See also

Eustace EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE (c. 1030-1087)

1. Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE, son of Eustache I de Boulogne (c. 1004-1049) and Mathilde (Maud MAHAUT) VON LOWEN (c. 1006-1046), was born circa 1030 in Boulogne. He died in 1087. He married Ida von Niederlothringen (of Moselle & Lorraine) in December 1093. He married Godgifu. He married unk.

 

Eustace II, (b.1015-1020 d. 1070) was count of Boulogne from 1049-1093, fought on the Norman side at the Battle of Hastings, and afterwards received a large honour in England.

He was the son of Eustace I. His first wife was Goda, daughter of the English king Æthelred the Unready, and sister of Edward the Confessor. Goda died in 1055, before the Norman Conquest of her homeland, in which her husband participated. From his second marriage with Ida of Lorraine (daughter of Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine), Eustace had three sons, Eustace III, the next count of Boulogne, and Godfrey of Bouillon and Baldwin, both later monarchs of Jerusalem.

In 1048 Eustace joined his father-in-law's rebellion against the Emperor Henry III. The next year Eustace was excommunicated by Pope Leo IX for marrying within the prohibited degree of kinship. It's likely the pope's action was at the behest of Henry III. The rebellion failed, and in 1049 Eustance and Godfrey submitted to Henry III.

Eustace paid a visit to England in 1051, and was honourably received at the Confessor's court. Edward and Eustace were former brothers-in-law and remained allied politically. On the other hand the dominant figure in England, Earl Godwin, had recently married his son Tostig to the daughter of Eustace's rival the count of Flanders. Furthermore Godwin's son Sweyn had been feuding with Eustace's stepson Ralph the Timid.

A brawl in which Eustace and his servants became involved with the citizens of Dover led to a serious quarrel between the king and Godwin. The latter, to whose jurisdiction the men of Dover were subject, refused to punish them. His lack of respect to those in authority was made the excuse for outlawing himself and his family. They left England, but returned the next year (1052) with a large army, aided by the Flemish.

In 1052 William of Talou rebelled against his nephew William of Normandy. Eustace may well have been involved in this rebellion, although there is no specific evidence, for after William of Talou's surrender he fled to the Boulonnais court.

The following years saw still further advances by Eustace's rivals and enemies. Count Baldwin of Flanders consolidated his hold over territories he had annexed to the east. In 1060 he became regent of France during the minority of his nephew Philip I of France. In contrast Eustace's stepson Walter of Mantes failed in his attempt to claim the County of Maine. He was captured by the Normans and died soon afterwards in mysterious circumstances.

These events evidently caused a shift in Eustace political allegiances, for he then became an important participant in the Norman conquest of England in 1066. He fought at Hastings, although sources vary regarding the details of his conduct during the battle. Eustace received large land grants afterwards, which suggests he contributed in other ways as well, perhaps by providing ships.

In the following year, probably because he was dissatisfied with his share of the spoil, he assisted the Kentishmen in an attempt to seize Dover Castle. The conspiracy failed, and Eustace was sentenced to forfeit his English fiefs.

Subsequently he was reconciled to the Conqueror, who restored a portion of the confiscated lands.

Eustace died in 1093, and was succeeded by his son, Eustace III.

It has been suggested that Eustace was the patron of the Bayeux Tapestry.

 

Ida von Niederlothringen (of Moselle & Lorraine) (also known as St. Ida of LORRAINE), daughter of Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine (c. 997-1069) and Doda ( - ), was born in 1040 in Bass, Lorraine. She died on 13 August 1113. She and Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE had the following children:

 

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Baudouin I de Bouillon KING OF JERUSALEM (c. 1060-1118)

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Galfrid (Godfrey) (IV) de Boulogne King of Jerusalem (c. 1062-1100)

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Eustace III EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE ( -c. 1125)

 

Godgifu (also known as Godgifu PRINCESS OF ENGLAND and Goda) was the daughter of Athelred II The Unready KING OF THE ENGLISH (978-1016) and Emma de Normandie (986-1052).

