County of Hiémois

The county of Hiémois - or pagus Latin Oximensis in - is a Norman medieval county, having for capital Exmes (Orne).

Its limits remain dubious. Located between Caen and Alençon, it occupied part of the current departments of the Calvados and Orne and included the towns of Argentan, Falaise and Sées.

The county at the time Carolingian

With the Early middle ages, Hiémois (of which the name comes from its capital Uxuma , Exmes) is a Pagus , i.e. an area placed under the command of a Count. One to him knows 4 or 5 subdivisions:

the centena Noviacensis , around Neuvy-with-Houlme the
the centena Saginsis , around Sées and of Exmes
the centena Alancioninsis , around Alençon
the centena Corbonensis , around Corbon, in the Pole, bases future Comté of the Pole

The historian Lucien Musset thinks that of the 9th century, the county of Hiémois revêt a rather great importance for the Carolingian king since he probably plays the part of walk vis-a-vis the Breton kingdom of Erispoë and vis-a-vis the Viking S unloaded on the coast. In order to tighten the administrative and military framing, certain parts of Hiémois are set up in pagus between 802 and 853: the centena Saginsis and the centena Corbonensis .

Integration with the duchy of Normandy

Lucien Musset estimates that it is into 924 that the area passes under the control of Rollon, first duke of Normandy. Under its successors, Hiémois does not have any more the great extent which it had at the time Carolingian (the Pole does not form of it any more part). It is intercalated between the counties of Mortain and Évreux.

According to Guillaume de Jumièges, in 1026, the duke of Normandy Richard II entrusts on his bed of dead the county of Hiémois to his second wire Robert (the future Robert Splendid the). This one becomes duke in his turn in 1027 and gives Hiémois to one of his/her closer companions Roger Ier de Montgommery. The charters of the time reveal however that the new holder does not have row of Count but of Vicomte. A title confirmed for the successors of Roger: Turstin Goz (towards 1035-towards 1043), Roger II of Montgommery, Robert II of Bellême (1107-1112). With, exceeded by the rising cities of Nickel silver and especially of Cliff, Exmes is not really any more the capital of the Viscount of Hiémois.

The denomination “Hiémois” is not used any more nowadays.

See too

historical List of the French counties

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