1535944

[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

Records not imported into INDI (individual) Gramps ID I7086:

Line ignored as not understood Line 150095: 2 SOUR @S159427@
Skipped subordinate line Line 150096: 3 DATA
Skipped subordinate line Line 150097: 4 TEXT Date of Import: Sep 24, 2000