The Rebellion of 1088

When William the Conqueror died, he had already made his wishes clear about the division of his lands. His older son, Robert Curthose, became Duke of Normandy, a large and prosperous province on the continent. A younger son, William Rufus, became king of England. (A third surviving son, Henry, was left with nothing.)

Sibling rivalry was a problem between the two older boys, even if they were willing to accept their father's decision, but it was not the two who started the rebellion. It was the land-owning nobles under them. Some of those nobles owned land on both sides of the English Channel. Facing the possibility that they would have to please two different lords with different demands, they decided the best option for the future of the kingdom was to bring both locations under one rule again, as they were under the Conqueror.

William senior died in September 1087, and around Easter 1088, the rebellion began. It was led by the two arguably most prominent members of William's family: Bishop Odo of Bayeux and Robert of Mortain, the Conqueror's half-brothers. They chose to support the elder brother Duke Robert as the rightful heir to England and Normandy instead of King William II Rufus. There were, however, those who supported William. All the bishops of England as well as the Earl of Surrey and other nobles. Many of the largest land-holding barons supported Robert.

William II proved to be a clever strategist. He promised as much money and land as they wanted to his supporters. For the populace of England, he promised the best law code that had ever been. Then he led his own army against the rebels.

Odo was captured, and Robert, leading forces from Normandy, was blown off-course by bad storms. With the continental reinforcements, many of the English rebels surrendered. Orderic Vitalis recorded the arguments of those barons loyal to William when dealing with those who opposed him:

If you temper your animosity against these great men, and treat them graciously here, or permit them to depart in safety, you may advantageously use their amity and service, on many future occasions. He who is your enemy now, may be your useful friend another time.

Odo was stripped of any remaining belongings (he had already suffered previously due to indiscretions) and banished to Normandy. Robert Curthose was forced to acknowledge William as king, and had to stay in England (so that he could not raise an army in Normandy).

What sort of king was William II "Rufus"? I'll tell you next time.

Odo's Downfall

After the Trial in 1076 that re-apportioned some of the property (and therefore income) of Odo of Bayeux, he was quiet for a few years. As Earl of Kent (granted to him by his half-brother, William the Conqueror), he still had impressive resources and a comfortable living. He wanted more, however, and made a step that proved detrimental to his freedom.

Over in Rome, Pope Gregory VII was embroiled in the Investiture Controversy with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. Although Henry's penance was made prior to 1082, there were still arguments over who gets to invest clerics, the Church or the secular powers.

Odo gathered his Kentish forces and planned a military expedition to Italy. Why would he do this? The following is conjecture. Perhaps it was the Holy Roman Emperor's hostility to the pope that gave Odo an idea. Historians writing a couple decades later said Odo wanted to be pope. Either he would take an army to support Henry, who might then support Odo as pope, or possibly he thought he could bring his own army to Gregory's defense and be named his successor for the effort. In 1080, Henry declared Gregory deposed and installed his own pope, Antipope Clement III.

All we know is that Odo was prepared to take a large number of English—Saxon and Norman—subjects out of the country and march across other countries to engage in war with someone, and William wasn't having it.

In 1082, William had Odo imprisoned on the continent, where he spent the next five years. He remained Bishop of Bayeux (his seal is depicted above), but William took back all lands in England and the title Earl of Kent.

In 1087, William was on his deathbed. William's other half-brother, Robert of Mortain, persuaded William to forgive Odo, who was allowed to return to England. Unfortunately, he made another choice to back the wrong horse. William had made his eldest son Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy, and the second son William Rufus was made King of England. (Normandy was far larger than England.) Robert also wanted England, and Odo decided to support him.

The rivalry between William and Robert turned into the Rebellion of 1088, and that's where we will pick up the story tomorrow.

As for Odo, he joined the First Crusade and died on the way, in Palermo in early 1097. He was buried in Palermo Cathedral.

Robert of Mortain

When William of Normandy decided to conquer England, he planned carefully. This was going to be a big undertaking, and he needed help and advice. A large amount of that help came from his half-brother, Robert, Count of Mortain (c.1031 - c.1095).

