• BIOGRAPHY
  Gunnor was the second wife of Richard I 'the Fearless', duke of Normandy, son of Guillaume I 'Longsword', duke of Normandy, and his wife Sprota. All that is known of her parentage is that she belonged to a family who had settled in the Pays de Caux. The Norman monk and chronicler Robert de Torigni wrote that she was a forester's daughter from the Pays de Caux, but according to the Norman historian Dudo, dean of Saint-Quentin, she was of noble Danish origin. Gunnor was probably born about 945. Her family held sway in western Normandy and Gunnor herself was said to be very wealthy. Her marriage to Richard was of great political importance, both to her husband and her progeny. Her brother Herfast de Crepon was progenitor of a great Norman family. Her sisters and nieces married some of the most important nobles in Normandy.
  
  Robert de Torigni recounts a story of how Richard met Gunnor. She was living with her sister Seinfreda, the wife of a local forester, when Richard, hunting nearby, heard of the beauty of the forester's wife. He is said to have ordered Seinfreda to come to his bed, but the lady substituted her unmarried sister Gunnor. Richard, it is said, was pleased that by the subterfuge he had been saved from committing adultery, and together eventually they had nine children. Unlike other territorial rulers, the Normans recognised marriage by cohabitation or _more danico._ But when Richard was prevented from nominating their son Robert to be archbishop of Rouen, the two were married, 'according to the Christian custom', making their children legitimate in the eyes of the church. Of their nine children, eight would have progeny.
  
  Gunnor attested ducal charters up into the 1020s, was skilled in languages and was said to have had an excellent memory. She was one of the most important sources of information on Norman history for Dudo of St.Quentin. As Richard's widow she is mentioned accompanying her sons on numerous occasions. That her husband depended on her is shown in the couple's charters where she is variously regent of Normandy, a mediator and judge, and in the typical role of a medieval aristocratic mother, an arbitrator between her husband and their oldest son Richard II.
  
  Gunnor was a founder and supporter of Coutances Cathedral and laid its first stone. In one of her own charters after Richard's death she gave two alods to the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, namely Britavilla and Donjean, given to her by her husband in dower, which she gave up for the repose of the soul of her husband, and of her own soul and that of her sons 'count Richard, archbishop Robert, and others..'. She also attested a charter, about 1024-26, to that abbey by her son Richard II, shown as _Gonnor matrix cimitis_ (mother of the count). Gunnor, both as wife and countess, was able to use her influence to see her kin favoured, and several of the most important Anglo-Saxon families on both sides of the English Channel are descended from her, her sisters and nieces.
  
  Gunnor died in January 1031.