The Noble Family and Noble Women
Between the end of the tenth and the middle of the twelfth century,
royal and noble families in France (and, after 1066, in England) began
to practice primogeniture. That is , the eldest surviving son came increasingly
to be the sole heir to his father's land. As a result, the inheritances
of daughters (their dowries) and of younger sons became much more restricted
than they had been in the earlier Middle Ages. Moreover, husbands
gained more control over the dowries of their wives. French and English
noble women thus had far less economic power in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries than had the Frankish queens. Nevertheless, this was still
a courtly society in which the domestic and public/political realms overlapped;
for this reason, it was still possible in some places and circumstances
for women of the aristocracy to exercise significant and lasting power.
The following selections depict the lives and opportunities of Norman women of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, focusing particularly on two extraordinary women, Mabel of Bellême and Bertrade of Montfort. As the chronicles of the early Middle Ages are quite unforthcoming about the lifestyle of ordinary women (even ordinary women of the aristocracy), historians often have to use the colorful images of such larger-than-life women as Mabel and Bertrade in piecing together a picture of aristocratic women. Since they are larger-than-life and were being used to make didactic (especially moral) points, we need to sift carefully through the authors' biases to uncover a sense of what women could and could not do. The first set of stories on Mabel and Bertrade come from the Norman monk, Orderic Vitalis; the second brief segment on Bertrade comes from the pen of Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis and chief advisor to the king of France. After the sections on Mabel and Bertrade, I include snippets illustrating other forms of power and informal social control that could be exercised by women.
Even though the Norman monk Orderic Vitalis wrote his massive work at the abbey of Saint Évroul in Normandy between the years 1114 and 1141, his wide connections among the Norman nobility meant that he was well informed about events from the middle of the eleventh century and on. When considering his take on Mabel of Bellême, for instance, it is important to remember that the founders and benefactors of his own abbey, the family of Giroie, were mortal enemies of the family of Bellême. This fact may well help contextualize his account of her life and "crimes." As for Bertrade of Montfort, she was the daughter of an important Norman family (Montfort), and she married successively the count of Anjou and the King of France. Her second marriage, however, was uncanonical, and illustrates well the changing attitudes of the church towards marriage. Orderic's account of both women is of interest because it reveals the strength of their will and personalities and presents a picture of what upper class women could and could not do in eleventh-century France.
[sources taken from: The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis,
6 vols., ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969-1980),
volume 2, pp. 47, 49, 55, 123, 125; volume 3, pp. 135, 137, 139; volume
4, pp. 261, 263; and Suger, The Deeds of Louis the Fat, trans. R.
Cusimano and J. Moorhead (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America
Press, 1992), 81.]
A. Mabel of Bellême (d. 1077)
a. from Orderic Vitalis, Ecclesiastical History, Volume 2, pp. 47,
49:
In the time of William, duke of Normandy, Ivo, the son of William of
Bellême, held the bishopric of Séez, and on the deaths of
his brothers Warin and Robert and William, [Ivo] inherited the town of
Bellême from his father. He was a fine figure of a man, learned,
shrewd, and eloquent, witty and never at a loss for a jest. As a
father loves his children, so he loved his clerks and monks; and he counted
Abbot Thierry [abbot of St. Évroul, where Orderic was writing]
among his special friends. They often enjoyed each other's company,
for Séez is only seven leagues away from St. Évroul.
Roger of Montgomery, viscount of Exmes, had married the bishop's niece
Mabel, and secured through her the lion's share of the possessions of William
of Bellême. On the bishop's advice he gave the church of St.
Martin at Séez to Abbot Thierry and both he and his wife urged him
to establish a monastery there. The abbot readily undertook the appointed
work in the name of the Lord, and established there Roger, a monk of St.
