Notes and Queries (London, Bell ad Dawdly, 1858) By William White p 435

ISABELLE DE DOUVRE.

Beziers (Ilistoire de Bayeux, ft Caen, 1773, p. 54.), describing the cathedral, writes: — "II y a au dehors de la Tour mcridionalc une epitaphs bien singulicre: elle est gravee en grand caracteres sur les pierres qui forment l'un des piliers d'appui du cotr de la grande Place & 7 ou 8 pieds du rez-de-chaussce; voici co qu'on y lit: —

"Quarta dies Pascbe fuerat ciim Clerus ad hujus

  Que jacet hie vetule venimus exequias, 

 Letitiequc diem magis amisisse dolemus 

  Qu.tm centum tales si cadcrent vetule.' 

Cette inscription, dont les lettres sont anciennes et telles qu'on s'en servoit avant les diphtongues, ne porte ni date ni nom apellatif. Quelques-uns pretendent qu'elle regarde la Maitresse d'un Due de Normandie, qui, au lieu d'etre enterre'e dans l'Eglise, comme elle l'avoit desire*, fut enclavec, pour parler ainsi, dans l'vpaisseur du mur de la Tour, par ordre du chapitre. Ne seroit-ce point plutot Isabellc deDouvre, Maitresse de Robert Comic de Glocestrc, batard de Henri I., Roi d'Angleterre, dont nnquit Richard, qui, inalgre' le deTaut de sa naissance, fut nomine l'an 1133 a l'Eveche'de Bayenx? la date de son obit au 21 d'Avril insinue que ce fut le jour de son deces. La femme designee dans l'c'pitapbe mourut age"e et aux Fetes de Pnqucs: orPaquesen l'annce 1106 tomba au 24 d'Avril. Ces dpoques paroissent asscz s'accorder entr'clles, et l'inscription est assurdment du mime terns."

At p.'220., Beziers gives some account of this Isabellc de Douvre, who appears to have been a daughter of "Samson, Baron de Douvre" (the same who is mentioned in the Domesday Survey as Radulfus de Sancto Sansone, and Sanson Clericus, and Cnpellanus). This lady was sister of Thomas II., Archbishop of York, and also of Richard, Bishop of Bayeux; and, besides her son Richard, who succeeded his uncle in the see of Bayeux, she would seem to have had another son, Roger, who became Bishop of Worcester, and who is described as a son of Robert of Kent, Caen, or Glo'ster, —furtivo concubitu, >— consequently not by Mabel Fitz-Hajmon, but no doubt by Isabella de Douvre. What I wish to ask is, whether Beziers is right in his conjecture that Isabellc is the person here alluded to in this epitaph or inscription P and, also, whether the inscription is still known to exist? J. S. B.

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A Universal Biographical Dictionary (New York, 1825).. https://books.google.com/books?id=F48wAAAAYAAJ Charles N. Baldwin, ‎Henry Howland Crapo - 1825

p. 162

• DOUVRE, Thomas de, was raised by William the Conqueror to the see of York, where he rebuilt the cathedral: he died in 1100.
• DOUVRE, Thomas de, nephew of the preceding, was also archbishop of York, in 1108.
• DOUVRE, Isabella de, of the same family, was mistress to Robert, the natural son of Henry I.; she died in 1160.