• General Notes

  [charlemegne.FTW]
  
  d. 1027 or 1301, dau. of the forester of Arques.
  
  Robert de Torigny reported the tradition that Richard I became i nfatuated with the wife of one of his foresters, but being the p ious wife, she substituted her sister Gunnor, much to everyone' s satisfaction. The parentage of Gunnor and her siblings is unkn own. Some sources call her father Herfastus, but this was in fac t the name of her brother. She has also been claimed as a daught er of the Danish royal family, but there is no evidence for this , and the context of her coming to the attention of Richard I an d the family's subsequent rise to power militates against her be ing a royal daughter.
  
  
  e-mail: ROBERT E. BOWMAN wrote:
  >
  > Weiss in line 121E shows Richard I , the Fearless, of Normand y with
  > (Danish wife) Gunnora, whom he describes as a dau. of the Fore ster of
  > Arques.
  
  This is inaccurate.  Gunnora's sister was wife of the Forester o f Arques.
  
  > Yet, Keats - Rohan in her article on Poppa in last year's doub le issue of
  > TAG describes her as Scandinavian.
  >
  > Question: Is there more than the above known of Gunnor ?
  
  If I recall correctly, she was described as belonging to a Norma n family
  of Danish extraction (keep in mind her father was only of the fi rst
  post-settlement generation, or perhaps a settler himself).  Ever ything
  else you see about her is wrong.
  
  She was NOT daughter of any King of Denmark or Norway.
  
  She was NOT daughter of a man named Herfast/Arfast (or at leas t there is
  no evidence to suggest that she was), that being the name of her
  brother.
  
  She was NOT from any place you have seen her associated with.  T he only
  geographical information we have is the above, about her sister .  It is
  extremely likely that all other properties which came to be hel d by her
  family were acquired as a result of her relationship with Richar d, and
  so just because her brother or sister happenned to have held i n a
  particular place doesn't mean that's where she was from.
  
  In short, we know the names of several (but perhaps not all) o f her
  siblings, their children and descendants.  We know where severa l of them
  were holding land after her relationship began, but we only ca n place
  one of them, the wife of the Forester, before the relationship .  From
  this information we can hypothesize general location and socia l status,
  but nothing more.
  
  taf

Details of Gunnor's family with Richard I of Normandy