♀Maud of Flanders

Maud of Flanders, a daughter of the Count of Flanders, became Queen of England when her husband, William the Conqueror, took the English crown. She was the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Henry of England (died 1135).

Queen of England

Maud, also called Matilda, was a daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders^W. She married William of Normandy, and when he was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066 she became its queen. Their sons included Robert Curthose^W, who held Normandy; William Rufus^W, who followed his father as King of England; and Henry, who became King Henry I of England^W on his brother’s death in 1100. Henry’s line leads to Nancy Jane Blanchard.

She and William each founded an abbey at Caen: his, the Abbaye aux Hommes^W, holds his tomb; hers, the Abbaye aux Dames^W, holds hers.

Lines of descent

Both lines from Maud to Nancy Jane Blanchard run down Nancy’s father’s side, through Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975), and both pass through her son Henry of England (died 1135). They meet again in Joan of England (1272–1307), whose parents, Edward of England (1239–1307) and Eleanor of Castile (died 1290), both descended from Maud.

Notes

Sources

The facts given for Maud come from Burke’s A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage (1869), p. xviii, a compiled work. Burke calls her Queen of England, wife of William the Conqueror and daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, and names Henry among their sons. Burke gives no dates for her. The abbey at Caen comes from established history, not from Burke.