 

unk and Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE had the following children:

 

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Geoffrey (Godefroy) Lord of Carshalton (Alton) ( - )

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Ida de Boulogne ( - )

Second Generation

2. Baudouin I de Bouillon KING OF JERUSALEM, son of Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE and Ida von Niederlothringen (of Moselle & Lorraine), was born circa 1060. He died on 2 April 1118 in Palestine. He married Godehuet (Godvere) de Toni. He married Arda. He married Adelaide di Savona.

 

3. Galfrid (Godfrey) (IV) de Boulogne King of Jerusalem, son of Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE and Ida von Niederlothringen (of Moselle & Lorraine), was born circa 1062. He died on 18 July 1100 in Jerusalem.

 

(adv. Holy Sepulchre). This man is not to be confused with his half-brother, Geoffrey (of Godfrey), Lord of Carshalton (Alton).

 

Godfrey of Bouillon (c. 1060, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 18 July 1100, Jerusalem) was a Flemish medieval knight and soldier who was a leader of the First Crusade from 1096 until his death. He was the Lord of Bouillon, from which village he took his byname, from 1076 and the Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1087. After the fall of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, although he did not use the title "king".

He was the second son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and Ida of Lorraine (daughter of Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine).

Contents:
1 Early life
2 First Crusade
3 Kingdom of Jerusalem
4 Death
5 Godfrey in history and legend
6 References
7 Sources



Early life
Godfrey of Bouillon was born around 1060 in either Boulogne-sur-Mer in France or Baisy, a city in the region of Brabant (part of present-day Belgium). During Godfrey's lifetime this region was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a loose collection of principalities, or small royal states. Godfrey was the second son of Count Eustace II of Boulogne and Ida of Lorraine. That he was the second son was very important to Godfrey's future. In the Middle Ages it was the first son who inherited the lands of the parents. As the second-born son, Godfrey had fewer opportunities. Were it not for a bit of family luck, he would have become just one more minor knight in service to a rich landed nobleman. It happened that Godfrey the Hunchback, his uncle on his mother's side, died childless, naming his nephew, Godfrey of Bouillon, as his heir and next in line to his duchy of Lower Lorraine. This duchy was an important one at the time, serving as a buffer between the kingdom of France and the German lands.

In fact, Lower Lorraine was so important to the German kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire that Henry IV, the German king and future emperor (ruled 1084-1105), decided in 1076 that he would place it in the hands of his own son and give Godfrey only Bouillon and the Mark of Antwerp, as a test of Godfrey's abilities and loyalty. Godfrey served Henry IV loyally, supporting him even when Pope Gregory VII was battling the German king over who should have more power in Europe, the church or the secular powers of the kings and princes (Investiture Controversy). Godfrey fought with Henry and his forces against the rival forces of Rudolf of Swabia and also took part in battles in Italy when Henry IV actually took Rome away from the pope.

At the same time, Godfrey was struggling to maintain control over the lands that Henry IV had not taken away from him. Matilda of Tuscany, the widow of his uncle, said that these lands should have come to her. Another enemy outside the family also tried to take away other bits of his land, and Godfrey's brothers, Eustace and Baldwin, both came to his aid. Following long struggles, and after proving that he was a loyal subject to Henry IV, Godfrey finally won back his duchy of Lower Lorraine in 1087, becoming Godfrey V, duke of Lower Lorraine. Still, Godfrey would never have had much power in the German kingdom or in Europe if it had not been for the coming of the Crusades.


First Crusade

Godfrey of Bouillon, from a fresco depicting the Nine Worthies, painted by Giacomo Jaquerio c. 1420In 1095 Urban II, the new Pope, called for a holy war against the Islamic forces that held Jerusalem and other religious locations in Palestine. Crusader fever caught on throughout Europe, partly because of the power of the Pope but also because there were many knights and second and third sons, such as Godfrey, who were looking for opportunities outside Europe. The Pope promised that all sins would be forgiven for anyone who served in the Crusades, but there was also talk of lands to be won there, of new duchies that could be carved out of Muslim lands.

