See http://www.celtic-casimir.com/webtree/11/31770.htm

Governor of the Castle of Plessy

Hugh Talbot: 2nd son, born about 1085, was made Castellan (Governor) of Plesses, in Normandy, by his cousin, Hugh de Gournay, in 1119. He was a benefactor of the monastery of Beaubec, in Normandy, and in the decline of life, assumed the cowl there. He married Beatrice, daughter of William de Mandeville, who was divorced from him and married William de Say, and Hugh became a monk.

(Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 470)

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https://www.persee.fr/doc/ccmed_0007-9731_1995_num_38_152_2630

Si Marie de France était Marie de Meulan [article] by Yolande de Pontfarcy Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, Année 1995 38-152 pp. 353-361

Abstract: Looking at the identification proposed by Holmes of Marie de France with Marie de Beaumont de Meulan, spouse of Hugh de Talbot, I examine the importance, the role, and the family relations of the Beaumonts and Talbot in Normandy, England and Ireland in the second half of the 12th century. This study tends to confirm the identification by Holmes, to determine that the author of "L' Espurgatoire" is the same as that of "Lais" and "Fables." She also shows that Guillaume de Marechal is the person to whom Fables was dedicated and that similarly, Lais would have been dedicated more likely to young King Henri rather than his father, Henri II.

Article

[Summary, not word for word]:There have been lively discussions among researchers about who Marie de France was--many theories have been rejected, including that she was in a religious order, since the work is not especially religious. (names those rejected). More seductive is Holmes' hypothesis that she was Marie the daughter of Agnes of Montfort and Galeran (Waleran) de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and Worcester, and the wife of Hugues de Talbot, baron of Cleuville.

[Word-for-word, translated by curator Pam Wilson 15 Jan 2020}:

In the 12th c., the Beaumonts, allied with the House of Normandy and the House of France, played an eminent role in La Manche. On the paternal side, they descend from Thorold de Pontaudemer who married Duvelina, the sister of the wife of Richard I, Duke of Normandy. On the maternal side, they descend from the Kings of France: Marie's grandfather, Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan & Leicester, married Isabelle de Vermandois. She was the daughter of Huges l Grand (the youngest son of Henri I and Anne of Russia) and Adele de Vermandois, herself descended through her father from Pepin, King of Italy, son of Charlemagne. In an 1157 charter, Louis VII named Waleran (son of Robert & Isabelle, and father of Marie) his cousin.

After Robert de Meulan died in 1118, his older sons Waleran and his twin Robert were raised in the court of Henry I (also with young Hugh de Gournay, perhaps their cousin). When they came of age, Waleran inherited the county of Meulan in the Vexin and in Normandy the chateaus of Pontaudemer, Brionne, Beaumont-le-Roger sur la RIsle, and Vatteville sur la Seine--and in England, lands in Dorset (Sturminster) and Gloucestershire. His twin Robert inherited the county of Leicester in England and, upon his 1121 marriage with Amice de Gael, received Breteuil in Normandie.

in 1123, Waleran, 3 of his brothers-in-law, and Hugues de Gournay joined in a revolt against Henry I conducted by Amaury de Montfort, Count of Evreux, in favor of Guillaume Cliton, who tried to retake the duchy of Normandy that hsi father, Robert Courtheuse, had sold to his younger brother Henri. This sort of treason from Waleran and the others can be explained by their respect for the legitimacy of the right of seniority. The rebellion was crushed but the king kept Waleran prisoner until the death of Guillaume Cliton in 1128; then he returned the favor, having taken as a mistress his sister Isabelle, and up until the king's death, the twins actively participated in the royal administration.

Durng the following reign, in 1135, the twins took the side of Stephen of Blois against Empress Matilda. Stephen promised Waleran the hand of his 2-year-old daughter Mathilde in marriage (she died not long after), as well as the town, castle and county of Worcester. The twin brothers played an active role as counselors to the king. In 1136 they came to pacify Normandy and received the aid of Gilbert de Clare, who was married to their sister Isabelle) and of Henri de Ferriere, a faithful allied with Waleran who we find again in 1138-9 with Waleran in the court of Louis VII.

In 1141, after the disaster of Lincoln, thinking that Stephen's cause was doubtless lost, Waleran abandoned him to his fate and returned to the mainland, throwing his support behind Geoffrey Plantagenet, the husband of Empress Mathilde. That same year, he married Agnes de Montfort, daughter of his old friend Amauri. He was 37 and his wife was 15. She received as a dowry Gournay sur Marne in France and Haie de Lintot in Normandy near Lillebonne. In 1147, Waleran left with Louis VII for the Crusades and on return he almost perished in a shipwreck. In 1150, Geoffrey Plantagenet left Normandy to his son, the future Henry II, but Waleran's rapprochement to France drew the enmity of the new king, who from 1153/4, appropriated the English lands of the count of Meulan with the exception of Sturminster. It is perhaps in this era, in order to reassure Henry II, that Waleran gave his daughter Isabelle in marriage to Geoffrey de Mayenne, a faithful vassal of the count of Anjou. In 1160, he was present at a treaty signed between Henry II and Louis VII concerning the marriage of their children; in 1161 he took the king of France's side against Henri II. Beginning in 1163, his son Robert (20) participated in administering his domains. Finally, before he died in 1166, Waleran became a monk at St. Pierre de Preaux.

Waleran and Agnes had nine children, 3 of which were girls: (1) Isabelle who married first Geoffrey IV de Mayenne and then, widowed, Maurice II de Craon (he died in 1196 and she in 1220); (2) Marie who married Hue Talbot, baron of Cleuville, seigneur of Hotot-sur-Mer, Auffray and ten other places, and (3) Amieu or Amice, who married Henri, baron de Ferrieres.

By a curious irony, Marie left hardly a trace in the archives, and similarly, her spouse, Hugh, is merely a shadow amid the numerous branches of Talbots. According to Burke, at the origin was Richard de Talbot, who possessed lands in Buckinghamshire. He married the daughter of Gerard de Gournay, baron of Yarmouth, with whom he had two children, Geoffrey and Hugh. The latter, Hugh de Talbot, was made governor of the castle of Plessis in Normandy in 1118 by his uncle Hugh de Gournay, then in rebellion against Henry I.. Hugh de Talbot married Beatrice, daughter of William de Mandeville, then became a monk at the Beaubec monastery in Normandy, leaving his wife and sons.

Burke only mentions Richard, ancestor of the counts of Shrewsbury and of the branch of Talbots who became lords of Malahide under Henry II;the second son would have been another Hugh and Gerard, perhaps, the third son and perhaps a 4th named Guillaume. It is that Hugh who would have married Marie de Meulan. ...The title baron of Cleuville was only given to Hugh by French genealogists; however, Hoefer positioned the Talbots, counts of Shrewsbury, descended from the Norman barons of Cleuville in Caux. ...

(What follows: More about Hugh's holdings....)