Simon of Crépy

Simon von Crépy , also called Simon von Vexin , (* around 1048; † January 30, 1080 (or 1082 ?) In Rome ) was the son and heir of Rudolf IV , Count of Valois , Amiens and Vexin (and thus out of the house the Carolingian ) and Adele von Bar-sur-Aube.

Life

Simon was brought up at the court of Duke Wilhelm of Normandy , to whose wife Mathilde of Flanders he was related. In 1072 he became the Count of Crépy and because of this title owned the counties of Crépy-en-Valois, Vexin, Amiens and (through his mother) the Bar-sur-Aube . His estate in Champagne became so large that it was suspected by King Philip I , who degenerated into a war in which Simon stood up to his adversary for three years.

Philip's troops sacked the Valois, Simon's troops invaded the king's territory. Pope Gregory VII got involved in the conflict, induced - through Hugo von Cluny - Simon to withdraw from the conflict and to marry the daughter of the Count of Auvergne .

Only a little later, in 1077 and only a few years after the death of his father, Simon renounced his titles and property, the couple entered the monastery, Simon entered the monastery of Saint-Oyend (Saint-Claude) and later left with some companions to the headwaters of the Doubs river , where a “Motte” on a hill founded the later Mouthe priory and thus the place that developed from it.

In the three to five years that he lived afterwards, he was preferred by several agencies as a mediator:

• In Normandy he mediated between Wilhelm the Conqueror and his son Robert Curthose
• In 1080 he was called to Rome by Pope Gregory VII and sent to Sicily to start negotiations with Robert Guiscard .

On the way back from Sicily he died in Rome and was buried in St. Peter's Basilica . An epitaph on Simon was written by Pope Urban II. His remains were later transferred to the Saint-Claude Monastery and the Mouthe Church, where his memory is still preserved (in Saint-Claude on October 3rd , in Besançon on October 5th ).

literature

• Wilhelm Kohl:  Simon from Crépy. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 390-391.