Guillaume d\' Arques

Guillaume d' Arques or Guillaume de Talou (before 1026-after 1054) was the uncle of William the Conqueror against which he revolted. After the failure of the rebellion, it had to leave the Duché of Normandy.

Biography

Wire of the duke Richard II, he was thus the uncle of Guillaume Bastard the, the future Conqueror. Benefitting from the minority of this last, it directs the duchy with others Richardides: his/her brother Mauger of Rouen and his/her cousins Raoul de Gacé and Richard d' Évreux.

For this period, more precisely about 1037, it receives the county of Talou (increased Arques) in the North-East of the duchy. According to the chronicler Guillaume of Poitiers, he is the manufacturer of the castle of Arch. Once major, the duke takes again in hand his State. Being wary with respect to his uncle, it installs a ducal garrison in the castle of Arch but little time after, the defenders opens the fortress with Guillaume d' Arques. Always according to Guillaume of Poitiers, the count prepares a revolt there. The reasons of this hostility are not obvious: Orderic Vital explains why the count of Arques and his/her Mauger brother reproached to the young duke his illegitimacy while the historian Pierre Bauduin proposes the assumption of a “basic divergence on the policy followed by the duke since 1049”.

The revolt bursts in the middle of the year 1053. Guillaume the Bastard one precipitates with Arques where the rebel is taken refuge. Then it leaves the control of the seat to faithful, Gautier I {{er}} Giffard and counts on the hunger to reduce the castle. This revolt is all the more worrying for the duke that Guillaume d' Arques receives the support of several local lords, and especially of the King de France Henri I {{er}} and of the Count de Ponthieu Enguerrand II. The first seeks to weaken the duke of Normandy while the second is the brother-in-law of the rebel. Perhaps the extent of the danger explains the “ damnatio memoriae ” of which made to the object the count of Arques in the accounts of the Norman chroniclers.

But Henri and Enguerrand fail to release the castle of his blockade. The count de Ponthieu finds even death in a combat with a few kilometers. Pressed by the hunger, Guillaume d' Arques resigns himself to the rendering of the castle to the beginning of the year 1054. The duke forgives him, offers even some grounds to him Normans in exchange of the abandonment of his county but overcome refuses. He prefers to exile himself and take refuge near Eustace, Count de Boulogne.

The county of Arch/Talou disappears then. Guillaume d' Arques is thus the first and the single count of this territory.

Family and descent

Parents : Richard II of Normandy and Papie (or Papia)

Brother : Mauger, Archbishop of Rouen

Wife : a sister of the count Guy I {{er}} of Ponthieu. Its name is unknown.

Children : at least a son of the name of Gautier.

See too

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