1085

GUNDRED COUNTESS OF SURRY
Gundred, Countess of Surrey (died May 27, 1085) was probably born in Flanders, sister of Gerbod the Fleming, Earl of Chester.[1]

It has been said that Gundred was not the daughter of William I of England, the Conqueror, but that she was the daughter of Matilda of Flanders by, perhaps, a previous marriage. The Invincible Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, p. 26, says that the inseription on Gundred's tombstone describes her as wife of William de Warren and daughter of Wm., the Conqueror. Also in Burke's Dormant and Extinct Peerage, pp. 154, 568 and 588, she is called daughter by Wm., the Conqueror, in a charter signed by Wm., William de Warren and Henry I, son of William, the Conqueror. Thus proving this much discussed question. [2]

Gundred married William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey (d. June 20, 1088), who rebuilt Lewes Castle, making it his chief residence. In 1078 he and Gundred founded a Cluniac Priory at Southover, adjoining Lewes, where both were buried.[3] [4]

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DEATH OF GUNDRED AT CASTLEACRE, 1085

[Translation from the Latin:] Lady Gundrade Countess of Surrey, daughter of the Conqueror and wife of William the first [Earl of Surrey], died in the pangs of childbirth (vi partus cruciata) at Castelacre 27 May 1085 and the 3rd year before her husband. She lies buried in the Chapterhouse of Lewes with her husband.

[Printed in translation, Sussex Record Society, vol.40, p.18 (1934), from a Lewes cartulary compiled in 1444. The statement about Gundred's death seems to have been universally accepted, although it occurs in a document written three and a half centuries after the event, and immediately follows the statements that Gundred was William I's daughter (which everyone agrees she was not), and that she was Countess of Surrey (which she could not have been if she died in 1085). Evidently it was part of the tradition at Lewes that Gundred had died before William, being stated or implied also in the spurious Warenne charters, and in the later reference to the gift of West Walton by William of Warenne (Lewes documents, (iv)). On the other hand, Orderic (below) implies that she survived her husband.
That Earl William did have a wife who survived him is proved by a reference to his widow sending alms to the monks of Ely shortly after his death (Chester Waters, op. cit., p.21). But an entry in another 15th century cartulary, that of Bermondsey, describes Richard Guet, a benefactor in 1098, as frater comitissæ Warennæ (Rolls Series 36, vol.3, p.429). As there is no hint elsewhere of a Richard Guet being connected with Gundred's and Gerbod's family, this does suggest that William's widow was a subsequent wife. On the other hand, it's interesting to note that K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, in her entry for Richard Guet (Domesday People I..., p.365 (1999)), leaves open the question of whether he was the brother of Gundred or a subsequent wife - but does identify him as a member of the Goz family, one of whom succeeded Gerbod as Earl of Chester. (In her entry for William of Warenne, however, she sees Richard Guet's sister as a subsequent wife.)]

Source: www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/.../gundocs .shtm

The Countess had died at Castle Acre, Norfolk, one of her husband's estates.

In the course of the centuries which followed both tombstones disappeared from the priory but in 1774 William Burrell, Esq., an antiquary, discovered Gundred's in Isfield Church (seven miles from Lewes), over the remains of Edward Shirley, Esq., (d. 1550), whose father John was Clerk of the Kitchen to King Henry VII, and had it removed on October 2, 1775, to St. John's Church, Southover, the nearest place to its original site, and placed inside and at the south-west corner of the church, where, until 1847, it could be seen on the floor between pews with a very fine inscription detailing its origins etc.

In 1845, during excavations through the Priory grounds for the South Coast Railway, the lead chests containing the remains of the Earl and his Countess were discovered, and deposited temporarily, for the next two years, beneath Gundred's tombstone. In 1847 a Norman Chapel was erected by public subscription, adjoining the present vestry and chancel. Prior to re-interring the remains in this chapel, both cysts were opened to ascertain if there were any contents, which was found to be the case. New cysts were made and used, and the ancient ones preserved and placed in two recessed arches in the southern wall. Gundred's remains in a good state of preservation although the Earl's has lost some lead. Across the upper part of the right arch is the name Gvndrada. Her tombstone is of black marble.[5]

The children of William de Warenne and Gundred were:

William II de Warenne (d. May 11, 1138), buried in Lewes Priory.[6] [7] Reginald de Warenne, an adherent of Robert of Normandy.[8] Edith de Warenne, married, firstly, Gerard, Baron de Gournay.[9]