John (Jean) I of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu

Male 1140 - 1191  (51 years)


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Generation: 1

  1. 1.  John (Jean) I of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu was born 1140, Abbeville, Picardie, France (son of Guy II of Ponthieu and Ida); died 1191.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_I,_Count_of_Ponthieu

    He was the son of Guy II of Ponthieu and succeeded him as Count of Ponthieu in 1147. He married Beatrice of Saint-Pol, and was succeeded by his son William IV Talvas.

    John married Beatrice of Saint-Pol. [Group Sheet]

    Children:
    1. William (Guillaume) IV (Talvas) of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu was born ca 1179, Abbeville, Picardie, France; died 04 Oct 1221; was buried , Abbey of Valloires, Picardie, France.

Generation: 2

  1. 2.  Guy II of Ponthieu was born 1120, Abbeville, Picardie, France (son of William (Guillaume) III (Talvas) of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu and Helie of Burgundy); died 25 Dec 1147, Ephesus, Turkey.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_II_of_Ponthieu

    He was the son of William III of Ponthieu and Helie of Burgundy. He succeeded his father as Count of Ponthieu before 1129; this was during William's lifetime. Around 1137, he founded the Cistercian Valloires Abbey.

    In 1146, he joined the Second Crusade under King Louis VII of France. He died of a disease on 25 December 1147 in Ephesus. He was succeeded by his son John I of Ponthieu.

    His wife was called Ida; he had three children with her:

    1. John I (d. 1191), Count of Ponthieu

    2. Guido (d. between 1208 and 1218), Lord of Noyelles

    3. Agnes, abbess in Montreuil

    Guy married Ida. [Group Sheet]


  2. 3.  Ida
    Children:
    1. 1. John (Jean) I of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu was born 1140, Abbeville, Picardie, France; died 1191.


Generation: 3

  1. 4.  William (Guillaume) III (Talvas) of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu was born ca 1093, Abbeville, Picardie, France (son of Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, Count of Ponthieu and Agnes of Ponthieu, Countess of Ponthieu); died 1172, Abbeville, Picardie, France.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_III,_Count_of_Ponthieu

    He was seigneur de Montgomery in Normandy and Count of Ponthieu. William was son of Robert II of Bellême and Agnes of Ponthieu. He succeeded his father as count of Ponthieu some time between 1105 and 1111.

    His father Robert de Bellême had turned against Henry I on several occasions, had escaped capture at the battle of Tinchebrai in 1106. While serving as envoy for King Louis of France, he was arrested by Henry I and imprisoned for life.

    William was naturally driven by this to oppose King Henry. In June of 1119, however, Henry I restored all his father's lands in Normandy. Sometime prior to 1126, William resigned the county of Ponthieu to his son Guy but retained the title of count. In 1135 Henry I again confiscated all his Norman lands to which William responded by joining count Geoffrey of Anjou in his invasion of Normandy after Henry I's death.

    He married, abt. 1115, Helie of Burgundy, daughter of Eudes I, Duke of Burgundy. The Gesta Normannorum Ducum says that they had five children, three sons and two daughters.


    1. Guy II. He assumed the county of Ponthieu during his father Talvas' lifetime, but died in 1147 predeceasing his father.

    2. William, Count of Alençon.

    3. John I, Count of Alençon, married Beatrix d'Anjou, daughter of Elias II, Count of Maine and Philippa, daughter of Rotrou III, Count of Perche.

    4. Clemence married (abt. 1189) Juhel, son of Walter of Mayenne.

    5. Adela (aka Ela) married William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey. She married, secondly, Patrick of Salisbury.


    William married Helie of Burgundy. Helie (daughter of Eudes (Odo) I of Burgundy, Duke of Burgundy and Sibylla of Burgundy, Duchess of Burgundy) was born ca 1080, County of Burgundy, France; died 28 Feb 1141, Perseigne Abbey, Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois, France; was buried , Perseigne Abbey, Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois, France. [Group Sheet]


  2. 5.  Helie of Burgundy was born ca 1080, County of Burgundy, France (daughter of Eudes (Odo) I of Burgundy, Duke of Burgundy and Sibylla of Burgundy, Duchess of Burgundy); died 28 Feb 1141, Perseigne Abbey, Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois, France; was buried , Perseigne Abbey, Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois, France.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helie_of_Burgundy

    She was the daughter of Eudes I and Sibylla of Burgundy.

