William of Jumièges (c. 1070/71)

Gesta Normannorum Ducum

Guillaume de Jumièges is an 11^th century Norman historian, also known as Calculus according to Orderic Vital. Nothing is known of him apart from the fact that he was a monk at the abbey of Jumièges and the contemporary of William the Conqueror to whom he dedicated his work Gesta Normannorum Ducum.

In the first four books, the author presents a summary of the work of Dudon de Saint-Quentin who in c. 1025 published a large tome entitled Normannorum or De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae Ducum. Guillaume de Jumièges faithfully resumes his source, while at the same time adding some additional information: the first four books report the main facts of the life of the Viking chief Hasting (book 1) and the reigns of the first three Dukes, Rollo (book 2), William Long Sword (book 3) and Richard I (book 4). To these four books are added three other biographies that the monk of Jumièges devoted to the reigns of Dukes Richard II (book 5), Richard III and Robert the Magnificent (book 6) and William the Conqueror (book 7).

The drafting of these Gesta can be accurately dated to the period 1050 – 1060. But after the victory of William the Conqueror at Hastings, the historian took up his pen to relate the conquest of England up to 1069, as well as an epilogue and a dedicatory letter addressed to the Norman King. This second drafting took place between 1067 and 1070.

The Gesta experienced great success in the Middle Ages as is evidenced by the existence of 47 manuscripts. Some copyists were very ready to make additions to the Jumièges historian's text. At the end of the 11^th century four clerks re-copied the Gesta to which they made minor changes. On the other hand the interpolations of Orderic Vital and of Robert de Torigni were much more significant. The first made some additions, principally to books VI and VII, when he undertook the copying of the work in c. 1109 –1113. The second made even more significant interpolations in c. 1135 – 1140: he added genealogical indications on the Dukes and the major aristocrats, and supplied information on the abbey of Bec of which he was then prior, and finally drafted an eighth book relating the main exploits of King Henri I Beauclerc (1100 – 1135).

Pierre Bouet
ouen - Office universitaire d'études normandes
Université de Caen

EDITIONS

- Marx J., Guillaume de Jumièges, Gesta Normannorum Ducum, Rouen / Paris, Lestringant / Picard, 1914.
- Van Houts E., The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert de Torigni, 2 vol., Oxford, Clarendon Pres, 1992 – 1995.

STUDIES

- Foreville R., " Guillaume de Jumièges et Guillaume de Poitiers ", Jumièges. Congrès scientifique du XIIIe centenaire, t.II, Rouen, Lecerf, 1955, p. 643 – 653.
- Engels L. J., " De obitu Willelmi ducis Normannorum regisque Anglorum : texte, modèle, valeur et origine ", Mélanges offerts à Christine Morhmann, Utrecht / Anvers, 1973, p. 209 – 255.
- Davis R.C.H., " Robert Curthose, William of Jumieges and the Norman succession ", English Historical Review, 95, 1980, p. 597 – 606.
- Van Houts E.," Quelques remarques sur les interpolations attribuées à Orderic Vital dans les Gesta Normannorum Ducum de Guillaume de Jumièges, Revue d’Histoire des Textes, 8, 1978, p. 213 – 222.
- Van Houts E., " Scandinavian influence in Norman Literature of the eleventh century ", Anglo-Norman Studies, 6, 1983, Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 1984, p. 107 – 121.