Gilbert (or Giselbert) OF EU (1000-1040)

Individual Events and Attributes

Additional Information

Marriage

Individual Note

Gilbert (or Giselbert) (1000–1040) was a Norman noble, Count of Eu, and Count of Brionne in northern France. Gilbert was son of Geoffrey, Count of Eu (b. 962) who was an illegitimate child of Richard the Fearless.

He inherited Brionne, becoming one of the most powerful landowners in Normandy. He married Gunnora d'Aunou in 1012. He had children by his wife and a mistress.

Gilbert was a generous benefactor to Bec Abbey founded by his former knight Herluin in 1031.

When Robert II, Duke of Normandy died in 1035 his illegitimate son William inherited his father's title. Several leading Normans, including Gilbert of Brionne, Osbern the Seneschal and Alan of Brittany, became William's guardians.

A number of Norman barons including Raoul de Gacé would not accept an illegitimate son as their leader. In 1040 an attempt was made to kill William but the plot failed. Gilbert however was murdered while he was peaceably riding near Eschafour. It is believed two of his killers were Ralph of Wacy and Robert de Vitot. This appears to have been an act of vengeance for wrongs inflicted upon the orphan children of Giroie by Gilbert, and it is not clear what Raoul de Gacé had to do in the business. Fearing they might meet their father's fate, his sons Richard and his brother Baldwin were conveyed by their friends to the court of Baldwin, Count of Flanders.

Gilbert was ancestor of the English house of de Clare, of the Barons Fitz Walter, and the Earls of Gloucester and Hertford.

Sir Richard Fitz Gilbert(Richard de Clare) (1030-1091), m. Rohese Giffard (1034-aft. 1113)[1]

Baldwin FitzGilbert (d. 1090)[2]

NOTES:

1 Mackenzie, Sir James Dixon, The castles of England: their story and structure, Vol.1, (The Macmillan Co., 1896), 47.

2 Journal of the British Archaeological Association, Vol.11, British Archaeological Association, (J.R.Smith, 1855), 216.¹

Sources