    In June 1095, she married Bertrand of Toulouse, as his second wife. The two had one son, Pons of Tripoli (c.?1098-1137).

    Bertrand succeeded his father as Count of Toulouse in 1105, and in 1108, he set out for Outremer to claim his father's rights as Count of Tripoli. Helie accompanied him on this expedition, which resulted in the capture of Tripoli in 1109; shortly after, their nephew, William-Jordan died of wounds, giving Bertrand an undisputed claim to Tripoli.

    Bertrand died in 1112, and Pons succeeded him in Tripoli. Helie returned to France, where she married William III of Ponthieu in 1115.

    The Gesta Normannorum Ducum says that they had five children, three sons and two daughters.

    1. Guy II. He assumed the county of Ponthieu during his father Talvas' lifetime, but died in 1147 predeceasing his father.

    2. William, Count of Alençon.

    3. John I, Count of Alençon, married Beatrix d'Anjou, daughter of Elias II, Count of Maine and Philippa, daughter of Rotrou III, Count of Perche.

    4. Clemence married (abt. 1189) Juhel, son of Walter of Mayenne.

    5. Adela (aka Ela) married William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey. She married, secondly, Patrick of Salisbury.

    Helie died on 28 February 1141, in Perseigne Abbey in Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois.

    Buried:
    Grave location:
    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=148237838

    Children:
    1. 2. Guy II of Ponthieu was born 1120, Abbeville, Picardie, France; died 25 Dec 1147, Ephesus, Turkey.
    2. Adela (Ela) of Ponthieu was born ca 1118, France; died 10 Oct 1174, Wiltshire, England; was buried , Bradenstoke Priory, Bradenstoke, Wiltshire, England.


Generation: 4

  1. 8.  Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, Count of Ponthieu was born ca 1056; died Aft 1130.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_of_Bell%C3%AAme,_3rd_Earl_of_Shrewsbury

    Having the titles of seigneur de Bellême (or Belèsme), seigneur de Montgomery, viscount of the Hiémois, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury and Count of Ponthieu, he was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy between the sons of William the Conqueror. He was a member of the powerful House of Bellême.

    Robert became notorious for his alleged cruelty. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis calls him "Grasping and cruel, an implacable persecutor of the Church of God and the poor... unequalled for his iniquity in the whole Christian era." The stories of his brutality may have inspired the legend of Robert the Devil.

    Robert was the oldest surviving son of Roger of Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Mabel de Bellême. In 1073 when William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invaded Maine, Robert was knighted by him at the siege of Fresnai castle. By now probably of age and independent of his father he took part in the 1077 revolt of the young Robert Curthose against his father, Duke William.

    When Robert's mother, Mabel, was killed c.?1079, Robert inherited her vast estates. But at this point Duke William took the added precaution of garrisoning the Bellême castles with his own soldiers, which was his ducal right. On hearing the news of William the Conqueror's death in 1087, Robert's first act was to expel the ducal garrisons from all his castles.

    Robert Curthose has succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy. He was told of a plot to place him on the throne of England in his brother William II's (William Rufus) place, a plot that Duke Robert enthusiastically approved and supported. Robert de Bellême, his brother Hugh de Montgomery and a third brother, either Roger or Arnulf, participated in this rebellion in England. In the Rebellion of 1088, beginning at Easter the rebels burned and wasted the king's properties and those of his followers. Robert de Bellême was among the rebels who found themselves defending Rochester Castle. When William Rufus blockaded the town and built two counter-castles, the garrison began negotiating for surrender under honorable terms, being allowed to keep their lands and serve the king. This Rufus refused; he was furious and had initially wanted the traitors hanged "or by some other form of execution utterly removed from the face of the earth." Other great Anglo-Norman barons interceded with the King, until finally in July a semi-honorable surrender was negotiated between the king and the rebels. Rufus, albeit reluctantly, guaranteed the rebels life and limb and gave them safe conduct back to France.

