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name of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the motto "Son, behold thy mother." It was unique in that it placed all the religious, both men and women, under the control of a woman, the abbess.
Another unique feature derived from Robert's experiences of the wretchedness of the life of women in particular, an insight that he had gained while travelling the countryside during his preaching of the crusade.
Attempting to imitate Christ, he sought to welcome the most wretched and despised elements of that society, the lepers and prostitutes. Two more special convents were built for them, St Lazarus for the lepers, and St Magdalene for the prostitutes. Thus, remarkably, these two most downtrodden and outcast categories of people became part of the normal life of the community, rather than simply examples of special charity as might be the case in other religious institutions.
The abbess was normally to be chosen by a chapter of the community. The first head, however, was Petronilla of Chemille, chosen by Robert. She and her successors enjoyed remarkable freedom, as they were answerable only to the pope in spiritual matters and the to the French king in worldly affairs.
The unique power enjoyed by the abbess gave her total control over up to 5,000 people, both men and women, in her order during the twelfth century. These included 300 contemplative nuns, as well as 100 priories scattered around France, England and Spain. Some of the monks found the power of the abbesses hard to countenance. In succeeding centuries, the men sometimes rebelled with violence against her supremacy. But it was to remain unchallenged until the events of the French Revolution.
The foundation was an elite organisation, despite its chosen association with the downtrodden. Its heads were characteristically from the nobility, including Mathilda of Anjou, who was the daughter of Fulk V, fourth king of Jerusalem. She was the widow of William the Conqueror's grandson William, and was the aunt of Henry II.
Such illustrious associations had their confirmation when the abbey was chosen as the burial place of virtually the entire ruling family of twelfth century England, the Plantagenet clan, starting with Henry II (1189). His association with Mathilda, and the foundation's placement near his favourite castle, made Fontrevaud a not unexpected choice.
Less expected, perhaps, was that his most bitter rivals were to choose to lie beside him in death, whereas in life they had spurned him.
This includes most notably his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his son Richard Coeur de Lion, as well as that wicked John Lackland who had been the very instrument of his death.
Eleanor spent the last 15 years of her life in St Magdalene's amongst the penitential women, where she died on March 31, 1204. Richard died in a sordid raid on Chalus in April 1199. On his death bed he asked to be buried at the feet of his father.2
Fontevraud is thus not only a singular reaction to the Crusades by and on behalf of women, but also a concrete reminder of the dangers inherent in any claim to fully understand the mind set of people who lived a millennium ago.
1. Abbe Pohu, The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud Lescuyer, Lyons, 1967.
2. Roger de Hoveden, Chronicles, II, p.454.
Chapter 20
The Lord's Wife
Women's lives in the Frankish East must have been dangerous, exciting, exotic, intriguing and often luxurious compared to that of their relatives at home in Europe.
An example is the life of the lady of Caesarea. Archeological research is revealing much about the life of such women settlers in Outremer.
Caesarea was a key coastal city lordship located on the Mediterranean, a day's march to the north west of Jerusalem. Many of the Crusader's greatest battles were fought at its very doorstep.
The city of Caesarea was captured by the Crusaders in May 1101. The conquerors occupied an old Byzantine port city, which had shrunk to a tenth of its original size. The harbour is small, but adequate, protected on the southern side by a long mole, on which were remnants of a pagan temple, later to be overbuilt by a neat crusader castle. The Crusaders set to work refurbishing what was there and replacing traces of Moslem ownership, particularly the great mosque, which was torn down and rebuilt as St Peter's, the seat of an archbishop. The town then served as the stronghold of a series of Crusader lords.
Lady Emma, the wife of the first lord of Caesarea, Eustace Garnier, enjoyed the way of life of a virtually independent quasi kingdom. Her husband, as ruler of one of the 13 second ranking fiefs of the Crown, kept a court similar to that of the King in Jerusalem, and she had her own large following of Christian and Moslem servants.
The fief over which they ruled covered some 1,200 square kilometres, and owed the knight service of 25 men to the Crown. Around 100 villages lay within the bounds of the miniature kingdom. Each of the knights represented an annual cost of between four and five hundred bezants, which had to be recovered through trade and agriculture. Crusader lords and ladies depended for their survival on constantly supplying the needs of those
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