Individual Page

Person Info

• Name: Gunnora
• Sex: F
• Death: Abt 1030 ^d


Parents:

• Father:
  
• (Unk) Forquelar Of Cirques

Family:
Marriage:

• Richard I The Fearless Duke Of Normandy on Abt 978 .^m1
  
• Richard I The Fearless Duke Of Normandy Birth: 933 in Fecamp Death: 20 Nov 996 in Fecamp

Children:

1. Richard II The Good Duke Of Normandy Birth: Abt 978 Death: 23 Aug 1027 in Fecamp
2. Robert Count Of Evereux, Archbishop Of Rouen Death: 1037
3. Mauger Count Of Corbeil Death: After 1033
4. Guillaume Count Of Eu Death: 2 Jan Before 1040
5. Godfrey Count Of Brionne Death: Abt 1015
6. Hawise Of Normandy Death: 21 Feb 1034
7. Matilda Death: Abt 1005
8. Beatrix Death: 18 Jan 1035
9. Emma Birth: Abt 985 in Normandy Death: 6 Mar 1052 in Winchester

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

father:

[Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p11, White Gunnor p57]

Sources with Inaccurate birth and parent Information

nephew:

William de WARENNE (#10300) [Ref: Foss Judges p704]

Sources for death Information

date:

1027 or 1031 [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p11, Moriarty Plantagenet p267, Weis AR7 #121E]

1031 [Ref: Wagner PedigreeProgress #45]

Jan 1031 [Ref: HenryII richa001 2/8/2004, HenryII rober001 12/31/2007]

Sources with Information about marriage to Richard I The Fearless Duke Of Normandy

date:

abt 978 [Ref: Moriarty Plantagenet p11]

second marriage of Richard [Ref: HenryII richa000 2/8/2004, Richardson RoyalAnc v4p481]

second marriage of Richard, formerly his mistress [Ref: Paget HRHCharles p135, Weis AR7 #121E]

second wife of Richard I [Ref: Paget HRHCharles p7],

child:

[Ref: Clutterbuck Hertford v3p225, Crouch Normans p5, DeVajay Agatha p85, ES II #79, HenryII richa000 2/8/2004, HenryII richa001 2/8/2004, HenryII rober001 12/31/2007, Keats-Rohan DD p1098, Moriarty Plantagenet p11, Moriarty Plantagenet p267, Moriarty Plantagenet p31, Paget HRHCharles p135, Paget HRHCharles p136, Paget HRHCharles p53, Paget HRHCharles p7, Paget HRHCharles p8, Richardson RoyalAnc v4p481, Richardson RoyalAnc v5p486, Searle PredatoryKinship p252, Searle PredatoryKinship p253, Searle PredatoryKinship p262, Wagner PedigreeProgress #45, Watney WALLOP #740, Weis AR7 #121E, Weis AR7 #235]

Sources with Inaccurate marriage information

child:

(Unk) (#187552) wife of Gulbert advocate of St Valery [Ref: Searle PredatoryKinship p255]

(great-grandchild) quite possibly Esilia Crispin (#39413) wife of William Malet [Ref: Weis AR6 #234A]

Fredesina (#17532) wife of Tancred Seigneur de Hauteville, Morilla (#21667) wife of Tancred Seigneur de Hauteville [Ref: ES II #79]

Papia (#11099) wife of Richard de Hugelville [Ref: Weis AR7 #177]

Research Notes:
of the "Noblest house of the Danes" [Ref: Searle PredatoryKinship p252]

at first Richard's mistress, and married after the birth of their children [Ref: HenryII richa000 2/8/2004]

The greater part of our information about Gunnor and her relations is derived from those additions to the History of William of Jumieges for which Robert de Torigny is responsible. It is Robert who preserved the story of how Richard I of Normandy became enamoured of the beautiful Senfrie, wife of one of his foresters, and how Senfrie contrived to substitute her sister Gunnor for herself, to the Duke's ultimate satisfaction. [Ref: White Gunnor p57]

Parentage of Gunnor and her siblings is unknown. While some sources call her father Herfastus, this was in fact the name of her brother. She has also been laimed as a daughter of the Danish royal family, but there is no evidence for this, and the context of her coming to attention of Richard I and the family's subsequent rise to power militates against her being a royal daughter. Doublas argued, based on the donations of brother Arfast to the monastery of St. Pere, that the root of the family was in the Cotetin region of Normandy, but van Houts has suggested that the Cotetin land was granted to Arfast, rather than inherited by him. Thus we are left with the more ambiguous statement of Torigny and others that she was a member of a Norman family of Danish origins. [Ref: Farmerie Gunnor]

From Gesta Normannorum Ducum, Rogert de Torigni's autographed redaction (trans. van Houts):
"Because we have refered to Countess Gunnor on account of Roger de Montgomery's mother, her niece, I should like to write down the story as reported by people of old of how Gunnor cane to be Duke Richard's wife. One day when Duke Richard was told of the celebrated beauty of the wife of one of his foresters, who lived at a place called Equiqueville near the town of Arques, he deliberately went hunting there in order to see for himself whether the report he had learned from several folk was true. While staying in the forester's house, the duke was so struck by the beauty of his wife's face that he summonedhis host to bring his wife, called Sainsfrida, that night to his bedchamber. Very sadly the man told this to Sainsfrida, a wise woman, who comforted him by saying that she would send in her place her sister Gunnor, a virgin even more beautiful than her. And thus it happened. Once the duke perceived the trick he was delighted that he had not committed the sin of adultery with another man's wife. . . .
Apart from Sainsfrida, Gunnor had two sisters, Wevia and Duvelina. The latter (Duvelina)*, with the help of the countess, who was a very wise woman, married Turulf of Pont-Audemer. He was the son of someone called Torf, after whome several towns are called Tourville to the present day. Turulf's brother was Turketil, father of Ansketil of Harcourt. Turulf had by his wife Humphrey of Vieilles, father of Roger of Beaumont. The third of Countess Gunnor's sisters (Wevia)* married Osbern de Bolbec, by whom she bore the first Walter Giffard, and then Godfrey, father of William of Arques. . . ."
* The original manuscript, of which several copies survive, did not further identify these sisters, other than as "the latter" and "the third". This resulted in a certain degree of confusion, since Duvelina is actually named third, but had already been described as "the latter". However, in Robert's autographed copy, he has specifically inserted their names, which removes all ambiguity. Thus we have Sainsfrida married to the unnamed forester of (St. Vaast d')Equiqueville, Wevia married to Osbern de Bolbec, and Duvelina married to Turulf de Pont-Audemer. [Ref: Todd Farmerie SGM 8/25/1999]



Pedigree of Gunnora
 /-----(Unk) Forquelar Of Cirques
Gunnora



Descendants of Gunnora

2nd generation


3rd generation


4th generation


5th generation