Évroul in priest's orders, with Morinus and Engelbert and others
from his own community. He himself often visited the place, and sometimes
spent three or four weeks there, striving with all his might to bring the
newly undertaken work to perfection for the love of God and the profit
of future generations. This Mabel whom I mentioned was a forceful
and worldly woman, cunning, garrulous and extremely cruel. But she
had a great respect for the man of God, Thierry, and though she was merciless
to other men of religion she sometimes listened to him. So she brought
her first-born son Robert of Bellême, whose name is now a byword
for his cruelty to the wretched peasantry, to Thierry and Roger and the
other monks at Séez that he might be washed in the holy font of
baptism.
b. Orderic Vitalis, Volume 2, p. 55:
Now I will tell a true story of Mabel, daughter of William Talvas [ie.,
William of Bellême], although it is a little premature here.
From the earliest days of St. Évroul the monastic rule was strictly
observed there, and alms were distributed to all comers as is still the
custom now; but this woman so hated the founders of the monastery [the
founders were the family of Giroie] that she devised nefarious ways
of injuring the monks. For her father and she and all their descendants
had a lasting feud with the sons of Giroie. Since her husband Roger
of Montgomery loved and protected the monks she dared not do them any open
harm, but frequently descended on the monastery with a great retinue of
knights, demanding hospitality: in this way she brought the monks, who
were struggling to wring a living form the barren soil, to the verge of
ruin. Once when she was staying there with a hundred knights Abbot
Thierry asked her why she must come with such worldly pomp to a poor monastery
and warned her to restrain her vanity; whereat she flew into a rage and
replied, "Next time I will bring even more knights with me." The
abbot replied, "Believe me, unless you depart from this wickedness, you
will suffer for it." And indeed she did. For the very next night
she fell sick and suffered great agony. Hastily she commanded her
attendants take her away. As she was fleeing in terror from the lands
of St. Évroul she passed by the house of a certain townsman called
Roger Sows'-nose, and compelled his infant child to suck the nipple which
was causing her most pain. the child sucked and forthwith died; but
the woman recovered and returned home. She lived about fifteen years
more, but after she had felt the hand of God at St. Évroul she never
went near the place again, and took care to avoid dealings either for good
or for ill with the monks as long as she enjoyed the transitory pleasures
of mortal life.
c. Orderic Vitalis, Volume 2, pp. 123, 125:
When Arnold of Échauffour, William Giroie's son, returned after
making his fortune in Apulia [Italy] he sought an audience with Duke William
and presented him with a costly mantle, humbly begging for the restoration
of his inheritance. The duke, bearing in mind the high birth and
outstanding valor of the man, and reflecting that he had all too few loyal
knights for overcoming the resistance of the men of Maine and Brittany,
was inclined to treat him with indulgence and excuse his offenses; he made
a truce with Arnold, promising to restore his patrimony to him and granting
him freedom of movement throughout the duchy for as long as the truce should
last. When Arnold heard the empty promise of the duke he was overjoyed;
but time was soon to show that his hopes were vain. For, Mabel, daughter
of Talvas, prepared poisoned food and drink, and offered him refreshment
on his way back to Gaul [France] from the duke's court; he, however, was
given warning of this treachery by a friend who knew her wickedness.
When this woman's servants approached as he was talking to some friends
at Échauffour, and most pressingly invited him to dine with her,
he remembered the friend's warning and was firm in his refusal to touch
the food and drink which he feared might be poisoned. It happened
that Gilbert, Roger of Montgomery's brother, who was escorting Arnold and
had no suspicion of foul play, accepted a cup and drank wine undiluted
without dismounting from his horse: the poison quickly took effect and
he died two days later at Rémalard. So this treacherous woman
who attempted to murder her husband's rival succeeded in killing her husband's
only brother, a man who showed the highest integrity in his youth and was
remarkable for his knightly virtues. But she took to heart the failure
of her first attempt, and not long afterwards devised another scheme no
less deadly to bring about the end she desired. She succeeded in
winning over Arnold's chamberlain, a knight called Roger Goulafré,
and by persuasion and bribes soon made him a willing tool to her nefarious
wishes. Again she prepared poisoned cups, which the chamberlain offered
to Arnold his lord and [to] Giroie of Courville and William called Gouet
of Montmirail. Thus three nobles were poisoned together at Courville.