Godfrey took out loans on most of his lands, or sold them, to the bishop of Liège and the bishop of Verdun. With this money he gathered thousands of knights to fight in the Holy Land. In this he was joined by his older brother, Eustace, and his younger brother, Baldwin, who had no lands in Europe. He was not the only major nobleman to gather such an army. Raymond of Saint-Gilles, also known as Raymond of Toulouse, created the largest army. At age fifty-five he was also the oldest and perhaps the best known of the Crusader nobles. Because of his age and fame, Raymond expected to be the leader of the entire First Crusade. Adhemar, the assistant to the Pope and bishop of Le Puy, traveled with him. There was also the fiery Bohemond, a Norman knight who had formed a small kingdom in southern Italy. He went into battle himself, fiercely combatting the enemy until they perished. For Bohemond this Crusade was simply another chance to add lands to his kingdom. There was also a fourth group under Robert of Flanders. No kings participated in this First Crusade.

Each of these armies traveled separately, some going southeast across Europe through Hungary and others sailing by water across the Adriatic Sea from southern Italy. Godfrey, along with his two brothers, started in August 1096 at the head of an army from Lorraine (some say 40,000 strong) along "Charlemagne's road," as Urban II seems to have called it (according to the chronicler Robert the Monk)—the road to Jerusalem. After some difficulties in Hungary, where he was unable to stop his men from pillaging fellow Christians, he arrived in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, in November. The Pope had, in fact, called the Crusade in order the help the Byzantine emperor Alexius I fight the Islamic Turks who were invading his lands from Central Asia and Persia.

Godfrey and his troops were the second to arrive (after Hugh of Vermandois) in Constantinople. During the next several months the other Crusader armies arrived. Suddenly the Byzantine emperor had an army of about 4000 mounted knights and 25,000 infantry camped on his doorstep. But Godfrey and Alexius I had different goals. The Byzantine emperor wanted the help of the Crusader soldiers to recapture lands that the Seljuk Turks had taken. The Crusaders however had the main aim of taking the Holy Land in Palestine from the Muslims and setting up a Christian occupying force there. For them, Alexius I and his Turks were only a sideshow. Worse, the Byzantine emperor expected the Crusaders to take an oath of loyalty to him. Godfrey and the other knights agreed to a modified version of this oath, promising to help return some lands to Alexius I. By the spring of 1097 the Crusaders were ready to march into battle.

Their first major victory, with Byzantine soldiers at their side, was at the city of Nicaea, close to Constantinople, which the Seljuk Turks had taken some years earlier. Godfrey and his knights of Lorraine played a minor role in the siege of Nicaea, with Bohemond successfully commanding much of the action. Just as the Crusaders were about to storm the city, they suddenly noticed the Byzantine flag flying from atop the city walls. Alexius I had made a separate peace with the Turks and now claimed the city for the Byzantine Empire. These secret dealings were a sign of things to come in terms of relations between Crusaders and Byzantines.

Godfrey continued to play a minor role in the battles against the Muslims until the Crusaders finally reached Jerusalem in 1099. Before that time, he helped to relieve the vanguard at the Battle of Dorylaeum after it had been pinned down by the Seljuk Turks under Kilij Arslan I, with the help of the other crusader princes in the main force and went on to sack the Seljuk camp. In 1098 Godfrey took part in the capture of Antioch, which fell in June of that year after long and bitter fighting. During the siege some of the Crusaders felt that the battle was hopeless and left the Crusade to return to Europe. Alexius I, hearing of the desperate situation, thought that all was lost at Antioch and did not come to help the Crusaders as promised. When the Crusaders finally took the city, they decided that their oaths to Alexius I were no longer in effect. Bohemond, the first to enter the city gates, claimed the prize for himself. A Muslim force under Kerbogha, from the city of Mosul, arrived and battled the Crusaders, but the Christians finally defeated these Turkish Islamic troops.

