This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/WZVBAIB/3368.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Doug here is some History on William de Warenne, first Earl who married Gundred. he was the largest land owner in the world even now I also have but together a 16 generation if you are interested using the pedigree chart.........Norma =========================================== William de Warenne, First Earl Also called Guillaume de Warrenne 6 ft 2" tall William Warren, first Earl of Surrey b 1027-1028 (given this title not by the Conqueror but by his son William Rufus) died 6-24-1088 after being hit in the leg by an arrow at the siege of Pevensey, I can't yet find a reliable source for his birth date but he was noted as being of very similar age to the Conqueror and also died in his 61st year which gives a birth date of 1028/1029. Now Gundred died in childbirth in 5-27-1085 and was supposedly then about 35 years of age. It is also reported that she married William Warren when 16 or 17 years of age. This would suggest a birth date of about 1049/1050 but others say up to 3 years later William Warren was at the Battle of Mortemer in 1054. Remember also that he fought with William the Conqueror at Hastings in 1066, one of only about twenty who have been proved to have been there. William the Conqueror the 7th Duke of Normandy was born in Falaise, Normandy in 1027, he marrried 1049-1050 Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V. 7th Count of Flanders, William died in 1087 supposedly in his 61 st. year. According to Muirhead p45-46 LEWES and its importance dates from William de Warenne's foundation of the castle and the priory cc1075-1088. Henry 111 built the town walls in 1264, where he was defeated by Simon de Montford at the Battle of Lewes 1264. On a height near the middle of the town stands the Norman Castle of Lewes, almost blocking the pass through the Downs. Warenne's keep, on its motte "with 13th century additions", is a ruin. The Church of St. John preserves in the south chapel, they leaden coffins of Wm de Warenne d 1088 and his wife "also her carved tomb slab". Behind the church and Bissected by the railway lie the extensive but rather formless ruins of the Priory of St. Pancras, once the most important Cluniac house in Brittain, founded in 1075 by "Wm de Warenne" and demolished by Thomas Cromwell in 1539. Beneath the site of the high altar the coffins of the founders were discovered in 1845 One of Gundrada teeth is in the museum in Lewes close to where she is buried c.1066 William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey. William was the son-in-law of William the Conqueror and had been one of his chief knights at the Battle of Hastings. The Honour of Conisbrough was his reward for those services. He also received other estates based on Castle Acre in Norfolk and Lewes in Sussex. He founded the Priory of St. Pancras at Lewes. The first Earl died in 1088. Seigneur William de Warenne was not born in 1055 as some researchers believe. He was at the Battle of Mortemer in 1054, the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and died in 1088 (aged 60 yrs plus). He married Gundrada whose parentage is often discussed about 1067. She was never Countess of Surrey. Her husband was not given this title until after her death and also the death of William the Conqueror. The title was given by William Rufus. If she did have a title, it could only refer to her husbands original French title which is given in certain early documents as Comes ( Count ).