Fontevraud Abbey, France

Fontevraud Abbey was founded by Robert of Arbrissel. Robert was a charismatic man who attracted followers, and in 1096, founded a ‘Monastery of Canons Regular' at La Roe. Pope Urban II appointed him an apostolic missionary and gave him permission to preach anywhere. He was instructed to preach the message of the Crusade, and in doing so he attracted more followers.   Robert was said to be unkempt and dressed in rags, he preached in the towns and villages of western France. Around the year 1100, Robert and his new followers, a diverse group made up of people from all walks of life, and said to have included beggars, thieves, lepers and harlots, became the nucleus of one of the largest and most prestigious Abbeys in medieval France. In a valley called Fons Ebrald, Robert established a new monastic community and a new order. This would become known as the Order of Fontevraud. 

Women wanting to follow a monastic way of life at the beginning of the 12th century had few opportunities. Men had many choices of monastic orders they could join, but women, in general, were restricted to joining a conventional Benedictine monastery. In western France there were very few Benedictine houses for women, and in the whole of Anjou, only Ronceray Monastery catered to women. There was a similar situation in England - in 1066 there were only twelve religious houses for women. Robert of Arbrissel had little regard for the customs of the time, and created a mixed gender monastery at Fontevraud. So, in the beginning, the monastery was built with a community comprised of both men and women, in separate quarters. The convent of St. Marys was built for the nuns, and St. John’s was created for the monks. With more women than men, what happened at Fontevraud is something that existed in no other monastery. Robert put an Abbess in charge of both orders. With the monks having the duty to serve the spiritual needs of the nuns, the monks were given the duty, not to supervise the women, but to serve them. Robert took for his motto ‘Son, behold thy mother’, which meant that supreme power lay in the hands of a woman, the Abbess, to whom all members of the order, the monks included, owed obedience and reverence.   Fontevraud was the only autonomous order for women, founded in the 12th Century. 

Robert of Arbrissel did not stay at Fontevraud, but continued to travel and preach. He was moved by the poor that he encountered, and wanted to help them. He did this by creating two more monastic communities at Fontevraud.  These special convents were added close to those already provided for the nuns and monks. He created St. Lazarus, for lepers, and St. Magdalene’s, for repentant women. The Abbey was unique in the Middle Ages for having four sections within its community. All four now had an Abbess as the head of the community. The first Abbess was Petronilla of Chemille, who was appointed by Robert. The Abbess took orders from no one but the Pope. 

Robert wrote a Rule of Life for the community, which was taken from the Benedictine rule, for Fontevraud, where unlike other monastic orders with double monasteries, the monks and nuns of the order were to flow the same rule. The Rule of Fontevraud dealt with four principal points; silence, good works, food and clothing, which encouraged the utmost in simplicity, in both life and dress. At the time of Robert’s death in 1117, there were around 300 nuns in the community at Fontevraud, with nearly 5,000 men and women living in the 100 daughter houses the order had created throughout France. In the early years of Fontevraud, the Plantagenet’s were benefactors of the Abbey. The Abbess, Mathilda of Anjou, was an aunt of Henry II King of England. 

The 12th Century Kings of England, Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine,and of Anjou chose for their burial place the Abbey of Fontevraud. It may have all started when Henry II’s aunt was Abbess here, but the Angevin Kings gave endowments and were benefactors of Fontevraud. One of those endowments came from Eleanor of Aquitaine and reads:

Eleanor, by the grace of God humble queen of England, duchess of Normandy, of Aquitaine, and countess of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, counts, vicounts, barons, seneschals, provosts, justices, bailiffs, and all to whom in the future as well as the present, these letters should come, greetings.
You should know that we have given, in pure and free and perpetual alms, and to have granted in perpetuity to God and the church of Fontevrault, for the use of the religious handmaids of Christ serving God there, for the salvation of the souls of the illustrious kings of England, namely lord Henry our husband, and lord Richard our son, and ours, our beloved and faithful man, Peter Foucher of Rochelle, and his heirs, to be free in perpetuity and immune from all taxes, collections, and charges, military service, horse duty, and all other customs and services that they were accustomed to do for the lord of Poitou in his country. We want, therefore, we order and establish that Peter Foucher and his heirs have their perpetual freedom, in full and in peace, as we have given it to them with free will and confirmed by this our present letter/charter; let no man damage or diminish the integrity of this liberty even a little, nor violate it in any way. If anyone should attempt to do so, let him incur danger to body and goods from the hand of the lord of Poitou, as if he had violated the very oratory of the holy church. That these alms of ours, justly and legally, and freely done, may remain undisturbed in the future, we have had this charter marked with the protection of our seal, for the force of perpetual authority.
Dated at la Rochelle, in the year of the incarnate Word, 1199.

