Ida Of BOUILLON

Ida married Eustache II in Dec 1057. Eustache (son of Eustace I and Matilda/Maud Of LOUVAIN) was born about 1030 in Boulogne, France; died between 1070 and 1080. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Count of Edessa

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Count of Bologne, Duke of Lower Lorraine

Notes:

Name:
Domesday tenant 1086 at Carshalton, Surrey, a leader of the First Crusade, elected King of Jerusalem, but took the title Advocate of the Holy Sepulcher (as Godfrey I): succeeded by his next younger brother Baldwin, Count of Edessa, who became Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem, d. 2 Apr 1118.

The book "Ancestral Roots" by Frederick Lewis Weis, has much to say about the name Godfrey or Geoffrey, his wife and son. They are on pages 152 and 153. I'm just going to quote a little of it:

While the holdings of Geoffrey de Mandeville were not nearly as great as those of Eustace of Boulogne, he was a very substantial landholder in 11 counties and his daughter a suitable match for "Godfrey", who had already inherited a great deal from his maternal uncle. that De Mandeville would have alienated property in order to give his daughter in marriage to a bastard son of Count Eustace, lacking any substantial prospects, is highly unlikely.

More recently, Johnson and Cronne, good historians but poor linguists, have used Round's article to "correct" Davis. The true identity of Geoffrey/Godfrey was recognized again by Miss Catherine Morton, who has been in touch with DHK and with Sir Anthony Wagner on this matter. Wagner (1975, p. 253, with an unfortunate misprint) mentions the "confusion" between "Godfrey and "Geoffrey." It was there asusmed that the confusion was ancient and that Eustace's son, Godofred, was genuinely a Godfrey. It should be emphasized, however, that actually the confusion is entirely modern due to the use of "Godfrey" to transcribe a name which is etymologically "Geoffrey" (the Germans use "Gottfried" both for the leader of the first crusade and for Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou--one may regard this either as desirable consistency or doubled error).

Wagner cites the views of Stephen Runiman, a historian of the crusades, pointing out that crusader sources make no suggestion of a wife for "Godfrey" and emphasizing his chastity. However, a wife and child left England would not necessarily have been known to such sources, nor was there anything notable in a Crusader leaving a wife behind, though certainly noteworthy if he brought a wife with him. Runciman's further suggestion that "Godfrey might have made some sort of "morganatic" alliance must be rejected. The concept is completely foreign to the period, save, perhaps, among the Welsh, and would, in any case, hardly apply to a marriage of "Godfrey/Geoffrey" with Beatrice de Mandeville, of family whose status was fully comparable to his own. It is extremely unlikely that "maritagium", the term used for Goisfrid's marriage, would be applied to a union which was in any way irregular. Runciman is looking back from the days of Godfrey's greatness, rather than realistically appraising the situation at the time of his marriage.

The child left by "Godfrey" in England was William de Boulogne, bearer of one of the oldest English surnames, for William was neither Count of Boulogne nor from Boulogne. He should appear with some frequency in the English records, for his son, Faramus, held extensive estates in widely separated parts of England (Somerset, Surrey, Essex, Oxford, Buckinghamshire, Suffolk, probably Kent and Northumberland.) William appears as a witness to a document of 1106 and in a couple of later documents. Perhaps he is a still-unrecognized William Fitz-Geoffrey of other documents.

the heir of Faramus was his daughter, Sybil, who married Enguerrand de Fiennes, whose heirs are the extant Fiennes family. However, Faramus had two younger brothers, Eustace and Simon, who witnessed his charter confirming land grants at Balham by Clapham made to the Abbey of Bec by their father and grandfather. The Eustace de Boulogne of that document may well be the Eustace de Boulogne who appears in a document of 1145-7 with his brother Baldwin de Boulogne, the King's chaplain, who could, therefore, be another brother of Faramus. Widicumbe and Ash, in Martock, which had been held by Count Eustace before the Norman conquest, passed to his heir, William, Count of Boulogne (son of King Stephen), who granted these properties to his cousin, Faramus de Boulogne, from the overlordship passed to the Fiennes family. The sub-holders, however, were Boulognes, and in 1227 the sub-holder was a second Faramus de Boulogne, son of Thomas. Presumably Thomas was a grandson or great-grandson of a brother of the first Faramus.

In later mediaval period, "de Boulogne" (de Bolonia, de Bononia) became "Boleyn" and still later "Bullen". Admiral Sir Charles Bullen, a hero of Trafalgar, and his relatives probably have a male line descent from "Godfrey"/Geoffrey, as may also the Somerset families of Ashe, Martock, Crewkerne, Widicumbe/Whitcomb; the Boulognes, alias Bamptons, of Oxford; the Bernes, of Kent; and perhaps the Rochesters and Lavers of Essex. An apparent female relationship connected the Boulognes of Somerset with the Beaumonts of Northumberland, and the Boulognes and Widicumbs of Yorkshire may be of the family.

However, the name Boulogne also came into England much later with merchants from the Boullonnais, and it is apparently from one such family that Queen Anne Boleyn derived. Much remains to be done before fully documented unbroken pedigrees can be established, but Godfrey's English wife and child can now be recognized.

Family/Spouse: Beatrice DE MANDEILLE. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Count of Boulogne and Lens
• Fact: 1125, Went of 1st Crusade

Eustache married Mary Of SCOTLAND in 1102. Mary (daughter of Malcolm III CANMORE and St. Margaret Of SCOTLAND) was born about 1084 in Scotland; died on 31 May 1116 in St. Saviors Monastery, Bermondsey, Middlesex, England; was buried in Abbey Of St. Savior, Bermondsey, London. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]