MORTAIN

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 875 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MOL-MOS

MORTAIN , a small town in the department of La Manche, France, the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

town of an arrondissement and seat of a sub-prefect. It is beautifully situated on a rocky hill rising above the gorge of the Cance, a tributary of the Selune. The parish church of St lvroult is a magnificent example of the transitional style of the early 13th century, with a massive tower of the 14th and a Norman doorway dating from the

original

ORIGINAL

collegiate church (1058). Close to the town is the Abbaye-Blanche, founded as a

Benedictine

BENEDICTINE

convent in 1105 and soon afterwards affiliated to Citeaux. The church is a perfect example of a Cistercian monastic church of the

late

LATE

12th century, and portions of the 12th-century cloisters also survive. The population is between 2000 and 3000.
Mortain was, in the middle ages, the head of an important Comte, reserved for the reigning

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Normandy. In or about 1049 Duke William took it from his

cousin

William, " the warling," and bestowed it on his half-brother, Robert, thenceforth known as " count of Mortain," whose vast possessions in England after the Conquest (1066) gave name to " the small fees of Mortain," which owed less (knight) service than others. Robert was succeeded as count by his son William, who rebelled against

Henry

I., was captured at the battle of Tinchebrai (1106) and forfeited his possessions. Some years later,

Henry

bestowed the Comte on his nephew Stephen, who became king in 1135. On Stephen's death (1154) his surviving son William became count of Mortain, but when he died childless in 1159 the Comte was resumed by Henry II. On the accession of Richard I. (1889) -he granted it to his brother John, who was thenceforth known as count of Mortain till he ascended the throne (1199). With his loss of Normandy the comae was lost, but after the recapture of the province by the

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

Lancaster

, Edmund Beaufort, a grandson of John of Gaunt, was created count of Mortain and so styled till 1441, when he was made

earl

EARL

of Dorset.
As the counts are often described as " earls " of Mortain (or even of " Moreton ") the title is sometimes mistaken for an English one. It has also, through erroneous spelling, been some-times wrongly derived from Mortagne-en-Perche. (J. H. R.)

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