The history of the Aumale family cannot be understood without a backward glance at their ancestors and their links to the royal families of France, England and even Scotland through the noble families of those kingdoms.

The earliest known member of the family that later took the name Aumale bore a frankish Christian name, Guérinfroid. He was the first lord of Aumale following its integration into Normandy in c1000. Guérinfroid’s heir was his daughter Berthe, who married Hugh, count of Ponthieu. Their son Ingelram, who had inherited his father’s title, married Adelaide, the sister of William the Conquerer. He died in 1053 without a male heir and Adelaide was to remarry twice. Her second husband was Lambert, count of Lens, a union that again did not produce a male heir, but her third marriage to Odo, count of Champagne, marked the beginning of the Aumale dynasty in England, and more precisely in Holderness, which was to last for almost two centuries.

Holderness is the name given to the low lying part of the East Riding of Yorkshire lying to the north of the Humber estuary, to the south of Earl’s Dyke, to east of the North Sea and to the west of the river Hull, surrounded essentially by water and referred to at the time as an island. Before 1066 it contained many scattered estates, built up piecemeal over the Anglo-Saxon period. It was William the Conqueror who consolidated into a single holding.

William granted Holderness (except for the church lands) to his companion Drogo de la Beuvrière, along with many estates in Lincolnshire and manors elsewhere in England. Drogo was a Fleming, who probably came from the village of Labeuvrière near Béthune, an excellent soldier and a relative of Matilda of Flanders, the Conqueror’s wife. It is said that Drogo’s wife suffered a violent death at the hands of her husband, at which point he fled back to Flanders, as by 1087 King William had granted Holderness to Odo, count de Champagne. Odo was a count in title alone, as his uncle had seized his lands after the death of his father in c1047, leaving him dispossessed and seeking refuge at the then Duke’s court in Normandy. It was this Odo who became the third husband of William’s sister, Adelaide, for whose support he received the “island of Holderness” and lands in Lincolnshire.

It was Adelaide who brought to the marriage the title of count of Aumale. Aumale was frontier town, often changing hands between Normandy and France until its final capture by the French in 1204, when the title was also confiscated. However, the English contrived to pass an anglicised version of the title down the generations in the form of the count of Albemarle. It came to an end in 1293 with the death of Isabel de Redvers, the widow of William III de Forz, who had outlived her daughter Aveline. The title of lord of Holderness also came to end, when the vast lands associated with it reverted to the Crown.

One of the more colourful characters to hold the title of count of Aumale was William le Gros, so named after his great size which grew so vast that he could no longer ride a horse. He received the further title of Earl of York from King Stephen as a reward for his services at the Battle of the Standard. It was undoubtedly this ambitious grand nephew of the Conqueror who influenced his sister Agnes to marry Adam I de Brus, first son and heir of Robert I de Brus and inheritor of large estates in Yorkshire. Adam I de Brus died while his son and heir Adam II de Brus was still underage, which no doubt suited the manipulative and exploitative William, who acquired the wardship of his nephew, though it should rightly have gone to his mother, William’s sister. This “acquisitive and aggressive magnate”, not content with his own already large inheritance, seized some of the Brus lands, including Danby in Eskdale with its associated castle at Castleton, and gained control of the wapentake of Langbaurgh where the Brus lands were centred. He also seized lands at Scarborough, founding the castle, and took over the castle at Pickering and the manor at Howden, the latter appropriation earning him excommunication from the bishop of Durham, while his growing power won him the epithet “more truly the king beyond the Humber” than King Stephen. (Henry II, who succeeded Stephen in 1154, took back the lands, castles and manors William the Gros had seized and revoked his Earl of York title.) In later life William founded the abbeys of Thornton and Vaudey in Lincolnshire and Meaux in Holderness, the latter to absolve himself of his vow to go to Jerusalem which, owing to his age and weight, he was unable to fulfil.

The Brus and the Aumale families were linked when the sons of Robert I de Brus took as brides members of the Aumale family. Robert II de Brus of the Scottish (Annandale) line married Eufemia, niece of William le Gros, whereas Adam de Brus I of the Yorkshire (Skelton) line married Agnes, sister of William le Gros.

1st Generation

1. Robert the Magnificent of NORMANDY, Duke of Normandy, born June 1000, died July 1035, had children by Herleva UNKNOWN (daughter of Fulbert UNKNOWN) born c1003 Falaise, Normandy, died c1050.
Children:
1.1. William I of ENGLAND
1.2. Adelaide (Adeliza) of NORMANDY

2nd Generation

1.1. William I of ENGLAND and William II of Normandy, born c1028 Falaise, Normandy, France, died September 1087 Rouen, Normandy, France, buried Caen, Normandy, France.