    Robert sailed back to Normandy in the company of Count Henry (later king Henry I), who had not been part a of the conspiracy against his brother William Rufus. They were destined to become bitter enemies. Robert de Bellême was a powerful and dangerous disruptive force in Normandy now free to do as he would. However, Duke Robert Curthose of Normandy had been convinced by Bishop Odo of Bayeux that both Henry and his travel companion Robert de Bellême were now conspiring with William Rufus against him. Both Henry and Robert were seized as they disembarked and, both placed in the Bishop's custody, were imprisoned; Henry at Bayeux and Robert at Neuilly-ll'Evêque, now Neuilly-la-Forêt.

    On hearing his son was imprisoned Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury immediately went to Normandy and put all his castles in a state of readiness against the duke. At this point the Montgomery family was in a state of rebellion against Robert Curthose. Bishop Odo now instigated Duke Robert to take all the castles of Robert de Bellême by force and the duke gathered an army and proceeded against them. Earl Roger sent peace envoys to the duke and convinced him to release his son Robert which the fickle duke finally did.

    By 1090 Robert was back in Robert Curthose's good graces, Orderic Vitalis calling him a "principal councilor" to duke Robert. He supported Curthose in putting down a revolt by the citizens of Rouen, in 1090, and took considerable numbers of the citizens captive throwing them into dungeons. The inhabitants of Domfront, long a Bellême-Montgomery stronghold, invited Henry, the duke's younger brother to take possession of Domfront. Apparently they had grown weary of Robert's oppressive and abusive style of lordship.

    In 1094 Robert's father, earl Roger, died. Robert's younger brother Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury inherited the English lands and titles, while Robert inherited his father's Norman properties, which included good part of central and southern Normandy, in part adjacent to the Bellême territories he had already inherited from his mother. In 1098 Robert's younger brother Hugh died, and Robert inherited, on payment of £3,000 in relief, the English properties that had been their father's, including Arundel in Sussux and the Earldom of Shrewsbury. Robert had also acquired the countship of Ponthieu and the parish of Tickhill; all of which combined made him the wealthiest magnate in both England and Normandy.

    In 1096, Duke Robert of Normandy took up the cross on the First Crusade and left the custody of the duchy to his brother William Rufus, King of England. He returned from the First Crusade in triumph. He was encouraged to invade England and depose his brother Henry I. Robert de Bellême was one of the great magnates who joined Robert's 1101 invasion of England, along with Bellême's brothers Roger the Poitevin and Arnulf of Montgomery and his nephew William, Count of Mortain. This invasion, however, which aimed to depose Henry I, ended bloodlessly in the Treaty of Alton which called for amnesty for the participants but allowed traitors to be punished.

    Henry I took a year compiling charges against Robert and his brothers and Robert's unlicensed castle building. Henry had a series of charges drawn up against Robert in 1102, and when Robert refused to answer for them, gathered his forces and besieged and captured Robert's English castles. Robert lost his English lands and titles (as did his brothers), was banished from England, and returned to Normandy.

    In 1106 Robert was one of Curthose's commanders at the Battle of Tinchebrai commanding the rear division and, when the battle turned in Henry's favour, he and most of those with him avoided capture by fleeing the field. With Normandy now under Henry's rule, Robert de Bellême submitted and was allowed to retain his Norman fiefs and his office as viscount of the Hiémois. But Henry was still wary of Robert and placed his followers in key positions in Normandy.

    Robert married Agnes of Ponthieu, before 9 Sep 1087, and they had one child, William III of Ponthieu, who via his mother inherited the county of Ponthieu.

    Orderic Vitalis portrays Robert de Bellême as a villain, especially when compared to Henry I, whose misdemeanors the chronicler felt were excusable. Orderic calls Robert "Grasping and cruel, an implacable persecutor of the Church of God and the poor... unequaled for his iniquity in the whole Christian era." The basis for Orderic's animosity towards Robert and his de Bellême predecessors was the longstanding and bitter feud between the Giroie family, patrons of Orderic's Abbey of Saint-Evroul, and the de Bellême family. William Talvas (de Bellême), Robert's grandfather, had blinded and mutilated William fitz Giroie

    He did at times appropriate church properties and was not a major donor to any ecclesiastical house. But Robert's attitudes toward the church are typical of many of his contemporaries; certainly no worse than the secular rulers and other magnates of his day. According to William Hunt in the Dictionary of National Biography, various stories of his brutality were circulated after his death.

