RETHEL Mélisende

Abt 1122 - Aft 1154  (> 33 years)

• Name	RETHEL Mélisende
  Birth	Abt 1122	Rethel, Ardennes, France
  Gender	Female
  Death	Aft 1154	Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, England
  Notes	Mélisende de Rethel was married twice:[1] Robert Marmion. Richard de Camville. She received gift of part of Stanton, co. Oxon. from Adeliza of Louvain, Queen of England, who recognized her as a cousin ["cognata mea"]. Early in the 12th Century, Stanton was given by Henry I to his second wife, Queen Adeliza (or Adela). A large part of it she presented to a kinswomen, Millicent de Camville. From the latter it was inherited in 1191 by Isabel de Camville, and thus passed to her husband Richard de Harcourt, from whom it has come down through the Harcourt family to the present day and from which circumstance the Manor and the village itself became known as Stanton Harcourt. Queen Adeliza also gave land at Stanton to Reading Abbey, which remained patron of the parish church fill the Dissolution of the Monasteries. A close relationship with St Michael's Church has been maintained by the Harcourts, and it contains the chapel under which members of the family have been buried since the 15th century. Research Notes The following excerpt from a post to SGM by Alan Wilson, gives the (I think correct) ancestry for Milicent, the wife of Robert, which agrees with AR line 256A--not CP above: "Robert I Marmion, b. circa 1109, slain 1143/1144, m. circa 1130/1133 Milicent, dau. of Gervase, Count of Rethel & Elizabeth de Namur. Milicent m. secondly Richard de Camville. Robert evicted the monks of Coventry and profaned their church. "C. T. Clay in an article, "Marmion," in The Complete Peerage, viii, 505-522,indicates that Milicent's parentage is unknown. He lists (?)Elizabeth, dau. of Gervase, Count of Rethel, as the wife of Robert II, son of Milicent (who appears below). Schwennicke (ed.) Europaische Stammtafeln, iii, 625 also lists Elisabeth de Rethel as wife of Robert de Marmion who d. 1181. ES cites Cockayne viii, 509, in connection with this table so this cannot be taken as an independent confirmation. "Moriarty in TAG xx (Jan, 1944), 255-256, points out that Alberic, Canon of Huyon-sur-Meuse states that Clarembald de Rosoy, who m. Elizabeth de Namur after the death of Gervase in 1124, in order to disinherit her, married the only daughter of Gervase out of the country to a certain noble of Normandy named Robert Marmion. But Alberic does not give the name of the daughter or specify which Robert Marmion was her husband. The daughter of Count Gervase was married about 1132/3, so chronologically it would more likely be to Robert I than to Robert II. The mother of Count Gervase of Rethel was Milicent of Montlhery. Thus Milicent, the wife of Robert I could have been named for her paternal grandmother. "Queen Adeliza of Louvain, wife of Henry I, gave part of Stanton, Co. Oxon, to Milicent, wife of Robert Marmion, "cognata mea." Stanton passed with Isabel, dau. of Milicent and Richard de Camville to her husband, Robert de Harcourt as her maritagium, and Stanton Harcourt has subsequently remained in that family. Queen Adeliza was a second cousin of the daughter of Gervase, both being descended from Albert III de Namur, d. 1102, & Ida of Saxony. "Moriarty concludes, in view of these arguments, that it was Robert I who married the daughter of the Count of Rethel, and that her name was Milicent. This corrects Palmer, "History of the Baronial Family of Marmion," 1875, Watson (The Genealogist, n.s., xiv, 70), Clay in "Complete Peerage" (vii, 509), and, of course, although not then published, ES, iii, 625.] [Alan B. Wilson, SGM 14 Apr 1997]" Robert was seigneur of Fontenay-le-Marmion (destroyed by Count of Anjou, 1140), and lord of Tamworth, co. Warwick. Sources ↑ Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families. Hosted online by the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG), accessed 2025, Comtes d'Omont, Comtes de Rethel. Memoirs of Chesters of Chicheley RJCW Ref 175a pedigree of Boteler and Marmion Gen-Medieval - 17 Mar 2005 posting of John Ravilious re: CP omission? Marmion questions
  Person ID	I60169	Freeman-Smith
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026

  
  

  Father	RETHEL Gervais,   b. Abt 1088, Rethel, Ardennes, Champagne-Ardenne, France d. 1124, Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France (Age 36 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	NAMUR Elizabeth,   b. Abt 1095, Namur, Belgium d. Aft 1148, France (Age > 54 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F26707	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	MARMION Robert,   b. Abt 1090, England d. 08 Sep 1143, Coventry, Warwickshire, England (Age 53 years)
  Marriage	Bef 1130
  Children	1. MARMION Robert,   b. Bef 1133, Lincolnshire, England d. Bef Oct 1181, Warwickshire, England (Age < 48 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F26705	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026