After this victory the Crusaders were divided over their next course of action. The bishop of Le Puy had died at Antioch. Bohemond decided to remain behind in order to secure his new kingdom and Godfrey’s younger brother, Baldwin, also decided to stay in the north at the Crusader state he had established at Edessa. Most of the foot soldiers wanted to continue south to Jerusalem, but Raymond IV of Toulouse, by this time the most powerful of the princes, having taken others into his employ, such as Tancred, hesitated to continue the march. After months of waiting, the common people on the crusade forced Raymond to march on to Jerusalem, and Godfrey quickly joined him. As they traveled south into Palestine, the Crusaders faced a new enemy. No longer were the Seljuk Turks the rulers of these lands. Now the Christian army had to deal with armies of North African Muslims called Fatimids, who had adopted the name of the ruling family in Cairo, Egypt. The Fatimids had taken Jerusalem in August 1098. The Crusaders would be battling them for the final prize of the First Crusade in the siege of Jerusalem.

It was in Jerusalem that the legend of Godfrey of Bouillon was born. The army reached the city in June 1099 and built wooden ladders to climb over the walls. The major attack took place on July 14 and 15, 1099. Godfrey and some of his knights were the first to get over the walls and enter the city. Once inside, the Crusaders went wild against the besieged, ultimately killing many in the city. Jews were also killed. It was an end to three years of fighting by the Crusaders, but they had finally done what they had set out to do in 1096—namely, to recapture the Holy Land and, in particular, the city of Jerusalem and its holy sites, such as the Holy Sepulchre, the tomb of Jesus Christ.

Once the city was captured, some form of government had to be set up. On July 22, a council was held in the Church of the Holy Seplechre. Raymond of Toulouse at first refused to become king, perhaps attempting to show his piety but probably hoping that the other nobles would insist upon his election anyway. Godfrey, who had become the more popular of the two after Raymond's actions at the siege of Antioch, did no damage to his own piety by accepting a position as secular leader, but with an unknown or ill-defined title. Raymond was incensed at this development and took his army out into the countryside.


Kingdom of Jerusalem

Coat of arms of the kingdom of JerusalemHowever, perhaps considering the controversy which had surrounded Tancred's seizure of Bethlehem, Godfrey refused to be crowned "king" in the city where Christ had died. The exact nature and meaning of his title is thus somewhat of a controversy. Although it is widely claimed that he took the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri, "advocate" or "defender" of the Holy Sepulchre, this title is only used in a letter which was not written by the Duke. Instead, Godfrey himself seems to have used the more ambiguous term Princeps, or simply retained his title of dux from back home in Lower Lorraine. Robert the Monk is the only one of the numerous chroniclers of the crusade to claim that Godfrey took the title "king".[1] During his short reign of a year Godfrey had to defend the new Kingdom of Jerusalem against Fatimids of Egypt, who were defeated at the Battle of Ascalon in August. He also faced opposition from Dagobert of Pisa, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had allied with Tancred. Although the Latins came close to capturing Ascalon, Godfrey's attempts to prevent Raymond of St Gilles from securing the city for himself meant that the town remained in Muslim hands, destined to be a thorn in the new kingdom's side for years to come.

In 1100 Godfrey was unable to directly expand his new territories through conquest. However, his impressive victory in 1099 and his subsequent campaigning in 1100 meant that he was able to force Acre, Ascalon, Arsuf, Jaffa, and Caesarea to become tributaries. Meanwhile, the struggle with Dagobert continued; although the terms of the conflict are difficult to trace. Dagobert may well have visualised turning Jerusalem into a fiefdom of the pope, however his full intentions are not clear. Much of the evidence for this comes from William of Tyre, whose account of these events is troublesome - It is only William who tells us that Dagobert forced Godfrey to concede Jerusalem and Jaffa, while other writers such as Albert of Aachen and Ralph of Caen suggest that both Dagobert and his ally Tancred had sworn an oath to Godfrey to accept only one of his brothers or blood relations as his successor. Whatever Dagobert's schemes, they were destined to come to nought. Being at Haifa at the time of the Duke's death, he could do nothing to stop Godfrey's supporters from seizing Jerusalem and requesting that the Duke's brother Baldwin take up the reins of power. Dagobert was subsequently forced to crown Baldwin as the first Latin king of Jerusalem on December 25, 1100.


