Sibylle Conversano ( fr. Sibylle de Conversano ; c. 1085 - 1103 ) - a noble Italian, daughter of Count Conversano Gottfried the Elder, married - Duchess of Normandy , wife of Robert III Kurtzöz .
| Sybil Converse | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fr. Sibylle de conversano | |||||||
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| Predecessor | Matilda of Flanders | ||||||
| Successor | Margaret Norwegian Virgo | ||||||
| Birth | OK. 1085 Conversano | ||||||
| Death | March 21, 1103 Rouen | ||||||
| Burial place | |||||||
| Kind | Fuck off | ||||||
| Father | Gottfried de Conversano | ||||||
| Spouse | Robert Kurtgez | ||||||
| Children | Wilhelm Cliton | ||||||
Content
Biography
Sibylla was the daughter of Gottfried Brindisi, Earl of Conversano (and grand-niece of Robert Guiscard [1] [2] . During the winter of 1096-1097, while the Norman Duke Robert Kurtgez was in Puglia awaiting transport to the East as part of the First Crusade, he began negotiations on marrying Sybil Conversano.3 The warder Vitaly mentions that Robert fell in love with Sybil, then the chronicler praises her “truly good character”, and also indicates that she was endowed with many virtues and was sweet to everyone who knew her [4] [3] . Upon return To the father of Robert from the Crusade, he married Sybil in Puglia [5] in 1100 [1] .
Shortly after returning to Normandy, Robert and Sibylla made a pilgrimage to Mont Saint-Michel to thank God for the safe return of the duke from the crusade [6] . The chroniclers of that time sympathized with Sybil, praising both her beauty and mind [7] . During Robert's absence, Robert de Torigny noted that Sibylla ruled Normandy better than the duke himself [7] .
On October 25, 1102, a son was born in a ducal family [8] . He was named William in honor of the Archbishop of Rouen Guillaume Bon-Anime, who presided over his baptism. [8] William of Malmesbury suggested that he was named after his grandfather, William the Conqueror [8] . March 18, 1103 [9] , less than six months after the birth of her only child, Sibylla died in Rouen and was buried, against the backdrop of universal sadness, in the cathedral church, Archbishop Guillaume Bona-Anime led the funeral rite. William of Malmesbury claimed that she died as a result of too tight a breast pull, which relied on etiquette at the time, while Robert de Torigny and Orderik Vitali suggested that she was killed by a group of noble women led by her husband’s mistress, Agnes de Ribemont. [10] [11] .
Family
Robert Kurtgez and Sibylla had one son:
- William Cliton , (1102-1128), Count of Flanders [1] .
The Legend of Robert and Sybil
A famous legend about Robert and Sybil says: Robert during the crusade was hit by a poisoned arrow. Since his condition was causing serious concern, on his way to England he stopped at Salerno and turned to doctors who told him: the only way to save his life was to suck the poison from the wound, but if he had done so he would have died on the spot. Robert rejected all who were ready to do this, preferring to die, but at night his wife Sibylla sucked out the poison, ready to die for her beloved spouse. This legend is reflected in a miniature on the cover of the Canon of Avicenna , where you can see Robert with his retinue, who thanks the doctors at the gates of the city, in the background are the ships ready to sail; on the left, surrounded by doctors, lies Sibylla, crowned with a crown and fading from the action of the poison.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Detlev Schwennicke, Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten , Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von JA Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 81
- ↑ Charles Wendell David, Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920), p. 146 ISBN 1-4326-9296-8
- ↑ 1 2 William M. Aird, Robert Curthose Duke of Normandy (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008), pp. 191-2
- ↑ Marjorie Chibnall, "Women in Orderic Vitalis', The Haskins Society Journal Studies in Medieval History , Volume 2 (1990), pp. 105-21.
- ↑ François Neveux, The Normans , Trans. Howard Curtis (London: Constable & Robinson, Ltd., 2008), p. 174
- ↑ Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy , Trans. Thomas Forester, Vol. III (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), p. 272
- ↑ 1 2 C. Warren Hollister, Henry I (Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2003), p. 180
- ↑ 1 2 3 William M. Aird, Robert Curthose Duke of Normandy (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008), p. 212
- ↑ William M. Aird, Robert Curthose Duke of Normandy (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2008), p. 213
- ↑ Agnes de Ribemon was the widow of Gauthier Giffard, 1st Earl of Buckingham , and the sister of Anselm de Ribemon, who died in the First Crusade. It remains unclear how serious her romance with Robert Kurtges was. Legend has it that she promised Robert that if he marries her, then he must support her powerful family. William of Malmesbury argues that Agnes organized the poisoning of Sybil, but it seems implausible that even if Agnes was his mistress, Robert would forgive the killer of his newborn son and heir. In addition, Agnes was not a widow at the time of Sybil's death. The pro-English chronicler Warderik Vitali saw in Robert's inaction another evidence that Robert Kurtgez was unsuitable for controlling Normandy. See: Robert Curthose (1920) pp. 146-7. According to Europäische Stammtäfeln, III / 4, Tafel 695, Walter died 15 July 1102.
- ↑ Katherine Lack, Conqueror's Son: Duke Robert Curthose, Thwarted King (Sutton Publishing, 2007), p. 153 ISBN 978-0-7509-4566-0