Mortain

Born in France, in the diocese of Coutances, in the year 1825 of pious parents, richer in the gifts of grace than in the fleeting goods of this world.

My studies, as far as philosophy inclusive, were pursued with a certain degree of success at the College of Avranches and the Petit Séminaire of Mortain, and I received my degree of Béchlier et Lautre at the Academy of Paris.

In 1845 I entered the novitiate of the Fathers of Picou, or of the Sacred Hearts.

At the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 I was sent, with several other young professed, to Chile, where I continued my theological studies, at the same time teaching in our colleges at Valparaiso and Santiago.

By July 1106, Henry was back in Normandy, and he immediately took the fortified abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dive and turned toward the castle at Tinchbray.

Tinchbray was then held by Count William of Mortain, a close ally of Robert Curdhose's for a very long time, actually.

Duke Robert quickly moved to provide support for Count William of Mortain.

In historian Edmund King's words in his book entitled Henry I, "...once Henry had made peace with Anselm, Henry sought confrontation, having demonstrated to his opponents that they would gain nothing by compromise.

And so a routine attempt to raise a siege, which Henry was conducting outside William of Mortain's castle at Teenspray in southwest Normandy, became a battle for Normandy itself." It's funny how medieval politics works, too, because after three years of raising absolute bloody hell around Normandy, Robert of Belem caught wind of Henry in the country, reached out to Robert Curdose, who he'd been terrorizing and undermining recently, and offered to ride alongside the Duke to oust Henry.

Ah, the enemy of my enemy is my friend indeed.

The battle lines were certainly set outside of Teenspray Castle by late September 1106.

Many of these leaders were rather powerful men as well, including Ranulf of Bayeux, his advisor from earlier, Count Robert of Moulins, William of Moran, who was recently given back his estates in England, Duke Alan IV of Brittany, Count William of Evreux, and Count Elias I of Maine, among, as I said, many others.