Mauger (or ''Malger'' according to the '' Gesta Normannorum Ducum'') was born around 1019 near

Dieppe Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...

. He was the younger son of Richard II,

Duke of Normandy In the Middle Ages, the duke of Normandy was the ruler of the Duchy of Normandy in north-western France. The duchy arose out of a grant of land to the Viking leader Rollo by the French king Charles the Simple in 911. In 924 and again in 933, N ...

, and his second wife, Papia of Envermeu. Mauger was brought up at the abbey of Fécamp as an eminent member of the ducal family, some of whom were later openly hostile to the accession of Duke William II. On the death of his uncle

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

, Archbishop of Rouen in 1037, Mauger, who was only 18 was chosen to succeed him. Mauger was apparently slow to instill loyalty to the young Duke William. In particular, he was opposed to the marriage of Duke William and Matilda of Flanders in 1049. His full brother William of Talou married a sister of the Count of Ponthieu and was appointed by William as Count of Arques, near Dieppe. William of Talou, Mauger's brother, was defeated in a failed rebellion against their nephew Duke William in battle near Arques in 1053, after which the former fled into exile at Boulogne. Because of a perceived connection to his brother's rebellion, Mauger was deposed from his archbishopric at the council of

Lisieux Lisieux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy Regions of France, region in northwestern France. It is the capital of the Pa ...

. Mauger was banished from Rouen to the Isle of

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

; he landed at a bay on the south coast that was named "Saint's Bay" in his honour. Mauger's behaviour as a secular lord who had opposed papal authority enabled William to achieve his deposition on the grounds of inappropriate conduct at a provincial council held at

in 1054 or 1055, under the bishop Hugh of Lisieux (fl. 1049 - d. 17 July 1077). Stories relating to the end of Mauger's life in the Channel Islands were collected a century later by

Wace Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his car ...

(1100-1174), himself a native of Jersey. According to Wace, Mauger had a common law wife, who had borne him many children, and Mauger had devoted himself to hawking and reading occult sciences. The dethroned bishop is alleged to have abandoned himself to a pact with the devil and, having gone mad, drowned about 1055; his body was buried in a church at Cherbourg-Octeville. At the time of his death, Mauger is assumed to be 36. He was succeeded by Maurilius.

References

Sources

* * *de Boüard, Michel. ''Guillaume le Conquérant.''. Paris: Fayard, 1984. *Douglas, David C. ''William the Conqueror''. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964. *''Gesta Normannorum Ducum'' of

William of Jumièges William of Jumièges (born c. 1000 – died after 1070) () was a contemporary of the events of 1066, and one of the earliest writers on the subject of the Norman conquest of England. He is himself a shadowy figure, only known by his dedicatory let ...

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 ...

, and

Robert of Torigni Robert of Torigni or Torigny (; –1186), also known as Robert of the Mont (; ; also Robertus de Monte Sancti Michaelis, in reference to the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel), was a Norman monk, prior, and abbot. He is most remembered for his chronicl ...

, edited and translated by Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995. *Neveux, François. ''La Normandie des ducs aux rois, Xe-XIIe s.'' Rennes: Ouest-France, 1998. {{authority control 11th-century Normans Archbishops of Rouen 11th-century archbishops Deaths by drowning House of Normandy People from Dieppe, Seine-Maritime