Hélie I de la Flèche Comte du Maine

  General Notes:

HELIE de la Flèche (-11 Jul 1110, bur Saint-Pierre de la Couture). Orderic Vitalis names "Helias, Johannis et Paulæ filius, Hugonis Cenomannorum consulis consobrinus". A charter dated 13 Feb 1087 records donations to Angers Saint-Aubin by "Johannes de Fissa", with the consent of "Helias filius eius". Orderic Vitalis records that he bought the county of Maine from his cousin, Comte Hugues [V] [d'Este], in [1093] for 10,000 shilllings, and succeeded as Comte du Maine. A charter dated to [1097] records confirmation of donations to Angers Saint-Aubin by "Elias…filius eius…et frater eius Gaufridus" after the burial of their father. He delayed his departure on the First Crusade in 1097 because William II King of England threatened to capture Maine in his absence, and attacked Robert de Bellême in 1098, but was captured and handed to King William at Rouen. The town of Le Mans was captured by Robert, son of Hugues de Montfort, and handed to Guillaume Comte d'Evreux and Gilbert de Laigle. Helias was released, and returned to la Flèche and the castles he owned de iure uxoris. Helias recaptured the city in late 1100 after the death of King William II. "Helias comes Cenomanensis" donated property to the monastery of Saint-Pierre de Couture, for the soul of "monachatu Enoch fratris mei", by undated charter dated to [1109]. The Annals of Waverley record that "Philippus de Brausa et Willelmus Malet et Willelmus Barnard et Helias comes Cenomanniæ" were deprived of their lands in 1110. The necrology of Le Mans Cathedral records the death "V Id Jul" of "Cenomannorum comes Helias". The Chronicæ Sancti Albini records the death "1110 V Id Jul" of "Helias comes". The Annales Sancti Albini Andegavensis record the death "V Id Jul" in 1110 of "Helias comes".

m firstly MATHILDE de Château-du-Loir, daughter of GERVAIS de Château-du-Loir & his first wife Eremburgis ---(-[10/25] Mar 1099). Orderic Vitalis names "Mathildem filiam Gervasii…qui Rodeberti Brochardi filius fuit" as wife of Helias. The same source records that her dowry consisted of the castles of Château-du-Loir, Mayet, Lucé-le-Grand and Outillé. "Helias comes Cenomanensis" donated his chapel at the foot of la Tour de Château-du-Loir to Saint-Guingalois for the soul of "uxoris suæ Mathildis, ante paucos dies defunctæ" by charter dated 27 Mar 1099.

m secondly (after 1099) as her second husband, [AGNES d'Aquitaine, divorced wife of ALFONSO VI King of Castile and Leon, daughter of GUILLAUME VIII Duke of Aquitaine [GUILLAUME VI Comte de Poitou] & his second wife Mathilde ---] ([1059]-[1077/93] or after 1099, bur Sahagún, León, royal monastery of Santos Facundo y Primitivo)]. Orderic Vitalis refers to this second marriage of Comte Hélie and "Agnetem filiam Guillelmi Pictavorum ducis relictam Hildefonsi senioris Galiciae regis". However, there are indications (which are not conclusive) that King Alfonso´s wife Agnes died before his second marriage. Another possibility is that Orderic´s passage misstates the name "Agnetem" for "Beatricem", and that the second wife of Comte Hélie was King Alfonso VI´s widow Beatrix whose family origin is not otherwise recorded and who could therefore have been Beatrix, daughter of Guillaume VIII Duke of Aquitaine [Guillaume VI Comte de Poitou] & his third wife Hildegarde de Bourgogne [Capet], this parentage being the most probable from a chronological point of view if she was the daughter of one of the dukes of Aquitaine.

Comte Hélie & his first wife had one child: EREMBURGE du Maine. ¹

  Events

• Title: Comte du Maine, 1093-1110.

Hélie married Mathilde de Château-du-Loir, daughter of Gervais de Château-du-Loir Seigneur de Château-du-Loir and Erembourg, in 1090. (Mathilde de Château-du-Loir died between 10 and 25 Mar 1099.)