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The Consecration of 1254: Heraldry and History in the Windows of Le Mans Cathedral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Meredith Parsons Lillich
Meredith Parsons Lillich*
Affiliation:
Syracuse University
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Extract

The Gothic choir of Le Mans Cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Geoffroy de Loudun on April 24, 1254, while Saint Louis was still in the Holy Land and before the windows had been completely glazed. So much is established by the story related in the chronicle about the winegrowers who, arriving late and thus unable to carry a torch in the procession, decided to donate a window which would provide more permanent illumination instead. Their gift, now Bay c on the north side of the upper ambulatory, is datable ca. 1255 on the basis of this story (see fig. 1). Another window nearby (Bay a) was the gift of Guillaume Roland, then precentor of the cathedral, who is named in an inscription and depicted as a priest; since he became bishop before September 1255 another firm date is established for the glazing. The axial window (Bay g) depicts a knight who was present at the 1254 consecration: Rotrou de Montfort, shown with banner and heraldic surcoat de gueules à 2 léopards d'or passants (fig. 2). His arms are known to us from the Bigot Roll, which records the Angevin forces marshaled by the Capetian prince Charles d'Anjou for his campaigns in Flanders in the same year. Directly above Rotrou's window, the prestigious axial clerestory was the gift of Bishop Geoffroy de Loudun himself, builder of the new choir and dead by August 1255. His arms appear eight times in the borders: gueules à la bande d'or. And Bay C in the north clerestory depicts two knights and a canon of the family de Cormes with their arms. The canon is no doubt Geoffroy de Cormes, dead in 1263. The warriors who flank him are his father Guillaume ‘Major’ de Cormes and his uncle Jean, and they too are known to us from the Bigot Roll which gives their arms: ‘l'escru blanc a III jumelles noires.’

Type
Miscellany
Information
Traditio , Volume 38 , 1982 , pp. 344 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 My research on Le Mans was funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (1976); this study is part of a project funded by an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (1980–81).Google Scholar

2 Busson, G. and Ledru, A., edd., Actus pontificum Cenomannis in urbe degentium (Archives historiques du Maine 2; Le Mans 1902) 491f. Google Scholar

3 Bays are here identified by the letters used on the photomontages of the stained glass in the Archives photographiques‘, Paris.Google Scholar

4 Celier, L., Catalogue des actes des évěques du Mans jusqu’à la fin du XIII e siècle (Paris 1910) 312.Google Scholar

5 Actus 493; Ledru, A., La Cathédrale Saint-Julien du Mans (Mamers 1900) 429. Rotrou de Montfort, who succeeded his father before 1241, was the last of his line, a cadet branch of the counts of Mortagne and Perche; he died ca. 1269. The best sources for his life are found in de Grandmaison, L., Cartulaire de l'archévěché de Tours (Tours 1894) II 298–300 and Robveille, A., Seigneurie et paroisse de Montfort-le-Rotrou (Laval 1910) 17–21.Google Scholar

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8 Bishop Geoffroy de Loudun was a lord of the region of Saumur in the Anjou; he must be distinguished from his namesake Geoffroy de Loudun, the son of his cousin, who by marriage held the Loudun in the Sarthe and who used different arms. On Bishop Geoffroy de Loudun see: Denis, L.-J., ‘Notes et documents sur la famille et les armes de Geoffroy de Loudun, évěque du Mans,’ La Province du Maine 13 (1905) 241–47; de Corvaisier, A., Histoire des évěques du Mans (Paris 1648) 498–501, 522–23. His arms: seal of 1239 (Denis 243; Eygun, F., Sigillographie du Poitou [Poitiers 1938] no. 409, counterseal); tomb in the Chartreuse du Parc-au-Maine, 1255 (Gaignières B6747, illustrated in J. Adhémar, ‘Les Tombeaux de la collection Gaignières,’ Gazette des beaux-arts 6th ser., 84 [July-Sept. 1974] no. 246). The coat of arms of the bishop's namesake (his cousin's son) is found in the Bigot Roll no. 188.Google Scholar

9 Ledru (1900) 423–24; Lottin, R.-J.-F., Chartularium insignis ecclesiae cenomannensis quod dicitur Liber albus capituli (Le Mans 1869) 357, 392.Google Scholar

10 Bigot Roll nos. 189 and 190. The brothers de Cormes appear in documents from at least 1247 to 1274: Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France XXIV 123d, 124c, 130b, 131b, 133e; Bibliothèque du Mans 245, 1, reported with different, minor mistakes by both de Broussillon, B., Cartulaire de l'évěché du Mans (936–1790) (Le Mans 1900) no. 641, and Corvaisier 523. In litigation between the canons and Guillaume he is called ‘majorem de Cormis militem, hominem eorum’: Lottin 357. Guillaume is identified as the father of Canon Geoffroy in Busson, G. and Ledru, A., Nécrologe-obituaire de la cathédrale du Mans (Archives historiques du Maine 7; Le Mans 1906) 229.Google Scholar

11 The basic studies of the stained glass of Le Mans are Hucher, E., Calques des vitraux de la cathédrale du Mans (Le Mans 1855–62); Hucher, Vitraux peints de la cathédrale du Mans (Paris 1865); Ledru, A., La Cathédrale Saint-Julien du Mans (Mamers 1900); and Grodecki, L., ‘Les Vitraux de la cathédrale du Mans,’ Congrès archéologique 119th session (1961) 59–95.Google Scholar

