Rille, within a league of its mouth. Its church, the same most probably
as is figured in this plate, is enumerated among the possessions
confirmed to the Benedictine monastery of St. Martin, at Troarn, by a
bull of Pope Innocent III. dated in the year 1210. In after-times, the
presentation to the living was in the hands of the bishops of Dol, in
Brittany, who likewise continued till the revolution to be both temporal
and spiritual lords of the parish, in right, as they alledged, of the
ancient barony of St. Sanson, which was annexed to their see.[189] Other
writers asserted, that the bishops held their authority here, as
successors to the superiors of an abbey, founded upon this spot in the
middle of the sixth century, by Childebert I. in favor of St. Sanson,
then bishop of Dol. But the monastery fell during the earliest
incursions of the Normans, and never rose again. Old traditions state it
to have been called in French, _Pentale_; and in Latin, _Monasterium
Pentaliense_: a corruption, as it is supposed, of _Poenitentiale_. A
neighboring chapel, under the invocation of _Notre Dame de Pentale_,
gives color to the report.
Of the church of St. Sanson, nothing more is now left than is exhibited
in the plate: the remains consist only of the chancel, and the arch
which separated it from the nave. But even these, inconsiderable as they
appear, have been judged deserving of a place among the more remarkable
of the architectural antiquities of Normandy: the peculiar character of
the capitals, and the small size of the whole, have entitled them to
this distinction. Upon regarding the arch, it is scarcely possible but
to be struck with the impression, that, though in its present state its
height is barely sufficient to allow of a man walking upright through
it, there must originally have been an inner member, which has now
disappeared. The capitals differ materially from any others ever seen by
Mr. Cotman in Normandy; but Mr. Joseph Woods, whose authority is
unquestionable, says that similar ones are to be found in the Temple of
Bacchus, at Teos. There are also several, which in shape resemble these
at St. Sanson, in the very remarkable church of St. Vitalis, at
Ravenna,[190] and in the cloisters of the monastery of St.
Scolastica,[191] at Subiaco: the latter also exhibit a certain degree of
similarity in the sculpture.
NOTES:
[189] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 777.
[190] _Seroux d'Agincourt, Histoire de la Décadence de l'Art.
Architecture_, t. 23. f. 7, 8; _and_ t. 69. f. 14.
[191] _Ibid._ t. 29. f. 3, 4.
PLATE LXXXIV.
WESTERN DOOR-WAY OF THE CHURCH OF FOULLEBEC.
[Illustration: Plate 84. CHURCH OF FOULLEBEC.
_West Door-way._]
The church of Foullebec, a small village situated upon the Rille, nearly
opposite to St. Sanson, is a building of Norman times; but the only
portion of it particularly calculated to recommend it to attention, is
the arch figured in this plate. This arch exhibits two peculiarities,
which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to parallel in Normandy;
the ornamented shafts of the pillars, and the extraordinary width of the
southern capital, which is more than double that of the column below.
The same was also, in all probability, the case with the capital, now
destroyed, on the opposite side of the door-way; and as it is plain that
there never was a second pillar, either on the one side or the other,
the only satisfactory mode of accounting for this singularity, is upon
the supposition, that it was the original intention of the architect to
have placed such, but that circumstances occurred which induced him to
leave his design unfinished.--Ornamented shafts of columns, however
unfrequently found in Normandy, are far from being of very uncommon
occurrence in the specimens that are left of genuine Norman art in
Great-Britain. Mr. Carter, in his elaborate work upon ancient English
architecture, has collected a variety of similar enrichments in his
thirty-third plate; and some of them extremely beautiful. Several others
are to be found in the more splendid volumes of Mr. Britton.--The
sculpture upon the archivolt is also deserving of observation: upon one
of the central stones, is represented the bannered lamb; upon the other,
a figure, probably intended for a representation of our Savior entering
Jerusalem upon an ass. The heads on either side are of an unusual
character.
The church at Foullebec, as well in its nave as chancel, is externally
divided by plain Norman buttresses into a series of regular
compartments, each containing a single circular-headed window. In the
nave are four; in the chancel only two. The tower is square and low: it
is placed at the west end, which is only pierced for the door-way, and
is otherwise quite plain, except a buttress at each corner. Internally,
the only object to be noticed is an ancient cylindrical font; its sides
sculptured with semi-circular arches, and a narrow moulding round the
rim.
