Research Notes:
VCH provides the following biosketch of Simon de St. Liz and Maud, daughter of Waltheof. [1]
The priory of St. Andrew, Northampton, was founded between 1093 and 1100 by Simon de St. Liz, earl of Northampton. (fn. 1) According to an account given in the chartulary of the monastery, (fn. 2) Simon was the younger of two brothers—strenuissimi milites—who accompanied the Conqueror to England in 1066. The elder, Garnerius le Ryche, on the death of their father returned to France to claim the paternal inheritance; Simon remained to take his chance as a soldier of fortune. On the disgrace and death of Waltheof, earl of Huntingdon, the king bestowed his eldest daughter Maud in marriage on the favourite together with the honour of Huntingdon, (fn. 3) and Simon de St. Liz became the first earl of Northampton of that name. In 1084 he is said to have founded the priory, which is described by Leland (fn. 4) as situated on the north-west side of Northampton, abutting on the town walls and bordering on the river Nen, and planted there monks from the powerful priory of St. Mary de Caritate or La Charité-sur-Loire, France, to which it was henceforth a cell.
During the reign of Henry I. the earl of Northampton died on his homeward journey from the Holy Land at La Charité and was buried there. His heir, Simon the younger, was placed in the custody of David, brother of the king of Scotland, to whom the king granted the hand of the widowed countess. Both he and Simon the third earl were buried in the priory church. (fn. 5)
1. No importance can be attached to the statement of Ingulf that in 1076 he found at Crowland two monks who had been professed at St. Andrew's. Ingulf (Gale ed.), 76. The usually accepted date for the foundation of this priory is 1084, but Mr. Round (V. C. H. Northants, i. 293) has shown that it is probably about ten years later.
2. Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii. f. 1.
3. Ingulf states that the Conqueror first offered Judith the widow, but that she refused Simon on account of his lameness. Ingulf (Gale ed.), 72-3. Dugdale, Baronage, i. 56, 58.
4. Leland, Itin. (Herne ed.), i. 9.
5. Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii. f. 9.
[1] W. Ryland D. Adkins and R. M Serjeantson, eds., The Victoria History of the County Northampton, Vol. 2 (London: 1906), 102, [HathiTrust].