Mauger, Archbishop of Rouen (1037-1054)

Mauger was one of the sons of the Duke of Normandy, Richard II, and his concubine. He was brought up at the abbey of Fécamp and was an eminent member of the group of Richardides, the powerful lords of the ducal family who were hostile to William the Conqueror. On the death of his uncle Robert, Archbishop of Rouen (1037), Mauger was chosen to succeed him, but behaved more like a great secular lord than an archbishop. According to Wace (1100-1174), the archbishop had a concubine and many children, and devoted himself to the occult sciences. Mauger certainly took part in the plots stirred up against Duke William (1046-1047) and he was, in particular, opposed to the marriage of William and Matilda in 1049. However, Mauger’s behaviour, which was also opposed to papal authority, enabled William to achieve his deposition on the grounds of inappropriate conduct at a provincial council held at Lisieux in 1054 or 1055. The malicious stories relating to the end of his life in exile in the Channel Islands were collected a century later by Wace (1100-1174), himself a native of Jersey. The dethroned bishop is alleged to have abandoned himself to a pact with the devil and having gone mad, drowned himself.

Bibliography :

- François Neveux. - La Normandie des ducs aux rois, Xe-XIIe s. - Rennes : Ouest-France, 1998.
- Michel de Boüard. - Guillaume le Conquérant. - Paris : Fayard, 1984.