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OF BOULOGNE (OF LENS) Judith
Birth: 1054 of Lens, Artois, France
Death: AFT 1086
Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_of_Lens
Countess Judith (born in Normandy between 1054 and 1055, died after 1086), was a
niece of William the Conqueror. She was a daughter of his sister Adelaide of
Normandy, Countess of Aumale and Lambert II, Count of Lens.
Life[edit]
In 1070, Judith married Earl Waltheof of Huntingdon and Northumbria. They had three
children. Their eldest daughter, Maud, brought the earldom of Huntingdon to her
second husband, David I of Scotland. Their daughter, Adelise, married Raoul III de
Conches whose sister, Godehilde, married Baldwin I of Jerusalem.
In 1075, Waltheof joined the Revolt of the Earls against William. It was the last
serious act of resistance against the Norman conquest of England. Judith betrayed
Waltheof to her uncle, who had Waltheof beheaded on 31 May 1076.
After Waltheof's execution Judith was betrothed by William to Simon I of St. Liz, 1st
Earl of Northampton. Judith refused to marry Simon and she fled the country to avoid
William's anger. William then temporarily confiscated all of Judith's English estates.
Finally, Simon married Judith's daughter, Maud, in or before 1090.
Judith founded Elstow Abbey in Bedfordshire around 1078. She also founded churches
at Kempston and Hitchin.
She had land-holdings in 10 counties in the Midlands and East Anglia. Her holdings
included land at:
Earls Barton, Northamptonshire
Great Doddington, Northamptonshire
Grendon, Northamptonshire
Ashby Folville, Leicestershire
Lowesby, Leicestershire
Merton, Oxfordshire
Piddington, Oxfordshire
Potton, Bedfordshire
Sawtry, Huntingdonshire
The parish of Sawtry Judith in Huntingdonshire is named after the Countess.
From the Domesday Book[edit]
In POTONE Hugh holds ½ virgate of land from the Countess. Land for 1 plough; it is
there, with 1 smallholder. The value is and was 5s; before 1066, 2s. Earl Tosti held
this land in Potton, his manor.
Countess Judith holds POTONE herself. It answers for 10 hides. Land for 12 ploughs.
In lordship 3½ hides; 3 ploughs there. 18 villagers and 2 Freemen with 8 ploughs; a
ninth possible. 13 smallholders and 3 slaves. 1 mill, 5s; meadow for 12 ploughs;
pasture for the village livestock. In total, value £12; when acquired 100s; before 1066
£13. King Edward held this manor; it was Earl Tosti's. There were 4 Freemen who had
1 hide and 1 virgate; they could grant to whom they would.
In (Cockayne) HATLEY Countess Judith holds 3 hides and 2½ virgates as one manor.
Land for 6½ ploughs. In lordship 1 hide and ½ virgate; 2 ploughs there. 8 villagers with
4½ ploughs; woodland, 4 pigs. Value £6 5s; when acquired 100s; before 1066 £6. Earl
Tosti held this manor. It lies in Potton, the Countess' own manor. A Freeman had 1
virgate; he could grant and sell, and withdraw to another lord.
Ranulf brother of Ilger holds EVERTON from the Countess. It answers for 5 hides.
Land for 5 ploughs; 2 ploughs there; 3 possible. 4 villagers; 5 smallholders. Meadow
for 1 plough. Value £3; when acquired 100s; as much before 1066. Earl Tosti held this
manor. It lay in Potton, the Countess' own manor.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I02213
Note:
He [Waltheof] married, in 1070, Judith, daughter of Lambert, COUNT OF LENS, by
Adelaide or Adeliz, sister of the Conqueror. He died as aforesaid, 31 May 1076, and a
fortnight later the Abbot Ulfketel, at Judith's request and by the King's permission,
removed his body to Crowland, where it was honourably entombed.(g) His widow, who
as "Judith the Countess" is recorded in Domesday Book to have held estates in many
counties in 1086, most of them apparently gifts from the King, her uncle, held
Huntingdon in dower. She founded the Nunnery of Elstow, near Bedford. [Complete
Peerage VI:638-40, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
------------------------
After the execution of Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon, King William offered Judith, his
niece, the deceased earl's widow, in marriage to Simon St. Liz, a noble Norman, but
the lady peremptorily rejected the alliance, owing, Dugdale says, to St. Liz's halting in
one leg, which refusal so displeased the Conqueror that he immediately seized upon
the castle and honour of Huntingdon, which the countess held in dower, exposing
herself and her dau. to a state of privation and obscurity in the Isle of Ely and other
places, while he bestowed upon the said Simon St. Liz the town of Northampton and
the whole hundred of Falkeley, then valued at £40 per annum, to provide shoes for his
horses. St. Liz thus disappointed in obtaining the hand of the Countess of Huntingdon,
made his addresses with greater success to her elder dau., the Lady Maud, who
became his wife, when William conferred upon the said Simon de St. Liz, the Earldoms
of Huntingdon and Northampton. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and
Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 467-8, St. Liz, Earls of
Huntingdon]
NOTE: The parentage of Judith of Lens has come under critical study since the early
1970's, when Enguerrand II was thought by some to be her father. The currently
acceptable parentage among most scholars is as stated, i.e., Lambert of Boulogne.
[Roderick W. Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, 3rd ed., Genealogical Publishing
Company, Baltimore MD, 1998]
Parents
DE BOULOGNE (OF LENS) Lambert (ABT 1022 - 1054)
OF NORMANDY Adelaide (ABT 1027 - BEF 1090)
Siblings
OF BOULOGNE (OF LENS) Judith (1054 - AFT 1086)
Marriage To ____ Waltheof II (ABT 1035 - 31 May 1076)
m. 1070
Notes
Parents
BJORNSSON Sigurd (Siward) "Digera" (ABT 996 - 1055)
OF NORTHUMBERLAND (OF BERNICIA) Aelfleda (ABT 1000 - )
Children by ____ Waltheof II ABT 1035 - 31 May 1076
DE HUNTINGDON Matilda (Maud) (ABT 1072 - 23 Apr 1131)
HUNTINGDON Alice (Adeliza) (ABT 1075 - AFT 1126)
Marriage To DE TAILLEBOIS Ivo (ABT 1036 - 1094)
m. AFT 1076
Notes
Parents
DE CHATEAU-LANDON Geoffrey II "Ferreol" (1000 - 1 Apr 1046)
DE ANJOU Ermengarde (ABT 1018 - 21 Mar 1076)
Children by DE TAILLEBOIS Ivo ABT 1036 - 1094
DE TAILLEBOIS William (ABT 1077 - )
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