Robert de Grantmesnil
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Robert de Grantmesnil (or Grandmesnil), son of Robert I of Grantmesnil and Hawisa d'Échauffour, was the half-brother and guardian of Judith, daughter of William, Count of Évreux. He was the abbot of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche, which he restored in 1050.
After entering into a violent quarrel with William II of Normandy, he was forced to flee to Rome in January 1061 and thence to the court of Robert Guiscard in Salerno. He took with him his nephew Berengar, son of his brother Arnaud d'Échauffour, and the aforementioned Judith, who married Roger I of Sicily as his first wife.
Eleven of his monks accompanied him. In his time, Saint-Evroul was famed for its musical programme and these eleven monks would the form the basis of a new musicality at the abbey of Sant'Eufemia in Calabria, a foundation of the Guiscard's, of which Robert became abbot.[1] The newly famous singers of Sant'Eufemia performed at the wedding ceremony of Judith and Roger late in 1061.
In his later career, Robert was Bishop of Troina and subsequently Archbishop of Messina.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Joranson, 390.
[edit] Sources
[edit] Primary sources
The chief primary sources for his life is the chronicle of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert de Torigny. This chronicle is known by various names (Gesta Normannorum Ducum etc.). Torigny also mentions Robert in his De Immutatione Ordinis Monachorum.
- The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni. Edited and translated by Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1995.
[edit] Secondary sources
- Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London, 1967.
- Chalandon, Ferdinand. Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicile. Paris, 1907.
- Joranson, Einar. "The Inception of the Career of the Normans in Italy — Legend and History." Speculum, Vol. 23, No. 3. (Jul., 1948), pp 353–396.
