The battles of Mortemer took place on the territory of the commune of Mortemer, in the Pays of Bray in Seine-Maritime, in 1054.

Stakes

The Count d' Anjou Geoffroi Martel had seized the Mans, of Domfront and on Alençon with depends on the Seigneur of Bellême which held them of king de France. While Henri I {{er}} of France threat the backs of Geoffroi Martel, the duke Guillaume of Normandy besieges Domfront and takes Alençon which is burnt. The garrison of Domfront goes with the promise to be saved.

But the marriage of Guillaume with Mathilde of Flanders the fact of appearing too powerful aus eyes of king Henri Ier who reverses his alliance and takes the party of Geoffroi, Thibaud Count de Blois and of the rebellious Norman barons with Guillaume.

Countryside preceding the battle

William the Conqueror besieges his uncle, Guillaume d' Arques, known also under the name of Guillaume de Talou, in his castle with Arques. He obtains his rendering at the end of 1053.

At the end of the winter 1053-1054, two armies franco-angevines invade Normandy. To north, the army carried out by Eudes, brother of king Henri Ier, crosses the Bresle to reach the Pays of Bray. In the south, the army directed by the king and the count of Anjou cross the Avre and attack the Comté of Évreux. The project is to join together the two armies in front of Rouen, the capital of the Duché of Normandy.

Opposite Guillaume chooses a defensive attitude, it also constitutes two armies: one directed by itself against the army of the king and the other ordered by Gautier Giffard and Robert of Have in Country of Bray. The two armies have as orders to avoid the confrontation and to supervise the unfavourable bodies, to act only at the most favourable time.

Unfolding

Benefitting from the negligence of the French, the Norman ones attack during the night the French camp, putting fire at the village. Surprised in their sleep the French are destroyed and the Norman ones gain an easy victory.

Assessment and continuations

Acquisitions Normans

A new offensive of Henri, in 1057, goes up the valley of the Flowering ash. It is intercepted with the ford of Varaville close to Caen in the marsh the Divine ones. that it receives in heritage with dead of the count Herbert II, taken refuge near him. In 1063, Guillaume seizes Mans and makes recognize the title of count of Maine of his young person wire Robert Courteheuse.

Roger de Mortimer

Roger de Mortimer, born about 1025 and deceased in 1086, lord of Mortemer-in-Bray (Seine-Maritime), lost all its possessions and was banished in 1054. It was reproached to him for having released the prisoner Raoul, count de Valois, for having said of Montdidier , that one had entrusted to him, after the battle of Mortemer. It was reconciled with the duke a little later, and it found its possessions except for the castle of Mortemer which was entrusted to Guillaume de Warenne.