Hubert of Beaumont-with-Maine

Genealogy

The family of Beaumont, then of Beaumont-Brienne, dominated this area of the Maine of at the 14th century.

See also: List of the Viscounts of Maine

Family

Hubert, wire of Raoul V of Beaumont and Emma de Montreveau , undoubtedly owed his name in Hubert, bishop of Angers, his great-uncle, if devoted to the interests of his niece. It is named in turn Viscount of Holy-Suzanne, Lude, of Maine, of Manceaux, Mans. During the life of Cana , second woman of its father, he says his son, and always viscountess qualifies it; he is judge of his court.

Born towards 1047, the Hubert Viscount had married, the December 6th 1067, Ermengarde of Nevers , girl of Guillaume Ier of Nevers, (° 1029 † 1083), count de Nevers, and of Ermengarde de Tonnerre. This lady is quoted with her husband, particularly in the confirmation with Saint-Aubin of the vault of Saint-Aubin of the Lude, towards 1090, and in the donation of Saint-Flaceau to the abbey of Saint-Vincent .

With her daughter Godeheult , the future abbess of Étival, she attended the convents. One Easter Day, having come to Cellières, it gave the prior, Henri de Champeaux, hunting rights in its forest; later, with the festivals of Christmas, she conceded with the prior of Cheffes, Geoffroy of Nantes, right of use in her wood. One finds, with the dated December 28th 1135, a viscountess Ermengarde, woman of Gautier Hait, Viscount of Mollan, that Dom Guilloreau supposes being the viscountess of Maine, remariée so late, and living still at least 90 years old. That appears not very probable and would require evidence.

Hubert had had five children:

Raoul , (oldest son?).
Herbert ou Hubert , (° 1062) quoted with his brothers and his mother in 1090, and again in 1095 and in other less precise circumstances.
Guillaume (° 1061), mentioned also twice.
Denis , which appears only in only one circumstance.
Godeheult , (° 1063), nun of Cluny, which visited with his/her mother the Benedictines, who sang with the priory of Cheffes with one of the monks the verse alleluiatic, was not, as one said, professes with the Abbaye of Ronceray of Angers. The two charters where it is question of a nun of this name apply to its grand' aunt, one for her profession before 1067, the other at the end of its career after 1104. When Raoul VII founded, with the prayer of Saint Alleaume, the Abbaye of Étival-in-Charnie there, it called his sister Godeheult like abbess in 1109. Its name is lost then in the darkness of an order incipient and still very modest.

History

the Maine, during the 11th century, makes the object of desire on behalf of its neighbors, the Anjou, with the south, and the Normandy, in north.
In 1058, the count Herbert II of Maine, without children, is recognized vassal of Guillaume of Normandy and in fact its heir. But of many lords of the Maine do not hear it thus and take the weapons against the Norman ones. Towards 1063, written Vital Orderic, Hubert de Beaumont occupied Mans against the Normand S.
Ten years later, it is obliged to subject themselves, giving up with the winner his castles of Fresnay and Beaumont, and to follow it; but is to prepare its revenge.
It builds or occupies then its Château of Holy-Suzanne, located on an inaccessible nipple, provides it with the keep which resisted so many enemies, the elements and time; is locked up there and from there worries until Mans the partisans of Guillaume.
During a new invasion, after being itself seized the places which were on its passage, in Fresnay, Sillé and Beaumont, less easy to defend, Guillaume attacks the castle of Holy-Suzanne (Mayenne), but runs up against the savage of the Viscount Hubert II, Viscount of Beaumont-with-Maine, Fresnay and Holy-Suzanne resistance, - whose Ermengarde wife of Nevers is the back-back grand-daughter of Hugues Capet -. Hubert cuts off himself in his powerful keep from Holy-Suzanne with his family and his best soldiers.

See also: County of Maine

Of 1083 with 1086, Holy-Suzanne is the place of confrontation between the Hubert Viscount and the duke of Normandy and king d' Angleterre, William the Conqueror. If Guillaume himself turns over to Normandy (his wife, Mathilde of Flanders, dies on November 3rd 1083), he entrusts the command of the seat to the one of his best soldiers, Alain the Russet-red , count of Breton, present at Hastings in 1066, and installs a fortified camp, furnished with an important garrison, the Camp of Beugy.

