monaco, and it remained in the possession of the House of Monaco till the revolution of 1789." (Baring-Gould, pp. 70-71)
Partner/Progeny: She married (1) in 1380 Odon de Villars (d.1413), titular Count of Geneva; and (2) in 1418 Konrad von Freiburg and Neuenburg (d.1424). (Family de Baux)
Alix I de Brittany (1200-1250)
Alice of Brittany
Alix of Thouars
Proprietary Title: Duchess of Brittany, 1213-1221; Countess of Richmond, 1213-1221
Parents/Pedigree: Daughter of Guy of Thouars (d.1213) and Constance, Duchess of Brittany (d. 1201).
Power Exercised: Regent of Brittany for her son, Jean I, 1221-1237
Notes: "...Alice was betrothed to a Capetian cadet, Pierre de Dreux,...and they were married in 1213, probably before the death of Guy de Thouars in April that year. Alice and Pierre de Dreux thus succeeded to the duchy of Brittany in 1213. At the time of his death, Guy de Thouars no longer possessed any interests in the honour of Richmond and Alice did not succeed to any English lands... However, in 1215, negotiations were commenced between Pierre de Dreux and John (of England), desperate for aid in England, which eventually resulted in the grant of all the lands of the honour of Richmond south of the Humber to Alice and Pierre in 1219....
"Like her mother, Alice succeeded as heiress to the duchy of Brittany as an infant, but had to await marriage before she could assume the government of the duchy. Unlike Constance, Alice predeceased her first and only husband and so never had the opportunity to govern in her own name...." (Everard & Jones, p. 166-167)
ALIX DE BOURGOGNE (c1254-1290)
Proprietary Title: Countess of Auxerre, 1273
ALIX DE CHATILLON
Proprietary Title: Lady of Clichy la Garenne
ALIX DE COUCY
Notes: Sister and heiress of Enguerrand IV of Coucy, who died in 1311 without leaving an heir. She married Arnoul III of Guines, Lord of Ardres and Bourbourg, and their son, Enguerrand of Guines (d.1321), became Enguerrand V of Coucy, Lord of Coucy, of Marle and of de la Fere, of Oisy and of Havrincourt, of Montmirail, of Conde-en-Brie, of Chalons le Petit, of Crepy, of Vervins and chatelain of Chateau-Thierry.
"The first race of the Lords of Coucy became extinct on the death of Enguerrand or Ingelram IV. in 1311, when his sister Alix carried his vast inheritance into the family of the Counts of Guisnes; from whom descended the second race of the Lords of Coucy, who ended in an heiress, Mary de Coucy, who married, in 1383, Henry, Duke of Bar." (Gurney, p. 126)
ALIX DE COURTENAY (1160-1218)
Proprietary Title: Lady of La Ferte-Gaucher
Parents/Pedigree: Daughter of Pierre I de Courtenay and of Elisabeth de Courtenay. "...Alice was the daughter of Peter de Courtenay I (1125-1187), lord of Montargis and Chateaurenard south of Paris, himself the son of Louis VI of France and the brother of Louis VII...." (Church, pp. 175)
Partners/Progeny: Married (1) in 1178 (divorced 1186) Guillaume I of Joigny, no issue; (2) in 1186 Aymer Taillefer (d.1202), Count of Angouleme, with whom she had Isabelle d'Angouleme, the future Queen of England. "Alice's first husband was Andrew lord of La Ferte-Gaucher in Champagne, to whom she was married at some time after 1169... As her second husband, at some time after 1177, Alice married William count of Joigny near Auxerre. By William she had a son, Peter, later count of Joigny (d.1222), a half-brother of Isabella of Angouleme." (Church, p. 176)
Property: "...The lordship of La Ferte-Gaucher itself was retained as dower for Alice de Courtenay, Andrew's widow. In this way, through her first marriage, Alice acquired not only a rich lordship in Champagne, where she continued to exercise her rights as dowager for the next thirty years, but close kinship, as step-mother, to one of the more extraordinary warrior saints of thirteenth-century France." (Church, p. 176)
ALIX DE DREUX (1243-1288)
Proprietary Title: Lady of Pontarcy
ALIX D'EU (d.1246)
Proprietary Title: Countess of Eu, 1191-1246
"Alice Countess of Eu was a mere child in 1186, when she succeeded her brother Ralph, but so considerable an heiress was not allowed to remain long unmarried, and the husband chosen for her by King Henry II was Ralph Seigneur de Issoudon and Mello in Poitou, the second son of Hugh IX de Lusignan by Matilda Countess of La Marche and Angouleme. It was not a match of disparagement even for so nobly descended an heiress, for Ralph was a Cadt of one of those semi-royal families, who were connected by marriage with the Kings of England and France. (Yorkshire Archaeological Sociey)
ALIX DE MACON (d.1260)
Proprietary Title: Countess of Macon, 1224-1239
ALIX VON MERAN (d.1279)
a.k.a. Adelaide of Burgundy
a.k.a. Alix of Vergy
Proprietary Titles: Countess Palatine of Burgundy, 1248-1279, in succession to her brother Otto III of Burgundy
Parents/Pedigree: Daughter of Otto I, Duke of Meran, and Beatrice II, Countess Palatine of Burgundy
Power Exercised: Countess of Salins, as wife of Hugues of Salins (d.1266); Countess of Savoy and Bresse, as wife of Philippe of Savoy (d.1285)
Progeny/Posterity: Married around 1239 Hugues (d.1266), Count of Salins, with 4 sons and 3 daughters.
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REFERENCES
Freeman, Edward (1869). The History of the Norman Conquest of England, Its Causes and Its Results (Vol. III). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
