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Adela de Blois


1. Adela was by far the most prominent of The Conqueror and Matilda’s daughters with what one might describe,if one were charitable, as a considerable longevity for her times : 1062-1137.
2. The Conqueror extended the influence of The Norman Revolution in The Frankish Kingdom by encouraging her marriage to Count Stephen de Blois-Chartres circa 1080 and by whom she had 12 children.
3. She witnessed many charters in administering Stephen’s state.
4. She was closely influenced by Ivo de Chartres and Anselm which was a result of her multi-faceted,highly erudite upbringing earning unqualified praise from the renowned Bishop of Le Mans, Hildebert for her rule of the state of Blois-Chartres.
5. The first indication that her support for The Norman Revolution 1058-1100 was following an unwise track was her unbridled enthusiasm for the thoroughly Counter-Revolutionary ‘First Crusade’ circa 1095-96-1099 to which the Red firmly gave no material support but which Adela bullied her husband into joining.
6. Stephen deserted ‘The First Crusade’ at Antioch in 1098. Apparently, he had a financial as well as a military role.
7. Adela forced him to return in 1101 following the bloody capture in 1099 of Jerusalem by the ‘Crusaders’ one of whose central leaders was her brother and long-time, Counter-Revolutionary Robert Courtheuse. Stephen died at Ramlah in 1102.
8. She was Henry Beauclerc’s favourite non-conjugal relative and joined his Counter-Revolution after 1100.
9. She retired from ruling Blois-Chartres in 1120 and died at Marcigny-sur-Loire in 1137.
10. She was buried adjacent to Matilda at Caen in L’Abbaye Des Dames with the inscription ‘Adela Filia Regis’ on her tombstone, which from a Norman Revolutionist perspective we would observe to be more than a trifle ironic.
Lydia Giles, John G, Martin Tilston (all in personal capacity)



Aug/27/2005, 3:56 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


Lydia John Martin
Point 5 raises some controversy for me in that I think the date you present coinciding with the First Crusade is probably 8-9 years late.
When the Conqueror was on his deathbed in September 1087 the political relationship of forces was not favourable for his brand of Revolutionist-Cluniacism.
The fact was that he was probably in a minority of one when he made his demands that Curthose should be dispossessed of Normandy(the Red although present was very much waiting on the Conqueror's leadership given his lack of a significant political base among the Conqueror's Companions at the time) which was The Fortress Of The Revolution;due to the fact his continued rule there threatened the unity of Normandy-Angleland by the increased pressure from Philippe 1 that Curthose's political trajectory was facilitating. Within this framework: Adela (who until the Conqueror's death was fully committed to his policy of exporting The Norman Revolution 1058-1100 I think you are not suggesting otherwise either?)by her marriage to Stephen was part of the process of influence rather than export given the proximity of Blois-Chartres to the Isle De Francia.
 There is no doubt given its verification in the years following the Conqueror's death that her sympathies shifted to Beauclerc and maybe initially Curthose given the significant political coup keeping Normandy bestowed on him.
The only caveat there is when the Red entered a tactical alliance with Curthose (correctly although it is controversial emoticon )against Beauclerc in the 1090's and the corellation ,politically shifted again. Adela's rule in Blois-Chartres cannot but have made it difficult for her to be anything other than balancing between Philippe 1 and Curthose which also raises another question as to why Stephen was a reluctant crusader when faced with her urging? Was the pressure coming from Philippe, Pope or Curthose?
The central problem too is: why the Red failed to win her over and given her link to Stephen,Curthose and Beauclerc to believe the split happened because of a big Counter-Revolutionary diversion arrived in such a rush is I think to apply a restriction to Adela's political leadership skills which there is no evidence to cite.

Bill H (personal capacity)
Aug/30/2005, 9:58 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


We would address ourselves to #9&#10.
Adela de Blois was consistently pro-Norman Revolution during the rule of the Conqueror.That was the timeframe that founded her ideological commitment which was to remain with her as a core belief all her life. The problem is that it is insufficient to hold a belief if your practical policy is at variance with its central tenets.We are not entirely convinced with Bill's contention that she broke with Revolutionist-Cluniacism as early as 1087. Remember, her marriage to Stephen de Blois had the full support of the Conqueror which includes obviously the ideological 'baggage' that goes with it.Their marriage lasted because Adela understood that it served the interests of the Normandy-Angleland entity the Conqueror and his revolutionary leadership team had forged at Varaville in 1058 and Senlac in 1066.