Death
"While he was besieging the city of Acre, Godfrey, the ruler of Jerusalem, was struck by an arrow, which killed him," reports the Arab chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi. Christian chronicles make no mention of this; instead, Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura report that Godfrey contracted an illness in Caesarea in June, 1100. It was later believed that the emir of Caesarea had poisoned him, but there seems to be no basis for this rumour; William of Tyre does not mention it. It is also said that he died after eating a poisoned apple. He died in Jerusalem after suffering from a prolonged illness.


Godfrey in history and legend
According to William of Tyre, the later 12th-century chronicler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Godfrey was "tall of stature, not extremely so, but still taller than the average man. He was strong beyond compare, with solidly-built limbs and a stalwart chest. His features were pleasing, his beard and hair of medium blond."

Because he had been the first ruler in Jerusalem Godfrey was idealized in later stories. He was depicted as the leader of the crusades, the king of Jerusalem, and the legislator who laid down the assizes of Jerusalem, and he was included among the ideal knights known as the Nine Worthies. In reality he was only one of several leaders of the crusade, which also included Raymond IV of Toulouse, Bohemund of Taranto, Robert of Flanders, Stephen of Blois and Baldwin of Boulogne to name a few, along with papal legate Adhémar of Montiel, Bishop of Le Puy. Baldwin I of Jerusalem, Godfrey's younger brother, became the first titled king when he succeeded Godfrey in 1100. The assizes were the result of a gradual development.

Godfrey's role in the crusade was described by Albert of Aix, the anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum, and Raymond of Aguilers amongst others. In fictional literature, Godfrey was the hero of numerous French chansons de geste dealing with the crusade, the "Crusade cycle". This cycle connected his ancestors to the legend of the Knight of the Swan,[2] most famous today as the storyline of Wagner's opera Lohengrin.

By William of Tyre's time later in the twelfth century, Godfrey was already a legend among the descendants of the original crusaders. Godfrey was believed to have possessed immense physical strength; it was said that in Cilicia he wrestled a bear and won, and that he once beheaded a camel with one blow of his sword.

Torquato Tasso made Godfrey the hero of his epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata.

In The Divine Comedy Dante sees the spirit of Godfrey in the Heaven of Mars with the other "warriors of the faith."

Godfrey is depicted in Handel's first opera "Rinaldo" (1711) as Goffredo.

Since the mid-19th century, an equestrian statue of Godfrey of Bouillon has stood in the center of the Royal Square in Brussels, Belgium. The statue was made by Eugène Simonis, and inaugurated on August 24, 1848.

Godfrey plays a key figure in the pseudohistorical theories put forth in the books The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code.

In 2005 he came in 17th place in the Walloon version of De Grootste Belg (the Greatest Belgian).

Godfrey also plays a key role in the book The Iron Lance by Stephen Lawhead.

 

4. Eustace III EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE, son of Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE and Ida von Niederlothringen (of Moselle & Lorraine), died circa 1125. He married Mary of Scotland.

 

Eustace III, was a count of Boulogne, successor to his father Count Eustace II of Boulogne. His mother was Ida of Lorraine.

Eustace appeared at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 as an ally of William the Conqueror, and is listed as a possible killer of Harold II; he is also believed to have given William his own horse after the duke's was killed under him by Gyrth, brother of Harold.

He succeeded to Count of Boulogne in 1087.

He went on the First Crusade in 1096 with his brothers Godfrey of Bouillon (duke of Lower Lotharingia) and Baldwin of Boulogne. He soon returned to Europe to administer his domains. He married Mary of Scotland, daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland, and Saint Margaret of Scotland. Eustace and Mary had one daughter, Matilda of Boulogne.

When his youngest brother king Baldwin I of Jerusalem died in 1118, the elderly Eustace was offered the throne. Eustace was at first uninterested, but was convinced to accept it; he travelled all the way to Apulia before learning that a distant relative, Baldwin of Bourcq, had been crowned in the meantime. Eustace returned to Boulogne and died about 1125.