See also: Camp of Beugy

the best knights run of the provinces of France, in particular of Aquitaine and Burgundy, to support Hubert against the Norman ones and English, and grow rich while intercepting and by holding to ransom the enemy knights.

Robert of Old man-Pont' (he also present at Hastings), Robert d' Ussi and other Norman knights of high ranking are killed. November 18th 1085, it is Richer of the Eagle , wire of Engenoulf of the Eagle , which also dies him in front of Holy-Suzanne, of an arrow in the eye, after having forgiven the young man who had reached it.

the brother of Richer, Gislebert of the Eagle , and several other Norman knights ( Guillaume de Warenne , Bauldri de Quitri ) gather a considerable army to avenge Richer for the Eagle and deliver the attack, but " they gained there only the iron which was inserted in their wounds ".

" the king could not besiege the fortress, which was inaccessible because of the rocks and the thickness of the vines which surrounded it by all shares " , reports Orderic Vital, most complete of the chroniclers of the time, and whose father had accompanied Guillaume at the time of the conquète by England. In fact, the castle is built on a rock headland, and the escarpées slopes (covered then with vines) make the attacks very perilous; moreover, many inside functioning wells even of the fortress, and an underground then connecting the castle to the " mill of the vicomte" (today Large-mill ), allow to supply suitably besieged.

" Of a famous nobility, an eminent merit and great fame for its courage and its audacity " , Hubert badgers Guillaume by many incursions into the garrisons Normans and the war enlise. Guillaume, count d' Evreux (1067 - 1118), is made prisoner. Machiel de Guitot , wire of Godefroi-the-Small, is wounded mortally, and besieging them essuient repeated and serious failures.

" As they could override Hubert neither by the value, nor by happiness, having changed opinion and of resolution, they tried to make it return in the alliance of the king ". Hubert agrees to it, and William the Conqueror lends himself to it, discouraged by the death of many knights and faithful comrades in arms (inter alia Herve (or Anvrai) Breton the , which had succeeded Alain the Russet-red one as commander of the seat). A treaty, given like goes back to another event, took place of the May 23rd 1085 with the April 21st 1086.

the seat is raised, Guillaume receives in a friendly way in England the defender of Holy-Suzanne, returns to him its fields of Beaumont and Fresnay, and consequently is maintained in good intelligence with him. Guillaume dies in Rouen on September 9th 1087.

We find since Hubert, with Robert Burgundian the, his uncle, who threatens to shave the Château of Lude, already however family estate, 1090. The alive one even of his/her father, it had confirmed with him with the abbeys the legacies of its ancestors. It renewed these acts when it had the load of Viscount towards Saint-Vincent, Saint-Aubin, Marmoutier, especially in Lude. Because undoubtedly of its viscontal title, it attended a donation of the church and presbytery of Bazougers in Saint-Vincent.
He died before the May 24th 1095, according to Mr. Robert Latouche.

Epilog

Holy-Suzanne, the only fortress that William the Conqueror never managed to take , is quoted like such in the History of England (" St.Suzanne, the one castle which the Conqueror himself could never take ")… But the enmity was momentary:
the grandson of Hubert, Roscelin of Beaumont-with-Maine, Marie with Constancy FitzRoy, girl of Henri Ier " Beauclerc" king d' Angleterre, (1068 - 1135), this one being young person wire of William the Conqueror.
the son of Roscelin and Constancy, Richard Ier de Beaumont of Beaumont-with-Maine, marries Lucie of the Eagle , back grand-daughter of Richer of the Eagle killed to Holy-Suzanne by the troops of Hubert in 1085… and one their girls, Ermengarde de Beaumont, Marie on September 5th 1186 with Guillaume Ier of Scotland (v 1143 - 1214), king d' Ecosse of 1165 with 1214.

Live Hubert II!

A song with the glory of Hubert II was written at the beginning of the 20th century by Amand Dagnet ( " Holy-Suzanne in chansons" , Imp. Goupil, Laval, 1929 )

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