Giroie and William, however, who were taken back to their own homes and
could secure proper remedies, recovered through the grace of God and the
skill of their doctors; but Arnold who was far from home and could not
get proper attention in the houses of others lay ill for some days; and
at length, growing worse, he breathed his last on January 1.
d. Orderic Vitalis, Volume 3, pp. 135, 137, 139:
After the fall of the family of Giroie, Roger of Montgomery had possession
of the whole patrimony of Échauffour and Montreuil for about twenty-six
years; and at first, as long as his wife Mabel, who had always hated the
sons of Giroie, the founders of Saint Évroul, lived, he showed himself
hostile to the monks in many ways at her instigation. But in the
end the just judge, who mercifully spares the penitent sinners and sternly
smites the impenitent, allowed that cruel woman, who had shed the blood
of many and had forcibly disinherited many lords and compelled them to
beg their bread in foreign lands, to perish herself by the sword of Hugh
[Bunel], whom she had unjustly deprived of his paternal inheritance by
seizing his castle at La Roche-Mabille. He, frenzied with grief, found
a reckless daring; and taking with him his three brothers who were renowned
for their courage in warfare, penetrated by night into the countess's chamber.
Finding her in the castle of Bures on the Dive, where she was relaxing
in bed after a bath, he struck off her head with his sword and so avenged
the loss of his patrimony. When the murder of this terrible lady
had been accomplished many rejoiced at her fate, and the authors of the
crime fled away to Apulia. ... The monks of Troarn, where Durand was abbot,
buried the mutilated corpse on December 5 and, more through the partiality
of friends than because of any special deserts of hers, inscribed this
epitaph over her tomb:
After the murder of Mabel, Earl Roger married another wife named Adelais, the daughter of Evrard of Le Puiset, who was one of the most highly-born nobles in France. Earl Roger had by his first wife five sons and four daughters, whose names were these: Robert of Bellême, Hugh of Montgomery, Roger of Poitou, Philip, and Arnulf; Emma, nun and abbess of Almenèches, the Countess Matilda who was the wife of Count Robert of Meulan, Mabel the wife of Hugh of Châteauneuf, and Sybil the wife of Robert fitz Hamon. By his second wife he had a son named Evrard, who was well educated and has remained to this day among the royal chaplains in the household of the kings of England, William and Henry. The second wife was utterly unlike the first in character. She was remarkable for her gentleness and piety, and continually encouraged her husband to befriend monks and protect the poor.From the high stock of noble parents sprung,
Mabel, great lady, lies beneath this tomb.
She among famous women showed most her worth,
Known for her merits over all the earth.
In mind most keen, alert, tireless in deed,
She spoke with purpose, counseled well in need.
In stature slight, but great in probity,
Lavish in spending, dressed with dignity;
The shield of her father's inheritance, a tower
Guarding the frontier; to some neighbors dear,
To others terrible; she died by the sword,
By night, by stealth, for we are mortals all.
And since in death she sorely wants our aid
Pray for her: prove your friendship in her need.
