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From: Don Stone <>
Subject: Re: Fergus of Galloway--Perhaps the Final Word
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 16:37:11 -0500


"Todd A. Farmerie" wrote:
>
> "Lyle R. (Andy) Anderson" <> wrote:
>
> > As a side note, in the hundreds of pages of paper on my desk
> > there is a new reference to Nesta as Elizabeth's mother. When I
> > find it, I will submit it.
>
> > However, if she [Elizabeth] was the granddaughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, I'm
> > sure she would not have been seen by Fergus of Galloway as a homeless
> > waif or wanderer.
>
> When, exactly, did Henry and Nesta take up with one
> another? 15 years before he became king, when he was
> seventeen and had no prospects? I think it was much later,
> although we can't be certain.

To amplify this point, there is some relevant information in a recent
article by David Crouch, "Robert of Gloucester's Mother and Sexual
Politics in Norman Oxfordshire," _Historical Research_ 72 (Oct. 1999):
323-333. This article proposes that the mother of Earl Robert of
Gloucester, the oldest illegitimate child of Henry I, was a member of
the Gay or Gayt family of north Oxfordshire, perhaps a daughter of
Rainald or Reginald Gay, lord of Hampton and Northbrook, Oxfordshire.
(This is based, among other things, on a reference to Philip Gay as
cognatus [cousin] of Earl Robert.)

Crouch notes (p. 329) that Count (later King) Henry's next identifiable
mistress, Ansfrida, also had Oxfordshire connections and says that "it
seems from all this that Henry picked his earliest mistresses from a
small geographical area."

-- Don Stone

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