PLATE LXXXV. AND LXXXVI.
CASTLE AT TANCARVILLE.
[Illustration: Plate 85. CASTLE AT TANCARVILLE.]
M. Nodier, who, in his _Voyages Pittoresques_, has devoted six plates to
the illustration of the noble ruins of the castle at Tancarville,
remarks with great justice, that, magnificent as the building must have
been, "it is one that recals but few historical recollections." At the
same time he gives the following quotation from the old _Norman
Chronicle_:--"During the reign of King Philip le Bel, after the knight
of the green lion had conquered the King of Arragon, a great dissention
arose between two powerful barons in Normandy, the Lord of Harecourt and
the Chamberlain of Tancarville. The cause of their strife was a mill, of
which the Dwarf of Harecourt, assisted by forty of his people in arms,
had taken forcible possession, mistreating the vassals of the
Chamberlain. The latter, incensed at the outrage, summoned his friends
and attendants; and, having collected them to the number of two hundred,
marched upon Lillebonne, where the Lord of Harecourt and the Dwarf, his
brother, were at that time residing. Many and bitter were the reproaches
uttered on either side; and severe was the contest that followed; for
the Lord of Harecourt issued from the barriers with all his forces, and
they defended themselves valiantly; and several lives were lost. The
king, on receiving the tidings, was greatly discomforted, and bade the
Sieur Enguerrand de Marigni summon the offending parties to appear
before him. It chanced most untowardly, that they met as they were
travelling towards the court; and the Lord of Harecourt attacked the
Chamberlain, and with his gauntlet put out his left eye, and then
returned to his own people. No sooner was he of Tancarville healed, than
he repaired to the royal presence, and defied the Lord of Harecourt to
single combat. The pledge was accepted by M. Charles de Valois, brother
of the king, on behalf of his friend. On the other hand, M. Enguerrand
de Marigny, privy counsellor of the monarch, maintained that Harecourt
had been guilty of treason. This was denied by M. Charles, to whom
Enguerrand in consequence gave the lie; and the former took the affront
so cruelly to heart, that Enguerrand, brave man as he was, was
afterwards hanged in consequence of it. When the conditions of battle
were arranged, the Lord of Harecourt came into the field with his armor
emblazoned with fleurs-de-lys; and the combatants fought with the utmost
valor, till the Kings of England and of Navarre, who were present,
besought the monarch of France to stay the fight; for that it would be
great pity that two so valiant chiefs should fall by each other's hand.
Upon this, the king cried 'Ho!' and both parties were satisfied; and
peace was made between them by the foreign sovereigns, in the year
1300."
The same circumstance is related, though with some trifling variations
in the details, by Masseville, in his _History of Normandy_, a work of
which almost every volume bears frequent testimony to the greatness of
the house of Tancarville. This family enjoyed the hereditary dignity of
chamberlain to the Norman dukes; but at what period it was conferred
upon them, is lost in the obscurity of early history. Ralph de
Tancarville, who founded the abbey of St. Georges de Bocherville, about
the year 1050,[192] is styled in the _Neustria Pia_, under the account
of that monastry, as "Tancardi-Villæ Toparcha, præfectus hæreditarius
cubiculo Guillelmi secundi." In 1066, the name of the _Count of
Tancarville_[193] is enumerated among those who attended the Conqueror
into England. The chamberlain of Tancarville is recorded both by
Ordericus Vitalis and Masseville, in the list of Norman knights that
distinguished themselves in the wars of Philip-Augustus. William of
Tancarville, the same chieftain, probably, or his immediate predecessor,
had previously suffered himself to be seduced by the arts of Eleanor,
queen of Henry II. to join in the conspiracy of the sons of that
monarch, against their father: he subsequently signalized his valor,
when the banners of the lion-hearted Richard were unfurled upon the
plains of Palestine. In 1197, Ralph of Tancarville was one of the
witnesses to the treaty of exchange, already more than once mentioned in
