An illegitimate daughter with a serious grudge against dad.
Henry I of England is well known for his numerous bastard children. Most of English nobility descends from Henry through his bastard lines. He only had two legitimate children survive to adulthood, and only one, his daughter, Matilda, produced any children. Matilda’s son would eventually reign over England as Henry II after a nasty civil war called the Anarchy.
However, it wasn’t his legitimate daughter that caused Henry grief. That honor went to his bastard daughter, Juliane de Fontevrault. Juliane’s mother is unknown, although historians speculate she was Ansfrida, one of the king’s mistresses who bore him other children. Her mother was described as a concubine, and she was born before Henry took the throne, around 1090.
Not much is known about the relationship between father and daughter; however, Henry arranged advantageous marriages for his illegitimate children and Juliane was married to Eustace of Bretuil, the illegitimate son of a noble Benedictine abbot.
By February of 1119, the relationship between father and daughter had certainly deteriorated. Juliane and Eustace threatened to rebel against Henry, now king, unless he turned over the castle of Irvy. To ensure his daughter and son in-law’s loyalty, Henry took Eustace and Juliane’s daughters hostage and traded them for the son of the constable of the castle of Irvy. While this boy was in Eustace and Juliane’s custody, Eustace cut out his eyeballs and sent them to his father.
The constable was enraged by the torture of his son, and beg Henry for revenge. Henry then allowed the constable to blind the daughters of Eustace and Juliane, an eye for an eye. He also took it a step further, and cut off the tips of their noses. Henry allowed his own granddaughters to be harmed.
Juliane was outraged and returned to Bretuil. However, the citizens of Bretuil did not want to support her against the powerful king. Henry tracked Juliane to Bretuil and laid siege to the castle. Giving up, Juliane agreed to parley with her father. However, as she went to meet him, she took a crossbow and attempted to shoot him. Henry destroyed the drawbridge, confining Juliane to the castle. She attempted to escape, leaping from the castle tower into the freezing moat water, and fleeing to her husband in Pacy, another of their holdings.
Eustace and Juliane lost all of their property except for Pacy. Bretuil was given to the son of the constable of Irvy, hopefully to compensate for his lost sight.
Defeated, Eustace and Juliane supplicated themselves to Henry and begged forgiveness. Henry forgave his daughter and son-in-law, and repaid them 300 silver marks a year for the loss of Bretuil. After Eustace’s death, Juliane retreated to the abby of Fontevrault. The fate of her daughters is unknown.
