Earl Robert Beaumont of Leicester and Elizabeth Isabel de Vermandois Countess de Leicester
Husband Earl Robert Beaumont of Leicester [19013] 1
Born: Abt 1049 - Pont-Audemer, Duchy of Normandy, France 1 Christened: Died: 5 Jun 1118 - Les Préaux, Eure, Duchy of Normandy, France 1 Buried: Abt 5 Jun 1118 - Abbey of Saint-Pierre (St. Peter), Les Préaux, Duchy of Normandy, France 1 FamilySearch ID: L1Q8-65G
Father: Roger de Beaumont [19015] (Between 1010/1015-1094) 2 Mother: Adeline de Meulan [19016] (1014-1081) 2
Marriage:Events
• MilitaryService: 14 Oct 1066, Senlac Hill, Battle, Sussex, England.
• Event: 1094. In [before 1094], he was imprisoned by Robert III Duke of Normandy after challenging the exchange of Ivry for Brionne agreed by his father, the Duke confiscating Brionne. He was released after the intervention of his father, and Brionne was restored to his father after being recaptured.
• He was excommunicated on 26 Mar 1105.
Wife Elizabeth Isabel de Vermandois Countess de Leicester [19014] 1
Born: 13 Feb 1085 - Valois, Diocese of Soissons, France 1 Christened: Abt 1085 - Île-de-France, France 1 Died: 17 Feb 1131 - Meulan, Diocese of Chartres, France 1 Buried: 19 Feb 1131 - Abbey of St. Pancras (Lewes Priory), Lewes, Sussex, England 1 FamilySearch ID: MXWH-HJ8
Father: Hugues 'le Grand' de Vermandois comte de Vermandois [19017] (1057-1101) 3 Mother: Adelaide de Vermandois [19018] (1058-1120) 3
Events
• Biography: Elizabeth (Isabel) de Vermandois was born on 13 February 1085 in the region of Valois, within the Diocese of Soissons, France. She was a member of the Capetian royal house through her father, Hugh "the Great" of Vermandois, younger brother of King Philip I of France, and of the older Carolingian line through her mother, Adelaide of Vermandois, Countess of Valois and Vermandois. Her birth connected two of the most prestigious noble lineages in northern France, linking the emergent Capetian monarchy to one of the oldest comital families of the Frankish realm.
Elizabeth was baptized around the time of her birth, most likely in one of the churches associated with the family's residence at Crépy-en-Valois. No record of the baptism survives, as parish registers did not exist in the eleventh century, but it would have been conducted under the authority of the Diocese of Soissons. Her early years would have been spent within the comital household, which served both as a political center for her mother's patrimony in Vermandois and as a Capetian outpost on the northeastern frontier of the royal domain.
Around 1096, Elizabeth married Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and later 1st Earl of Leicester, one of the foremost Anglo-Norman magnates of the period. The location of the marriage is not recorded but is generally placed either in Normandy, where the Beaumont family held their ancestral seat at Meulan on the Seine, or in England, where Robert had extensive holdings following the Norman Conquest. This alliance joined the French comital house of Vermandois with one of the most powerful families in the Anglo-Norman world. Through this marriage, Elizabeth became Countess of Meulan and, after 1107, Countess of Leicester when her husband's English title was confirmed by King Henry I.
Her marriage to Robert de Beaumont linked her directly to the political sphere of both Normandy and England during the reigns of William II and Henry I. Robert was a close counselor of Henry I and a leading baron in the consolidation of the Anglo-Norman administration. Elizabeth's position as Countess of Meulan and Leicester placed her within the trans-Channel aristocracy that managed estates on both sides of the English Channel and maintained shifting loyalties between the Capetian and Norman courts. The couple's estates in France, centered at Meulan in the Diocese of Chartres, and in England, including lands in Leicestershire and Warwickshire, reflect the dual identity of the Anglo-Norman elite.
Elizabeth bore several children during this marriage, including twin sons who each continued the family's influence: Robert, who succeeded as 2nd Earl of Leicester, and Waleran, who became Count of Meulan. Her daughters, Elizabeth and Adeline, married into other prominent Anglo-Norman families. These alliances further extended the Beaumont family's influence within both English and Norman nobility.
Following Robert de Beaumont's death in 1118, Elizabeth remarried William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey, a powerful Anglo-Norman lord with lands in Sussex, Yorkshire, and Normandy. This second marriage reinforced her standing among the English aristocracy and aligned her with one of the kingdom's most influential families. Her title at this time became Countess of Surrey. Through this union, Elizabeth was again situated within the upper echelon of Anglo-Norman politics, and her connections strengthened ties among the great families who supported King Henry I's rule.
Her life illustrates the political and dynastic role of noblewomen in the early twelfth century, serving as intermediaries between competing loyalties in France and England. She participated in the transmission of influence through both inheritance and marriage, uniting French and Norman bloodlines in a generation that helped shape the English aristocracy of the twelfth century.
Elizabeth's final years were divided between her English and Norman estates. She died on 17 February 1131 at Meulan, within the Diocese of Chartres, France, a site long associated with her first husband's family. Although she died in France, she was buried at the Abbey of St. Pancras, also known as Lewes Priory, in Sussex, England, on 19 February 1131. Lewes Priory was the principal burial place of the Warenne earls of Surrey, founded by William de Warenne and his father as a Cluniac house in the late eleventh century. Her interment there signified her position within the Anglo-Norman nobility and her enduring connection to both sides of the Channel.
Elizabeth de Vermandois's career, spanning the last decades of the eleventh century and the early twelfth century, exemplifies the complexity of noble identity in the age following the Norman Conquest. She embodied the intermarriage between French and Anglo-Norman aristocracies and the cross-Channel nature of feudal politics. Her descendants through both the Beaumont and Warenne lines continued to occupy leading positions in England and Normandy throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, forming one of the central dynastic networks of the early Anglo-Norman realm.
Sources: Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica; André Duchesne, Histoire généalogique de la maison de Beaumont; Gallia Christiana (Chartres and Soissons); The Complete Peerage, Volumes VII and XII/1; Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (MedLands: Nobility of Normandy and England); FamilySearch genealogical summaries for Elizabeth de Vermandois.
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Children
1 F Adeline de Beaumont [19012] 4
Born: Abt 1107 - Leicester, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom 4 Christened: Died: 1178 - Leicester, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom 4 Buried: 1178 - Leicester, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom 4 FamilySearch ID: L133-Z45Spouse: Hugues de Gaunt of Monfort 4 [19011] (Abt 1076-Abt 1132) Marr: Normandy, France (then: Duchy of Normandy, Kingdom of France) 5
1 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 28 Nov 2025), entry for Adeline de Beaumont, person ID L133-Z45.
2 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 28 Nov 2025), entry for Robert Beaumont of Leicester, person ID L1Q8-65G.
3 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 28 Nov 2025), entry for Elizabeth Isabel de Vermandois, person ID MXWH-HJ8.
4 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 28 Nov 2025), entry for Thurstan de Montfort, person ID LK6D-M2Y.
5
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 28 Nov 2025), entry for Hugues de Gaunt, person ID P9H2-JF5.
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