The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud

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All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com

CIAO ADRIANO

The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud

September 2007

THE ROUTE TO DATE WITH MAPS OF FRANCE AND OF ITS MEDIEVAL PILGRIMAGE ROADS

Back to Ciao Adriano Plantagenet Places

Fontevraud Abbey (near Saumur) was founded by Robert d'Arbrissel* in 1099, and soon spawned a few dozen daughter houses in France, Spain and England. Within its walls were both a nunnery and a monastery, but its head and senior "officers" had to be women. This was possibly because the nuns' contingent included some formidable female talent in the form of royalty and nobility (and a few discarded royal mistresses).

After the death of Richard I in 1199, Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 - 1204 (82)) retired to Fontevraud and was buried there alongside hubby Henry II (1133-1154-1189 (56)) and son Richard I (1157-1189-1199 (42)). In fact the Abbey became the burial place for lots of other Plantagenets, at one stage containing 15 of their tombs (though no more Kings). Today just 4 are still identifiably there - Henry II, Eleanor, Richard I and Isabella (John's Queen - his tomb and effigy are in Worcester Cathedral, though his heart got buried at Fontevraud somewhere).

Eleanor's daughter, the sad Joan of England, her second husband the very nasty Raymond of Toulouse, and all the rest, have disappeared. Joan 1165 - 1199 (36), the youngest and favourite sister of the awful King Richard I, became Queen Consort of William II's Sicily and owner inter alia of San Giovanni Rotondo (Padre Pio fans note), was a ring-in to the 3rd crusade and then married the nasty Raymond VI of Toulouse. She died after fleeing from her abusive hubby to the Abbey of Fovtervraud and having to undergo a caesarean operation (pretty much a sentence of death for mothers in those days). Her surviving son Count Raymond VII was a leading figure in the Albigensian Crusade.

*d'Arbrissel used to test out his monkly chastity vow by sleeping in the nuns quarters, though he would not let any other monk do this and few people believed his story.

THE ORIGIN OF "PLANTAGENET"

Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (1113 - 1151 (38)), whose tomb is supposed to be in Le Mans Cathedral, liked to wear a sprig of broom in his hat. Broom is known as planta genesta in Latin, genêt in French - which was how come Geoffrey got known as Plantagenet. He married Henry I's daughter Matilda (widow of Emperor Henry V) in 1127. She was 11 years older than Geoffrey and an (ex) Empress, and was a bit grumpy about being fobbed off onto a mere count, albeit a bit of a stud. They parented three kids, the oldest of whom became Henry II of England - the first of the Plantagenet Kings, husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, ruler of well over half of Western Europe and father of Kings Richard and John ("Jean Sans Terre" as they say in France)

The church of the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, from the east

There is nothing left in today's Fontevraud monastic buildings that Eleanor would recognize, though the church itself is said to be close to the real thing. The monastic buildings were all steadily enlarged and gothiced, over the 12 and 1300s, and then much later when the Revolution came the place was lucky to be turned into a prison - lucky because it might otherwise have been knocked down like Cluny.

The church was divided into four stories and several small industrial processes introduced to keep the 1,000 + prisoners happy. The prison was active right through until the mid 1960s, when it was decommissioned and a start made on the long process of restoring the church and monastery.

Much of the restoration work is now complete, though it has to be said that the place is basically large, cold, impersonal and uninteresting (except for the Plantagenet Gisants). Compare for example with the Cistercian Royal Abbey & Nunnery of Santa Maria la Real de Las Huelgas, Burgos which was set up by Eleanor's daughter Queen Leonora, and later became the pantheon of generations of Kings and Queens of Leon and Castile, yet still has a very human feel about it.

Eleanor of Aquitaine (above), and (below) with hubbie Henry II - the first Plantagenet King of England

Eleanor and Henry's son, the nasty French speaking and mostly absent (from England) Richard I - with the only ray of sun of the day lighting up his face

The Priory of St-Lazare, originally built for lepers and therefore located well away from the other abbey buildings, has been turned into a hotel. As usual, general and room functionality is lacking in this restoration project (the only exception to this rule we have discovered has been the outstanding hotel in the Cistercian Royal Abbey of Rueda in Aragon), but it's OK provided that you avoid the restaurant which is bland and very overpriced and full of senior couples without much to say to each other.

La Licorne (The Unicorn), just up the road in the village, is a similarly priced and much much better fooded proposition (see below), whilst a couple of Ks west along the Loire Valley at Turquant, there is L'Hélianthe Restaurant Triglodytique which is much more energetic and fun. Hélianthe means sunflower and Triglodytique does not describe the food but the fact that the restaurant backs into a whitewashed cave area, as do many houses and weekenders (and of course wine stores) in certain areas of the Loire valley. The food is good country and river French stuff - if you must know, the choice was rilettes de truite, anguille (eel) fumée, jus de betterave rouge (entrée) and to follow demi coquelet rôti, poêlée de choux verts et pleurotes sauce bière et miel (basically a very tasty chick frick & veg). We turned down the offer of a catfish steak, though apparently it's very good.

Fig tarts are a French speciality, but few come as good as this

Go to the Page LIst for a full listing of pages and their status

All material © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be reproduced without permission - Adrian Fletcher can be contacted at afletch at paradoxplace dot com