In her own mind there is no reason to believe that she ever broke with her commitment until it became clear that in 1096 that the Red was not going to join the counter-revolutionary farrago that was The First Crusade and moreover to give it no ideological underpinning whatsoever. When Adela urges Stephen to the gates of Jerusalem with her brother Courtheuse, she puts herself firmly and unequivocally against the Red and his leadership of The Norman Revolution.

The Red takes the Acquitaine in 1099 which is the same year that Jerusalem falls.What greater polarisatoin between Revolution and Counter-Revolution could you have? There is no written information regarding what Adela's position was at the time but we can be certain that it was in favour of Stephen and Curthose.How do you reconcile her founding belief in Cluniacism which is rooted in the 3 years that St Benedict spent in his 'Holy Grotto' outside Rome and abominations committed in Jerusalem when the city fell to the 'crusaders'? Yet her last years at Marcigny turn it on its head ideologically if not politically because the convent where she took the veil was founded by none other than Hugues De Cluny and was the first of its kind in Europe founded on St Benedict's 'Holy Grotto' principles.And Hugues was appalled by the death of the Red even if he did not openly call it an assassination when he wrote a stern letter to the ultimate beneficiary/plotter of it Philippe 1, The Frankish King.

On the political side of the coin 'Adela Filia Regis' which she ordered to be inscribed on her tomb is an unambiguous return to the revolutionist principles of the Conqueror.
Adela is not a Hero of The Norman Revolution 1058-1100.But neither can she be categorized as a consistent enemy.How she capitulated to such a "centrist" position is one of the most intriguing as well as one of the saddest historical episodes which merits study.

S.Walsh,Sammy,Lydia Giles,Hugo,Dinsdale (all in personal capacity)
Sep/1/2005, 10:04 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


A remarkable item of information came into my possession recently concerning Chartres Cathedral.Adela was involved in the supervision of its reconstruction during the 12th Century.The crypt survived the reconstructions of the 13th Century and can be visited today.

Lydia Giles, Chairperson (personal capacity)
Mar/2/2006, 7:28 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


Lydia, agreed on the crypt its electrifying emoticon what is also true about its origins is true about the towers.Their foundations are eleventh century.Its also testimony to a time in Adele's life when she was Beauclerc's Counter-Revolutionary ally while still linked to a lifetime belief in what the Revolutionary Cluniacism she espoused before 1087 meant to her.Take the Latin Liturgy always committed to its rigour a la Lanfranc.What is also very clear is that she was something of a feminist along side the Cluniacist commitment to Marcigny.She defended the Conqueoror's revolutionary policy(for 11th century) on castration for rapists(see William of Malmesbury)and also was a fierce defender of sexual rights in her marriage to Stephen de Blois.

S.Walsh (personal capacity)
Mar/14/2006, 9:47 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


All,one thing that's always intrigued me is the way Adela always made sure that the pre-911 Normandy history never got in the way of her commitment to Revolutionary Cluniacism.The Viking raids of the late Ninth Century took a terrible toll on the site which was revered by the Gauls.Certainly,by allying herself with Beauclerc after 1100 she abandoned definitively her practical support for the doctrine. But such a incisive mind as hers made that of secondary importance.
Chartres is a symbol of that political division of the cultural/religeous and the explicitly political.The Western frontage is also worth its weight in gold phemomenon-wise.On the latin liturgy, did you know that she personally tested monks on recitation of it?
Hugo (personal capacity)
Mar/16/2006, 9:16 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


I recently acquired papers related to The Bourgeuil Rolls which seem to establish explicitly that Adele was very much admiring of The Trojan Wars.How this impinges on her Revolutionary Cluniacism or whether it is a parallel influence on it, is rather open to question.

Lydia Giles,Chairperson (personal capacity)
Apr/5/2006, 2:51 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


Lydia,
'The Normans In Their Histories' by Emily Albu is useful on that Trojan factor.

Martin Tilston,First Secretary (personal capacity)
Apr/8/2006, 11:33 am Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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posticon Re: Adela de Blois


Straw-poll anyone? Which year did Adele break with Revolutionary Cluniacism, was it 1087,1096 or 1100?
Hugo (personal capacity)
Apr/11/2006, 8:55 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 
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Re: Adela de Blois


Hugo,
1096 but 1095 was the actual date of the First(Counter-Revolutionary) Crusade emoticon when Urban 11 announced its launch.
John G (personal capacity)
Apr/19/2006, 9:12 pm Link to this post Send Email to thewilliam theredforum2002   Send PM to thewilliam theredforum2002
 


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