Countess Gunnor: kinship, marriage, and manipulation at the Norman court.

Historians of the Middle Ages have demonstrated the importance of the immediate family to the government of any medieval ruler. The role of wives in particular is well established. This research goes beyond the immediately family to study the extended kin-group, including cousins, half-siblings, and relations by marriage. I argue that the ruling family was a broad coalition of all members of the kin-group, who worked collectively to ensure the power and stability of their rule. This presentation will focus on a close examination of one particular episode from the reign of Duke Richard II: the marriage of the children of his maternal and paternal uncles. My study suggests that this marriage was arranged with input from both men and women of the ducal kin-group, and that gender did not exclude women from power, nor did it guarantee independence and power for men. Working together, Richard’s mother Countess Gunner, his uncle Herfast, and his cousin Bishop Hugh of Bayeux manipulated and re-apportioned land and responsibility with the goal of strengthening the family rule. My work will consider the experience of those who held power, as well as that of the women and men who found their lives re-arranged and dictated by the needs of the family.