this work, made between the sovereign and the archbishop of Rouen, in
consequence of the building of Château Gaillard; and when, eight years
afterwards, Philip, having become undisputed master of Normandy,
conciliated the favor of the clergy by important concessions, the
signature and seal of the chamberlain of Tancarville were attached to
the instrument.--The task were easy, by multiplying quotations from
Masseville and the early chroniclers, to extend to a great length the
instances in which the noblemen of the house of Tancarville acted a
prominent part in Norman history. It will be sufficient, upon the
present occasion, to adduce two circumstances, as indisputable proofs of
their importance. The name of Tancarville is found among the seventy-two
members of the nobility, who, in the beginning of the fourteenth
century, were summoned to the Norman exchequer; and, in the same
century, in the year 1320, after Philip VI. upon his accession to the
throne of France, had received at Amiens the homage of Edward III. for
the dukedom of Aquitaine and earldom of Ponthieu, the Count of
Tancarville was selected for the important office of ambassador to
England, in conjunction with the Duke of Bourbon and the Earl of
Harcourt, to obtain from the monarch some explanations that were
considered indispensable for the dignity of the crown of France. As late
as the year 1451, the Lord of Tancarville appears as one of the generals
of the French forces, which, under the command of the Count of
Longueville, finally succeeded in expelling the English from Normandy.
From that time forward, Masseville makes no mention of the family.
Respecting the castle, he is altogether silent, except upon the occasion
of its capture by the French in 1435, and its surrender to them again in
1449.
It may have been observed in the preceding brief enumeration of a few
principal facts connected with the family of Tancarville, that the Lords
of that house have, on more than one occasion, been designated as
Counts: the author of the _Description de la Haute Normandie_, however,
expressly states that this property was not raised into an earldom till
the reign of King John of France, who ennobled it with that dignity in
1351; at which time it was composed of all the fiefs, castellanies,
baronies, and other lands of every description, in the duchy of
Normandy, occupied by John de Melun, and Jane Crepin his wife. From the
house of Melun, this same earldom passed into that of Harcourt, by the
union of Jane of Melun with William of Harcourt--their daughter, who
inherited the property, afterwards carried it in dower to John, Count of
Dunois and of Longueville. In the year 1505, when Louis XII. added to
the earls of Longueville the higher honor of the dukedom, Tancarville
was comprised among the dependencies of the new dignity; and when,
shortly afterwards, the duchy of Longueville escheated to the crown, the
earldom of Tancarville, remaining united to Longueville, shared the same
fate. Mary of Orleans, duchess of Nemours and Estouteville, having become
possessed of Tancarville, sold it in September, 1706, to Anthony Crozat,
the king's secretary; and, at the same time, the monarch conferred all
the rights and privileges attached to the domain, upon Louis de la Tour
d'Auvergne, Count of Evreux. Twelve years subsequently, the king, by his
letters patent, separated Tancarville from Longueville, and ordered that
the Lords of Tancarville should thenceforth be summoned to the
parliament at Rouen.
The title of Earl of Tankerville is at the present day to be found in
the English peerage. It is borne by a descendant of Charles Bennet,
second Lord of Ossulston, upon whom it was conferred by George I. in
1714, after he had married the daughter and heiress of Ford, Lord Grey
of Wark, Earl of Tankerville. One of the family of this Lord Grey, Sir
John Grey, Knight, Captain of Maunt, in Normandy, had originally been
rewarded with the title by King Henry V. for his eminent services in the
French wars. But his grandson, Richard, Earl of Tankerville, was
attainted in the thirty-eighth year of the succeeding reign; and the
title remained dormant till re-granted by King William III. to Ford,
Lord Grey, just mentioned, who was lineally descended from the brother
of the first earl.
[Illustration: Plate 86. ENTRANCE TO THE CASTLE AT TANCARVILLE.]
