Adèle de Vermandois
was possibly the grandmother of Ivo de TAILLEBOIS, who was hisself an ancestor of WILLIAM MEDECALFE DE DENT. For that reason she was perhaps also an ancestor of Jane Metcalfe, grandmother of David Walker.
ADÈLE DE VERMANDOIS (c. 934 – c. 982) also know as ADÈLE DE MEAUX was a French noblewoman. She was Countess of Chalon and later Countess of Anjou. Adèle was a daughter of ROBERT OF VERMANDOIS, Count of Meaux and Troyes, and Adelaide de Chalon.She married
(1) c. 970 Lambert, Count of Chalon (died 22. February 978). Their children were:
Hugh I of Autun, Bishop of Auxerre and Count of Chalon (died 1039), Mahaut of Autun, Dame de Donzy (died bef. 1019) and Aelis of Chalon, who married c. 991 Guy I, Count of Macon.
(2) GEOFFREY OF ANJOU. Their children were: Fulk III of Anjou (970-1040), assumed father of Ivo de TAILLEBOIS, Geoffrey of Anjou (971-977) and Ermengarde, Countess of Rennes and Duchess of Brittany
ROBERT OF VERMANDOIS (c. 907 – c. 967/8) was Count of Meaux, succeeding his father, HERBERT II., Comte de Vermandois and his wife, Adele (Liégarde) of France.
He was married to Adelaide (914–967) of Burgundy, daughter of Giselbert, Duke of Burgundy. They had three children:
* Herbert III, Count of Meaux (c. 935 – 995)
* ADÈLE DE VERMANDOIS or de Meaux
* Adelaide of Troyes (c. 955 – c. 991), wife of Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine. Charles was Great-Great-grandson of Charles the Bald.
(Effigy of Adele of Meaux on her tomb, St Aubin Abbey, Angers, France)
HERBERT II., Comte de Vermandois, Meaux and Soissons (died 23. Feb 943) was the grandfather of ADÈLE DE VERMANDOIS. He was the first to exercise power over the territory that became the province of Champagne.
He was the son of Herbert I of Vermandois. He was apparently well aware of his descent from Charlemagne (3rd great-grandfather). Herbert inherited the domain of his father and in 907, added to it the Abbey of St. Medard, Soissons. He took the position of Lay abbot entitling him to the income of those estates. His marriage with a daughter of king Robert I of France brought him the County of Meaux.
In 922, when Seulf became Archbishop of Rheims, in an effort to appease Herbert II Seulf solemnly promised him he could nominate his successor. In 923, Count Herbert took the bold step of imprisoning King Charles III, who died still a captive in 929. Then, on the death of Seulf in 925, with the help of King Rudolph, he acquired for his second son Hugh (then five years old) the archbishopric of Rheims. Herbert took the additional step of sending emissaries to Rome to Pope John X to gain his approval, which that pope gave in 926. On his election young Hugh was sent to Auxerre to study.
In 926, on the death of Count Roger of Laon, Herbert demanded this countship for Eudes, his eldest son. He took the town in defiance of King Rudolph leading to a clash between the two in 927. Using the threat of releasing King Charles III, who he held captive, Herbert managed to hold the city for four more years. But after the death of Charles in 929, Rudolph again attacked Laon in 931 successfully defeating Herbert. The same year (A coin of Charlemagne with the inscription KAROLVS IMP AVG (Karolus Imperator Augustus)
the king entered Rheims and defeated archbishop Hugh, the son of Herbert. Artaud became the new archbishop of Reims. Herbert II then lost, in three years, Vitry, Laon, Château-Thierry, and Soissons. The intervention of his ally, Henry the Fowler, allowed him to restore his domains (except Rheims and Laon) in exchange for his submission to King Rudolph.
Later Herbert allied with Hugh the Great and William Longsword, duke of Normandy against King Louis IV, who allocated the County of Laon to Roger II, the son of Roger I, in 941. Herbert and Hugh the Great took back Rheims and captured Artaud. Hugh, the son of Herbert, was restored as archbishop. Again the mediation of the German King Otto I in Visé, near Liège, in 942 allowed for the normalization of the situation.
Herbert II died on 23 February 943 at Saint-Quentin, Aisne (the capital of the county of Vermandois). His vast estates and territories were divided among his sons. Vermandois and Amiens went to the two elder sons while Robert and Herbert, the younger sons, were given the valuable holdings scattered throughout Champagne. On Robert's death his brother's son Herbert III inherited them all. Herbert III's only son Stephen died childless in 1019–20 thus ending the male line of Herbert II.
Herbert married Adele, daughter of Robert I of France, king of West Francia. Together they had the following children:
* Eudes of Vermandois, Count of Amiens and of Vienne, (c. 910–946)
* Adalbert I, Count of Vermandois (c. 915–987), married Gerberge of Lorraine
* Adela of Vermandois (910–960), married 934 Count Arnulf I of Flanders (c. 910–980),
* Count of Omois, Meaux and Troyes, and abbot of St. Medard, Soissons, married 951 Eadgifu of Wessex daughter of Edward the Elder King of England and widow of Charles III King of France.
* ROBERT OF VERMANDOIS, Count of Meaux and Châlons
* Luitgarde of Vermandois (c. 915-20–978), married 940 William I, Duke of Normandy; married secondly, c. 943–44, Theobald I of Blois; their son was Odo I, Count of Blois.
* Hugh of Vermandois (920–962), Archbishop of Reims