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- Adeliza de Louvain was born circa 1103 at Louvain, Belgium. She was the daughter of Godefroi I de Louvain, Duc de Basse-Lorraine and Ida de Namur, Comtesse de Namur. She married, firstly, Henry I 'Beauclerc', King of England, son of William I 'the Conqueror', King of England and Matilda de Flandre, on 29 January 1121 at Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England. She married, secondly, William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, son of Guillaume d'Aubigny and Maud le Bigod, in 1138. She was also reported to have been married on 2 February 1121 at Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England. She died circa 23 April 1151 at Affligem Abbey, Afflingham, Flanders, Belgium. She was buried at Afflingham, Flanders, Belgium.
From 30 January 1121, her married name became Queen Consort Adeliza of England. As a result of her marriage, Adeliza de Louvain was styled as Queen Dowager of England on 1 December 1135. She was a nun in 1150 at Affligem Abbey, Afflingham, Flanders, Belgium. She has an extensive biographical entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Dictionary of National Biography
Adeliza of Louvain d. 1151, second queen of Henry I, was daughter of Godfrey (Barbatus) of Louvain, duke of Brabant or Lower Lotharingia, descended in the male line from Charles the Great. The date of her birth is not known, but she is described as puella in 1120. It was partly the report of her singular beauty (on which all the chroniclers are agreed), and partly ob spem prolis adipiscendæ (Gervase, i. 92, Rolls Ser.), that Henry, then in his fiftieth year (and a widower since May 1118), sought her hand in the above year. The contract of marriage was signed 16 April 1120; but, owing to the delay in the bride's arrival, the marriage itself did not take place till 24 Jan. 1120-1, the royal pair being crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury six days later. It was on this occasion that Henry of Huntingdon (p. 243, Rolls Ser.) composed, in praise of her beauty, the elegiacs beginning:Anglorum regina, tuos, Adeliza, decoresIpsa referre parans musa stupore riget.
Of a gentle and retiring disposition she took no part in politics, but devoted herself to soothing and pacifying the disappointed and sullen king. She also interested herself greatly in the literary movement of the day, taking under her special patronage Geoffroi Gaimar, Philip du Than, the author of the Voyage de St. Brandan, and David the Trouveur. On the death of Henry (1 Dec. 1135) she disappears from view; but it is probable that she retired to the castle of Arundel which, with its honour, had been left to her in dower for life. We find her residing there in 1139, when the empress landed in the neighbourhood, and was received into the castle ab Adeliza quondam regis Henrici regina tunc autem amica (sic) vel uxore W. Comitis de Arundell (Gervase, ed. Stubbs, i. 110). The date of her marriage to William de Albini [see Albini, William de, d. 1176] is unknown; but as she left by him seven children, it cannot have been long after Henry's death. Her only recorded acts after 1139 are her foundation of the small priories of Pyneham and of the Causeway (De Calceto), and her benefactions to that of Boxgrove, all in Sussex, with her gifts to Henry's abbey of Reading and to the cathedral church of Chichester. To the latter she presented the prebend of West Dean in the year 1150, after which date there are no further traces of her. It is stated by Sandford that she was certainly buried at Reading; but she has since been proved to have left her husband and retired to the abbey of Affligam near Alost, in Flanders, which had been founded by her father and uncle, and to which her brother Henry had withdrawn in 1149. Here she died on 24 March 1151 (Annals of Margam), and was buried: Affligenam delata vivendi finem facit ix. kal. Aprilis et sepulta est e regione horologii nostri (Sanderus, Chorographia Sacra Brabantiæ). While lady of Arundel she had sub-enfeoffed her brother Joceline (the Castellan) in the lordship of Petworth on the occasion of his marriage with the heiress of the Percies, by whom he was ancestor of the earls of Northumberland.
Sources:
Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England (1840), vol. i.
Lawrence's Memoirs of the Queens of England (1838), vol. i.
Henry Howard's Howard Memorials (1834), x.
Butkens' Trophées du Brabant, vol. i.
Sanderus' Chorographia Sacra Brabantiæ.
Contributor: J. H. R. [John Horace Round]
Published: 1885
Adeliza of Louvain, sometimes known in England as Adelicia of Louvain, also called Adela and Aleidis; (c. 1103 - 23 April 1151) was queen consort of the Kingdom of England from 1121 to 1135, the second wife of Henry I. She was the daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Landgrave of Brabant and Count of Louvain and Brussels.
