Fulbert OF FALAISE
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The Rest of the Story: The Ancestors of Sarah May Paddock Otstott

Fulbert OF FALAISE ( - )

Name: Fulbert OF FALAISE 1,2
Sex: Male
Father: -
Mother: -

Individual Events and Attributes

Occupation tanner of Falaise in Normandy

Additional Information

Occupation although there is controversy over the translation and he may have been an undertaker

Marriage

Spouse Duxia ( - )
Children Herleva (1012-1050)

Individual Note

Fulbert of Falaise (fl. 11th century) was the father of Herleva, mother of the illegitimate William the Conqueror, the 11th-century Duke of Normandy and King of England. The Walter of Falaise named by Orderic Vitalis is likely a son.

 

Fulbert has traditionally been held to be a tanner, based on translations of Orderic's additions to the Gesta Normannorum Ducum. He writes that during the siege of Alençon (1051-2), the natives had been mutilated by William after they called him a pelliciarius (pelterer), because his mother's kinsmen had been pollinctores (corpse preparers). One later poetic source interpreted the occupation to be that of tailor, but in part due to flawed transcripts of the original, many historians have concluded he was a tanner,.[1] Others have favored a more literal reading, that Herleva's family had been undertakers or embalmers.[2]

 

Orderic also added to the Gesta that Fulbert served as Duke's chamberlain (cubicularii ducis).[3] It has been suggested that this occurred after William's birth.[4] Perhaps linking Orderic's two additions, contemporary practice made the chamberlain one of the persons responsible for burials.[5]

 

NOTES:

1 e.g. Freeman, ii, 610-17; Douglas, 379-80; de Bouard, 84-5.

2 van Houts

3 van Houts, 403; Crouch

4 Douglas, 381; van Houts, 403

5 van Houts, 403, citing Lanfranc.

 

SOURCES:

Crouch, David (2002). The Normans - The History of a Dynasty.

de Bouard, M. (1984). William the Conqueror.

Douglas, David C. (1963). William the Conqueror.

Freeman, Edward A. (1870). The History of the Norman Conquest.

van Houts, Elisabeth M. C. (1986). "The Origins of Herleva, Mother of William the Conqueror". The English Historical Review 101 (399): 399–404.3

Sources

1Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 118, 121-23; 121, 121E-22; 126, 130-23.
2Weir, Alison, "Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy" (Vintage, 2008). p 40.
3"Wikipedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulbert_of_Falaise.