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Simon I de Senlis (or Senliz), 1st Earl of Northampton and 2nd Earl of Huntingdon jure uxoris (died between 1111 and 1113 [probably 1111 as this is when his castle at Northampton passed to the crown]) was a Norman nobleman.

In 1098 he was captured during the Vexin campaign of King William Rufus and was subsequently ransomed. He witnessed King Henry I’s Charter of Liberties issued at his coronation in 1100. He attested royal charters in England from 1100–03, 1106–07, and 1109–011. Sometime in the period, 1093–1100, he and his wife, Maud, founded the Priory of St Andrew's, Northampton. He witnessed a grant of King Henry I to Bath Abbey on 8 August 1111 at Bishop's Waltham, as the king was crossing to Normandy. Simon de Senlis subsequently went abroad and died at La Charité-sur-Loire, where he was buried in the new priory church. The date of his death is uncertain.

He built Northampton Castle, the town walls^[1] and one of the four remaining round churches in England, The Holy Sepulchre, Northampton.

Family

Simon was the third son of Laudri de Senlis, sire of Chantilly and Ermenonville (in Picardy), and his spouse, Ermengarde.^[2]

He married in or before 1090 Maud of Huntingdon, daughter of Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, Northampton and Huntingdon and better-connected Judith of Lens also known as Countess Judith, niece of William the Conqueror who had earlier refused to wed Simon and fled abroad to avoid William's wrath. They had three children:

• 
  Simon II de Senlis, Earl of Huntingdon-Northampton,


• 
  Waltheof of Melrose, and


• Maud de Senlis, who married (1st) Robert Fitz Richard (of the De Clare family), of Little Dunmow, Essex, had issue, then following his death married (2nd) Saer de Quincy, Lord of Long Buckby in Northamptonshire, and had issue:
  
  • Robert de Quincy (d. ca. 1198), father of:
    
    
    
    • Alice de Senlis (St. Liz) (the mother of Sir William de Huntingfield, Magna Carta surety), and
    
    
    • 
      Saer de Quincy, Magna Carta surety (d. 1219).
    
    
    
    
  
  

Following Simon's death, his widow, Maud, married (2nd) around Christmas 1113, David I nicknamed the Saint, who became King of Scots in 1124. David was recognized as Earl of Huntingdon to the exclusion of his step-son, Simon; the earldom of Northampton reverted to the crown. Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon, the Queen of Scots, died in 1130/31.

In popular culture

He was featured in Alan Moore's book Voice of the Fire as the main character of the chapter "Limping to Jerusalem."^[3]

Notes