Under the transept, inside the Abbey’s church, is the resting place of at least eight members of the Angevin family. These Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses of England, were buried in the same crypt, alongside gold urns which contained the hearts of other English Princes and Princesses, including the heart of King John, who died in England and is buried in Worcester Cathedral. His heart was sent to rest alongside his parents. The crypt was destroyed at the time of the French Revolution, so we may not know everyone who had been buried there. What has survived, is four stone and one wooden effigy, of King Henry II, King Richard I, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella of Angouleme, who married King John in 1200, and was the mother of King Henry III of England. 

In death, Kings Henry II and Richard I, are shown with crown, sceptre and sword, on their effigies. Queen Eleanor has an open book in her hands. Isabella lies with her hands crossed. Originally, these stone memorials lay over the bodies they represented, but the bodies were lost during the Revolution. King Henry II’s effigy dates to the late 12th Century, with the others dating to the early 13th. The three stone effigies are carved out of one solid block of limestone. Originally there were six effigies, but those of Johanna of England, sister of Richard I, and her son Raymound VII, Count of Toulouse, have been destroyed. 

King Henry II died at Chinon Castle, having argued with and been betrayed by most of his sons. As he lay dying, legend tells us that his last words were ‘Shame, shame on the vanquished king.’ Henry was suffering from a perforated ulcer, and lingered semi-conscious, before his death on the 6th of July 1189. Henry’s body was laid out in the chapel at Chinon Castle, before being taken to the Abbey of Fontevraud for burial.

Richard I of England, was born the third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. From his birth, it is said that Richard was Eleanor’s favourite child. As Richard had an older brother, Henry, who was his father’s heir, Richard became his mother’s heir, and was set to inherit the Duchy of Aquitaine. When his elder brother died, he became the heir of the entire Angevin Empire. Richard I spent very little time in England after becoming its King, and spent most of his time on Crusade. When his brother John rose up against him, he was set to return to England, however, on the journey he was shipwrecked and taken prisoner by Duke Leopold of Austria. He imprisoned King Richard in Durrenstein Castle, and his mother Eleanor was left to find the ransom money, which nearly bankrupted the English. Richard I died in 1199, after being struck by an arrow while laying siege to a castle. His mother Eleanor was summoned to his side, and was with him when he died on the 6th of April. Eleanor accompanied Richard's body to the Abbey of Fontevraud, where he was buried as he requested, at the feet of his father. His heart was sent to be buried in the Cathedral at Rouen, and his entrails he left to Poitou.

While Richard I was captured and held for ransom, his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine wrote letters to the Pope, for his assistance in obtaining the release of the English King from Duke Leopold of Austria. Having received no assistance from her previous letters,“ in her last known letter she writes: 

‘I am prevented by invidious distances, blessed father, from speaking to you in person, but I must lament my grief a little. And who will grant that my words be written? I am in such anguish within and without, that my words are filled with grief. Fears without, fights within. I am not free to breathe now from the tribulation of evils and grief, the excessive tribulations that have come upon us. I am wasted away by sorrow, my bone clings to the consumed flesh of my skin, my years decline in sighs — would that they might give out altogether, that the blood of my already dead body, the brain in my head, the marrow of my bones might dissolve in tears, that I might completely vanish in weeping. My entrails are torn from me, I have lost the staff of my old age and the light of my eyes; it would answer my prayers if God condemned my unfortunate eyes to perpetual blindness so they might no longer see the ills of my people. Who will let me die for you, my son? Mother of mercy, look on a mother of such misery, or if your son, an endless font of mercy, exacts the sins of the mother from the son, let him exact them only from the one who sinned, let him punish the impious, not laugh at the punishments of the innocent. Who began [my life], let him destroy me, let him take his hand and cut me off; and let this be my consolation, that afflicting me with pain, he not spare me. Pitiful and pitied by no one, why have I come to the ignominy of this detestable old age, who was ruler of two kingdoms, mother of two kings? My guts are torn from me, my family is carried off and removed from me. The young king [Henry +1183] and the count of Brittany [Geoffrey +1186] sleep in dust, and their most unhappy mother is compelled to be irremediably tormented by the memory of the dead. Two sons remain to my solace, who today survive to punish me, miserable and condemned. King Richard is held in chains. His brother, John, depletes his kingdom with iron [sword] and lays it waste with fire. In all things the Lord has turned cruel to me and attacked me with the harshness of his hand. Truly his wrath battles against me: my sons fight amongst themselves, if it is a fight where where one is restrained in chains, the other, adding sorrow to sorrow, undertakes to usurp the kingdom of the exile by cruel tyranny…. What am I doing? Why do I survive? Why do I, wretched, delay and not go to see the one whom my soul loves, conquered by poverty and iron? how could a mother forget the son of her womb for so long? Affection for their offspring softens even wild tigers and demons. But I waver in doubt. If I go, deserting my son’s kingdom, that is laid waste on all sides with grave hostility, it will be deprived of all counsel and comfort in my absence. If I remain, I shall not see the face I most desire, of my son. There will be no one to zealously procure the freedom of my son and, what I fear even more, with the impossible quantity of money, that very delicate youth, impatient at such affliction, will be pressed by his torments and driven to death by his tortures….. Why, therefore, do you delay so long, so negligently, indeed so cruelly to free my son, or do you not dare? But you say this power was committed to you for souls not bodies. So be it: it is certainly sufficient for us if you bind the souls of those who hold my son bound in prison; it is easy for you to free my son while the fear of God overpowers human fear. Give my son back to me, man of God, if you are a man of God and not a man of blood. if you are sluggish in the freeing of my son, may the Highest exact his blood from your hand…..

