Guillaume II. Talvas de Bellême

Guillaume II. Talvas (* around 995; † 1052 at the castle of Domfront ) from the Bellême family was lord of Bellême and Alençon . He was the son of Guillaume I de Bellême and Mathilde de Condé-sur-Noireau .

biography

Guillaume II took over the rule in Bellême after the murder of his brother Robert I by Gauthier de Sordains (Robert had the father and the brothers Gauthiers hanged after he had captured them in a battle). His reputation was that of a cruel, merciless and tyrannical master.

The historian Wilhelm von Jumièges reports that Guillaume had his first wife, with whom he was dissatisfied, strangled by two robbers in front of the entire people while she was on her way to church. Shortly thereafter, he married Haberge de Beaumont , daughter of Raoul V. de Beaumont , Vice-Count of Maine . At the wedding, the deed for which he is still known today took place: he had invited Guillaume Giroie , the Lord of Montreuil-l'Argillé , Échauffour and Saint-Céneri , whom he entertained for several days before he took him arrested. Guillaume Talvas gave the order to mutilate his guest and then went on a hunt. Guillaume Giroie was then blinded in front of the assembled people of Alençon , his ears and nose were cut off and he was emasculated (Guillaume Giroie survived the ordeal and went to the monastery years later). The brothers Guillaumes, Raoul, called le Mal Couronné , and Robert then devastated Guillaume's land and besieged him in his castle.

It was his own son from his first marriage, Arnoul, who managed to chase him out of the country, but Arnoul did not benefit from his success for long because he himself was strangled in bed - after Wilhelm von Jumièges on behalf of his father. The events that follow are unclear. It seems that Guillaume asked the Count of Anjou for help, which he was promised. On the other hand, Alençon and Domfront revolted against the Duke, whereupon William II of Normandy successfully launched a campaign to subdue the rebels and regain control of Bellême's rule. Ordericus Vitalis reports that the Montgommery family brought Guillaume back to power, and that Roger II. De Montgommery received the hand of his daughter - and now sole heir - Mabile de Bellême in return . It also appears that Duke Wilhelm requested this marriage in order to restore calm on the southern border of Normandy and at the same time to bind the area more closely to himself through his confidante Montgommery.

progeny

From his marriage to Hildeburge he had three children:

1. Arnoul, who chased his father away and was himself murdered
2. Mabile de Bellême , ∞ Roger II. De Montgommery

His marriage to Haberge de Beaumont was childless. He also had an illegitimate son from an unknown woman, Olivier de Mesle, who was suspected of murdering his half-brother Arnoul.

literature

• Wilhelm von Jumièges, Ordericus Vitalis, Robert von Torigni , Histoire des Normands , v. 1070, Ed. François Guizot, Caen, Mancel, 1826
• Gérard Louise, «La Seigneurie de Bellême, Xe-XIIe siècle. Dévolution des pouvoirs territoriaux et construction d'une seigneurie de frontière aux confins de la Normandie et du Maine à la charnière de l'an Mil ”, Le Pays bas-normand , 3-4, 1993