B. Bertrade of Montfort
a. Orderic Vitalis on Bertrade, from: The Ecclesiastical History,
ed. Chibnall, volume 4, pp. 261, 263:
About this time [1092] a disgraceful scandal began in the kingdom of
France. Bertrade, countess of Anjou, feared that her husband might
treat her as he had already treated two other wives, and that if she were
deserted she would be despised by all like a low harlot. Being fully
conscious of her high birth and beauty, she sent a loyal messenger to King
Philip of France, to tell him what she had in mind; for she thought it
better to desert her husband voluntarily and seek another than to be deserted
by him and [be] exposed to public scorn. The outcome was that the
weak prince [ie., King Philip], learning of the wanton woman's desire,
agreed to the crime, and received her rapturously after she had left her
husband and fled to France. Then he separated from his highly born
and pious wife, the daughter of the nobleman Florentius, duke of Frisia,
who had borne him Louis and Constance, and took as his wife Bertrade, who
had already lived for four years with Fulk [count] of Anjou. Bishop
Odo of Bayeux performed the disgraceful marriage, and received from the
adulterous king as a reward for this infamous service the churches of the
town of Mantes, which he held for some time. None of the French bishops
would agree to perform this shocking ceremony; but respecting the rules
of canon law they chose rather to please God than man, and all with one
voice rejected and anathematized the shameful union. So the absconding
concubine [ie., Bertrade] left the adulterous count and went to live with
the adulterous king until his death parted them. The detestable sin
of adultery, sad to tell, led to terrible threats and preparations for
war between the rival lords. Then the cunning woman [Bertrade] soothed
the animosity of the rivals and by her wiles brought them together in such
close alliance that she was able to prepare a splendid banquet for them,
persuade them both to recline at the same table, and on the following night
prepare couches for them both in the same chamber, while she herself attended
to all their wants in a fitting way. Pope Urban sent papal legates
into France and reproved the erring king both in his letters and through
the remonstrances of priests, persuading and rebuking him for repudiating
his lawful wife and marrying an adulteress in defiance of God's law.
But he grew hardened in his wickedness like the deaf adder which blocks
its ears to the voice of the charmer, spurned the arguments of the
fathers who corrected him, and continued to wallow in his shameful adultery
until he had got two sons, Philip and Florus, by the adulteress.
So for about fifteen years while Urban and Paschal were popes he was under
an interdict. During that time he never wore his crown, nor put on
the purple, nor took part in any solemn celebration in royal state.
As soon as the clergy heard of the king of France approaching any town
or city, all the bells stopped ringing and all sung offices were silenced.
So it was a time of public mourning, and the divine offices were performed
only in private as long as the erring prince remained in that diocese.
But on account of his royal dignity he was allowed by the bishops, whose
lord he was, to have his own chaplain to recite private Masses for him
and his immediate household.
b. Abbot Suger of St. Denis on Bertrade de Montfort, from: Suger,
The Deeds of Louis the Fat, trans. R. Cusimano and J. Moorhead (Washington,
DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1992), 81.
A lack of good faith leads to evil being returned for good more often
than good for evil. The latter is proper to God, the former to neither
God nor man: nevertheless, it is something that is done. And this
mark of wickedness was on Philip, the brother of King Louis [ie., Louis
VII, Bertrada's step-son and the son of Philip I by his first wife],
who had been born of the irregular union with the Angevin woman [ie.,
Bertrade]. The lord Louis had yielded to the seductive flattery
of his noble and most sycophantic stepmother and, at the insistence of
his father, to whom he never refused anything, gave Philip lordship over
Montlhéry and the castle of Mantes, which were located in the very
bowels of the kingdom. Ungrateful for such favors, Philip placed
his trust in the great nobility of his lineage and dared to rebel.
His uncle [Bertrade's brother] was Amalric of Montfort, a distinguished
knight and a very powerful baron, and his [half-]brother was Fulk, the
count of Anjou who was later to become king of Jerusalem [ie., Count
Fulk V]. But his mother [Bertrade] wielded greater power than
all of these [men]. A clever shrew, she had great skill in that amazing
artifice women customarily use to trample boldly on their husbands even
after they have tormented them with abuse. She had so fully tamed
her first husband, the Angevin [Count Fulk IV], that he still venerated
her as if she were his lady, even after he was totally rejected from her
marriage bed. He often sat on a stool at her feet like someone under
a spell, completely surrendering to her will. The mother, her sons,
and the whole progeny had one chief interest; if for any reason, disaster
should befall the king, one of the brothers [ie, one of Bertrade's sons
by Philip, not the first-born son, Louis VII] would succeed him; and in
this way the whole family would joyfully raise its head to the throne of
the kingdom and share in the honor and the lordship.
