Emma de Torta, comtesse de Varenne

When Emma de Torta, comtesse de Varenne was born about 0960, in Bellencombre, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, France, [her father, Rodolphe de Torta, was 27 and her mother, Herfast de Crepon Arque, was 22.]

She married Gautier de Warenne de Saint-Martin comte de Varenne about 0991, in France. They were the parents of at least 2 sons. She died on 4 November 1022, in Bellencombre, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France, at the age of 63, and was buried in France.

N. N. de Torta was born circa 970. She married Guillaume de Varennes, son of Gautier de St. Martin, before 998.

Family
Guillaume de Varennes b. circa 950

Child
Ranulph I de Varennes+ b. c 998, d. a 1074

See "My Lines"

( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/p71.htm#i9359 )

from Compiler: R. B. Stewart, Evans, GA

( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/index.htm )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Warenne,_1st_Earl_of_Surrey

William was a son of Rodulf or Ralph de Warenne[1] and Emma and reported to have descended from a sibling of Duchess Gunnor, wife of Duke Richard I. Chronicler Robert of Torigni reported, in his additions to the Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, that William de Warenne and Anglo-Norman baron Roger de Mortimer were both sons of an unnamed niece of Gunnor. Unfortunately Robert's genealogies are somewhat confused – elsewhere he gives Roger as the son of William and yet again makes both sons of Walter de Saint Martin – while several of Robert's stemmata seem to contain too few generations.[2] Orderic Vitalis describes William as Roger's consanguineus – literally a cousin, more generally a term of close kinship not typically used to describe brothers – and Roger de Mortimer appears to have been a generation older than him.[2][3]

Charters report several earlier men associated with Warenne. A Radulf de Warenne appears in two charters, one dating between 1027 and 1035, the other from about 1050 and naming his wife, Beatrice. In 1059, a Radulf and wife Emma appear along with their sons Radulf and William. These occurrences have typically been taken to represent a single Radulf with successive wives, of which Beatrice was the mother of William and hence identical to the Gunnorid niece described by Robert de Torigny,[4][5] yet the 1059 charter explicitly names Emma as William's mother.[2]

Re-evaluation of surviving charters led Katherine Keats-Rohan to suggest that Robert of Torigni compressed two generations into one, as he appears to have done elsewhere, with Radulf (I) and Beatrice being parents of Radulf (II) de Warenne and of Roger de Mortimer – a Roger son of Radulf de Warenne appears in a charter dated 1040/1053 – while Radulf (II) in turn married Emma, and as attested by the 1059 charter, they had as sons Radulf (III) as the heir in Normandy, and William. Associations with the village of Vascœuil led to identification of the Warenne progenitrix with a widow Beatrice, daughter of Tesselin, Viscount of Rouen, who appeared there in 1054–1060. Robert of Torigni shows a different Viscount of Rouen to have married a niece of Gunnor, perhaps suggesting that it was through Beatrice that William de Warenne was linked with Gunnor's family.[2] [a]

https://historytheinterestingbits.com/2021/05/22/the-origins-of-the...

In 1782 Rev John Watson wrote a two-volume biography of the Warenne earls of Surrey for Sir George Warren, to demonstrate the knight’s descent from the Warenne earls. Watson tried to establish the origins of the Warennes, but his family trees are confusing, and his sources are not cited. He claimed that the Warennes were descended from Herfastus through a daughter who married Walter de Saint Martin. This daughter supposedly gave birth to William de Warenne, Earl of Varenne in Normandy, who in turn married a daughter of Rafe de Torta, a Danish nobleman who was protector of Normandy in the time of Duke Richard I. This William de Warenne was, supposedly, the father of William I de Warenne. Although there are no sources mentioned, it seems likely that Rev Watson got his information from the chronicler Robert de Torigny. There was no mention of Rodulf, who is clearly identified in the cartulary of the Holy Trinity of Rouen as being the father of William de Warenne and his older brother: ‘ filii eorum Rodulfus et Willelmus’.

---

References

1. Mélanges, Docs. Publiés et Annotés (1898) - Gautier de Saint-Marint.pdf (document attached)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Warenne,_1st_Earl_of_Surrey cites
   1. Lewis, C. P. "Warenne, William (I) de, first earl of Surrey (d. 1088)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28736. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
   2. K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, 'Aspects of Torigny's Genealogy Revisited', Nottingham Medieval Studies 37:21–27
   3. Lewis C. Loyd, 'The Origins of the Family of Warenne', Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 31:97–113.
   4. Thomas Stapleton, "Observations in disapproval of a pretended marriage of William de Warren, Earl of Surrey, with a daughter... of William the Conqueror", Archaeological Journal, 3:1–12.
   5. G. H. White, "The Sisters and Nieces of Gunnor, Duchess of Normandy", Genealogist, n. s. 37:57–65.
   6. Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066, pp. 100–105.
   7. Elisabeth M. C. van Houts, "Robert of Torigni as Genealogist", Studies in Medieval History presented to R. Allen Brown, pp. 215–233.
3. L. C. Loyd, "The Origin of the Family of Warenne", Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. xxxi (1933), 97–113
4. http://w.genealogy.euweb.cz/brit/warenne.html
5. http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/famgen/getperson.php?personID=I1662...
6. http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/famgen/getperson.php?personID=I1662...
7. https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mysong/p61567.htm
8. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/144167422/emma-de_warenne
9. https://gw.geneanet.org/metro2246?lang=en&iz=2&p=emma&n=de+torta
10. https://historytheinterestingbits.com/tag/earl-warenne/
11. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/about/G2RP-CG1