Biography of Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders 1112-1165

Paternal Family Tree: Anjou aka Plantagenet

Maternal Family Tree: Matilda Chateau Du Loir Countess Maine

In 1110 [her father] Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem (age 21) and [her mother] Ermengarde La Flèche De Baugency Countess Anjou were married. She by marriage Countess Anjou. She the daughter of [her grandfather] Elias La Flèche De Baugency I Count Maine and [her grandmother] Matilda Chateau Du Loir Countess Maine. He the son of [her grandfather] Fulk "Réchin" Anjou 4th Count Anjou and [her grandmother] Bertrade Montfort Queen Consort France (age 40). They were third cousin twice removed.

Around 1112 Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders was born to Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem (age 23) and Ermengarde La Flèche De Baugency Countess Anjou.

In 1123 William Clito Normandy Count Flanders (age 20) and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 11) were married. She the daughter of Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem (age 34) and Ermengarde La Flèche De Baugency Countess Anjou. He the son of Robert Curthose III Duke Normandy (age 72) and Sybilla Conversano Duchess Normandy. They were fourth cousin once removed. He a grandson of King William "Conqueror" I of England.

In 1124 William Clito Normandy Count Flanders (age 21) and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 12) were divorced.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. After 26th March 1124. After this went the king (age 56), and won all the castles of the Earl Waleram (age 20) that were in Normandy, and all the others that his enemies held against him. All this hostility was on account of the son of the Earl Robert (age 73) of Normandy, named [her former husband] William (age 21). This same William had taken to wife the younger daughter (age 12) of [her father] Fulke, Earl of Anjou (age 35): and for this reason the King of France (age 42) and all the earls held with him, and all the rich men; and said that the king held his brother Robert wrongfully in captivity, and drove his son William unjustly out of Normandy.

In 1126 [her mother] Ermengarde La Flèche De Baugency Countess Anjou died.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 1127. And the King of France (age 45) brought [her former husband] William (age 24), the son of the Earl of Normandy (age 76), and gave him the earldom; and the people of that land accepted him. This same William had before taken to wife the daughter (age 15) of the Earl of Anjou; but they were afterwards divorced on the plea of consanguinity. This was all through the King Henry (age 59) of England. Afterwards took he to wife the sister¹ of the king's wife of France; and for this reason the king gave him the earldom of Flanders.

Note. Maternal half-sister; their mother Gisela Ivrea Countess Savoy (age 57).

In 1127 [her former husband] William Clito Normandy Count Flanders (age 24) and Joanna Monferrat Countess Essex were married. She by marriage Countess Essex. She the daughter of Rainier Aleramici Marquis of Monferrat (age 43) and Gisela Ivrea Countess Savoy (age 57). He the son of Robert Curthose III Duke Normandy (age 76) and Sybilla Conversano Duchess Normandy. They were third cousins. He a grandson of King William "Conqueror" I of England.

On 2nd March 1127 Charles Estrigen I Count Flanders (age 43) was murdered at Church of St Donatian. His second cousin [her former husband] William (age 24) succeeded Count Flanders. Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 15) by marriage Countess Flanders.

1128 Death of William Clito

. 27th July 1128. [her former husband] William (age 25), count of Flanders, surnamed The Sad, falling into an ambush, was wounded by his enemies, and, his sufferings increasing, died, amidst universal lamentations, on the sixth of the calends of August [27th July], and was buried at St. Bertin.

All About History Books

The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.

On 2nd June 1129 [her father] Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem (age 40) and [her step-mother] Melisende Queen of Jerusalem (age 24) were married at Jerusalem [Map]. She by marriage Countess Anjou. Her father (age 54) had written to Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem requesting the marriage since he had no male heirs. She the daughter of Baldwin II King Jerusalem. He the son of [her grandfather] Fulk "Réchin" Anjou 4th Count Anjou and [her grandmother] Bertrade Montfort Queen Consort France.

After 1132 Thierry Count Flanders (age 33) and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 20) were married. She by marriage Countess Flanders. She the daughter of Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem (age 43) and Ermengarde La Flèche De Baugency Countess Anjou. He the son of Theodoric "Valiant" Metz II Duke Lorraine and Gertrude Flanders Duchess Lorraine. They were fifth cousins.

On 14th January 1139 [her brother-in-law] Simon Metz I Duke Lorraine (age 63) died. His son Matthias (age 20) succeeded I Duke Lorraine.

In 1143 [her son] Philip I Count of Flanders was born to [her husband] Thierry Count Flanders (age 44) and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 31).

On 13th November 1143 [her father] Fulk "Young" King Jerusalem (age 54) died in a hunting accident. His wife [her step-mother] Melisende Queen of Jerusalem (age 38) continued to reign in her own right with their son [her half-brother] Baldwin III King Jerusalem (age 13).

In 1144 [her sister-in-law] Gertrude Metz Countess Holland died.

Around 1155 [her son-in-law] Humbert Savoy III Count Savoy (age 21) and [her daughter] Gertrude Metz Countess Savoy were married. She by marriage Countess Savoy. She the daughter of [her husband] Thierry Count Flanders (age 56) and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 43). He the son of Amadeus Savoy III Count Savoy and Mahaut Albon Countess Savoy. They were fifth cousin once removed.

In 1160 [her son] Matthew Metz Count Boulogne and [her daughter-in-law] Marie Blois I Countess Boulogne (age 24) were married. She the daughter of King Stephen I England and Matilda Flanders. He the son of [her husband] Thierry Count Flanders (age 61) and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 48). They were third cousins.

All About History Books

The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, a canon regular of the Augustinian Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire, formerly known as The Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh, describes the period from 1066 to 1346. Before 1274 the Chronicle is based on other works. Thereafter, the Chronicle is original, and a remarkable source for the events of the time. This book provides a translation of the Chronicle from that date. The Latin source for our translation is the 1849 work edited by Hans Claude Hamilton. Hamilton, in his preface, says: "In the present work we behold perhaps one of the finest samples of our early chronicles, both as regards the value of the events recorded, and the correctness with which they are detailed; Nor will the pleasing style of composition be lightly passed over by those capable of seeing reflected from it the tokens of a vigorous and cultivated mind, and a favourable specimen of the learning and taste of the age in which it was framed." Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.

In 1165 Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders (age 53) died.

On 17th January 1168 [her former husband] Thierry Count Flanders (age 69) died.

[her daughter] Margaret Metz Countess Hainault and Flanders was born to Thierry Count Flanders and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders.

[her daughter] Gertrude Metz Countess Savoy was born to Thierry Count Flanders and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders.

[her son] Matthew Metz Count Boulogne was born to Thierry Count Flanders and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders.

Thierry Count Flanders and Swanhilde Countess Flanders were married. He the son of Theodoric "Valiant" Metz II Duke Lorraine and Gertrude Flanders Duchess Lorraine.

[her son] Peter Metz Bishop Cambrai was born to Thierry Count Flanders and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders.

[her daughter] Matilda Metz Abbess Fontevraud was born to Thierry Count Flanders and Sibylla Anjou Countess Essex and Flanders.