    Robert de Bellême was typical of his generation, the sons of William's companions who had earned their great honors and titles at the battle of Hastings in 1066. This newer generation did not share the values and attitudes of their fathers but rather had different experiences altogether. They had inherited their wealth and status, not earned it. Yet this next generation expected royal favor and patronage without attending court or serving the king in any capacity. They often rebelled when they felt they were not being treated with the dignity and respect they deserved. [Charlotte A. Newman, The Anglo-Norman Nobility in the Reign of Henry I, The Second Generation (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), pp. 17-18; also: William M. Aird, Robert Curthose', Duke of Normandy (C. 1050?1134) (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2011), pp. 69-70, 83.]













    Robert married Agnes of Ponthieu, Countess of Ponthieu. Agnes (daughter of Guy I of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu) was born ca 1080, Abbeville, Picardie, France; died Aft 1105, Abbeville, Picardie, France. [Group Sheet]


  2. 9.  Agnes of Ponthieu, Countess of Ponthieu was born ca 1080, Abbeville, Picardie, France (daughter of Guy I of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu); died Aft 1105, Abbeville, Picardie, France.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes,_Countess_of_Ponthieu

    She was the daughter of Count Guy I of Ponthieu. Enguerrand, the son of Count Guy, died at a youthful age. Guy then made his brother Hugh heir presumptive, but he also died before Guy (died 1100). Agnes became count Guy's heiress, and was married to Robert of Bellême. Their son William III of Ponthieu succeeded to the county of Ponthieu after the death of Agnes (between 1105 and 1111), and the imprisonment of his father in 1112. [The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, edited and translated by Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995.]

    Children:
    1. 4. William (Guillaume) III (Talvas) of Ponthieu, Count of Ponthieu was born ca 1093, Abbeville, Picardie, France; died 1172, Abbeville, Picardie, France.

  3. 10.  Eudes (Odo) I of Burgundy, Duke of Burgundy was born 1060 (son of Henry of Burgundy); died 1102, Turkey; was buried , Abbaye de Cîteaux Saint-Nicolas-les-Citeaux Departement de la Côte-d'Or Bourgogne, France.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odo_I,_Duke_of_Burgundy

    Also known as Eudes, surnamed Borel and called the Red, he was Duke of Burgundy between 1079 and 1103. Odo was the second son of Henry of Burgundy and grandson of Robert I. He became the duke following the abdication of his older brother, Hugh I, who retired to become a Benedictine monk. Odo was a participant in the ill-fated siege of Tudela in 1087 and in the Crusade of 1101.

    Odo married Sibylla of Burgundy (1065-1101), daughter of William I, Count of Burgundy, and became the father of:

    1. Helie of Burgundy 1080-1141, wife of Bertrand of Toulouse and William III of Ponthieu

    2. Florine of Burgundy 1083-1097, wife of Sweyn the Crusader, prince of Denmark

    3. Hugh II of Burgundy 1084-1143

    4. Henry 1087-1125, a priest


    Buried:
    Grave location and abbey photo:
    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=68212555

    Eudes married Sibylla of Burgundy, Duchess of Burgundy. Sibylla (daughter of William I Count of Burgundy, the Great and Stephanie) was born 1065; died 1103. [Group Sheet]


  4. 11.  Sibylla of Burgundy, Duchess of Burgundy was born 1065 (daughter of William I Count of Burgundy, the Great and Stephanie); died 1103.

    Notes:

    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibylla_of_Burgundy,_Duchess_of_Burgundy

    She was a French noblewoman. She was a daughter of William I, Count of Burgundy and Stephanie. She was married to Odo I, Duke of Burgundy in 1080. A notable descendant of hers is Marie Antoinette.

    They had the following children:

    1. Helie of Burgundy 1080-1141, wife of Bertrand of Toulouse and William III of Ponthieu

    2. Florine of Burgundy 1083-1097, wife of Sweyn the Crusader, prince of Denmark

    3. Hugh II of Burgundy 1084-1143

    4. Henry 1087-1125, a priest

    Children:
    1. 5. Helie of Burgundy was born ca 1080, County of Burgundy, France; died 28 Feb 1141, Perseigne Abbey, Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois, France; was buried , Perseigne Abbey, Neufchâtel-en-Saosnois, France.
    2. Hugh II of Burgundy, Duke of Burgundy was born ca 1084, County of Burgundy, France; died ca 6 February 1143, France.