There's something not right, about Helie having 12 children, with her second husband. If she's born in 1080, then she's marrying Bertrand at about age 15 (1095), and having their son, Pons, at about age 18...fairly normal, for back then...ok, so far. However, she then marries William in 1115, at about age 35. That would only leave her about 5 more child bearing years. Helie would have to have pumped out children until she was 50+ years old, to have had 12 kids with William. William's Wiki page says they only had 5 children, "The Gesta Normannorum Ducum says that they had five children, three sons and two daughters.", which is somewhat more realistic, but would still have her bearing children past 40, unless she gave birth at the rate of one per year.
A more common rate of birth is 1.5-2 years. Helie would need approximately 7.5-10 years to have 5 children, with her second husband, and it is rare to find women giving birth past 40 years old. If she was about 40, for the birth of her 5th child, with William, and that child was born somewhere between 1122-1125 (7.5-10 years after marriage), this would make Helie born somehwere between 1082-1085. Helie possibly could have been married to Bertrand at about age 12, and given birth to Pons at about age 15 (a fairly common age for starting to have children, back then). This would give her a birth date of about 1083, which fits in the 1082-1085 range, for hitting 40.
The link provided as a reference, states that William likely had an unnamed first wife, and that, his daughter Clemence was married and seems to have had more than one child, by 1128, making her born about 1110, or earlier...before William's marriage to Helie. This also leads to problems with Wiki's given birthdate, abt 1095, for William. It was somewhat more unusual, for a male to start having children in his teens, and having a daughter when he was 15, would be odd. William's birth date leaves no real room for having multiple children, prior to his marriage to Helie.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by Jasonkclark (talk • contribs) 20:18, 6 November 2010 (UTC)Reply
