Herleva of Falaise

There have been many references in this blog to the children of lords by their mistresses, but we've given very little attention to the women. Let's look at the reason William the Conqueror was called "the Bastard."

Herleva of Falaise was a Norman woman who was the mother of William by his father, Duke of Normandy Robert I. Orderic Vitalis writing a generation or two later said that her father was Fulbert, Robert's chamberlain. William of Malmesbury wrote that Herleva and Robert were later married, but if that had actually happened in William's lifetime then he would have been legitimized and not called Bastard.

Supposedly Robert was high atop one of his towers when he looked down and saw Herleva. She was engaged in the process of dyeing leather by trampling on it barefoot in a tub filled with dye. The story goes that she looked up and saw him watching her, so she lifted her skirts a little more than necessary to show off her legs. Robert ordered that she brought through the back door to meet him, but she refused such a humiliating method, and insisted she would have to enter the castle on horseback through the front gate.

The duke was too anxious to have her join him that he agreed, and a few days later, cleaned up and dressed well, she rode on a white horse through the front gate of the castle. His son William was born in 1027 or 1028.

More realistically, she married Herluin de Conteville in 1031, viscount of Conteville (although that title may have come later, granted him by his step-son, William, after William came to the dukedom). With Herluin she had two sons, Robert of Mortain and Odo, the bishop of Bayeux. They also had two daughters, Emma and another, both of whom made good marriages to nobles.

Robert de Torigni claimed that she was buried at the Abbey of Grestain, a Benedictine monastery founded by Herluin. The statue above of her is in Huy, Belgium, which claims to be her country of origin.

Her other son was Odo, who (like Robert of Mortain) was highly valued by their famous half-brother. Odo became a bishop, and may be the person who instigated the creation of the Bayeux tapestry, which is not a tapestry, but we'll explain that tomorrow when we talk about him.

Richard and Gunnor

Richard I of Normandy was struggling to continue the dynasty begun by his father William and grandfather Rollo. His first wife, Emma of Paris, died childless, so he had to find another bride. He found her in Gunnor, (possibly) his long-time mistress.

Gunnor's origin cannot be confirmed. Robert de Torigni wrote that he father was a forester; Dudo of Saint-Quentin claimed she was of noble Danish ancestry and wealthy (about 1015 she made a grant to Mont St.-Michel, portrayed in the illustration). Her name is found on charters into the 1020s, often acting as regent for her husband.

Robert tells a story how they met. Richard I was hunting and heard of a forester's beautiful daughter nearby. The daughter was Seinfreda and already married. Richard ordered her to come to him so they could sleep together, but Seinfreda sent her unmarried sister, Gunnor. Richard appreciated that he had been prevented from committing adultery and readily married Gunnor. Originally they were married more Danico ("by Danish custom"), which essentially meant cohabiting.

In truth, Dudo's information about her being from a wealthy and powerful family is more accurate. Her sisters made political marriages on both sides of the English Channel.

They had several children, three sons and three daughters, who all obtained good positions and/or marriages. The eldest was Richard II, who succeeded his father as ruler of Normandy. The second son, Robert, was to be appointed archbishop of Rouen, but his parents' non-Christian union meant the pope would not sanction it. Richard and Gunnor then had a Christian marriage ceremony, and Robert became archbishop as well as Count of Evreux. He never lost his taste for politics, and was prominent in later events. The third son, Mauger, was married in 1012 to Germain, the daughter of the Count of Corbeil, and became Count of Corbeil himself in time. (Two other sons died very young.)

Their three daughters had advantageous marriages. The eldest, Emma, was married to more than one king of England. Hawise married Geoffrey I, Duke of Brittany, becoming a duchess. Their last daughter, Maud, married the Count of Blois, Odo II. Sadly, she died young and childless. Odo quarreled with Maud's father over the dowry, which brought the king of the Franks, Robert II, into the picture. Robert was Odo's father-in-law, and ruled on Odo's behalf, giving him the land involved.

Gunnor survived her husband. I'll return to his life, and its end, tomorrow.

Group Projects

Taking sole credit for a written work was not always as important as it is to some authors today. 

William of Jumièges (c.1000 – post-1070) was a monk of Jumièges, a Bénédictine monastery. In the 1050s, he decided to take an earlier historical account to update and extend it. That work was De moribus et actis primorum Normannorum ducum (“Concerning the Customs and Deeds of the First Dukes of the Normans”) by Dudo of Saint-Quentin, completed between 1015 and 1026. As a recording of some of the earliest Norman nobles and their emerging dynasty, it is interesting, albeit inaccurate and interlaced with legend.