Different opinions have prevailed with respect to the origin of the name
of Tancarville. Ordericus Vitalis calls it Tanchardi Villa: M. de
Valois, in his _Notitia Galliæ_, is disposed to claim for it the more
imposing appellation of Tancredi Villa. The point will in all
probability never be settled: it is more to be regretted, that no
account is to be found of the building of the castle, whose lofty towers
still frown in the pride of old baronial grandeur, from the summit of a
steep cliff upon the right bank of the Seine, which here, so near its
mouth, rather assumes the character of an estuary than a river. The wide
extent of the ruins sufficiently bespeaks the importance of its former
possessors: at present, nothing can be more forlorn and desolate. Mr.
Dibdin, who visited the remains in 1819, has traced the following
animated sketch of their present appearance with his lively pencil; and
Mr. Lewis, who accompanied him, has enriched his splendid Tour with a
lovely view of the buildings and surrounding scenery:--
"We ascended to the castle: the day grew soft, and bright, and
exhilarating.... but, alas; for the changes and chances of this
transitory world. Where was the warder? He had ceased to blow his horn
for many a long year. Where was the harp of the minstrel? It had
perished two centuries ago, with the hand that had struck its chords.
Where was the attendant guard?--or pursuivants?--or men at arms? They
have been swept from human existence, like the leaves of the old limes
and beech trees, by which the lower part of the building was surrounded.
The moat was dry; the rampart was a ruin:--the rank grass grew within
the area.... nor can I tell you how many vast relics of halls,
banqueting rooms, and bed rooms, with all the magnificent appurtenances
of old castellated architecture, struck the eager eye with mixed
melancholy and surprise! The singular half-circular, and half-square,
corner towers, hanging over the ever-restless wave, interested us
exceedingly. The guide shewed us where the prisoners used to be kept--in
a dungeon, apparently impervious to every glimmer of day-light, and
every breath of air. I cannot pretend to say at what period even the
oldest part of the castle of Montmorenci[194] was built: but I saw
nothing that seemed to be more ancient than the latter end of the
fifteenth century. Perhaps the greater portion may be of the beginning
of the sixteenth; but, amidst unroofed rooms, I could not help admiring
the painted borders, chiefly of a red color, which run along the upper
part of the walls, or wainscots--giving indication not only of a good,
but of a splendid, taste. Did I tell you that this sort of ornament was
to be seen in some part of the eastern end of the abbey of Jumieges?
_Here_, indeed, they afforded evidence--an evidence mingled with
melancholy sensations on conviction--of the probable state of
magnificence which once reigned throughout the castle. Between the
corner towers, upon that part which runs immediately parallel with the
Seine, there is a noble terrace, now converted into garden ground, which
commands an immediate and extensive view of the embouchure of the river.
It is the property of a speculator residing at Havre. Parallel with this
terrace, runs the more modernised part of the castle, which the last
residing owner inhabited. It may have been built about fifty years ago,
and is--or rather the remains of it are--quite in the modern style of
domestic architecture. The rooms are large, lofty, and commodious;--yet
nothing but the shells of them remain. The revolutionary patriots
completely gutted them of every useful and every valuable piece of
furniture; and even the bare walls are beginning to grow damp, and
threaten immediate decay. I made several memoranda upon the spot, which
have been unluckily, and I fear irretrievably, misplaced; so that, of
this once vast, and yet commanding and interesting edifice, I regret
that I am compelled to send you so short and so meagre an account.
Farewell--a long and perhaps perpetual farewell--to the Castle of
Montmorenci!"
NOTES:
[192] According to Masseville, (_Histoire de Normandie_, II. p. 192,)
this abbey was not founded till the year 1114; but such a statement is
irreconcileable with the fact of the dead body of the Conqueror having
been carried there in 1087; and, moreover, both the _Gallia Christiana_
and _Neustria Pia_ expressly state that it was in 1114 that William,
fifth son of the founder, and himself also hereditary chamberlain of
Normandy, removed from St. Georges the canons established there by his
father, and replaced them with monks from St. Evroul.
[193] So called by Masseville, I. p. 205.
[194] Mr. Dibdin uniformly calls this castle, the Castle of Montmorenci;
but on no occasion does he state his authority for so doing; the author
of these remarks never heard it so styled in Normandy, nor can he find
it mentioned under that name by Nodier, or any other author. If, as
appears probable, the people of the neighborhood are in the habit of so
designating it, the probability is, that the modern part (see _plate
eighty-five_) was erected at a period when Tancarville belonged to some
member of the noble family of Montmorenci.