Eleanor of Aquitaine, having sided with her sons against their father, King Henry II of England, was captured by her husband and imprisoned from 1173, until his death in 1189. One of Richard I’s first acts as King of England, was to have his mother released from her castle prison. Whereupon Eleanor rode to Westminster and ruled England on behalf of her son Richard, who was absent from England between 1190 and 1194, spending most of his time on crusade and protecting the Angevin lands on the continent. Eleanor chose to retire to the Abbey of Fontevraud after Richard’s death, to live out her final days, but leaving the centre of courtly affairs didn’t come easy. Her final mission, when she was nearly 80 years of age, was to travel across the Pyrenees to Castile, to the court of Alfonso VIII and her daughter Eleanor, the Queen of Castile. There she helped to arrange the marriage of her granddaughter Blanca, to Louis, the dauphin of France, and escorted the girl personally to her betrothed. She did not take the veil, but instead planned to live out her days in her own small house, in the grounds of the Abbey. Just when Eleanor thought it was finally time to retire, with her only surviving son, John, installed on the English throne, King John found himself at war with the King of France, and Eleanor moved to Poitiers to help by keeping John’s enemies at bay. She soon found herself besieged while at the Castle of Mirebeau, by her 15 year old grandson, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, who had rebelled against her son King John. The succession was not clear-cut in the 12th Century, and while English law favoured John as the heir, Angevin law favoured Arthur, the son of Henry II’s illegitimate son, Geoffrey. Arthur’s claim was backed by the King of France, and the Breton, Maine and Anjou nobles. King John quickly came to his mothers rescue, and captured Geoffrey who was never seen again. Eleanor was finally able to retire to Fontevraud, where she died at the age of 82, in 1204.

After the death of the Angevin Kings, the Abbey was short of benefactors and began to fall upon difficult times. At the end of the 12th Century, the Abbess complained of poverty. As a result, in 1247, the nuns were permitted to receive inheritances to provide income for their needs, contrary to monastic custom. 

Fontevraud was a popular place with Royalty, and has been visited by many Kings and Queens. We know that Henry I came here, and his daughter, Juliana, joined the order. Henry II often visited when staying at one of his favourite castles, at Chinon. His wife Eleanor of Aquitaine retired here. It wasn’t just the English who supported Fontevraud, it was also visited by Queen Bertrade, wife of Philiip I of France, who became a nun here after the death of her husband, in 1108. Charles VIII of France visited Fontevraud. Anne of Brittany, who was the wife of Louis XII also visited, as did Francis I, Catherine of Medicis, Mary Queen of Scots and Charles IX, Henri IV, and Mary of Medicis.

The Abbey church is Romanesque, although slightly altered, when the two slender octagonal turrets were added. The capitals are finely carved with leaf work, tracery, figures of animals and biblical themes. The nave is richly decorated, while the chancel is rather unadorned. The columns support a series of plain capitals.

Nothing remains of the Romanesque cloister. The present four cloister ranges, were rebuilt in the 16th Century. The oldest combines a late Gothic and Early Renaissance style, and was completed in 1519, the other three took on a more classical style and were completed by 1548. 

Fontevraud contains one of the few Romanesque kitchens in existence, which dates from the original building work in the 12th Century. The kitchen itself has six hearths where wooden fires once burned, while the smoke was carried away by its twenty flues. The lanterns, although adorable, were added in the 20th Century.

At the time of the French Revolution, there were only 120 nuns and 39 monks still living at Fontevraud. In November of 1789, all property of the Catholic Church in France was declared to be the property of the nation. On the 17th August 1792, a decree ordered evacuation of all monasteries, to be completed by the 1st of October 1792. 

In 1804, on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, Fontevraud was converted to a prison. The prison was planned to hold 1,000 prisoners, and the Abbey was altered to meet these requirements. Monastic buildings became dormitories, workshops and common areas. Prisoners began arriving in 1814, and the prison eventually held 2,000 prisoners. It earned the reputation of being one of the toughest in France, until it closed in 1963. 

As much as the Abbey was altered during its time as a prison, without that use it may have been destroyed completely. In 1963, Fontevraud was given to the French Ministry of Culture, and it underwent a major restoration program, intended to preserve the Abbey. It opened to the public in 1985, although restoration work was not completed until 2006.