GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2000-05 > 0958607515


From: Stewart Baldwin< >
Subject: Re: Judith married to Tostig of Northumberland
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 23:51:55 GMT


On Tue, 16 May 2000 19:06:03 +0200, Kelly Petit
< > wrote:

>Who were Judith's parents? I have two different possibilities here:
>1. She's set up as the daughter of Richard III of Normandy and Adelheid
>2. She's set up as the daughter of Eleanor of Normandy (Richard I's
>daughter) and Baudin IV of Flandern.
>
>I thought the second solution was the right one, but now I don't know
>any longer.
>Can anyone help me here?

This is discussed in Freeman's History of the Norman Conquest of
England, vol. 3, pp. 663-5, where he concludes that Judith was the
daughter of Baldwin IV by a daughter of Richard II of Normandy. The
principle primary sources cited (among other, later ones) are the
nearly contemporary Vita dwardi (a life of Edward the Confessor),
which states that she was a sister of Baldwin V of Flanders and a
"niece" ("... neptem ...") of Edward (the word "niece" being explained
away as "daughter of a fist cousin", Edward's mother being Emma of
Normandy); Florence of Worcester, who under the year 1051 calls her a
daughter of Baldwin, count of Flanders; Orderic Vitalis, who twice
refers to her as a sister of Matilda of Flanders and daughter of
Baldwin V (not IV, but he is otherwise confused on his genealogy
here), followed in this by some later writers; and the "Saxon
annalist", who calls Judith an aunt of count Robert of Flanders (son
of Baldwin V) and a relative of king Ethmund (presumably meaning
Edward the Confessor), but this annalist errs in making Judith the
wife of Harold rather than Tostig.

Freeman does not mention the theory that Judith was the daughter of
Richard III of Normandy, and none of the primary sources that he cites
would support that interpretation. The sources given by ES should be
tracked back to see what the basis of that claim is.

Stewart Baldwin

This thread: