Judith OF BRITTANY
Judith OF BRITTANY (982-1017)

Name: Judith OF BRITTANY 1 Sex: Female Father: Conan I OF RENNES (927-992) Mother: Ermengarde OF ANJOU ( - )

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth 0982 Occupation frm 0996 to 1017 (age 13-35) Countess Consort of Normandy founded (1) the Abbey of Bernay Child Count 6 Marriage Count 1 Death 16 Jun 1017 (age 34-35) 2 founded (2) 1026 (app) (age 43-44) the abbey of Bernay, Normandy Burial the Abbey of Bernay

Marriage

Richard the Good as part of the "Six Dukes of Normandy" statue in the town square of Falaise. Richard II (right), with the Abbot of Mont Saint Michel (middle) and Lothair of France (left). Duke Robert I of Normandy Robert the Magnificent as part of the Six Dukes of Normandy statue in the town square of Falaise.

Adelaide of Normandy Richard III, Duke of Normandy

Spouse Richard II OF NORMANDY (970-1026) Children Robert I OF NORMANDY (1008?-1035) Adelaide OF NORMANDY (1002-1038) Richard III OF NORMANDY (997-1028) Marriage 1000 (app) (age 17-18)

Individual Note 1

Judith of Brittany (9821017) was the daughter of Conan I, Duke of Brittany and Ermengarde of Anjou, and the mother of Robert the Magnificent.

She was the first wife of Richard the Good, Duke of Normandy, whom she married in 996. They had six children:

Richard (c. 1002/4), duke of Normandy

Adelaide (c. 1003/5), married Renaud I, Count of Burgundy

Robert (c. 1005/7), duke of Normandy

William (c. 1007/9), monk at Fécamp, d. 1025

Eleanor (c. 1011/3), married to Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders

Matilda (c. 1013/5), nun at Fecamp, d. 1033

The duchess Judith died in 1017 and was buried in the abbey of Bernay, which she had founded.

SOURCES:

There are no references cited for this Wikipedia article.3

Individual Note 2

The abbey to which the church belongs was created in the first decade of the 11th century by Judith of Brittany who devoted part of the marriage settlement from her husband, Richard II, Duke of Normandy, to its construction. The latter entrusted the completion of the abbey to the Italian, William of Volpiano ( died 1028), who reformed the monastery of Fécamp to which he had been called in 1001. After a period of delay in the work, it appears that completion was to be the work of Vital of Creully (appointed in c. 1060, died 1082), the first abbot of the abbey when it became self-governing, and for whom its completion was to enable him to gain the considerable privilege of becoming Abbot of Westminster in 1076, in consideration of the fact that he "had built up the abbey of Bernay from very little".

The chronology of the course of the construction work and of its different parts is a very complex and controversial issue, but most of the building dates from the first three quarters of the 11th century. Despite a very chequered history and some irreversible mutilations to the structure (especially to the façade and the apse), this church, hitherto largely unknown, has retained much of exceptional interest, in particular the innovative features which were to become typical of the Romanesque Anglo-Norman architectural style :

1. The east end in echelon of the Benedictine type (in place of the ambulatory or simple flat east end) which, except for Lonlay, was unique in Normandy in c. 1020, and probably shows the influence of William of Volpiano. This model was to be taken up later by the abbeys of Caen

2. composite piers which also appeared at the same time (c. 1030), at Auxerre, Nevers, and St Benoist sur Loire

3. The passage in the thickness of the wall at the upper level of the east wall of the transepts, an influence from St Bénigne in Dijon.

The decoration is still abundant, varied and of high quality. Three workshops of sculptors can be identified: one drawing its inspiration in the art of the Valley of the Rhone and of Burgundy (capitals with palmettes and interlace on the openings of the second level of the choir and transepts; bases with interlace), a second with Ottonian influence (vegetation and delicate animals) and a third, in the nave (corinthian-style capitals).

Bibliography

- Baylé, Maylis. " Lancienne abbatiale de Bernay ", Congrès archéologique de France, 138e session, 1980 [1983], p. 119-162

- Baylé, Maylis. Les origines et les premiers développements de la sculpture romane en Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie, n°100 bis, 1992, spécialement p. 58-70 (voir également lindex p. 447)

- Baylé, Maylis. - Larchitecture normande au Moyen Age. 2. Les étapes de la création, Caen, 1997, p. 27-31 (bibliographie p. 350)

- Grodecki, Louis. " Les débuts de la sculpture romane en Normandie. Les chapiteaux de Bernay ", dans Bulletin monumental, 1951, p. 7 à 61

- Guillaume le Conquérant et son temps, Art de Basse-Normandie, n° 97, Hiver 1987-1988, p. 113

- Musset, Lucien. - Normandie romane, 2. Haute-Normandie, La Pierre-qui-Vire, 1974, p. 45-57 et pl. 1-23 (plan p. 52)

- Les siècles romans en Basse-Normandie, Art de Basse-Normandie, n° 92, Printemps 1985, p. 92

http://www.mondes-normands.fr/angleterre/Patrimoine_architectural/Normandie/Lieuvin/bernay/0902Bernay/index.htm

Sources

1Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 118, 121-22; 127, 132-22 & 132A-22.

2Ibid. p 40.