Gilbert de Corbeil1

M, b. circa 1052
     Gilbert de was born circa 1052 in Corbeil, France. He was the son of Regnault, Count de Corbeil & his mother was a member of the Northumbrian nobility. Being that his father was in the military, he seldom saw him and he lived, with his mother, in the home of his grandfather, Warloc. Whe he was about 4 years of age, his grandfather, Warlac,

At the time of the Norman Conquest [1066], he, being about 14 years of age, was attending school in Northumberland

Because of the danger of persecution in Normandy, Gilbert and his mother went back to her homeland in Northumberland where she owned a tract of land in Bernicia, the place where Gilbert grew to manhood. He was about 4 or five years of age at the time of the move; a move that caused Gilbert to see very little of his father, who was a soldier and was fighting with King Phillip of France. In the time period of 1075-1080, a colony of Northumbrian nobles and allied Norman families moved to the Staffordshire-Shropshire region. The families and relatives of Gilbert settled in Staffordshire in the vicinity of Stone Priory. Gilbert and Isabella met there shortly after or during this move.2 Gilbert married Isabella de Lupus d'Avranches, daughter of Richard de Goz d'Avranches and Emma de Conteville, circa 1076 in England. Glbert's marriage to Isabella was not approved of by her family, which means that in all likelyhood, he abducted her in the fashion or custom of the North. Thus, a rare marriage of love and not arranged or as a matter of convenience. Apparently, the couple returned to Bernicia, as their son, Robert, is shown in records as having grown up in Northumberland.

Citations

  1. [S103] Clarence E. Pearsall, History of the Pearsall Family, Volume (: Chapter 9 Gilbert de Corbeil, section 1, page 152 - Gilbert was about 14 years old and at school in Northumberland, probably at St Albans at the time of the Norman invasion. His wife, Isabel was about 5 years old at the time of the conquest. Her grandmother was Arletta de Failace.

    Volume I: Chapter 10 Robert fitz Gilbert de Corbeil, section 1, page 176
    Volume I: Chapter 11 Family of Robert de Peshale, section 4 Collateral Family, page 348 -.
  2. [S103] Clarence E. Pearsall, History of the Pearsall Family, Volume I: Chapter 9 Gilbert de Corbeil, section 1, page 152 -154.
    page 152 - Gilbert de Corbeil was between twelve and fifteen years of age at the time of the Conquest, and his wife Isabella was about five years of age. Her grandmother, Arletta de Failace, married her second husband, Herlwin de Centerville, grandfather of Isabella, in 1036, so that it was not possible for Isabella to have been any older than as above stated. The association of Gilbert, his children and grandchildren for several generatrions with the nobility of Northumberland, points quite clearly to the fact that Gilbert was in Northumberland, England, before the Conquest, where he would not only be with his relatives, and safe from the persecuting power of William, Duke of Normandy, but where he could have the advantage of the best schools in all Europe, especially those intended for Norsmen. The Avranches family came into Northumberland, Engalnd, before the Conquest, and later, when their brother Hugh was made Earl of Chester, Isabella came along with them. It was in this way that Gilbert and Isabella came to cross each other’s path, a fact so essential a preliminary to marriage. They actually met each other when the Northumbrain nobility, and their allied Norman families, migrated from Northumberland to the vicinity of Stone Priory in Staffordshire, and to the vicinity of Edgmond Church in Shropshire, sometime about 1075-1080.
    page 153-154 - The father of Gilbert de Corbeil was Regnault, last count de Corbeil of the family of Germain, grand-daughter of Osmun the Dane and her husband Mauger, son of Richard I, Duke of Nromandy.
    Gilbert Corbeil was about four or five years old when his grandfather, Werlac, was banished from Normandy and his estates of Corbeil and Mortaigne confiscated. His mother, being a member of the Northumbria nobility, had as her marriage portion a tract of land in Bernicia, and here it was that Gilbert grew to manhood. His father followed his profession of solkier by serving under King Philip in France, so that Gilbertt saw but very little of him, in fact only at those rare intervals when his father visited Northumberland. Of course, all he knew about life was comprehended in the English locality where the changing fortunes of the time had placed him. All the same it must have ill-fitted the finely bred Norman youth to be associated with the rough and tumble English lads with whom he lived.