Gerbod the Fleming, of Oosterzele, 1st Earl of Chester, was a hereditary advocate of the Abbey of Saint Bertin at Saint-Omer, County of Flanders (now Department Pas-de-Calais, France) and Earl of Chester in 1070.David C. Douglas, William The Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1964), p. 267

Life Gerbod of Oosterzele was the son of another Gerbod, hereditary advocate of the abbey of Saint-Bertin.E. Warlop, The Flemish Nobility Before 1300, Part II Annexes, Volume 2 (G. Desmet-Huysman, Belgium, 1976) p. 1021Heather J. Tanner, Families, Friends and Allies: Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c.879-1160 (Brill, Leiden, 2004), p. 83 n. 55 Among the fourteen tenants-in-chief from Flanders, Gerbod the Fleming was one of the most prominent.David Nicholas, Medieval Flanders (Longman Group UK Limited, 1992), p. 54 His family held the lordships of Oosterzele and Scheldewindeke, the overlordship of Arques and territorial rights in Saint-Omer.

In 1066, he was in the service of William the Conqueror,Judith A. Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 43 most probably at the battle of Hastings, and, between 1067 and 1070, was created Earl of Chester, holding a large portion of that county along with the city of Chester forming the county palatine of Chester.George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, ed. Vicary Gibbs, Vol. iii (The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., London, 1913) p. 164 His brother, Frederic, was a tenant-in-chief in East Anglia and his sister Gundred married William I de Warenne, later 1st Earl of Surrey, whose caput was Castle Acre in Norfolk.William Farrer, Charles Travis Clay, Early Yorkshire Charters, Volume VIII - The Honour of Warenne (The Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 1949) p. 45Elisabeth van Houts, 'Hereward and Flanders,' Anglo-Saxon England, Vol. 28 (Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1999), p. 219

Gerbod was mentioned as being a part of the reduction of Cheshire in 1070 by the Conqueror, at which time Gerbod was given the Earldom of Chester. Orderic Vitalis reports that Gerbod was harassed by both English and Welsh in his new position and he may have been glad to return to Flanders later that same year.Robert H. George, "The Contribution of Flanders to the Conquest of England (1065-1086)", Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 5/1 (1926), pp. 81-99 This may have been due to concerns having to do with the death of the Count of Flanders, Baldwin VI, and the subsequent civil war.C.P. Lewis, "The Formation of the Honor of Chester, 1066-1100", The Earldom of Chester and its Charters; A Tribute to Geoffrey Barraclough, ed. A.T. Thacker, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, Chester, Vol. 71, 1991, p. 39

According to Orderic Vitalis, he fought in the battle of Cassel in February 1071 in Flanders where he fell into the hands of his enemies and was held captive. William I, seeing the earldom vacant, used his imprisonment as a reason for giving the earldom of Chester to Hugh 'Lupus' d'Avranches.Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Translated by Thomas Forester Henry G. Bohn, London, MDCCCLIV (1854), p. 47 The Hyde Chronicle reported Gerbod died a prisoner.Hyde Abbey, Liber Monasterii de Hyda: Comprising a Chronicle of the affairs of England, ed: Edward Edwards, Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, London, 1866, p. 296

However, an English and a Norman source both state that Gerbod was not imprisoned following Cassel, Instead he fled to Rome to seek forgiveness for the sin of killing Arnulf III, Count of Flanders, his liege lord during the battle. Pope Gregory VII sent him to Hugh, Abbot of Cluny.Karl Hanquet (ed.), La Chronique de Saint-Hubert dite Cantatorium (Hayez, Imprimeur de L'Academie, Bruxelles, 1906), pp. 66–67.Gilbert of Mons, Chronicle of Hainaut, Translated by Laura Napran (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2005), pp. 6–7 Gerbod remained at Cluny becoming a distinguished monk within its ecclesiastical community.

Prior to becoming a monk, Gerbod married Ada (last name unknown),Chris Philips, The family of Gerbod and Gundred: documents,(see: Charter of Gerbod and his wife Ada to St Bertin's Abbey) with whom he had at least three children.

Issue

Arnulf III of Oosterzele-Scheldewindeke Gerbod III of Oosterzele-Scheldewindeke Albert of Scheldewindeke It is also possible he was the Father of Maud de Maulde, Wife of Nicholas de Stafford, as she is described as the Daughter of the Earl of Chester. There has been no evidence found to date.

See also List of earls in the reign of William the Conqueror

References

Notes