A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
Herluin de Conteville (1001–1066), also sometimes listed as Herlevin or Herlwin of Conteville, was the stepfather of William the Conqueror, and the father of Odo of Bayeux and Robert, Count of Mortain, both who became prominent in William's reign.
No contemporary record provides the parentage for Herluin, although much later sources have assigned him parents (such as the otherwise unknown Jean de Conteville (965) and Harlette de Meulan). Herluin was a lord of moderate income and some land on the south side of the river Seine. He was viscount of Conteville, probably so created by his stepson, and held the honour of Sainte-Marie Église, a portion of the county of Mortain. There he founded the Grestain Abbey around 1050 with his son Robert.
Towards the beginning of the 11th century, Conteville and its dependencies appear to have been in the hands of Herluin, who married Herleva, the mistress of Robert I, Duke of Normandy and already mother of William the Bastard, later called William the Conqueror. Herluin and Herleva had two sons and one daughter: Odo or Eudes, who became Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert who became Count of Mortain; both were prominent in the reign of their half-brother William. The daughter, sometimes called Muriel, married Guillaume, Seigneur de la Ferté-Macé. Herluin is said to have loyally borne William's body to his grave at Caen after he died in the burning of Mantes.
Herluin later married Fredesendis, who is named as a benefactor of the Grestain Abbey, and as Herluin's wife in the confirmation charter of the abbey, dated 1189. The abbey was founded by Herluin himself around 1050, in hopes of achieving a cure to his leprosy or some similar disease. Herluin and Fredesendis had two sons: Raoul de Conteville (d. aft. 1089), who later held land in Somerset and Devon, and Jean de Conteville. Little is known of the sons of his second marriage.
Source: Wikipedia
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