Eustace the Monk
Eustace the Monk (
Life
Early life
Eustace was born a younger son of Baudoin Busket, a lord of the
Serving England
Eustace became a pirate in the English Channel and the Strait of Dover, both for his own purposes and as a mercenary of France and England.[citation needed] King John of England employed him intermittently from 1205 to 1212, against Philip II of France. The biography asserts that John gave him command of thirty ships at the start of this assignment. This employment involved Eustace and his brothers raiding the Normandy coast and establishing bases in the Channel Islands (he and his men held Castle Cornet in Guernsey for a considerable period).[citation needed] He took the island of Sark in 1205.[4] When he raided English coastal villages, King John briefly outlawed him, but soon afterwards issued a pardon because he needed Eustace's services.[citation needed]
Serving France
However, Eustace switched sides in 1212 (the biography puts it down to Eustace's enemy Renaud de Dammartin allying himself with John and poisoning John's mind against Eustace) and raided Folkestone when English troops seized his Channel Island bases.[citation needed] When civil war broke out in England in 1215, he supported the rebel barons and ferried Prince Louis of France across the Channel to help them in 1216.[citation needed]
In August 1217, whilst ferrying much-needed reinforcements to Louis, Eustace met an English fleet under
Aftermath
In June 1217, during the negotiations for what would be known as the Treaty of Lambeth, the English demanded the return of the Channel Islands from Eustace's control, forcibly if necessary. However, he was executed while negotiations were still ongoing[6][7] and thereafter the negotiations concerned his brothers, with the same demand.[7][8] The treaty eventually compelled Louis not only to give up his claim to the English throne but also to eject Eustace's brothers from the Channel Islands.[9]
Biography
A romance biography of him was written between 1223 and 1284 by an unknown poet from Picardy, mainly interested in his year or so of adventures after leaving Renaud's service. This account tells of Eustace, from a forest hideout, duping, ambushing and humiliating Renaud again and again, in different disguises and often stealing his horses.[10] It is linked to the medieval myths of Robin Hood and the 13th-century Old French romance Fouke le Fitz Waryn on the life of Fulk FitzWarin.[10][11]
This account is then supplemented from 1205 onwards by English government records.
Legacy
Eustace served as the main inspiration for the murderous Friar Bellows from the first season of the British television show Blackadder.
References
- ^ Knight 1997, "Eustache the Monk: Introduction".
- ^ Cannon 1912, p. 650.
- ^ Cannon 1912, p. 651.
- ^ Ibeji, Mike (17 February 2011). "The Romance of Robin". Robin Hood and his Historical Context. BBC.
- ^ a b Bradbury 1998, p. 323.
- ^ Petit-Dutaillis 1894, pp. 164-169.
- ^ a b Powicke 1947, pp. 15-16.
- ^ Smith 1979, pp. 577.
- ^ Smith 1979, pp. 568.
- ^ . Retrieved 2 February 2013.
- ^ Knight 1997, "Fouke le Fitz Waryn: Introduction".
Bibliography
- Bradbury, Jim (1998). Philip Augustus, King of France 1180-1223. Longman Limited.
- Cannon, Henry Lewin (October 1912). "The Battle of Sandwich and Eustace the Monk". The English Historical Review. 27 (108). Oxford University Press: 649–670. OCLC 4892167186.
- Knight, Stephen; Ohlgren, Thomas H, eds. (1997). Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales. ISBN 1879288923.
- Petit-Dutaillis, Charles (1894). Étude sur la vie et le règne de Louis VIII (1187-1226). Paris: É. Bouillon. OCLC 5023824.
- Powicke, Frederick Maurice (1947). King Henry III and the Lord Edward. Oxford: Clarendon. OCLC 1044503.
- Smith, J Beverly (July 1979). "The Treaty of Lambeth, 1217". The English Historical Review. 94 (372). Oxford University Press: 562–579. OCLC 4892301628.
Further reading
- Burgess, Glyn S (1997). Two Medieval Outlaws: Eustace the Monk and Fouke Fitz Waryn. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D S Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-438-0.
- Holt, James Clarke (1982). Robin Hood. New York City: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-25081-2.
- (in Old French) Conlon, Denis Joseph, ed. (1972). Li Romans de Witasse Le Moine. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. OCLC 1107394.
- (in Latin) Parisiensis, Matthaeus (1240–1253). Chronica Majora. Vol. II.
External links
- Eustache the Monk: Introduction at Rochester.edu