William of Jumièges tried to fill in the gaps between Dudo's time and his, and was able to write about William of Normandy invading England in 1066. His work becoming known to others, it is believed that William the Conqueror himself asked that William keep writing a history of his time and deeds. This new version, Gesta Normannorum Ducum ("Deeds of the Norman Dukes"), ends around 1070-71. (The illustration shows William presenting the work to William.)

A few decades later, another took up William's writing and decided to extend it. This was Orderic Vitalis. Orderic was but in Shropshire in 1075 to a priest at a time when clerical marriage was slowly being restricted. He became a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint-Evroul in Normandy, becoming a script master and librarian. He is best known for writing a history of the Church.

His first attempt at writing was picking up the Gesta Normannorum Ducum and filling in the gaps between William and Orderic's own time. He also filled in more from earlier times, borrowing from something called the Gesta Guillelmi ("Deeds of William") by William of Poitiers. (William of Poitiers was a chaplain to William the Conqueror.) Orderic's section of the expanded Gesta is fairly balanced, since he could see things from both the Norman and English perspective.

A third author came along in Robert de Torigni, the abbot of Mont Saint-Michel. Robert was enamored of English kings—descendants of the Norman William, after all—and added much about William after the Conquest, the Abbey of Bec, and an entire volume on Henry I of England. He also borrowed from Henry of Huntingdon's historical work, who was not just an author but also an acquaintance of Robert.

The Gesta Normannorum Ducum was popular in the Middle Ages, being copied and distributed among many monasteries. There are 47 known manuscript copies of it known today. It was an important source for other writes such as Benoît de Sainte-Maure, a historian best known for the 40,000-line poem about the Trojan War. 

I've mentioned Orderic Vitalis before, and I'd like to talk more about him, especially his commissioned work on the history of the Church. See you tomorrow.

The Great Librarian of the Mont

In 1876, in the nave of the chapel of Mont Saint-Michel, a grave was opened to reveal the remains of a former abbot. With the remains was a lead disc inscribed with the epitaph "Here lies Robert Torigni, abbot of this place, who ruled the monastery 32 years, and lived 80 years."

Robert de Torigni (c.1106 - 1186) was born in Normandy. We don't know who his family was (Torigni was the name of the commune where he was born); he became Robert de Torigni when in 1128 he entered the Benedictine Bec Abbey (also home—though not all at the same time—of Anselm and Theobald and Lanfranc). In 1149 he was made prior, and five years later became abbot of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, where in 1158 he was host to Henry II of England and Louis VII of France.

King Henry traveled frequently through his Norman territories, so when he and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, where nearby in 1161 during the birth of their daughter Eleanor, Robert was one of the godfathers.

Robert had a reputation for piety and learning. He was a great collector of books, and turned Mont Saint-Michel into a such a well-known center of learning with such a large library that it was nicknamed Cité des Livres ("City of Books"). He had up to 60 monks copying manuscripts, and himself was referred to as "The Great Librarian of the Mont."

Robert also was a fan of history, and liked putting events in chronological order without commentary. That is not to say that he didn't "editorialize" in his own way: as a friend of Henry II, he barely mentioned the death of Thomas Becket and made no mention of Henry's involvement. Robert, like most, drew from other sources, such as Henry of Huntingdon, from whom we got tales of Cnut and the "Fighting Bishop." Henry and Robert knew each other; Henry had visited Bec while Robert was there and provided him information on Henry I, and Robert introduced Henry to Bec's copy of the Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain") by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Robert was the last of three contributors to the Gesta Normannorum Ducum ("Deeds of the Norman Dukes") a history started by William of Jumièges and continued by Orderic Vitalis. Let's take a look at it and its contributors tomorrow.

Robert de Bethune

As I mentioned yesterday, Robert de Bethune was allowed to attend the Council of Reims called by Pope Eugene III, even though King Stephen of England did not allow even his own Archbishop of Canterbury to attend.

Robert  was described by 12th century historian Robert de Torigni as Flemish, but another contemporary cleric and biographer, William of Wycombe, says he and Bethune grew up in neighboring villages in Buckinghamshire. Bethune started as a teacher before going to study theology under Anselm of Laon. He became a canon and then prior of Llanthony Priory.

In 1130, he was made Bishop of Hereford (pictured is Hereford Cathedral) by King Henry I. Henry supposedly claimed that he needed at least one "godly bishop" around. Keep in mind that many high-ranking religious positions were given as rewards, not necessarily because the recipient deserved them because of his piety. Bethune must have had a reputation for holiness.

