Sybilla of Normandy

Sybilla of Normandy (1092 – July 12 or 13, 1122) was queen consort of Scotland, wife to Alexander I.

Sybilla was the first child of Henry I of England and his mistress Lady Sybilla Corbet of Alcester (b. 1077 in Alcester, Warwickshire, d. after 1157). Her maternal grandfather was Robert, Count of Mortain, Earl of Cornwall. She was born circa 1092 in Domfront, Normandy.

Around 1107 she married Alexander I, King of Scots. The marriage was childless. The marriage ceremony may have occurred as early as 1107, or as at late as 1114.^[1]

William of Malmesbury's account attacks Sybilla, but the evidence argues that Alexander and Sybilla were a devoted but childless couple and Sybilla was of noteworthy piety.^[2] Sybilla died in unrecorded circumstances at Eilean nam Ban (Kenmore on Loch Tay) in July, 1122 and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey. Alexander did not remarry and Walter Bower wrote that he planned an Augustinian Priory at the Eilean nam Ban dedicated to Sybilla's memory, and he may have taken steps to have her venerated.^[3]

She died on July 12 or 13, 1122, on the tiny island of Eilean nam Ban (Eilean nan Bannoamh: "Isle of the female saints") in Loch Tay, and Alexander founded a priory on the island in her memory. She was buried in Dunfermline Abbey, Fife.

References

1. ^ Oram, p. 65; a date around 1114 would place the marriage at about the same time as that of David and Maud of Huntingdon.
2. ^ Duncan, p. 65; Oram, p. 71.
3. ^ Oram, p. 71.