Guimond de Moulins

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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.

Contents

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]

He betrayed Duke William (later William the Conqueror) by supporting a French-backed rebellion in 1052 [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]

However, other accounts state that after the rebellion failed, William confiscated Guimond's lands and denied his sons noble inheritance, effectively ending his lineage's prominence in Normandy. [7] Most of his sons migrated to southern Italy, where they established the De Molisio family, influencing the region now known as Molise. [8] Guimond’s daughter, Alberada, married strategically but later became a nun. [9]

Family and descendants

From his wife Emma, Guimond de Moulins had at least 9 children: eight sons, nearly all of whom emigrated to southern Italy, [8] and one daughter who married a powerful Norman lord, Raoul Taisson:

Notes and references

  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
  5. 1 2 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. ↑ Now, Normandy Then and (2023-04-09). "The humiliation of perfidious Guimond, from Moulins-la-Marche, Normandy". Normandy Then and Now. Retrieved 2024-12-21.
  8. 1 2 "Guimond de Moulins". geni_family_tree. 2024-03-22. Retrieved 2024-12-21.
  9. ↑ "Alberada de Moulins". geni_family_tree. 2024-03-22. Retrieved 2024-12-21.
  10. ↑ Lucien Musset, in BSAN., 56, 1961-1962, 23.
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