Question

Was William the Conqueror a Baldwin?

Answer 1

William the Conqueror was married to Matilda of Flanders, whose father was Baudouin (Baldwin) of Flanders. William and Matilda are my 28th Great Grandparents. He was known as William of Normandy. His parents were Robert of Normandy and Herleve de Falaise. They did not have surnames as we know them today. And, yes, he would have had a great grandson named Henry Baldwin. Henry (of Woburn) Baldwin is my 8th Great Grandfather. Carol (Baldwin-3428)

Comments

I was of the understanding that William the Conqueror was also known as William the Bastard and was the illegitimate issue of Robert I (Robert the Magnificent) of Normandy and his mistress Herleva. William had a son by Mathilda of Flanders named William II. Did you mix them up? (William the Conqueror is my 24th GGF)

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Randolph, thank you for your comment. No, I did not mix them up. Yes, he was unkindly and historically titled "William the Bastard;" however, more accurately AKA Guillaume (Normandie) de Normandie with the inherited title of Duke. He and his 'bastard' sister, Adelaise (Normandie) de Lens (another ancestor of mine through a different ancestral line who connects our family with Charlemagne) were the children of the Duke Robert of Normandy I (Robert the Magnificent) and his mistress, Herleva (Falaise) de Mortain. Herleva's father was believed to be a tanner of some wealth. (I didn't list titles and details as it was 3am and just came off a 3-day Clean-a-thon', but what I wrote was accurate). Both William and his sister, Adelais, were quite young when Duke William I left for the Crusades and died around age 35 in Nicaea. If you would like more information about William the Bastard, there is an outstanding Wikitree for William I the Conqueror at (Normandie-32). Thank you again for your comment. Carol (Baldwin-3428)

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In your original post you listed William the Conquerer's parents thus: "His parents were William of Normandy and Herleve de Falaise."  I see that you have corrected it to Robert now, so all is good. 

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Hi Carol your title of this forum really caught my attention, because I took the familytreedna Y-DNA tests years ago and strangely a great percentage of my matches if you look up there ancestry point to a common group of people and I don't know how to make sense of it. My surname is hobbs, well hobbs means roberts but my y-dna matches come back with baldwin, mowbray, decreulley, ratcliffe and jackson(which chngs to Avenel), I know williams in-laws were baldwins his cousins on his paternal side were D'Aubigny(mowbray) and Avenel. my question is how are baldwins showing up when they are the inlaws? and baldwin is my closest high resolution match, yet jackson has the highest SNP marker match to me. So I have been on the fence for two years trying to figure out which is my path, do I follow baldwins or should these paternal cousins to william be my path. Could williams paternal line and the baldwins be of the same male lineage a few generations up the line?

Answer 2

Do you mean did William the conqueror have a descendant named Henry Baldwin.

William the conqueror was the Duke of Normandy, his surname (although technically he didn't have one) is often to be considered to be Normandie

Comments

Thank you,