General Notes

The real difficulty lies in the name of Mabel's father.  The only Rainald d'Orval who so far as can be seen was seigneur of Orval witnessed a charter of Robert Curthose between 1101 and 1105 made gifts to Lessay recorded in a later notification.  The full text of the latter shows Rainald to have had a son Hugh who succeeded him and who was in turn succeeded by his son William, which last was in possession before 1151, since a gift of his to Lessay was confirmed by Geoffrey, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou.  This William had a son Richard, who, with his father, witnessed a charter of William and Robert de St. John for La Luzerne in 1162.  William d'Orval seems to have died at some date before Michaelmas 1179, since his lands were in the King's hand from then to the end of the year.  As the lands then passed to Adam de Port and his wife, Richard must have predeceased his father.  A Rainald d'Orval renders account at the Norman Exchequer at Michaelmas 1180, but in the "prepositurs" of Nonancourt; and since Orval had by that time passed to Mabel and her husband he could not have been her father.  To sum up; it is difficult to see how Mabel's father could have been a Rainald d'Orval and his name must remain uncertain; but the suggestion may be hazarded that she may have been the daughter of Richard, son of William d'Orval and that the "Reginaldus" of the "Historia" may be a scribal error for "Ricardus".  [Complete Peerage]