♀Maud of Huntingdon

Maud of Huntingdon^W (about 1072 – 1130 or 1131) was the eldest daughter of Earl Waltheof, the wife first of Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, and then of David of Scotland, with whom she became Queen of Scotland in 1124. She was the twenty-fifth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son Henry of Scotland (about 1114 – 1152) and, probably, Henry’s descendant John Washburn (died 1547).

Countess of Huntingdon

Maud was the eldest daughter of Waltheof of Huntingdon^W, Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, and of Judith of Lens^W, a niece of William the Conqueror. She married Simon de St. Liz^W, a Norman who had come to England early in the reign of William II, perhaps as early as 1090, when she would have been about eighteen. Both of Maud’s husbands in turn held her father’s earldom of Huntingdon, Simon presumably because of the marriage. Before 1108 Simon and Maud together granted a charter to the Priory of St. Andrew at Northampton, which he had founded or refounded. They had two sons, Simon, who later became Earl of Huntingdon himself, and Waltheof^W, who became Abbot of Melrose, and a daughter, Maud. Simon went to Jerusalem as a crusader and came home safely, but setting out a second time he died on the way at the priory of La Charité, presumably in 1111 or soon after.

Queen of Scotland

In 1113 Maud married David of Scotland, the youngest son of Malcolm III, King of Scotland, and through her he became Earl of Huntingdon, and possibly of Northampton as well. Her son Simon, still a minor, became the ward of his stepfather. A charter of David’s some years later was witnessed by “Maud his wife and their son Henry.” When David succeeded his brother as King of Scotland on 25 April 1124, Maud became his queen. Maud died in 1130 or 1131 and was buried at Scone^W.

Notes

Sources

Maud’s parentage, her two marriages, the charter to St. Andrew’s, her children by Simon de St. Liz, Simon’s death at La Charité, her son Simon’s wardship, the charter she and Henry witnessed, David’s succession, and her death and burial are given in the Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 6, 1926, pp. 640–643 and notes, under Huntingdon), citing the Vita et Passio of Waltheof, the Kelso Chartulary, Dugdale’s Monasticon, Fordun’s Scotichronicon, Wyntoun’s Cronykil and Orderic. A note in the same volume says that Waltheof’s daughter Maud married “1stly, Simon de Saint Liz or Senlis, and, 2ndly, David I, King of Scotland, both being Waltheof’s successors in title.”

Her birth

The year of her birth is an estimate: the Complete Peerage reckons she would have been about eighteen in 1090.

Simon de St. Liz and the earldom

That Simon became Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton through his marriage to Maud is the Complete Peerage’s inference: he does not appear as an earl in Domesday Book, but he was witnessing charters as “Earl Simon” by 1090. The date of his death is uncertain; he was living in 1109 and in 1111.

The descent through John Washburn

That the John whom the pedigrees give as a son of Joyce Botetourt’s great-granddaughter Joan Mitton was John Washburn of Bengeworth, who died in 1547, is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is given here as probable.