Duchy of Normandy

Robert, the Duke of Normandy, was the eldest son of William the Conqueror, a brave and likeable man, but a poor manager of his own affairs.

To raise money for the journey, he mortgaged the entire Duchy of Normandy to his younger brother, the King of England, for 10,000 marks of silver, which gives some sense of what these men were willing to stake on the venture.

Robert, the Count of Flanders, joined as well, a seasoned warrior whose father had served the Byzantine Emperor.

And there was Stephen of Blois, one of the richest men in France, married to a daughter of William the Conqueror, a cultured and somewhat reluctant crusader who would write home long, Vivid letters to his wife, and who would, in time, become the great cautionary tale of the expedition.

Guyenne was lost.

Thus in the words of the Burgundian Varin, whose active life included the last 40 years of the war, By the grace and aid of God, the Duchy of Guyenne was brought back into obedience to the King of France, soon after the Duchy of Normandy, and all the French kingdom except the town of Calais, which is still left in the hands of the English.

May God be willing that it too be brought back, if the Scripture is to be fulfilled which says, Better is obedience than sacrifice.

The failure to hold France ruined the Lancastrian dynasty, although undoubtedly the failure was for the good of England.

This was on April 18th.

Evreux was a county within the borders of the Duchy of Normandy since the year 989, and Count William of Evreux was its longtime ruler and staunch loyalist of Henry's.

Well, William died without an heir, so his closest living male heir was a man named Amari III of Montfort, and Amari of Montfort was a vassal of King Louis VI.

Henry understandably refused to accept Amari's new role as Count of Evreux, and thus a new battlefield emerged amongst all the others.

There was a dynastic crisis, a royal authority crisis, an open aristocratic rebellion, and a French expansion campaign, all commingling.

With the battlefield over all of this was Normandy itself.

Now the first one, the dynastic crisis, was centered on William Clito, again son of Robert Curdose, who was fighting for what he thought was his rightful inheritance, which of course was the Duchy of Normandy.

The royal authority crisis, that centered, of course, on King Henry I himself, a man keen to keep control of Normandy, a French duchy he'd rightfully usurped from his older brother.

A consensus of critical opinion presumes that Marie was a subject of the English crown.

Born in an ancient town called Pitre, some three miles above Rouen, in the Duchy of Normandy, this speculation is based largely on the unwanted topographical accuracy of her description of Pitre given in the Lay of the Two Lovers.

Such evidence, perhaps, is insufficient to obtain a judgment in a court of law.

The date when Marie lived was long a matter of dispute.

So he institutes negotiations between the two of them and in 1120 Louis recognises Henry's rights to Guisor Castle.

William Adeline pays homage to the French monarchy for the Duchy of Normandy.

And William Clito is officially not the heir in Normandy or England.

And presumably none of his old allies are going to fight for him again, because France, Flanders, Anjou have all made peace with Henry in different ways.

what was the situation and the history that had led to that situation on Jersey?

Well, the Channel Islands were the Crown's last possessions from the old Duchy of Normandy.

Jersey was the largest island in the group with approximately 15,000 inhabitants.

It was still a quasi-feudal society ruled by seigneurs, most of whom were members of the extended Descartes family.

Uh, let's start in France, Scott, or what we now call France.

The king who we know as William I of England, AKA William the Conqueror, born on or about the 8th of November 1028 in Falaise, which is in northeast France, in what was then the Duchy of Normandy.

His parents were Duke Robert I of Normandy and Herleva.

They were unmarried, hence William was known as William the Bastard then and still.

That's exactly right.

So certainly they didn't take a lot of prisoners in that regard, and he was prepared to be brutal in order to make sure that people knew that he was in charge.

He continued to spend time shuttling between the Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy.

Again, separate rule.

Robert, the Duke of Normandy, was the eldest son of William the Conqueror, a brave and likable man, but a poor manager of his own affairs.

To raise money for the journey, he mortgaged the entire Duchy of Normandy to his younger brother, the King of England, for ten thousand marks of silver, which gives some sense of what these men were willing to stake on the venture.

Robert, the Count of Flanders, joined as well, a seasoned warrior whose father had served the Byzantine emperor.

And there was Stephen of Blois, one of the richest men in France, married to a daughter of William the Conqueror, a cultured and somewhat reluctant crusader who would write home long, vivid letters to his wife and who would, in time, become the great cautionary tale of the expedition.

A consensus of critical opinion presumes that Marie was a subject of the English crown.

Born in an ancient town called Pitre, some three miles above Rouen, in the Duchy of Normandy, this speculation is based largely on the unwanted topographical accuracy of her description of Pitre, given in the lay of the two lovers.

Such evidence, perhaps, is insufficient to obtain a judgment in a court of law.

The date when Marie lived was long a matter of dispute.