We've been through the specific problem of Helena before, but let's do it again.
The legendary genealogy says there were two different women:
1. Helena, daughter of Duke Richard III, was supposedly the *mother* (not wife) of Hubert Husee, a companion of William the Conqueror.
Battle Abbey Roll, Husee: http://www.1066.co.nz/library/battle_abbey_roll2/subchap93.htm
2. An unnamed daughter (not Helena) of Duke Richard II or Duke Richard III supposedly married Waleran (Waldron, Waldonius) de St. Clair.
Burke's Extinct Peerages (1866): http://books.google.com/books?id=1DEGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA493&lpg=...
They are not the same woman and were never intended to be the same woman, although some modern genealogists have combined them.
Burke's Peerage looks like a good source, until you look at the date - 1866. This is before Horace Round, so it was before Burke's stopped using old legends and started relying on academic research. This information was dropped from later editions.
The Battle Abbey Roll is supposed to be a list of men who fought with William the Conqueror. at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It also looks like a good source, until you realize that the original is lost, and this is a reconstruction prepared by the Duchess of Cleveland in 1889. She was collating three different surviving copies of the original roll, and adding genealogical notes from later sources. In the introduction she says bluntly, "The antiquity of these names can, on account of the admitted interpolations, only be accepted with great reserve."
Battle Abbey Roll, Introduction: http://www.1066.co.nz/library/battle_abbey_roll1/chap00.htm
It's worth noting that the Duchess of Cleveland's notes on Husee say, "I fear we must admit that the element of romance is predominant in this composition. The Lord Constable of England under the Conqueror was, according to Dugdale, not Hubert Hussey, but Walter, the father of Milo, Earl of Hereford; [60] no daughter of any Earl of Warwick is mentioned as having married a Hussey; nor can I even suggest what island in the Mediterranean is disguised under the name of Aubegeys. The Norman princess Ellen, Countess Hussey, sounds equally apocryphal. But the story of the gallant knight-errant crowned King of an unknown kingdom; and the valiant monk, who fought the Soldan single-handed and slew him; with their ten brave brothers, 'all of them knights;' has the true ring of the chivalrous age in which it was written."
And, it's worth noting that in the entry for Senclere, the Duchess of Cleveland doesn't mention Waleran de St. Clair and his supposed wife, because his name did not appear on any surviving copy of the Battle Abbey Roll.
Battle Abbey Roll, Senclere: http://www.1066.co.nz/library/battle_abbey_roll3/subchap59.htm
I have a reprint of another edition of the Battle Abbey Roll, prepared by Burke (1848). It is also before Horace Round. The annotations are different than the Duchess of Cleveland edition, but the information is generally shorter and less helpful. It doesn't contain anything that contradicts the Duchess.
