General Notes

Born: circa 1103 in Louvain, Leeuwen, Brabant, Belgium, daughter ofGodefroy I, Duke de Lorraine and Ide de Namur. Married on 29 Jan 1121:Henry I, King of England, son of Guillaume, Duke de Normandie andMathilde-Maud de Flandre. Adelaide was Henri I’s second wife and he washer first husband. At 15 years of age, she therefore married this 50-yearold widower. Perhaps understandably, her true passion was said to beneedlework. Married before 1128: Guillaume d’Aubigny, son of Williamd’Aubigny and Cecily Bigod (source- a pedigree purchased at ArundelCastle). Married before 1149: Gilbert de Ville. It is unclear whetherGilbert was Adelaide’s second or third husband. Some sources indicate shebore her second husband some 7 children, and his name was Albini. Died:on 23 Apr 1151 in Afflighem, Flandre, Belgium. Adelaide was 48 years ofage when she died. Some sources indicate Adeliza de Louvain, who was thewidow of Henri I and married Guillaume d’Aubigny/de Albini, died in 1176.

In hopes of further legitimate issue King Henry married again after theloss of his only son William. His bride, whose age is uncertain but whowas certainly younger than his daughter Matilda, was Adeliza, thedaughter of Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lower Lorraine, Marquess ofAntwerp, and Count of Louvain. The marriage took place at Windsor on 29January 1122.
The coronation of the new Queen at Westminster Abbey on 3 February 1122gave rise to an amusing incident. The King, wearing his crown, had takenhis seat on the throne to await his consort’s crowning when the agedArchbishop Ralph d’Escures, verging on senility, entered. Seeing the Kinghe flew into a rage, thinking that his right to place the crown on thesovereign’s head had been infringed. He at once snatched the crown fromthe King’s head (one version has it that he knocked it off with hispastoral staff) and insisted on reimposing it with his own hands. Henry’ssecond marriage remained childless; the once potent sire of manyillegitimate children was potent no longer.
In 1138 the young widowed Queen married William d’Aubigny, 1st Earl ofArundel, to whom she bore a large family before, wearied by married life,she retired to the convent of Afflighem in Flanders, where she died andwas buried in March or April 1151.