History… the interesting bits!

Ada de Warenne was born around 1120, daughter of William de Warenne 2nd Earl of Surrey and Isabel de Vermandois. Through her mother, she was a great-granddaughter of Henry I of France and half-sister to Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester and Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford. Her niece, Isabel de Warenne, would marry William of Blois, the younger son of King Stephen and, following his death, Hamelin, half-brother of Henry II of England.

Ada’s family connections were of the highest quality. As a consequence, in 1139 she married Henry of Scotland, only surviving son and heir of David I, King of Scotland. When only a toddler, Henry’s older brother, Malcolm, was reportedly murdered by a Scandinavian monk in his father’s household. On her marriage, she became Countess of Huntingdon and Countess of Northumbria. The marriage produced 3 sons and 3 daughters.

Ada never became Queen of Scotland as Henry of Scotland died in 1152, a year before the death of David I. On his son’s death, David recognised his grandson and Ada’s eldest son, Malcolm, as his heir.

Born in 1142, Malcolm succeeded to the crown at the age of 11 as Malcolm IV. Also known as Malcolm the Maiden, he died, unmarried, at Jedburgh in December 1165. Ada had been trying to arrange a suitable bride for him when he died.

He was succeeded by Ada’s 2nd son, William I the Lyon. William was one of the longest reigning king of Scots in history, ruling for 49 years. He married Ermengarde de Beaumont, a granddaughter of Henry I of England by his illegitimate daughter, Constance. William and Ermengarde had 2 daughters and a son, who succeeded his father as Alexander II in 1214.

Ada and Henry’s 3rd son, David, Earl of Huntingdon, married Matilda of Chester and it is through David that Robert the Bruce and John Balliol both based their claims as Competitors to the Scots crown in the 1290s.

Of the 3 daughters: Matilda died young, in 1152:

Ada of Huntingdon married Floris III, Count of Holland, in 1161. She had 4 sons and 4 daughters before the count died at Antioch while on the 3rd Crusade, in 1190. Ada’s great-great-grandson, Floris V, Count of Holland, was one of the 13 Competitors for the Scots crown in 1291;

Margaret married Conan IV, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond in 1160. She was the mother of Constance, Duchess of Brittany, wife of Henry II’s son Geoffrey and mother of the tragic Arthur of Brittany who was murdered by King John, and Eleanor, the Pearl of Brittany who spent all her adult life in ‘honourable imprisonment’ in England.

Following her husband’s death Ada played little or no part in the politics of Scotland; she retired to her dower lands at Haddington in East Lothian, given to her by David I and possibly the 1st Royal Burgh in Scotland.

A generous patroness of the Church, Ada de Warenne died in 1178, shortly after founding the nunnery at Haddington She is believed to be buried in the Haddington area, although the exact location of her grave is lost to history. In 1198 her grandson, the future Alexander II, would be born in her old palace at Haddington, after her dower-lands were passed on to Queen Ermengarde.

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Pictures from Wikipedia: a coin of Henry of Scotland, Malcolm IV of Scotland and the remains St Martin’s Kirk of the Cistercian abbey, founded by Countess Ada.

Further Reading: Early Yorkshire Charters Volume 8: The Honour of Warenne, Edited by William Farrer and Charles Travis Clay; Brewer’s British Royalty by David Williamson; The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens by Mike Ashley; The Story of Scotland by Nigel Tranter.

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©2015 Sharon Bennett Connolly