Marriages
Adeliza married Henry I of England on 24 January 1121, when she is thought to have been in her late teens and Henry was fifty-three. It is believed that Henry only married again because he wanted a male heir. Despite holding the record for the most illegitimate children of a British monarch, Henry had only one legitimate son, William Adelin, who predeceased his father on 25 November 1120 in the White Ship disaster. It is usually assumed that Henry married Adeliza because of this disaster; however, negotiations to find a new wife began as early as 1119.
Adeliza was reputedly quite pretty, known as the "Fair Maid of Brabant." More importantly, her father was a vassal of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, son-in-law of Henry. It is possible that his daughter was influential in making the match. Godfrey was motivated to protect his lands from the newest Count of Flanders, Charles. As Flanders had been long-term enemies of the Normans, marrying his daughter to the English king aligned Godfrey with a natural ally. Despite all these hopes, no children were born during the marriage.
Queen
Adeliza, unlike the other Anglo-Norman queens, played little part in the public life of the realm during her tenure as queen consort. Whether this was personal inclination or because Henry preferred to keep her nearby in the hope she'd conceive, is unknown. Although she did not produce the desired heir, she traveled extensively with Henry including several visits to Normandy. Adeliza also assumed her right as a patron of literature and several works, including a bestiary by Philip de Thaon that was dedicated to her. She is said to have commissioned a verse biography of King Henry; if she did, it is no longer extant. Henry also gave her extensive lands, some that belonged to Matilda of Scotland and others in Essex, Middlesex, and Gloucestershire.
When Henry died on 1 December 1135, Adeliza retired temporarily to the Benedictine convent of Wilton Abbey, near Salisbury. She was present at the dedication of Henry's tomb at Reading Abbey on the first anniversary of his death. At about that time, she founded a leper hospital dedicated to Saint Giles at Fugglestone St Peter, Wiltshire.
Second marriage
After three years of mourning, the young queen married William d'Aubigny, one of Henry's chief advisers, in 1138 for love. She brought with her a Queen's dowry, including the castle of Arundel the would serve as the couple's primary residence. Because of this, King Stephen of England created d'Aubigny Earl of Arundel in 1142 and Earl of Lincoln. The marriage produced at least seven children. Through this union, Adeliza is an ancestor of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.
Although her husband was a staunch supporter of Stephen during the Anglo-Norman civil war, her own personal inclination may have been toward her stepdaughter's cause, the Empress Matilda. When Matilda sailed to England in 1139, she appealed to her stepmother for shelter, landing near Arundel and was received as a guest of the former Queen.
Later life
Adeliza spent her final years in the abbey of Affligem (landgraviat of Brabant), which she richly rewarded with landed estates (three English villages called Ideswordam, Westmerendonam and Aldeswurda, probably near to Arundel).
She died in the abbey and was buried in the abbey church next to her father, Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, (d.1139). The abbey necrology situates her tombstone next to the clockwork. An 18th century floor plan of the church shows her tombstone located halfway up the left nave. Her grave was demolished however during the French Revolution (abt. 1798). Her bones had been found and she was reburied in the cloister of the re-erected Affligem abbey.
Family
One of Adeliza's brothers, evidently illegitimate, Joscelin of Louvain, came to England and married Agnes de Percy, heiress of the Percy family.
Although it is clear that the former queen and Joscelin were very close, he was almost certainly an illegitimate son of Adeliza's father and thus her half-brother. His children took their name from their mother's lineage, and their descendants include the medieval Earls of Northumberland.
Adeliza also gave a dowry to one of her cousins when she married in England.
Descendants
Five of Adeliza and William's children were to survive to adulthood:
William d'Aubigny, 2nd Earl of Arundel, father to William d'Aubigny, 3rd Earl of Arundel who was one of the twenty-five guarantors of the Magna Carta.
Reynor d'Aubigny
Henry d'Aubigny
Alice, Countess of Eu, married John Count of Eu, Lord of Hastings (d. 26 June 1170).
Olivia d'Aubigny (d.young)
Agatha d'Aubigny (d.young)
Geoffrey d'Aubigny.
Adeliza also became an active patron of the church during her second marriage, giving property to Reading Abbey in honour of her late husband and to several other smaller foundations.
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Abt 1103 - Abt 1151 (~ 48 years)
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