Adelaide of Normandy (or Adeliza) (c. 1030 – bef. 1090) was the ruling Countess of Aumale in her own right in 1069–1087. She was the sister of William the Conqueror.
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Life
Born c. 1030, Adelaide was an illegitimate daughter of the Norman duke Robert the Magnificent. Adelaide's brother or half-brother, Robert's son and successor William the Conqueror, was likewise illegitimate.
Adelaide's first marriage to Enguerrand II, Count of Ponthieu potentially gave William a powerful ally in upper Normandy. But at the Council of Reims in 1049, when the marriage of William with Matilda of Flanders was prohibited based on consanguinity, so were those of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne and Enguerrand of Ponthieu, who was already married to Adelaide. Adelaide's marriage was apparently annulled c. 1049/50 and another marriage was arranged for her, this time to Lambert II, Count of Lens, younger son of Eustace I, Count of Boulogne forming a new marital alliance between Normandy and Boulogne. Lambert was killed in 1054 at Lille, aiding Baldwin V, Count of Flanders against Emperor Henry III.
Now widowed, Adelaide resided at Aumale, probably part of her dower from her first husband, Enguerrand, or part of a settlement after the capture of Guy of Ponthieu, her brother-in-law. As a dowager Adelaide began a semi-religious retirement and became involved with the Abbey of Saint-Martin d'Auchy, presenting them with a number of gifts. In 1060 she was called upon again to form another marital alliance, this time to a younger man, Odo, Count of Champagne. Odo seems to have been something of a disappointment as he appears on only one of the Conqueror's charters and received no land in England; his wife being a tenant-in-chief in her own right.
