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 Mouliherne (1048); and the war was continued between the duke of Normandy and the count of Anjou by the siege of Alençon, which was taken by Geoffrey Martel, then retaken by William, and that of Domfront, which in 1049 had to surrender to Duke William.

In 1054 William the Bastard married Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V., count of Flanders, in spite of the opposition of Pope Leo IX., who only gave his consent on condition that William and Matilda. should each build an abbey: under these conditions were built the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and the Abbaye-aux-Dames at Caen. The king of France had at first protected William, but before long became alarmed at his ambitions; the first sign of his feeling of rivalry with the duke was the encouragement he gave to the revolt of William Busas, count of Eu and Montreuil, who claimed the ducal crown. In 1054 he invaded Normandy with his brother Odo and this count, but Odo was beaten at Mortemer. In 1058 the king of France, joined by Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou, tried to revenge himself, but was beaten at the ford of Varaville (1058).

Towards the same time took place the annexation of Maine to Normandy, for a short period only. Herbert II., the young count of Maine, who was a vassal of the count of Anjou, did homage to William the Bastard between 1055 and 1060, perhaps after the defeat of Geoffrey Martel; he promised to marry one of William’s daughters, and betrothed his sister Margaret to the duke’s son, Robert Curthose, on the understanding that, if he died leaving no children, the countship was to fall to William. After his death, the people of Maine revolted (1063), choosing as their lord Walter of Mantes, count of Vexin; but William the Bastard, after one campaign, succeeded in imposing the authority of Normandy. Three years later, William took possession of England, of which he was crowned king in 1066. Normandy now became the scene of William’s quarrels with his son, Robert Curthose, who laid claim to Normandy and Maine, and with the aid of King Philip I. of France succeeded in defeating his father at Gerberoi in 1079.

William the Conqueror died on the 7th of September 1087, and was buried in the church of St Etienne at Caen. After his death his eldest son, Robert Curthose, kept Normandy and Maine, and his second son, William Rufus, became king of England. In 1091 William Rufus made a vain attempt to recover Normandy; but in 1096 Robert departed on a crusade and pledged the duchy to his brother for 10,000 livres. When Robert returned, William Rufus had just died, and his youngest brother, Henry Beauclerc, had already taken possession of the crown. Henry was ambitious of uniting Normandy to England; in 1105, with the aid of Helias, count of Maine, and the son of Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou, he took and burnt Bayeux, but failed to take Falaise. On the 28th of September 1106, by the help of William, count of Evreux, Robert, count of Meulan, Robert de Varenne, and Helias, count of Maine, he defeated his brother at Tinchebrai, took him prisoner, and seized Normandy. Duke Robert passed the rest of his life in captivity and died in 1134.

From 1106 to 1204 Normandy remained united to England. According to Ordericus Vitalis, whose Historia ecclesiastica is a chronicle of the greatest interest for the history of Normandy in the 11th and 12th centuries, Henry Beauclerc governed the two kingdoms wisely, checking the nobles, and protecting the Church and the common people. He carried on hostilities against the king of France and William Clito, son of Robert Curthose, whose claim to the duchy of Normandy was upheld by Louis VI., and won an important victory over his opponents at Brémule in Normandy (1119). After the disaster of the White Ship (1121), in which the Atheling William lost his life, Henry’s only surviving child was a daughter, Matilda, widow of the emperor Henry V. In 1127 Matilda married Geoffrey the Fair, eldest son of Fulk V., count of Anjou. After the death of Henry I. in 1135, a struggle arose between Matilda, who claimed the kingdom of England and the duchy of Normandy in the name of her son Henry Plantagenet, and Theobald, count of Champagne, grandson of William the Conqueror on the side

of his mother Adela, the candidate of the Normans of Normandy, while the Norman party in England supported Stephen, brother of Theobald. In 1144 Theobald, whose position had been much weakened since the taking of the castle of Rouen, gave up his rights in Normandy to Matilda’s husband Geoffrey, count of Anjou, in favour of Henry Plantagenet. Between 1139 and 1145 Geoffrey, with French and Flemish help, gradually subdued Normandy, and on his death, in 1151, his son Henry Plantagenet was master of Normandy as well as count of Anjou. In 1152, by his marriage with Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, Aquitaine also was secured to himself and his descendants. Finally, in 1153, he was recognized by Stephen of Blois as heir to the throne of England. The duchy of Normandy, though nominally in feudal dependence on the king of France, thus became part of the great Angevin empire, of which the power and resources were more than equal to that of the French kings. The perennial struggle, dating from this period, between the kings of England and France is dealt with elsewhere (see and ).

From the first the French kings were fully conscious of the menace of the Angevin power. The reign of Louis VII; was occupied by the struggle against Henry II. In 1158 he committed the blunder of concluding a treaty with Henry, by which he was to give his daughter Margaret in marriage to Henry Short Mantle, eldest son of Henry II., with the French Vexin as her dowry. The Vexin was consequently the scene of hostilities in 1159 and 1165. In 1173 Louis VII., resuming the policy of his grandfather and father, took advantage of the strife which broke out in the family of the king of England, and took the part of Henry II.’s sons who were in revolt against their father. He negotiated with Henry Short Mantle, duke of Normandy, as though he were king of England, but owing to his weakness did not gain any serious advantage. In 1173 he abandoned the siege of Verneuil, in 1174 that of Rouen, and was no more successful in 1176.

Philip Augustus (1180–1223) pursued the same policy with greater tenacity and success. He began by taking part against Henry II. with his son and successor, Richard Cœur de Lion, who obtained the throne on the death of Henry II. in 1189. From the point of view of Normandy, the most important events of Richard’s reign were: the truce of Issoudun, by which Philip Augustus kept the Norman Vexin which he had just conquered (1195), the building by Richard of Château-Gaillard (1196), and finally the defeat of Philip Augustus by Richard at Courcelles, near Gisors (1198). On the death of Richard at Chalus in 1199 the position of Philip Augustus was critical. This situation was modified under the reign of John Lackland, Richard’s brother, who had himself crowned duke of Normandy at Rouen (April 25, 1199). Philip Augustus set up in opposition to him, Arthur of Brittany, son of Geoffrey and grandson of Henry II., and the first phase of the struggle between the kings of France and England continued until the treaty of Goulet (1200). But in 1202 Philip made a fresh attempt to seize the continental possessions of the kings of England. An excuse for reopening hostilities offered itself in the abduction, by John, of Isabel of Angoulême, the betrothed of Hugh le Brun, son of the count of La Marche. The barons appealed to Philip Augustus, who summoned John to appear before the royal judges; he failed to appear, and was consequently condemned by default, as a disloyal vassal, to have all the fiefs which he held in France confiscated (April 1202). The confiscation, a purely legal and formal operation, was followed by the actual conquest.

In June 1202 Philip Augustus invaded Normandy and besieged the castle of Arques, near Dieppe; at the same time Arthur of Brittany was taken prisoner by John at Mirebeau in Poitou, and imprisoned in the castle of Falaise, from which he was removed to Rouen and died, probably assassinated by John’s orders. The conquest of Normandy began with the occupation of Château-Gaillard after an eight months’ siege (September 1203–April 1204); the rest of Normandy was taken during the following months, Rouen surrendering in 1204 but 