C. Other Norman Noblewomen, from the Pen of Orderic Vitalis
a. Queen Matilda as regent, queen and mother (Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica, volume 2:209, 210, 215, 223, 225)
During this time [shortly after William I conquered England] various rumors from across the Channel were passing from mouth to mouth and causing alarm to the king, for they contained evil reports as well as good and hinted that the Normans were to be massacred by the hostile English, supported by the Danes and other barbarous peoples. So the king entrusted the duchy of Normandy to his wife Matilda and young son, Robert, leaving God-fearing bishops and warlike lords to help them protect the province. Then during the night of the sixth of December he reached the mouth of the Dieppe river beyond the town of Arques, and, setting sail with a southerly wind in the first watch of a bitter night, made a good crossing and reached the harbor of Winchelsea on the opposite shore next morning. ... On this voyage the king was accompanied by Roger of Montgomery, whom he had left with his wife to act as regent of Normandy when he first sailed to conquer England.
In the year Our Lord 1068 King William sent ambassadors to Normandy to summon his wife Matilda to join him. At once she gladly obeyed her husband's commands and crossed with a great company of vassals and noble women. ... Ealdred, Archbishop of York, who had anointed her husband, now anointed Matilda as queen consort on Whit Sunday [11 May 1068] in the second year of King William's reign. The royal lady, within a year of her coronation, bore a son called Henry, whom she made heir to all her lands in England. ...
Whilst he was quelling the storms of war that rose on every side, King William sent his beloved wife Matilda back to Normandy so that she might give up her time to religious devotions in peace, away from the English tumults, and together with the boy Robert could keep the duchy secure. She was the kinswoman of Philip, king of France, she sprang from the stock of the kings of Gaul and emperors of Germany, and was renowned equally for nobility of blood and character. She bore her distinguished husband the offspring he desired, both sons and daughters: Robert and Richard, William Rufus and Henry, Agatha and Constance, Adelaide, Adela and Cecilia. ... The queen herself was endowed with fairness of face, noble birth, learning, beauty of character, and -what is and ever will be more worthy of praise - strong faith and fervent love of Christ. The alms which this princess daily distributed with such zeal brought more succor than I can express to her husband, struggling on the field of battle.
b. The Impact of the Norman Conquest of England on Marriage (2:219,
221)
At this time certain Norman women, consumed by fierce lust, sent message
after message to their husbands urging them to return at once, and adding
that unless they did so with all speed they would take other husbands for
themselves. For they dared not join their men themselves, being unaccustomed
to the sea crossing and afraid of seeking them out in England, where they
were engaging in armed forays every day and blood flowed freely on both
sides. The king, with so much fighting on his hands, was most anxious
to keep all his knights about him, and made them a friendly offer of lands
and revenues and great authority, promising them more when he had completely
rid the kingdom of his enemies. His loyal barons and stalwart fighting-men
were greatly perturbed, for they saw that continual risings threatened
the king and their brothers, friends, and allies, and feared that if they
abandoned him they would be openly branded as traitors and cowardly deserters.
On the other hand, what could honorable men do if their lascivious wives
polluted their beds with adultery and brought indelible shame and dishonor
on their offspring? As a result Hugh of Grandmesnil, who was governor
of the Gewissae - that is, the region around Winchester - and his brother-in-law
Humphrey of Tilleul, who had held the castle of Hastings from the day of
its foundation, and many other departed the country heavy at heart, and
unwilling to go because they were deserting the king whilst he was struggling
in a foreign land. They returned to Normandy to oblige their wanton
wives; but neither they nor their heirs were ever able to recover the fiefs
[in England] which they had held and chosen to abandon.
c. A Norman wife advises her son and husband (3:243-245)
The young Ralph, son of Albert of Cravent, when he first took arms
as a knight, attacked the monk Guitmund in Vallee, as he was traveling
to Maule with his servant, flung him to the ground, and took away his horses.
The monk reached Pacy on foot, and with loud lamentations asked Albert
for help against his son. To this the same knight replied insolently,
and refused any kind of help in recovering the horses. Seeing this,
his wife Aubrée began to lament and wring her hands and tear her
hair, and to weep for her son as if he were already dead. She cried
out with a loud voice, ‘O Ralph, my son, why have you begun your initiation
with deeds not of knighthood but of madness? Alas you are being led astray
by abominable teachers, by whose fatal sophistries you are now foolishly
seduced, and are being dragged wretchedly to the pit of damnation.
