General Notes

From: "Sinclair" <labehotiere@wanadoo.fr>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 13:04:42 +0200

E.A. Freeman was definitively William's principal panegyrist. He makes no memtion of any St Clair rebels.

Hamon was killed Val-es-dunes he was Lord of Creully, Torigny, Evrecy and Thaon. He was not the Comte (Earl) of Corbeil or Mortain.  The first three Counts were:

996 to 1032 Mauger de Normandie, comte de Mortain et de Corbeil
1032 to 1048 Guillaume 1er de Normandie, surnommÈ Werleng ou Guerleng, comte de Mortain et de Corbeil
1049 to 1104 Robert 1er de Conteville, comte de Mortain et de Cornouailles

(The name of Thaon appears very early in archives of Normandy. Hamon of the Teeth, Lord of Creully, Torigny, Evrecy and Thaon was one of the feudal rebels at the time of the uprising that was defeated by William the Bastard at Val - es-dunes (1047). LÈchaudÈ of Anisy in his notes on the barony and the church of Thaon it is mentioned by Wace Roman de Rou.) His father was Malger his Mother: Coeur-en-Auge

In 1035, Robert, Duke of Normandy died. Although William was illegitimate, he was Robert's only living son, and so inherited the father's title. Gilbert, Count of Brionne, became William's guardian. A number of Norman barons would not accept an illegitimate son as their leader and in 1040 an attempt was made to kill William. The plot failed by they did manage to kill Gilbert.

William was a Norman born and bred. William's cousin Guy of Burgundy, his rival was in every sense a Frenchman. His connexion with the ducal house was on distaff side, but uncontested legitimacy. This gave him an excuse for claiming the duchy in opposition to the bastard.. William after the death of Gilbert, gave the island fortress of Brionne in the Risle to Guy. The partition of the duchy was Guy's aim. William was to be dispossessed; Guy was to be duke in the lands east of Dive; the great lords of Western Normandy were to be left independent. St Clair fiefs lay to the North and East of a line from Rouen to Caen. The lords of the Bessin and the Cotentin revolted, their leader being Neal, Viscount of Saint-Sauveur in the Cotentin.

The victory at Val-es-dunes was decisive, and the French King, whose help had done so much to win it, left William to follow it up. He met with but little resistance except at the stronghold of Brionne. Guy himself vanishes from Norman history. William had now conquered his own duchy, and conquered it by French help. For once King Henry had kept his word.

The Conqueror's battle at Val-es-dunes was a tourney of horsemen on an open table-land just within the land of the rebels between Caen and Mezidon. William with the aid of Henry, King of France, William gained a great victory at Val-Ës-Dunes, which led, to the capture of the two strong castles of AlenÁon and Domfront.

Sinclair