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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
In 1097, King William Rufus of England was engaged in a campaign to conquer the county of Maine. When he succeeded in capturing Count Elias of Maine, the count begged Rufus to allow him to serve the Anglo-Norman king as count of Maine, and to participate in his inner council. Moved by his chivalrous instincts, Rufus agreed. But the king's chief advisor, Count Robert of Meulan, counselled that to admit a conquered enemy to one's innermost council only invited perfidy and rebellion, and gave him means to do greater injury. Rufus immediately changed his mind and assumed the governance of Maine himself.
Orderic Vitalis reports this event with some ambiguity, approving of the wisdom of Robert's advice, but mourning Rufus's abandonment of traditional chivalrous behavior. He attributes to Count Robert motives of preserving his own position as chief advisor to the king, rather than notions of service or loyalty. Such motives of self-interest would be consistent with traditional baronial practices. But the advice was sensible and practical, and clearly to the king's advantage in an objective, political sense, despite Orderic's fondness for Count Elias. It is an early example of a change taking place in Anglo-Norman politics—a change of which Robert of Meulan appears to have been the architect.
A shorter version of this paper was presented to the Twelfth Conference on Medieval Studies at the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, in May 1977. I would like to thank Professor C. Warren Hollister for helpful comments and suggestions in its preparation, and the Regents of the University of California for enabling me to complete this research.
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17 De Libertate Beccensis Monasterii, in Annales Ordinis: Sancti Benedicti, V, ed. Mabillon, J. (Paris, 1745), pp. 601–02Google Scholar. Robert had tried to convince Anselm to do homage to him for the abbey of Bec, situated near Robert's castle of Brionne in Normandy. The account shows Curthose's vacillation over the matter, and Robert's intimate acquaintance with the ducal court.
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