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Grentemesnil. (family of)
A family of the middle ranking Norman aristocracy established in the region of Falaise (Norrey-en-Auge, Grentemesnil, now Grandmesnil, Calvados). Its rise to power is representative of certain aspects of Norman expansion. The alliance by marriage with the Giroie family whose position was established by c.1000 brought domains around Echauffour (Orne) and Montreuil-l'Argilé (Eure). Under the reign of William the Conqueror the Grentemesnil and Giroie families were involved in a violent vendetta with the Bellême family and many their members were forced into exile. Robert de Grentemesnil, Abbot of Saint-Evroult, found refuge in Calabria where he established the monastery of St Euphemia (1061) and married his half-sister Judith to Count Roger, brother of Robert Guiscard. Hugh, his elder brother, was restored to favour and became a companion of William the Conqueror, and was rewarded by fiefdoms in the County of Leicester. Robert’s younger son, Yves, lost the favour of William Rufus and his English domains went to the Beaumonts, his relations by marriage. William, the older son of Hugh rejoined Robert Guiscard in Italy (1075/1080) and married his daughter, Mabel. He obtained huge domains in the Val di Crati but rebelled against ducal authority. William’s son Robert entered into open conflict with Roger II (1129) and had to flee to his territories in Normandy. The story of this family is well known through the corroborative testament of an ‘Italian’ of Norman origin, Geoffrey Malaterra who was a monk at St Evroult and may have accompanied the abbot, Robert Grentemesnil, into exile, and by the ‘Englishman’ Orderic Vitalis, a monk at St Evroult, at the beginning of the 12th century, who collected the tradition.
Bibliography :
- François Neveux. - La Normandie des ducs aux rois, Xe-XIIe s. - Rennes : Ouest-France, 1998.
- Joseph Decaëns. "Le patrimoine des Grentemesnil en Normandie, en Angleterre et en Italie aux XIe-XIIe s.". Les Normands en Méditerranée, dans le sillage des Tancrède, actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle (24-27 sept. 1992). - Caen : Presses Universitaires de Caen, 1994. p. 123-140.
- Michel de Boüard. - Guillaume le Conquérant. - Paris : Fayard, 1984.