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13 Grodecki 61; Ledru (1900) establishes that maǐtres d’œuvre are reported until 1273.Google Scholar

14 Bay i, given by the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Calais (Sarthe), shows its founding; the left half of Bay C was the gift of the Abbey de la Couture in Le Mans; Bay m includes scenes of monastic miracles accomplished by the Virgin, possibly the gift of a Cistercian house. Hucher suggested on less firm grounds that other bays in the upper ambulatory were given by the abbeys of St. Vincent du Mans and Beaulieu.Google Scholar

15 See Guilloreau, L., ‘Les Tribulations d’Ernaud, abbé d'Evron (1262–63),’ off-print from the Revue hist. Mayenne (Laval 1904). I have relied on this article for the following account. The papal bulls are listed in Les Registres d'Urbain IV (1261–1264), ed. J. Guiraud (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome 13, 2nd ser.; Paris 1899) IV 90 (Nov. 11, 1262) and 123 (Nov. 13, 1263).Google Scholar

16 The dedication is firmly established by documents but just exactly what was dedicated is less clear, since nothing at Evron dates, even remotely, from the mid-century. There are very early and Romanesque sections, as well as a Gothic choir of the beginning of the fourteenth century.Google Scholar

17 Celier 317.Google Scholar

18 The best source on the family is Grandmaison II, note on pp. 292–94; see also Chalmel, J.-L., Histoire de Touraine (Paris 1828) III 185–86.Google Scholar

19 Philippe Savary's seal (un plein au lambel de 5 pendants): Douët-d'Arcq no. 2585, dated 1245; the text of this chart is published by Teulet, A. and de Laborde, J., Layettes du Trésor des chartes (Paris 1863–75) II no. 3396. He was dead by May 13, 1250: Layettes III no. 3868.Google Scholar

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22 His seal is shown in Bibl. nat., lat. 5480, p. 375, no. 160 (1256); p. 153, no. 332 (1257); Bibl. nat., Housseau VII (Touraine) no. 3100 (1257).Google Scholar

23 Bibl. nat., Housseau VII (Touraine) no. 3115.Google Scholar

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25 Chalmel 186; Lambron de Lignim, H., Armorial des archévěques de Tours (Tours 1854) 9.Google Scholar

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27 Grodecki 85, probably reflecting the study by Ledru cited n. 31 infra.Google Scholar

28 See Bonneserre, 32 (cited n. 32 infra).Google Scholar

29 Jean's arms were 3 annelets posés 2 et 1, and there is no evidence that he ever used anything else, contrary to the opinion of Bonneserre 31.Google Scholar

30 Guillaume Chamaillart de Pirmil et d'Anthenaise seals with the voiré arms of Anthenaise in January 1263 (n.s.): see the drawing made for Gaignières (Bibl. nat., lat. 17048, fol. 295). His brother Simon Chamaillart took over the title and the vairé arms at Guillaume's death, before May 1275. For charts see Bonneserre and Angot, cited n. 32 infra.Google Scholar

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33 Laurin, E., Cartulaire manccau de Marmoutier (Laval 1945) I 75–76.Google Scholar

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35 Bonneseire 30; Angot 309, cf. Layettes III no. 3896.Google Scholar

36 Robert is mentioned in 1245. See Broussillon, , Cartulaire 254 (after Bibl. nat., lat. 17123).Google Scholar

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38 On Charles d'Anjou's northern ambitions during 1253 and 1254, and his brother Saint Louis’ reactions to them upon his return, see the discussion and bibliography of Jordan, W. C., Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade (Princeton 1979) 124–25, 141.Google Scholar

39 My argument about the early date of the Rotrou de Montfort bay is based chiefly upon stylistic analysis, and will be found in chapter 2 of The Armor of Light: Stained Glass in Western France from 1250 to 1325 (to appear). Charts concerning Rotrou and his family are given there in notes 30–33, in addition to the secondary sources cited in n. 5 of the present study.Google Scholar

40 Grodecki (1961) 81–94 passim, organized the glazing of the upper chevet of Le Mans into three general groups: (a) a first group, of chartrain relationships (Bays g, G, the right lancet of F, A); (b) a second group, the ‘Principal Atelier,’ which Grodecki considered to be of Parisian influence (Bays a–f, h–k, B–D, left lancet of F, H, L); (c) a late group, simplified and mannerist (bays 1, m, E, I, J, M). My chief revision would be to place Bay L in the last period, as the central commission. It dates ca. 1265 and is the gift of a noblewoman among whose sons were a canon (precentor) of the cathedral and the Count of Vendǒme, Charles d'Anjou's senior officer in the Flemish campaign. See Lillich, , ‘The Tric-trac Window of Le Mans Cathedral,’ Art Bulletin (to appear March 1983).Google Scholar

41 Ledru, A., Denis, L.-J. and Vallée, La Maison de Maillé (Paris 1905) II 84–87 (no. 112) gives the text of Hardouin's will. He mentions war stallions loaned to him for the Hainaut campaign. I am grateful for the help of Professor Helen Zakin in obtaining the text of this will.Google Scholar

42 On the author of the Actus, ‘un imposteur et un faussaire,’ see Duchesne, L., Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule (Paris 1899) II 323; Havet, J., ‘Les Actes des évěques du Mans,’ Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 54 (1893) 597–692, esp. 657.Google Scholar

43 Papanicolaou, L., ‘A Window of St. Julian of Le Mans in the Cathedral of Tours,’ Studies in Iconography (forthcoming).Google Scholar