Richard (son of William the Conqueror)

(Redirected from Richard, Duke of Bernay)

Richard of Normandy (died c. 1070) was the second son of William the Conqueror, King of England, and Matilda of Flanders.

Richard of Normandy
Portrait of Richard in the Genealogical Chronicle of the English Kings (1275-1300)
Bornc. 1054
Normandy, France
Diedc. 1070 (aged 15 or 16)
New Forest, England
Burial
HouseNormandy
FatherWilliam the Conqueror
MotherMatilda of Flanders

Richard died in a hunting accident in the New Forest in a collision with an overhanging branch, probably in 1070 or shortly afterwards.[1] He was buried at Winchester Cathedral. His younger brother, King William Rufus, was also killed in the New Forest in 1100.

Richard is sometimes referred to as the "Duke of Bernay", as if part of his father's continental possessions, as in Burke's Peerage; this is a mistake based on the misinterpretation of a 16th-century inscription on his tomb, which was also intended for the Earl Beorn, nephew of Cnut the Great.[2]

Notes

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  1. ^ Bates, David (2016). William the Conqueror. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-300-23416-9.
  2. ^ James Robinson Planché's note, "An erroneous inscription in Winchester Cathedral", Journal of the British Archaeological Association 14 (1858): 284–87.