Adelaide of Normandy was the sister of William the Conqueror and was Countess of Aumale in her own right.
Background
She was a natural daughter of Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy and born c.1030 Elisabeth Van Houts, in her article Les femmes dans l’histoire du duché de Normandie (or Women in the history of ducal Normandy) mentions Countess Adelaide as one of those notable Norman women who were known to have exerted a strong influence on their children especially with regard to passing on their own family history.
Career
But at the Council of Reims in 1049, when the marriage of Duke William with Matilda of Flanders was prohibited based on consanguinity, so were those of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne and Enguerrand of Ponthieu, who was already married to Adelaide. Lambert was killed in 1054 at Lille, aiding Baldwin V, Count of Flanders against Emperor Henry III. As a dowager Adelaide began a semi-religious retirement and became involved with the church at Auchy presenting them with a number of gifts. In 1060 she was called upon again to form another marital alliance, this time to a younger man Odo, Count of Champagne.
In 1086, as Comitissa de Albatnarla, as she was listed in the Domesday Book, was shown as having numerous holdings in both Suffolk and Essex, one of the very few Norman noblewomen to have held lands in England at Domesday as a tenant-in-chief
Adelaide died before 1090. Adelaide married three times.
First to Enguerrand II, Count of Ponthieu (died 1053) by whom she had issue:
Adelaide II, Countess of Aumale, m. William de Bréteuil, Lord of Bréteuil, son of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford.
Judith of Lens, m. Waltheof Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria.
Adelaide married thirdly in 1060 Odo, Count of Champagne (d aft 1096), by whom she had a son:
Stephen, Count of Aumale.