Guimond de Moulins

Guimond^[1] de Moulins (in Italian: Guidomondo De Molisio, Guidmondo De Molisio, or Guimondo De Molisio) was a lord from Normandy in the 11th century, and the progenitor of the great Italo-Norman nobility family De Molisio, which is said to have given its name to the region of Molise in Southern Italy.

Biography

In the 1040s and 1050s, during the reign of William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, Guimond, described as a "marquis" (in Low Latin marchio, lord of a march^[2]^[3]), was the lord of Castrum Molinis, located in the western part of the Duchy of Normandy (region of Mortagne-au-Perche). This is present-day Moulins-la-Marche, located in the department of Orne.

Writers of the time describe Guimond as one of the bravest captains of his day, though with a turbulent and violent nature.^[4]

Shortly after 1050, he supported the revolt of the Richardide William of Arques against Duke William of Normandy^[5] and handed over his fortress to King Henry I of France, an ally of William of Arques, who stationed a French garrison there. After the surrender of William of Arques in 1054, Guimond was likely pardoned by the Duke. According to William of Poitiers, the conspirators were granted ducal pardon, "with a mild or even no punishment".^[6]

However, his sons were excluded from their paternal inheritance, and Duke William granted the castle of Moulins to William, son of Walter of Falaise, to whom he also gave the hand of Aubrée, daughter of Guimond.^[5]

Family and descendants

From his wife Emma, Guimond de Moulins had at least 9 children: ^{[citation needed]}, and one daughter who married a powerful Norman lord, Raoul Taisson:

Rodulfus (Rudolf, Rodolphe, Raoul), who is said to have accompanied Robert Guiscard to Italy around 1047. Count of Bojano around 1053;
Rodbertus (Robert);
Antonius (Antoine);
Guimundus (Guimond), who was excommunicated in 1067 by Pope Alexander II along with two other Norman adventurers, Turgis of Rota and William of Hauteville, after seizing property belonging to the Roman Catholic Church in the region of Salerno;
Hugo (Hugo, Hugues);
Alannus (Alan, Alain);
Guillelmus (William);
Toresgaudus (Thorgot, Torgot, Turgot);
Alberada (Aubrée): married Raoul Taisson,^[7] one of the leaders of the baronial revolt before the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes in 1047 (though he rallied in extremis to the young Duke William of Normandy); then, according to Orderic Vitalis, after being widowed and with a minor son, she was married by the Duke to a certain William, son of Walter of Falaise, maternal uncle of the Duke of Normandy.

Notes and references

^ Formerly Widmund or Guitmund; in medieval Latin: Widmundus, Guidmundus, or even Guimundus. This anthroponym of Germanic origin is frequently found in ducal Normandy. It has survived as a surname in northern Normandy in the forms Vimont (mainly in the Pays de Caux) and Vimond (in the Cotentin), and in southern Normandy (notably in the Orne) under the form Guimond (the variant Guimont is not Norman).
^ A term derived from the ancient Germanic marka, meaning "border, limit".
^ Philippe Siguret, Histoire du Perche (2000)
^ Louis-Joseph Fret, Antiquités et chroniques percheronnes, Glaçon, 1840, p. 518
^ ^a ^b David Bates, Personal Links, Networks, Solidarities in France and the British Isles (11th to 20th century), Publications de la Sorbonne, 2006, p. 23. ISBN 285944534X
^ Léon-Robert Ménager, Inventory of Norman and Frankish Families Who Emigrated to Southern Italy and Sicily (11th to 12th centuries), in: "Roberto il Guiscardo e il suo tempo: Proceedings of the First Norman-Swabian Days" (Bari, 28-29 May 1973), University of Bari (Centro di studi normanno-svevi), Edizioni Dedalo, 1991. ISBN 8822041410
^ Lucien Musset, in BSAN., 56, 1961-1962, 23.

External links

Molise in the Norman Period
La Casa De Molisio (The House of Moulins)

[1] Formerly Widmund or Guitmund; in medieval Latin: Widmundus, Guidmundus, or even Guimundus. This anthroponym of Germanic origin is frequently found in ducal Normandy. It has survived as a surname in northern Normandy in the forms Vimont (mainly in the Pays de Caux) and Vimond (in the Cotentin), and in southern Normandy (notably in the Orne) under the form Guimond (the variant Guimont is not Norman).

[2] A term derived from the ancient Germanic marka, meaning "border, limit".

[3] Philippe Siguret, Histoire du Perche (2000)

[4] Louis-Joseph Fret, Antiquités et chroniques percheronnes, Glaçon, 1840, p. 518

[David_Bates-5] David Bates, Personal Links, Networks, Solidarities in France and the British Isles (11th to 20th century), Publications de la Sorbonne, 2006, p. 23. ISBN 285944534X

[6] Léon-Robert Ménager, Inventory of Norman and Frankish Families Who Emigrated to Southern Italy and Sicily (11th to 12th centuries), in: "Roberto il Guiscardo e il suo tempo: Proceedings of the First Norman-Swabian Days" (Bari, 28-29 May 1973), University of Bari (Centro di studi normanno-svevi), Edizioni Dedalo, 1991. ISBN 8822041410

[7] Lucien Musset, in BSAN., 56, 1961-1962, 23.

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