Guillaume d\' Évreux

Guillaume of Normandy († 1118) was ''' count d' Évreux ''' of 1067 with 1118. It was wire of Richard of Normandy, count d' Évreux, and of Godehilde. Before marrying Richard, Godehilde was married with Roger I {{er}} of Tosny, lord of Conches, and had given rise to several children, of which Raoul II of Tosny.

Biography

It took part in the conquest of England with the eighty ships which his/her father provides and fought with the Bataille of Hastings. In reward, William the Conqueror gave him fields in Hampshire, in Berkshire and Oxfordshire but nap all, the whole of the received goods is modest. Like Roger I {{er}} of Beaumont, another large tycoon of the duchy, Guillaume d' Évreux, was rewarded little in England in spite of its participation in the conquest. It is not the consequence of a disgrace since one sees then Guillaume ordering the ducal army in the military campaigns in France. The case of Guillaume d' Évreux makes it possible the historian David Bates to dismount the thesis of an aristocracy become entirely Anglo-Norman at the conclusion of the conquest of England. For some families, the duchy of Normandy remained the principal framework of their expansion and their political struggles.

In 1067, Guillaume succeeds his father. During the years which followed, there remained a faithful companion of the Conqueror. In 1081, with the assistance of Roger II of Montgommery, it negotiates a peace treaty between its lord and Foulques Réchin, count d' Anjou. From 1084 to 1086, it fights Hubert de Saint-Suzanne, Viscount of Maine and revolted against the duke, but it was captured in January 1085 at the time of the seat of Holy-Suzanne. However, after its release, it benefits from dead from the duke in 1087 to drive out the confined ducal garrison with Évreux.

This same year dies his/her brother-in-law Simon I {{er}}, lord of Montfort, and his/her daughter, Bertrade de Montfort, is entrusted to the guard of her uncle Guillaume. This supervision, as well as a new revolt in the Maine turns soon to the advantage of the count. Indeed the new duke, Robert Courteheuse, request the assitance of the count d' Anjou to subdue the revolt. The count accepts, but in exchange of the hand of Bertrade, and Guillaume requires a compensation. This one takes the shape of the heritage of Raoul de Gacé, uncle de Guillaume, i.e. of the grounds of Gacé and Varenguebec, that William the Conqueror had joined together with the ducal field with died of Raoul. In 1090, the marriage is concluded and the revolted manceaux ones are subjected.

A little later it subjects a revolt fomented to Rouen by the partisans of William Rufus, king d' Angleterre, who sought to withdraw Normandy of the hands of his Robert brother. During the two years which followed it is a family war which occupies it. A competition between Helvide, the woman of Guillaume and Isabelle de Montfort, the wife of Raoul de Tosny, a half-brother of Guillaume, degenerated and the two brothers fought themselves. Raoul carried it in 1092, and imposed on Guillaume a treaty in which grateful Guillaume like Roger heir, wire junior by Raoul. But the death of Roger about 1094 made that the treaty was not applied.

In 1096, Robert Courteheuse engages in the First crusade, entrusting the duchy to his William Rufus brother. In 1097, Guillaume d' Évreux conducts a campaign against the king Philippe {{Ier}} of France in Vexin. In 1098, following a new campaign in Maine, William Rufus, the fact governor of Mans. William Rufus dies in 1100 and Guillaume and Raoul de Tosny, this time combined, benefit from the disorders to devastate the grounds of Beaumont-the-Roger, held by Robert I {{er}} of Meulan. Robert Courteheuse returns shortly after of crusade and returns in possession of his duchy, while Henri Beauclerc becomes king d' Angleterre.

At the conclusion of a stormy interview between Robert Courteheuse and Henri Beauclerc, the suzerainty of the county of Évreux is yielded to king d' Angleterre. Thus Guillaume finds English side at the time of the Bataille of Tinchebray (1106), which saw the defeat of Courteheuse and the meeting of Normandy and England. But the authority of Henri Beauclerc, who makes following mollesse of Courteheuse, sied hardly with the count d' Évreux, which badly accepts the interference of the king and the construction of a royal keep with Évreux, that it made destroy as of its completion. Guillaume and Helvide had to be exiled in the Comté of Anjou for fourteen months in 1112-3. During this period, Foulque V Beautiful the, count d' Anjou, and Amaury III of Montfort were combined to attack Henri, and Guillaume probably joined the coalition. When peace was signed between the Norman one and the angevin, in February 1113, Guillaume returned again in possession of his county.

Helvide dies in the five years which follow and is buried in Noyon. Guillaume dies on April 18th, 1118 and is buried with the abbey of Fontenelle.

Marriage and children

He had married Helvide or Helvise of Nevers, girl of Guillaume I {{er}}, count de Nevers and of Ermengarde, countess of Thunder. From this marriage was born a son, probably dead before 1092.

Sources

Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Counts d' Evreux
, p. 333-7.

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