Born about 1033 in Flandre [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Tostig Godwinsson — married before Sep 1051 (to 25 Sep 1066) in Wessex, England

Descendants

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Judith Flandre was a member of the aristocracy in Europe.

Biography

Judith was the daughter of a Count of Flanders, and the wife of firstly, Tostig Godwinsson, Earl of Northumbria, and brother of Harold II, King of England, and secondly Welf I, Duke of Bavaria.

Parents

In all the early sources, Judith is identified as a daughter of a Count of Flanders, and in some the daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, but very few identify which Baldwin. Even with those sources that do identify which Baldwin, some list her as a sister of Baldwin V, and thus daughter of Baldwin IV, and others as a daughter of Baldwin V.

The first modern author to analyse these discrepancies was Edward Augustus Freeman in The history of the Norman Conquest of England, and he came to the conclusion that Judith was the daughter of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders, with this second wife, the unnamed daughter (but often called Eleanor) of Richard II, Duke of Normandy.^[1] This theory has generally been followed by most researchers ever since.

For a more detailed discussion of the sources and why Freeman's theory seems to make the most sense, see the Commentary section in the article about Judith in the website The Henry Project by Stewart Baldwin^[2]

As Baldwin IV's first wife died on 21 February 1030, and Baldwin died in late May 1035,^[2]Judith must have been born somewhere between 1031 and 1036. A date of about 1033 seems reasonable.^[3]

First marriage

Marriage and Issue

m.1 (ante Sep 1051) Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria (1025/30 - 25 Sep 1066; p. Godwin, Earl of Wessex and Gytha of Denmark).[1]^[4][5]

Morkinskinna states that Skúli was a son of Tostig, and mentions Ketill in the same passage without giving any relationship. In a passage describing the same events, Heimskringla [660] states that Skúli and Ketill were brothers of noble English blood, but does not state their parentage. (Some published versions of Heimskringla based on later manuscripts make the brothers sons of Tostig, but this is not in Hollander's translation, based on the earliest manuscripts.) Skúli was evidently an adult at the time of the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066), and it has also been pointed out [Cleve & Hlawitschka (1982), 27] that the Norwegian names Skúli and Ketill are unknown among Tostig's and Judith's families, so it seems unlikely that they were children of Judith, and it would be extremely difficult to identify them with the children of Judith mentioned above who were still infants in 1065. If these sons have been correctly attributed to Tostig (and that itself is not certain), then they would have been much more likely to have been born by a Norwegian wife or mistress prior to Tostig's marriage to Judith.

m.2 (1071) Welf I Este, Duke of Bavaria (1030/40 - 09 Nov 1101; p. Alberto Azzo II, Marchese d'Este and Kunigunde von Altdorf).[2]

References

http://sbaldw.home.mindspring.com/hproject/prov/judit000.htm

• Searle, W.G. (1899). Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings, and Nobles: The Succession of the Bishops and the Pedigrees of the Kings and Nobles, (pp.358-9). London: Cambridge University Press. archive.org

Wikipedia: Judith of Flanders

1. ↑ Freeman, Edward A., The history of the Norman conquest of England, vol. 3, pp. 656-658, Digitised by Internet Archive https://archive.org/stream/historynormanco07unkngoog#page/n694/mode/2up : viewed 18 October 2016
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Baldwin, Stewart, 'Judith of Flanders', updated 11 October 2002, in The Henry Project: The ancestors of king Henry II of England, edited by Stewart Baldwin & Todd Farmerie http://sbaldw.home.mindspring.com/hproject/henry.htm : viewed 18 October 2016.
3. ↑ Cawley, Charles & Foundation of Medieval Genealogy
4. ↑
5. ↑ Wikipedia: Tostig Godwinson

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