On his death the county of Boulogne was inherited by his daughter, Matilda, and her husband Stephen de Blois, count of Mortain, afterwards king of England, and at the death of Matilda in 1151 it was inherited by their son, Eustace IV of Boulogne, later their second son William and ultimately by their daughter Marie of Boulogne, since both sons died without children.

 

Mary of Scotland was the daughter of Malcolm III KING OF SCOTLAND (c. 1031-1093) and Saint Margaret "the Exile" (1045-1093). She and Eustace III EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE had the following children:

 

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Matilda de BOULOGNE ( -1151)

 

5. Geoffrey (Godefroy) Lord of Carshalton (Alton), son of Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE and unk, married Beatrice de Mandeville.

 

This son Geoffrey, whom Davis, in editing Regestra Regum Anglo-Normannorum (I, 54, note to document No. 202), has oddly enough confused with the other son of Eustace, Godfrey of Bouillon, became an important landholder in England. He married the daughter of Geoffrey of Mandeville, one of the most important barons of England, and received large grants from his father-in-law. The daughter's name was Beatrice, as is apparent from a charter of William I, in which he "confirms a grant to St. Peter. which Geoffrey, a son of Count Eustace, gave on behalf of his wife Beatrice with the consent of Geoffrey of Mandeville." His father-in-law served as a witness (see above document in Davis). Domesday states that in Surrey a certan Wesman held six hides of Geoffrey, son of Count Eustace, whch had been given him by Geoffrey of Mandeville with the latter's daughter (Domesday, I, 36). Descendants of Geoffrey were still living at the end fo the twelfth century. Cf. Round, "Faramus of Boulogne" in Genealogist, N.S> XII (1896), 145-151


In Wallington Hundred

Geoffrey himself holds Carshalton. 5 free men [held it] of King Edward, and they could go where they would. Of these, 1 held 2 hides, and 4 [held] 6 hides apiece. There were 5 manors. Now it is in 1 manor. It was then assessed at 27 hides; now at 3 hides. There is land for 10 ploughs. In demesne is 1 [plough]; and 9 villans and 9 cottars with 5 ploughs. There is a church, and 7 slaves, and 12 acres of meadow. The men of the shire or of the hundred say that they have never seen the writ or the livery officer who on the king's behalf had given Geoffrey seisin of this manor. TRE it was worth £20; when he was seised of it, 100s; now £10. Of these hides, Wesman holds 6 hides of Geoffrey son of Count Eustace. Geoffrey de Mandeville gave him [i.e. Geoffrey] this land with his daughter. In demesne is 1 plough; and 3 villans and 1 cottar with 3 ploughs, and a mill rendering 35s, and 3 slaves, and 10 acres of meadow. {There is] woodland for 2 pigs. There is land for 2 ploughs. TRE it was worth £4; and afterwards 40s; now 100s. Of the same hides, a certain smith of the king's has half a hide, with TRE he received with his wife, but he has never done service for it.”.

 

Beatrice de Mandeville was the daughter of Geoffrey de Mandeville ( - ). She and Geoffrey (Godefroy) Lord of Carshalton (Alton) had the following children:

 

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William de Boulogne (c. 1080-bef1130)

 

6. Ida de Boulogne, daughter of Eustace II, Gernobadatus EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE and unk, married Herman (von Malsen). She married Conan (Kuno), Count of Montaigu.

Third Generation

7. Matilda de BOULOGNE, son of Eustace III EARL (COUNT) OF BOLOINE and Mary of Scotland, died in 1151. He married Stephen de Blois, Count of Mortain KING OF ENGLAND.

 

Stephen de Blois, Count of Mortain KING OF ENGLAND was the daughter of Stephen COUNT OF BLOIS ( - ) and Adela of England ( - ).

 

8. William de Boulogne, son of Geoffrey (Godefroy) Lord of Carshalton (Alton) and Beatrice de Mandeville, was born circa 1080. He died before 1130.

 

William de Boulogne had the following children:

 

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Pharamus de Boulogne de Tingry (c. 1105- ). Pharamus was born circa 1105 in England.