Galéran IV of Meulan

Under the reign of Henri Ier of England

Teenagers, the twins were adopted by the royal court shortly after the death of their father in 1118. Attached to this last, the king raised them like his own children. Well-read man himself, it gave them a solid education and armed them knights in 1120. Galéran had received for heritage the Comté of Meulan in French Vexin as well as the Norman castles of Beaumont, Brionne, Pont-Audemer and Vatteville. It was thus at the same time vassal King de France and King d' Angleterre. As for his twin brother and junior Robert, it accepted the English possessions and the title of Count de Leicester. They quickly became the principal advisers of the king.

They accompanied Henri I {{er}} in various missions, initially in Normandy, then with a meeting with the pope Calixte II, in 1119. Their Isabelle sister became the mistress of the king.

In 1123, Galéran took share with the rebellion carried out by Amaury III of Montfort, Count d' Évreux, for the account of Guillaume Cliton. This last, as wire of the former duke Robert Courteheuse, asserted the Duché of Normandy. The participation of the Count de Meulan astonishes because like his father, he had testified up to that point to a fidelity without fault for the kings of England. In particular, it had not taken part in the preceding revolt of the barons against Henri Ier in 1118-1119. The duke-king thus unloaded in Normandy, burned Pont-Audemer. Galeran, his/her three brothers-in-law and Amaury de Montfort were locked up in the castle of Vatteville, close to the the Seine. They left it in March 1124 to go to Beaumont-the-Roger but faithful of the king, Ranulf de Briquessart, Count de Chester, tightened a ambush to them on the road, close to Bourgtheroulde, the March 26th 1124, All were captured except Amaury and Guillaume Louvel which managed to flee. Henri Ier condemned Galéran and his two brothers-in-law, Hugues IV of Montfort and Hugues de Neufchâtel, with the imprisonment. Stripped his possessions Normans, the count de Meulan was held five years, initially in Rouen then in England with Bridgenorth and Wallingford, sometimes attached to chains.

He suddenly was released and restored in the royal favor in 1129. One of the possible reasons to this reversal of attitude of Henri Ier was the need for sure men which can convince the barons skeptics to accept his daughter Mathilde like successor. Another explanation would be that he would have been convinced by Isabelle, the sister of Galéran, her mistress who had carried one of her many bastard. All the remainder of reign of the king, Galéran was regularly present at its court and enjoys its confidence fully.

The two brothers were present at the bedside of its bed of death. The succession was promised with Mathilde Emperesse, the girl of the king, but Etienne of Blois usurped the throne by claiming that the king had changed opinion into his last moments.

Civil war

A civil war for the crown of England followed. The two brothers took then party for Etienne of England in exchange of an important gift of grounds and marriage of Galeran with Mathilde, one of the girls of the king (old only two years).

With its important grounds and its political contacts in Normandy and Ile-de-France, Galéran played a central role while trying to obtain the allegiance of Norman in Etienne of 1136 to 1139. Apparently, it is with him that the king entrusted the defense of the duchy vis-a-vis the claims of Geoffroy V of Anjou, the husband of Mathilde Emperesse, and thus the son-in-law of Henri Ist It pushed back two offensives of the latter and made captive Roger III of Tosny, in favor of Angevins. In reward, the king did it Count de Worcester in December 1138.

The position of Galeran at the court of England was connected with a statute of favorite of the king. The clan of Beaumont-Meulan ran up quickly against another powerful faction: that formed around the Retributive Roger, bishop of Salisbury. Roger belonged to the advisers of Henri Ier that Etienne had had to maintain to carry in his turn the crown of England. His/her son occupied the load of Chancelier. Its nephews were bishops of Lincoln and Ely. According to the Gesta Stephani , the twin brothers convainquirent the king to cut down the party of the bishop of Salisbury. In 1139, the joined together royal court with Oxford ordered the arrest of the bishops and the seizure of their castles and their loads. Roger and his son died shortly after while its nephew Alexandre, bishop of Lincoln could cover his episcopal pulpit but not his fortresses. Etienne of England chooses like new chancellor Philippe d' Harcourt, a close relation of Galeran de Meulan. The party of the twins thus triumphed near the king. Their exclusive position was consolidated this same year 1139 by the defection of Robert de Gloucester, wire illegitimate of Henri I {{er}}, with the profit of Mathilde Emperesse and her husband.

In October 1139, Robert de Gloucester, attacked Worcester, destroying part of the city and carrying broad spoils. The November 13rd, Galéran took again the city making of many prisoners. It fought with energy in the Worcestershire and the Gloucestershire, where the combat were wildest.

