Gundrada b. d. 27 MAY 1085 : Bratt Family History

Personal Information | Notes | Sources | All | PDF

Notes

whose brother was the Flemish Earl of Chester
M.J.Crispin believes that Gundrada is
daughter of Queen Matilda, citing a charter of William de Warenne to the
Lewes priory in which he states that his donations, among others, were for
Queen Matilda, the mother of his wife. "It is conjectured that Gundrada
[sic] and Gherbod the Fleming, created earl of Chester, her brother, were
the children of Queen Matilda by a former marriage, probably clandestine,
and therefore not reported by the historians of the day." Crispin believes
that the marriage to Gundrada is one reason William Rufus was so generous
in bestowing estates on William de Warenne. This line of reasoning is
opposed by David C. Douglas in his biography of William the Conqueror (see
Appendix). [2]
was buried in the Cluniac Priory of St Pancras (which she founded) at Lewes in East Sussex. Initially buried before the high altar, her bones and those of her husband William de Warrenne were later moved to the Chapter House of the Priory when it was built in the 13th century. The priory was demolished at the Dissolution in 1537. The bones in their lead caskets were uncovered in 1845 when a cutting for a railway was being dug through the remains of the Priory. They were re-interred in the church of St John the Baptist which was once the hospitium of the priory. Her tomb slab can be seen in the Gundrada chapel in that church. [3]

Gundrada[1] - 1085