Note 2.2

Gunnor appears in a charter of 1082 in which a large number of grants to the Abbey of Holy Trinity in Caen were confirmed on behalf of William the Conqueror's Queen, Matilda. The charter is translated into English in Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: The Acta of William I 1066-1087 (edited by David Bates, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998). It states: Gunnor, the mother of William de Briouze and a nun of the abbey, gave what she held at Bavent, with the agreement of Hugh pincerna and Roger de Quilly; she also gave the lands she held at Rouvres, Cesny-aux-Vignes, Croissanville and Quatre-Puits, with the agreement of Maurice and his wife Albereda, of whose fief they were held. The abbey was founded in 1066 and many of the grants originate from that time. Gunnor's gifts were associated with the Ivry family and their lands, which may provide a clue to William de Braose's maternal ancestry. Hugh Pincerna and Roger de Quilly, who agreed to Gunnor's gift of Bavent, were both members of this family. L J Dépoin (Cartulaire de L'Abbaye de Saint Martin De Pointoise, Publ. Soc. Hist. du Vexin, 1909) named Gunnor's father as another Ivry, Hugh, Bishop of Bayeaux (died 1049). The Ivry line decended to Bishop Hugh from Ralph, Count of Bayeaux (died 1011), who was a half brother to Richard I, Duke of Normandy. Gunnor's gifts to Holy Trinity are listed after those of Albereda, "the mother of Hugh and Roger". Albereda married Robert de Bréval, and their decendants took the name "d'Ivry". L J Dépoin believed that Gunnor and this Albereda were sisters. (The Albereda shown as the wife of Maurice is difficult to identify.) If Dépoin was correct, Gunnor was therefore a cousin of the Conqueror's most trusted companion, Earl William fitz Osbern. His brother, Osbern fitz Osbern, was a chaplain to both Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror, holding Bosham Church in Sussex and rising to become Bishop of Exeter from 1072. William de Braose appears earlier in the same charter as follows: Stigand de Mézidon gave the churches of Falaise with their tithes and the church of Guibray, with the tithe and a mill there, on behalf of his daughter who had become a nun in the abbey, with the agreement of William de Briouze, of whose fief it was held, and whose agreement was obtained by the queen paying him money.

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