Dynastie de la famille des Hastings
Armoirie de la famille des Hastings
Introduction
In the year of our Lord 1066, Guillaume le Conquérant, with the pope's blessing, embarked in a journey to seize the throne of England, which was supposed to be rightfully his at the death of Edward the Confessor. Duc de Normandie, Guillaume had many Comte and knights at his service who followed him in his journey. At the battle of Hastings, Guillaume managed to win the battle and kill the other pretender to the throne, Harrold Godwinson, and put himself on the throne of England. Many people believe that the family Hastings was named after the battle where Robert, the first Comte d'Eu, proved himself by his courage and skill. After the battle many of those knights without land, that Robert was part of, were granted some land either in Normandy or in England. Robert Hastings received the Comté d'Eu, also known as Pays de Caux, as a gift for his great participation in the victory of Guillaume at Hastings. Here is the story about the Hastings dynasty.
Robert Hastings (1025-1084)
Comte d'Eu
Children
Robert had two children, a son Guillaume, and a daughter Cundo. On February 24, 1067, Robert married his daughter to the Count of Surrey in England, unfortunatly a year later Cundo would die from sickness. On April 1,1067, Robert's son married the daughter of the Comte d'Evreux leaving some hope for an heir with a son. Unfortunatly Guillaume had only a daughter who died at the age of three of sickness.
Honor
Robert Hastings was a man taking everything very seriously and who thought only about himself, this lead to numerous arguments with other Comtes. On May 1,1067, the Comte de La Marche lead a visit to Robert on friendly terms. During the feast, a different broke between the Comte and Robert about the crusades. Robert defied the Comte who left without fighting Robert. This lead Robert with no other choice, to save his honor in front of his knights, to lay a claim on the Comté de La Marche. On September 15, 1068, a different with the Comte d'Avranche, lead Robert to ask compensation for the insult. He asked nothing more than the Comté d'Avranche. This would lead to a bigger fight he had expected.
Independance
On March 1, 1075, The Comte d'Avranches allied himself with the Comte d'Evreux. Those two Comtes were very unhappy with the policy of the Duc de Normandie and his friendship with the Comte d'Eu, Robert Hastings. This lead to the independance of the two Comtés. The Duc de Normandie was very unhappy with this and decided to take back his two Comté. Robert saw a perfect occasion to seize the Comté d'Avranch which he had a claim on. But the Duc had other plans, those two Comtés were his! so after Robert defeated his ennemy the Comte d'Avranches the Duc de Normandie took the two Comté for himself and gave after that the Comté d'Evreux to his liege; the Roi d'Angleterre.
Duché de Normandie in 1075.
Crusade
On November 20, 1075, the Pope called for a crusade to retake the holy city of Jerusalem. Robert had no intentions to go on the crusade. An journey costing a lot of money with little results but on June 19, 1076 the burghers, in Eu, united to go on the crusade. 2700 Normans were ready to go in the holy land. Robert had no choice but to accept. After two years in the middle East most of those Norman knights were dead and the Duc de Normandie made peace with the Egyptian sultan draging Robert with him. The results: the Delta had been captured and Robert had to loan 300 ducats. The Pays the Caux would never get back on his feet, because of this loan, during Robert's life. In 1082 Robert would have to give freedom to the fishermen on his land, he could no more get any taxes from them.
England
Meanwhile the Roi d'Angleterre was getting very powerful. In 1078, the Duc de Bretagne pledge alliegance to the Roi d'Angleterre. This made the possessions of England on the mainland very big while Robert was losing everything. On April 16, 1083, the dynasty leading the Comté de La Marche was extinct, that lead Robert to lose his claim on this Comté.
England in 1079
And finally... on January 6, 1084 Robert Hastings died of old age leaving his 42 years old son to take his place.
A new era
Armoirie du Duc de Normandie
Guillaume Hastings (1042-1096)
Duc de Normandie and Comte d'Eu
Titles
On July 1, 1088 The Duc de Normandie, died without any heir. His land was claimed by his liege the Roi d'Angleterre. The king then decided to give the title to his vassal Guillaume Hastings and keep the lands. The new title was an hollow one, Guillaume was Duc but had won no more land, at least all his debts were cleared by the king's personnal coffers. Even though it didn't look much this would greatly help Guillaume.
Normandie in 1091
Vassalization
At his death Guillaume had two vassals, the Comte d'Arques, in 1094, accepted to join Guillaume and in 1095, the Comte d'Avranches accepted too.
Normandie in 1096
England
On August 20, 1090, the Roi d'Angleterre went to war with Germany, after a sucessful war and a lot of inheritance the Roi d'Angleterre had secured himself a huge kingdom. This made the army of Guillaume a lot of time away, giving him no possibility to secure more land when needed but help his liedge to become more powerful thus making Guillaume's position, as Duc de Normandie, more secure.
England in 1092
Comte de Boulogne
During his reign Guillaume had problems with his neighbour the Comte de Boulogne. During two tourney the Comte had insulted him. Guillaumes had pressed compensation the two times but Guillaume was not fool enough to accept a duel being as old and without heir as he was.
Heirs
One of the biggest problem of Guillaume during his reign was his lack of any heir. This was due to an old wife, who had only given him a girl who died very young of sickness, and his numerous debts. In 1094, unexpectably, Godechilde drowned herself in the sea. Her body was discovered by a fishermen who brought back the body to Guillaume. Most of the knights saw this as an assassination, but everyone kept their mouths shut because they all knew that Guillaume was getting old and had no heir. Twelve days later, Guillaume married himself to a young woman named Alix. She was 27 years old and was said to have engendred many bastards. Many did not like her, but Guillaume seemed to like her. He was spending most of his days in his room with her alone. In 1095, and in 1096, Alix gave birth to two sons, thus securing the inheritance of Guillaume. The first child was named Richard and the second one Geoffroy. On November 7, 1096, Guillaume Hastings died of old age, his oldest son: Richard, thus inherited his titles and became the new Duc de Normandie at the age of 1. Her mother took the power until her son would mature. The Comté d'Eu was thus under regency.
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