1.2. Adelaide (Adeliza) of NORMANDY Countess of Aumale, born c1030, married 1st count Enguerrand II de PONTHIEU (son of Hugh(es) II de PONTHIEU and Berthe ?CAPET?) married 2nd Lambert II de LENS (son of Eustace I de BOULOGNE and Maude de LEUVEN) died 1054 Lille, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, married 3rd Eudes (Odo) III de CHAMPAGNE (son of Etienne (Stephen) II de TROYES and Adele UNKNOWN) Count of Champagne, Count of Meaux, Lord of Holderness.
Children of Adelaide (Adeliza) of NORMANDY and Eudes (Odo) de CHAMPAGNE:
1.2.1. Stephen d’AUMALE

3rd Generation

1.2.1. Stephen d’AUMALE Count of Aumale, Lord of Holderness, born c1079 Aumale, Normandy, France, died 1127, married Hawise of MORTIMER (daughter of Ralph of MORTIMER).
Children:
1.2.1.1. William d’AUMALE
1.2.1.2. Agnes d’AUMALE
1.2.1.3. Enguerrand (Ingelram) d’AUMALE

4th Generation

1.2.1.1. William d’AUMALE “William le Gros”, Count of Aumale, Lord of Holderness, Earl of York, born August 1127, died August 1179, buried Thornton Abbey, Lincolnshire, married Cicely FITZDUNCAN (daughter of William FITZDUNCAN and Alice de RUMILLY).
Children:
1.2.1.1.1. Hawise d’AUMALE

1.2.1.2. Agnes d’AUMALE born possibly 1115, died after 1170, married 1st Adam I de BRUS, Lord of Skelton, Lord of Cleveland (son of Robert de BRUS and Agnes UNKNOWN) born c1105, Skelton, North Riding, died c1143 Skelton, North Riding, married 2nd William de ROUMARE II.

See de Brus / Bruce

1.2.1.3. Enguerrand (Ingelram) d’AUMALE married Unknown UNKNOWN.
Children:
1.2.1.3.1. Eufamia d’AUMALE

5th Generation

1.2.1.1.1. Hawise d’AUMALE Countess of Aumale, died March 1214 married 1st 1180 William de MANDEVILLE (son of Geoffrey de MANDEVILLE and Rohese de VERE) Earl of Essex, Count of Aumale, died 14 November 1189, married 2nd William de FORZ I died 1195, married 3rd Baldwin de BETHUNE (son of Robert V de BETHUNE and Alice de SAINT-POL) knight, born c1158, died 1212 Burstwick, East Riding.
Children of Hawise d’AUMALE and William de FORZ I:
1.2.1.1.1.1. William II de FORZ

1.2.1.3.1. Eufamia d’AUMALE born c1130 Carrick, Argyleshire, Scotland, married Robert II de BRUS, 2nd Lord of Annandale.

See de Brus / Bruce

6th Generation

1.2.1.1.1.1. William II de FORZ Count of Aumale, born c1193, married Aveline de MONFICHET (daughter of Richard de MONTFICHET).
Children:
1.2.1.1.1.1.1. William III de FORZ

7th Generation

1.2.1.1.1.1.1. William III de FORZ Count of Aumale, born before 1216, died 1260, married 1st Christiana of GALLOWAY (daughter of Alan of GALLOWAY and Margaret of HUNTINGDON) died 1246, married 2nd Isabel de REDVERS (daughter of Baldwin de REDVERS and Amice de CLARE) died 1293.
Children of William III de FORZ and Isabel de REDVERS:
1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1. Thomas de FORZ
1.2.1.1.1.1.1.2. William de FORZ
1.2.1.1.1.1.1.3. Edward de FORZ
1.2.1.1.1.1.1.4. Aveline de FORZ
1.2.1.1.1.1.1.5. (Child) de FORZ
1.2.1.1.1.1.1.6. (Child) de FORZ

8th Generation

1.2.1.1.1.1.1.4. Aveline de FORZ Countess of Aumale, born 20 January 1259, died 10 November 1274, buried Westminster Abbey, married 8 April 1269 Westminster Abbey Edmund CROUCHBACK (son of Henry III of ENGLAND and Eleanor de PROVENCE).

Biographical details available on request.

Sources:
The Brus Family in England and Scotland, 1100-1295, Ruth Margaret Blakely: http://books.google.fr/books/about/The_Brus_Family_in_England_and_Scotland.html?id=_c95jpY_joAC&redir_esc=y
The Bruses of Skelton and William d’Aumale, Ruth M. Blakely: Yorkshire Archealogical Journal, volume 73, 2001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Brus,_1st_Lord_of_Annandale
The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness vol. 1, George Poulson: http://books.google.fr/books/about/The_History_and_Antiquities_of_the_Seign.html?id=33ggAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, volume 5, University of London
The Lords of Holderness 1086-1260, Barbara English
Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship, 1066-1154, Paul Dalton: https://books.google.fr/books?id=Nog9_GJqFZQC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false
The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543, edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith: https://archive.org/details/itineraryofjohnl01lelauoft
Yorkshire Lay Subsidy 1297, edited by William Brown: http://books2.scholarsportal.info/viewdoc.html?id=/ebooks/oca3/8/recordseries16yorkuoft&siteLang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counts_and_Dukes_of_Aumale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_le_Gros,_1st_Earl_of_Albemarle