In 1141, it ordered for Etienne with the battles of Lincoln, where the king was made prisoner. It succeeds in fleeing. After several months of resistance, Galeran, following many officers of the court and English barons, gave up the cause of the king to embrace the cause of Emperesse. A all the more urgent reversal as in Normandy, the advance of Angevins threatened its grounds. The count de Meulan left for the duchy, and did not give any more the feet to England. It was accommodated by its new lord, the count of Anjou Geoffroy Plantagenêt. For price of its tender, this last gave to him the castle of Montfort-on-Risle, that is to say a new fortress in the valley of the Risle.

End of a career

It was well accommodated by Angevins, being a warrior and a recognized leader, of a prestigious and rich line. It helped in particular Geoffroy to subject Rouen, the ducal capital (1144). The Count d' Anjou became thus Duc of Normandy.

The count de Meulan was absent from France of 1144 to 1145, because it left in pilgrimage to Saint-Jacob de Compostelle. Hardly income, it began in disastrous the Second crusade at the sides of Louis VII of France, the emperor Conrad III and Guillaume III of Warenne. It is not very probable that it belonged to the collateral forwarding which helped the king of Portugal, Alphonse Ier to take Lisbon with the Moors

From return in 1149, the old favorite of Etienne of England was excluded little by little from the capacity in Normandy. Its influence declined with the arrival with maturity of Henri Plantagenêt, the son of Mathilde Emperesse and Geoffroy Plantagenêt. In 1153, it was captured by its nephew Robert de Montfort , , which imprisoned it with Orbec until it restore it in its stronghold of Montfort-on-Risle. The same year, its title of Count de Worcester was confiscated to him, and contrary to his brother, there was no place for him after the accession of Henri Plantagenêt with the throne of England in 1154. In 1161, the new king seized the principal Norman castles of Galeran (Pont-Audemer, Beaumont-the-Roger) but it restored them. Henri II of England tasted little the support of the count for his enemy the king of France Louis VII.

Galeran de Meulan was made monk in 1166 with Préaux, a few days before its death.

Portrait of an aristocrat

In its Chronic , Robert de Torigni, which lived at the same time, known as of Galeran which it was “ the largest lord, richest, best combined of Normandy ”. For its contemporaries it was a man who inspired the respect and which one spoke in praise. In addition, several evidence attests its high culture. Geoffroy de Monmouth dedicated inter alia its Histoire of the kings de Bretagne in Galeran. Guillaume de Malmesbury tells that the count de Meulan was also poet. Lastly, in 1119, the pope Calixte II was astonished by the control by dialectical at his brother and him.

He showed a large founder of monasteries. He installed cistercians abbeys in England (Bordesley in Worcestershire in 1139) and in Normandy (Valasse towards 1150) as well as a priory Benedictine with Gournay-sur-Marne, not far from Paris. The family abbey of Courtyards, close to Pont-Audemer, the accuiellit in its last days.

The character is sometimes described like one intriguing and an unwise politician. Vital Orderic, contemporary of the man, abounds in this direction. Describing the rebellion of 1123-1124, it presents Galeran with the defects of its youth (it is hardly 20 years old): unwise, intrepid, ebullient. The monk points out also his cruelty: in March 1124, Galeran captured several peasants who fraudulently cut wood in his forest of Brotonne. In punishment, it them estropia. But its relative political failure and its final setting with the variation must also be required in the delicate situation of Galéran, at the same time vassal of king de France, the duke of Normandy and king d' Angleterre.

With Gilbert de Clare, Galéran is the most former Anglo-Norman baron which one has the heraldic weapons

Families and descent

In 1136, it married Mathilde of Blois († v. 1140), girl of Etienne, King d' Angleterre, and of Mathilde of Boulogne, countess of Boulogne. This marriage will not give descendants, Mathilde having died at the six years age.

It remarie in 1141 with Agnès de Montfort (1123-1181), girl of Amaury III of Montfort, count de Monfort-l' Amaury, Count d' Évreux, and of Agnes de Garlande.

Known descent :

Robert II of Meulan († 1204), Count de Meulan. Married to Mathilde de Cornouailles ;
Isabelle de Beaumont († May 10th 1220), married about 1161 with Geoffroy, lord de Mayenne and about 1170 with Maurice II, lord de Craon ;
Amaury de Beaumont († before 1196), lord of Gournay-sur-Marne and the Tail. He married lady Adèle de Luzarches, widow of the count of Beaumont-on-Oise ;
Roger de Beaumont, Viscount of Évreux until 1204, married lady Elisabeth d' Aubergenville ;
Galéran de Beaumont, lord of Montfort ;
Etienne de Beaumont ;
Hugues de Beaumont, lord of Blinchefeld ;
Marie de Beaumont, married to Hugues Talbot, baron de Cleuville, lord of Hotot-on-Sea ;
Amice de Beaumont, married to Henri, lord de Ferrières ;
Duda de Beaumont, married to Guillaume de Molines.

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