General Notes

Helias of Maine, Henry I and the Importance of Friendship
In 1106 Henry I, King of England defeated his brother Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, in battle near Tinchebrai. Yet the coup de grace during the battle was delivered not by Henry himself or by his familia, but by the troops of Maine and Anjou under the command of Helias, Count of Maine. Given the pattern of hostility existing between Normans and Manceaux since the 1060s, it seems quite interesting and not a little odd to find Count Helias providing the crucial military assistance that allowed Henry, the youngest son of the conqueror, to make himself master of Normandy. Why, then, would Helias have chosen to help any son of the Conqueror to enhance his power? Many possible answers to this question exist. Among the several that I consider are an explanation that sees their relationship based upon vertical bonds of lordship and vassalage, one that favors self-centered considerations of political interest, and one that acknowledges the importance of the type of warrior ethos exemplified by the Song of Roland and other epics - an ethos that emphasized aristocratic warfare and companionship. Yet, even while acknowledging the presence of these and other factors, I argue that the most important reason for Helias' presence at Tinchebrai in 1106 was the fact that he and Henry were very good friends.
Friendship between secular figures is a dicey issue, however, since the brevity and nature of medieval sources often makes it difficult to distinguish friendship from common interest. Nevertheless, the evidence from Norman, Angevin and Manceaux chronicles suggests that Helias had established close personal connections with both Henry I and Geoffrey Martel (the eldest son and presumed heir of Count Fulk Réchin of Anjou, and like Helias an ally during Henry's Norman campaigns) during the tumultuous warfare that took place along the Norman-Manceau border during the late 1090s. I argue that these three men shared a common experience at that time as noble, but relatively powerless young men - men who, not yet entrusted with real authority, had to fight to retain their birthrights. In this sense their experiences in the 1090s were similar to Duby's juvenes, youths who had not yet settled down into marriage and responsibility and who formed bands of "friends" who loved each other "like brothers."
The presence of Helias (and of Geoffrey Martel) in Henry I's Norman campaigns may thus be explained by the presence of close personal relations, ones described by various chroniclers as bonds of friendship and intimacy. I conclude the paper by suggesting that relationships based upon such intangibles as emotion, personality, and honor were extremely important - as important, perhaps as the structural elements of politics that are so commonly emphasized. After all, decades of war in Maine were ended by the establishment of a personal relationship based upon familiaritas and common experience, not by a vertical bond of lordship, not by a marriage alliance, not even by geo- political interests. This is not to deny that social and political structures made a difference - it surely mattered that Henry was a king and Helias a count; it is, however, to argue that any attempt to understand the nature of aristocratic society and of political events during this period must also wrestle with the slippery intangibles and must accept and acknowledge the role of personality and friendship.