Lambert of , Count of Lens BOULOGNE

                   After the execution of Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon, King William offeredJudith, his niece, the deceased earl's widow, in marriage to Simon St.Liz, a noble Norman, but the lady peremptorily rejected the alliance,owing, Dugdale says, to St. Liz's halting in one leg, which refusal sodispleased the Conqueror that he immediately seized upon the castle andhonour of Huntingdon, which the countess held in dower, exposing herselfand her dau. to a state of privation and obscurity in the Isle of Ely andother places, while he bestowed upon the said Simon St. Liz the town ofNorthampton and the whole hundred of Falkeley, then valued at 40 perannum, to provide shoes for his horses. St. Liz thus diappointed inobtaining the hand of the Countess of Huntingdon, made his addresses withgreater success to her elder dau., the Lady Maud, who became his wife,when William conferred upon the said Simon de St. Liz, the Earldoms ofHuntingdon and Northampton. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant,Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p.467-8, St. Liz, Earls of Huntingdon]


NOTE: The parentage of Judith of Lens has come under critical study sincethe early 1970's, when Enguerrand II was thought by some to be herfather. The currently acceptable parentage among most scholars is asstated, i.e., Lambert of Boulogne. [Roderick W. Stuart, Royalty forCommoners, 3rd ed., Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore MD, 1998]