William of Malmesbury (writing decades later, to be fair) described him as crassi et hebetis ingenii, "thick and dull of character." There is also his reputation for having physically abused his wife, mentioned in the biography of Vitalis of Savigny. Vitalis either threatened him with dissolution of the marriage, or left his service which so bothered Robert that he repented of his ways.

Robert and William shared a mother, Herleva of Falaise, who was also the mother of Odo of Bayeux, who became a bishop. As Duke of Normandy, William had jurisdiction over the county of Mortain. A 12th century poet, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, wrote that Duke William exiled a prior Count of Mortain named William Werlenc and replaced him with Robert. When the planning for the Norman Invasion of England began, Count Robert was part of the council and promised 120 ships, a larger number than any other source.

Robert is also included among the definitively known companions of Duke William in the Battle of Hastings. Trying to identify from records those who were present—and those who appear on the Bayeux Tapestry—has been a pastime for historians (fewer than two dozen have been "confirmed"). In the scene above one can see "Rotbert" at William's left side and Odo on his right, showing the importance of his half-brothers to the duke.

For his participation, Robert received from William an enormous amount of land. By the time the Domesday Book recorded all real estate and ownership, Robert held 797 castles, mostly in Cornwall where he held so much that he was functionally "Earl of Cornwall" even though he did not formally hold the title (the first Earl of Cornwall was officially Brian of Brittany, who also was a supporter of Duke William).

In 1069, Robert led a force northward that slaughtered many Danes in Lindsey, after which he drops out of the records except for the mention in Domesday. He was succeeded as count by his only son William, the 2nd Earl of Cornwall, who was offered Mary of Scotland, the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland, for his bride, but turned her down. He had three daughters.

Speaking of women and wives, let's turn to Robert's mother, Herleva, for tomorrow's post. See you then.

Vitalis of Savigny

In the 1170s, a canon of the Church of Saint-Evroult in Mortain (in northwestern France) wrote about a man who had died 50 years prior but whose legend lived on and needed to be recorded. The author was Stephen de Fougères, and the subject was Vitalis of Savigny.

Drawing from details in the mortuary roll (a monastery's record of prominent members who died), we learn little of Vitalis' origin except that he was born c.1060 and had a brother and a sister in a family that was not very prominent. At some point he was ordained and became chaplain to Robert of Mortain.

Robert of Mortain had founded the Church of Saint-Evroult in 1082, and made Vitalis a canon there. After a time, however, Vitalis felt the need for a more purely ascetic life. In 1095 he left Saint-Evroult and began a hermit colony with two others, Bernard of Thiron (who had already been a hermit for a time) and Robert of Arbrissel, the founder of Fontevraud Abbey.

Vitalis became known for his preaching to those who came to hear and/or join the hermitage, and for helping locals. One of his known activities was persuading prostitutes to enter proper marriages. He also traveled, apparently concentrating on Normandy but also visiting England. He tried to reconcile Robert Curthose with his brother, Henry I of England, whom it could be argued "stole" the kingship from the elder Curthose.

One of the incidents that was sufficiently noteworthy to be mentioned in the mortuary roll was his influence on his first patron, Robert of Mortain. The story goes that Robert was physically abusing his wife (probably Matilda, his first wife), and that Vitalis ended that behavior in one of two ways. One version of the incident had Vitalis threatening Robert with dissolving the marriage. A different version says that Vitalis cut ties to Robert and left over his disgust at Robert's behavior. Robert repented, and sent people to bring Vitalis back and begged his forgiveness (and presumably mended his ways).

Between 1105 and 1120, Vitalis founded a nunnery called Abbaye Blanche ("White Abbey"; possibly so-called because they wore habits of undyed wool) at Mortain and set up his sister, Adeline, as abbess. She was later canonized by the Catholic Church.

Between 1112 and 1122 (the year of his death) he founded the Savigny Abbey (see the remains above), a necessity because his life and works as a hermit drew so many people who wished to stay that some organizing principle was needed to manage so many. The Benedictine Rule was initially followed, but by 1150 it became Cistercian.

Vitalis' own sainthood was established in 1738 by the Cistercians, but his canonization by the Catholic Church was never recognized.

His first patron, Robert of Mortain, has a connection that is worth mentioning. Not just some ordinary nobleman, he was half-brother to William the Conqueror, and has some significance in history, which I'll explore further tomorrow. See you then.