Oh how sad is the message you have sent me, and what bitter grief you have
brought me! Misguided youth, what can I say to you? By unjustly injuring
a helpless servant of Christ you have deserved a fatal punishment yourself.
O Ralph my son, what did you do in your frenzy, when you struck your first
blow as a knight against the Almighty? Know most surely that I shall have
little joy and long sorrow for your misdeed. Do not all the learned
doctors agree, and declare with one voice in many places, that the Most
High dwells in his saints, and patiently endures joys and sufferings with
them? O father, help your crazy son, and try by every means in your power
to ensure that the stolen horses are restored to the sorrowing monk, lest
your only son become possessed of a demon here and now for such a crime.'
So as this wise mother pleaded for the preservation of her son and endeavored
to console the injured monk, Albert together with his whole household was
deeply moved and terrified, gave his mule to the monk, sending his men-at-arms
to escort him to Bréval, and bound his son with a terrible oath
to restore without delay everything that had been taken from him.
So Guitmund after recovering his horses, returned to Pacy, giving thanks
to Albert and his wife, and both of them begged his forgiveness for the
wrong done to him and obtained it. The lady Aubrée was a daughter
of Hugh, bishop of Bayeux [d.1049], and had a high reputation among her
neighbors for the great virtue, appropriate to her station, that she showed.
In the same year the young knight fell sick and, repenting of his misdeeds,
sought forgiveness from the monks and vowed himself and all his possessions
to Saint-Évroul. On his death his sorrowing father had his
body carried to Saint-Évroul, and granted half the tithe of Lommoie
freely as he himself held it.
d. The Power of Persuasion (3:257, 259)
The young Walter [of Auffay] was handsome but lacking in wisdom, and
consequently he was easily dominated by Godmund and other false teachers.
He collected round himself a group of frivolous companions, and led astray
by their pernicious influence he dissipated his inheritance, and continually
injured and harassed monks and clerics and honest peasants. But when
at last he became a knight, he married a beautiful and persuasive wife,
Avice, daughter of Herbrand, and by her advice and wise influence he was
somewhat restrained from his earlier folly. She indeed was prudent
and golden-tongued, devoted to God from her earliest years, and utterly
given over to good works. She had three brothers, all distinguished
knights, called Jordan, William and Robert; by their help their brother-in-law
shook off the influence of his greedy sycophants and recovered some of
the property that had been dissipated and lost to no purpose through fraud
and robbery. This lady bore her husband twelve sons and daughters,
most of whom died prematurely in infancy. Finally after living for
fifteen years with her husband she died on 22 February [actually March],
and was buried in the cloister of the monks she had so truly loved, by
the door of the church. Warin the prior had a stone vault built over
her, and Vitalis the Englishman [ie., Orderic Vitalis himself] composed
this epitaph:
e. The Countess of Blois restores the courage of her husband (5:325)Beneath lies the body of Avice, born nobly;
May Christ help her to heaven, to have life eternal
To her Lord while she lived she looked with great longing
And practiced his precepts, abiding in probity.
Most fair of grace, well-spoken, and full of wisdom,
She strove without ceasing to share in God's service;
For holy masses and hours she was daily hearing.
So as a modest maid she modeled her living.
After, when she was wedded to the noble knight Walter,
For fifteen years she lived in felicity
And gave him in gladness twelve goodly children.
Specially she shone with the light of sound morals;
The cult of the church she steadfastly cherished,
Bestowing her best jewels for the benefit of the altar.
Generous in giving to priests, monks, all of God's needy,
To widows, waifs, and the sick she was gentle and well-doing;
So chaste and so constant that not the most craven
Dared to breathe one base word against her bright honor.
On the feast of St. Peter, falling in February [March?]
Came dark death upon her, and closed her devotions.
Men of Auffay lament for the loss of this lady;
May God grant her soul gladness and glory eternal. Amen.