The siege of Thimert (1058–60) was the last military action in the war between King
Henry I of France and Duke
William the Bastard of Normandy.
In the first half of 1058, William captured the French fortress at
Thimert in the
County of Dreux. According to
Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis (; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England.Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 6 Working out of ...
, this was about the same time he took
Tillières, a
Norman fortress that had been seized by Henry in 1040. Sometime between 29 June and 15 August 1058, Henry personally laid siege to Thimert. The siege dragged on into the next year. Several royal charters are dated by the siege, indicating Henry's continued presence there.
[, pp. 74–75.] He was joined in 1058 by his powerful vassal Count
Ralph IV of Valois, and briefly in 1059 by the recalcitrant Count
Theobald III of Blois.
By 23 May 1059, when Henry's son
Philip
Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...
was consecrated as joint king with his father, negotiations for a truce had been opened. King Henry sent Bishops
Humbert of Paris and
Guy of Amiens to seek terms in Normandy. Around the same time, Duke William and many of his leading men were in
Dreux, only about twelve miles from Thimert. It is possible that a meeting between king and duke took place at Dreux. All efforts at negotiations failed and the siege was ongoing when Henry died on 4 August 1060.
[ His death brought peace. Thimert was surrendered to the king and razed, while the Normans retained Tillières. A new castle, Châteauneuf-en-Thymerais, was built nearby in 1061.][, p. 36.]
References
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William the Conqueror
1060 in Europe
1060s in France