To understand what comes next, you need to know about the White Ship incident in late November 1120. The White Ship sank off the coast of Normandy. All aboard died, including Henry's sons. Stephen of Blois was supposed to be on it, but stayed back due to illness. Henry himself was on another ship. The result was that all male heirs to the throne were gone. Henry's second marriage to Adeliza of Louvain was not likely to produce another male heir.

When Henry died, Stephen of Blois seized the throne before Henry's only remaining potential heir, his daughter Matilda, could claim it. Matilda was married to Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, and therefore an empress, and she was not going to let this slide. Her rightful opposition to Stephen led to a period of conflict between the two called The Anarchy.

But back to Robert de Bethune: he supported Stephen's actions from the start. His loyalty to Stephen and his reputation for piety made Stephen trust him. King Stephen (like other kings of England) did not like the papacy's authority over England. England had its own chief prelate, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the conflicts between kings and archbishops were numerous. But Stephen trusted Bethune to stay loyal to him; he might have had Bethune in mind as archbishop some day.

Unfortunately, Stephen could not rely on Bethune's loyalty after the Council of Reims in 1148. Bethune became ill on the third day and died a few weeks later. William of Wycombe's account of his life was an attempt to get him canonized as a saint, but it did not accomplish that result.

Robert de Torigni, who claimed Bethune was Flemish (and may have been right; Bethune's family could easily have come from Flanders and settled in Buckinghamshire), was a Norman monk who wrote about English matters. Let's take a closer look at his life and works...next time.

Fergus of Galloway

In yesterday's post about St. Ninian, I suggested that the biography of him written 700 years later by Aelred of Rievaulx may have had a political origin. To explain that, we have to talk about Fergus of Galloway.

An 1136 charter by King David I of Scotland includes as a witness Fergus of Galloway. This is our first reference to him. In the early Middle Ages, Galloway would have been a "sub-kingdom" in southwest Scotland, and a king of Scotland like David would have been seen as a "first among equals" like the high-king in Ireland. Over time, these sub-kings were designated as hereditary lords. The dynasty of Fergus lasted from his time until 1234.

Digging into contemporary documents, it appears that he may have been married to an illegitimate daughter of King Henry I of England, Elizabeth Fitzroy. (By some counts, Henry had two dozen illegitimate children.) Fergus had three children: Uhtred, Gilla Brigte, and a daughter Affraic. The chronicler Roger de Hoveden refers to Uhtred as a cousin of Henry's son Henry II. Fergus' second son, Gilla Brigte, had a son who was referred to as a kinsman of Henry II and his son, King John. In other marriage news, Fergus married Affraic to with Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles (the Isle of Mann, the Inner Hebrides, the Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys and the Shetlands). Their son, Guðrøðr Óláfsson, became King of Dublin and the Isles. A 12th-century monk and chronicler, Robert de Torigni, claimed that Guðrøðr was related to Henry II.

The Fergus dynasty was very supportive of Augustinians, Benedictines, Cistercians, and Premonstratensians (a strict order founded by a friend of Bernard of Clairvaux, Norbert of Xanten). In one case, records state that Fergus founded a Premonstratensian house at Whithorn. Supposedly, St. Ninian had started the diocese of Whithorn, but it had lapsed, to be revived in 1128. Other records suggest that Fergus founded an Augustinian house that was later converted to Premonstratensian by Christian, the second bishop of the revived Whithorn diocese.

Fergus' extensive support of monasteries and orders has caused some head-scratching to determine the cause. Did he simply want to mirror what other, more-powerful lords did in their realms? Or was there some other underlying purpose. As it turns out, the greatest atrocities during the Battle of the Standard in 1138 were (according to chroniclers) committed by Gallovidian soldiers supporting King David's attempt to capture more territory. It seems likely that Fergus's religious generosity may have had a penitential flavor. Is it possible that the Life of Saint Ninian by Aelred of Rievaulx was a royal request in exchange for a gift to Rievaulx Abbey? Royal patronage is not an unlikely answer. The fact that a biography of a saint who originally founded Whithorn and performed miracles would bring attention and fame to a location within the bounds of Fergus' realm was simply a happy bonus.

For all his publicly expressed piety, however Fergus did not have a happy end. I'll tell you about that tomorrow. The next time after that, however, we will see how the facts of your life don't matter if someone decides afterward that you'd make a good story. See you soon.