♂William of Normandy

William of Normandy (died 9 September 1087), known as William the Conqueror, was Duke of Normandy and the Norman conqueror of England. He was the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Henry of England (died 1135).

The conquest

William held the duchy of Normandy and claimed the English throne after the death of King Edward. In 1066 he crossed the Channel with a Norman army and defeated King Harold Godwinson^W at the Battle of Hastings^W on 14 October. He was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066, at Westminster Abbey^W, so that within three months he had gone from a duke across the sea to a crowned king. The years that followed, the Norman conquest of England^W, put Norman lords on English land. In 1086 he ordered the great survey recorded in the Domesday Book^W.

Marriage and children

William married Maud of Flanders, a daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders^W. 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.

Death

William died on 9 September 1087 at Hermentrude, a suburb of Rouen, and was buried in the church of St. Stephen at Caen. He and Maud 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 William to Nancy Jane Blanchard run down Nancy’s father’s side, through Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975), and both pass through his 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 William.

Notes

Sources

The facts given for William come from Burke’s A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage (1869), p. xviii, a compiled work. Burke gives his titles as Duke of Normandy and King of England, crowned 25 December 1066, his death on 9 September 1087 at Hermentrude, a suburb of Rouen, and his burial at St. Stephen’s, Caen, and names Maud, daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, as his wife and Robert, William Rufus and Henry among his sons. The account of the conquest and the two abbeys at Caen is established history, not taken from Burke.

Birth and a daughter left out

William’s birth is left without a date here; Burke places it at Falaise in 1025. Burke also lists a daughter Gundred, wife of William de Warenne, among his children; that parentage is doubted, and she is left out.