Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
The south side of the castle, the natural approach from Mortain, gave no opportunities for fighting an open battle, hardly even for an assault on the castle. The ducal army, with William of Mortain and the terrible Robert of Bellême, must have gone round to some other point.
But now, as in Henry I's attack on Robert of Belleme at the beginning of his reign, another influence made itself felt. The barons in Stephen's camp began to put pressure on the king to induce him to grant favourable terms. We know too little of the actual circumstances to be able to say to what extent Stephen was really forced to yield.
Henry reports the number of common soldiers whom he had taken as ten thousand, too large a figure, no doubt, but implying the capture of Robert's whole force. His prisoners of name comprised all the leaders of his brother's side except Robert of Belleme, including the duke himself, Edgar the English atheling, who was soon released, and William of Mortain.
The county of Mortain, usually held by some member of the ducal house, had been given him; he had shared in the confiscated lands of the house of Belleme; and he had been married to the heiress of the practically independent county of Boulogne, which carried with it a rich inheritance in England.
Mortimer ventured to stand a siege in his strongholds, one of which was Bridgenorth where Robert of Belleme had tried to resist Henry I in similar circumstances, but he was forced to surrender before the middle of the summer.
For the first time, also, appeared upon the stage of history in this war Henry's other nephew, Stephen, who was destined to do so much evil to England and to Henry's plans before his death. His uncle had already made him Count of Mortain. The lordship of Belleme, which Henry had given to Theobald, had been by him transferred to Stephen in the division of their inheritance.
The town was a lordship of the house of Belleme, a house renowned for power and wickedness, and which, as holding great possessions alike of Normandy and of France, ranked rather with princes than with ordinary nobles. The story went that William Talvas, lord of Belleme, one of the fiercest of his race, had cursed William in his cradle, as one by whom he and his should be brought to shame.
They are like the things we do in nightmares." The nymphs of the tapestries smiled vainly in their faded beauty at the guests, who did not see them. Madame Martin served the coffee with her young cousin, Madame Belleme de Saint-Nom. She complimented Paul Vence on what he had said at the table. "You talked of Napoleon with a freedom of mind that is rare in the conversations I hear.
He had the gallantry to announce to Madame Martin, first, the good news he was bringing: "The decrees are signed. Your husband has the Finances. It is a good portfolio." "The President of the Republic," inquired M. Martin Belleme, "made no objection when my name was pronounced?"
Robert had been forgiven his rebellion by the king, and so clear was the evidence that Henry and Robert of Belleme had entered into some kind of an arrangement with King William to assist his designs on Normandy, or so clear was it made to seem to Duke Robert, that on their landing he caused them both to be arrested and thrown into prison.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking