Elias I (Maine)

Elias I of Maine ( French : Hélie or Élie ; † July 11, 1110 ), also called Elias of Beaugency or Elias of La Flèche , was a count of Maine from 1093 to 1110 .

biography

He came from a side branch of the family of the Lords of Beaugency , from his father Johann († before 1097) he inherited the rule of the castle of La Flèche , making him a vassal of the Count of Anjou . Elias' mother was Paula of Maine, a daughter of Earl Herbert I's Watchdog of Maine , through whom he had a claim to the then highly competitive County of Maine.

Elias was opposed to Norman rule in Maine by Robert Kurzhose and captured Ballon Castle in 1089 . In 1090 he took the Bishop of Le Mans prisoner because he supported the Normans . In 1093 Elias bought his cousin Count Hugo V the rights to Maine for 10,000 shillings and, with the support of Count Fulko IV of Anjou, was able to assert himself against Robert Kurzhose, who then went on the first crusade .

Then he had to fight off an attack by Robert's brother, King William II Rufus of England , but was captured in 1098 by his vassal Robert de Bellême and brought to Rouen . At the same time, Le Mans was lost to Wilhelm Rufus. After Elias was released, he withdrew to Le Flèche and took up the fight against Wilhelm Rufus together with his friend Gottfried IV von Anjou , but it was only his death in 1100 that enabled him to recapture Le Mans after a three-month siege.

In the following years Elias supported the Hereditary Count Gottfried IV of Anjou, whom he betrothed to his daughter, in his revolt against his father and was also present when Gottfried died in front of the castle of Carné in 1106. When Robert Kurzhose returned from the Holy Land in 1101, Elias had allied himself with King Henry I of England , whom he decisively supported in the Battle of Tinchebray (1106) when he led Henry's reserve against Robert's army, whose line broke through and thus sealed his defeat.

After that Elias got rid of the Norman influence by again approaching his old ally Count Fulko IV of Anjou. From his marriage to Mathilde von Château-du-Loir († 1099) he had the daughter Eremburge († January 14, 1126), who was to inherit him in Maine. After Gottfried IV's death, she was betrothed to his half-brother Fulko V , whom she then married.

Elias was married in a second marriage to Agnes von Poitou, a daughter of Duke Wilhelm VIII of Aquitaine and ex-wife of King Alfonso VI. of Castile , with whom he had no children.

literature

• Donald F. Fleming, Janet M. Pope, Charles Warren Hollister: Henry I and the Anglo-Norman World. 2007

annotation

1. ↑ Orderic Vitalis named Paula of Maine in his chronicle as the wife of both Johann von La Flèche and his father Lancelin I von Beaugency († between 1051 and 1060), whereby for chronological reasons the former is more likely to be the husband.

predecessor	Office	successor
Hugo V.	Earl of Maine 1093–1110	Eremburg