PLATE LXXXVII. AND LXXXVIII.
CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS, AT ST. LO.
(WESTERN DOOR-WAY, AND VARIOUS SPECIMENS OF SCULPTURE.)
[Illustration: Plate 87. CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS AT ST. LO.
_Western Entrance._]
The town of St. Lo is said to owe its origin to the Emperor Charlemagne,
and to have been founded by him in the fifth year of the ninth century.
It is situated in the western part of Normandy, upon the small river,
Vire, about five leagues to the east of Coutances; and at this time it
contains nearly seven thousand inhabitants. Old chroniclers relate that
the name originally given to the place was Ste Croix; but that, soon
after its foundation, it exchanged that appellation for the present,
upon being selected as the spot to be honored with the reception of the
relics of St. Lo, or, as he is called in Latin, St. Laudus, who was the
fifth bishop of Coutances, and presided over that see the greater part
of the sixth century. Of the merits of the saint, the miracles he
performed both living and dead, and the various places that have, at
different times, received his mortal remains, a copious account is given
by M. Rouault, in his History of the Bishops of Coutances. It is
sufficient, in the present instance, to state, that, upon the
translation of the body of St. Lo to the spot now dignified with his
name, a magnificent church was built under his invocation; and the town
was encompassed with fortifications of great strength, to defend it
against the inroads of the Normans. These heathen plunderers had at this
time just begun their ravages in Neustria, when, notwithstanding its new
walls, St. Lo was soon obliged, in common with the rest of the province,
to submit to their sway; and they emptied upon the Christian city the
full phials of pagan wrath, by burning it to the ground.
In subsequent, and probably not distant, times, St. Lo was again
converted into a place of defence; and mention of it as such repeatedly
occurs in the various unquiet periods of French history. Even at the
present day, when fortifications in that part of the kingdom have long
been neglected, there remain sufficient vestiges of them at St. Lo, to
convey the most imposing idea of their original strength, aided as they
must have been, by their situation upon the summit of a lofty and
inaccessible rock.--St. Lo was one of the last towns in Lower Normandy
that opened their gates to the victorious arms of the Empress Maude: it
remained unshaken in its allegiance till 1142, only two years before the
death of the English monarch.--In the third year of the following
century, it surrendered without bloodshed to Philip-Augustus, then on
his march towards the capture of Mount St. Michael; nor does it appear
to have offered more than a trifling resistance to Edward III. by whom
it was taken in 1346. Froissart, upon that occasion, gives the following
details relative to the English army, as well as to the state of the
town and its capture:--"The King of England and Prince of Wales had, in
their battalion, about three thousand men at arms, six thousand archers,
and ten thousand infantry, without counting those that were under the
marshals; and they marched in the manner I have before mentioned,
burning and destroying the country, but without breaking their line of
battle. They did not turn towards Coutances, but advanced to St. Lo, in
Coutantin, which, in those days, was a very rich and commercial town,
and worth three such towns as Coutances. In the town of St. Lo was much
drapery, and many wealthy inhabitants; among them you might count eight
or nine score that were engaged in commerce. When the King of England
was come near the town, he encamped: he would not lodge in it for fear
of fire. He sent, therefore, his advanced guard forward, who soon
conquered it at a trifling loss, and completely plundered it. No one can
imagine the quantity of riches they found in it, nor the number of bales
of cloth. If there had been any purchasers, they might have bought them
at a cheap rate."
In 1379, when the English arms, during the minority of the second
Richard, obtained in France an ephemeral superiority, St. Lo was the
only town in the Côtentin, except Carentan, which the French monarch
considered of sufficient strength to justify him in entrusting it with a
garrison.--It was taken by the English, under Henry V. in 1418; and was
again restored to the French, by capitulation, thirty-one years
subsequently.--In the beginning of the following tumultuous reign, St.
Lo and Valognes were appointed as the places of residence for Clarence
and Warwick, and the other leaders of the Lancastrian party; after their
short-lived success, in favor of the deposed Henry, had been followed by
their own utter defeat, and the final discomfiture of their hopes.