Rotrou III (bef. 1080 – 8 May 1144), called the Great (le Grand), was the Count of Perche and Mortagne from 1099. He was the son of Geoffrey II, Count of Perche, and Beatrix de Ramerupt, daughter of Hilduin IV, Count of Montdidier. He was a notable Crusader and a participant in the Reconquista in eastern Spain, even ruling the city of Tudela in Navarre from 1123 to 1131. He is commonly credited with introducing Arabian horses to the Perche, giving rise to the Percheron breed.Bonnie L. Hendricks and Anthony A. Dent, International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds (University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), 366. By his creation of a monastery at La Trappe in memory of his wife, Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, in 1122 he also laid the foundations of the later Trappists.
First Crusade Rotrou took part in the First Crusade, travelling with the army of the duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose.For a summary of Rotrou's crusading experiences, see Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders, 1095–1131 (Cambridge, 1997), 144. The primary sources are Orderic Vitalis and William of Tyre. What influenced Rotrou in this regard were probably familial connexions. He was related to the Anglo-Norman aristocracy and the Perche was a march (border region) in southern Normandy. A sister was married to Raymond I of Turenne, who was a fellow Crusader in the following of Raymond IV of Toulouse. His mother, Beatrix, was a sister of Ebles II of Roucy, who had campaigned in Spain in 1073, and Felicia, who married Sancho Ramírez, King of Aragon.Riley-Smith, 104–105. Peter I of Aragon and Navarre, Sancho's eldest son, took the cross, although he never went to the Holy Land, see Riley-Smith, 166 n127. A religious motivation cannot be discounted.
According to the Chanson d'Antioche, Rotrou was under the command of Bohemond of Taranto during the Siege of Antioch, and was one of the first to go over the city's walls through scaling ladders on 3 June 1098. When the Crusaders had to confront a Seljuk relief force two weeks later in open battle, Rotrou was one of the front line commanders. He fulfilled his crusading vow and made it all the way to Jerusalem. The Chanson also mentions his bravery at the siege of Nicaea of 1097.
In 1107, Rotrou built a castle on land held partly allodially and partly in lordship by Hugh II of Le Puiset, thus challenging Hugh's rights to the estate. Since Pope Urban II had taken Crusaders' "houses, families, and all their goods into the protection of Saint Peter and the Roman church",A ruling of the First Lateran Council (1123) describing the establishment of Urban in 1095. and both Hugh and Rotrou were veterans of the First Crusade, the dispute was intractable. Bishop and lawyer Ivo of Chartres could not resolve it, since it involved a judicial duel, over which the church was not allowed to preside, and so remitted it to the court of the County of Blois. There Hugh lost, but in the violence that followed his tenant, who held the land from him as a fief, was captured by Rotrou's men. The reigning pope, Paschal II, who was in Chartres in April, sent the case back to Ivo, who complained in a letter that since "this law of the Church protecting the goods of knights going to Jerusalem was new. . . they did not know whether the protection applied only to their properties or also applied to their fortifications."Quoted in Riley-Smith, 136. Rotrou denied that the case had anything to do with the novel canon law.
Norman politics During Rotrou's absence his father, Geoffrey of Perche, died in 1099. On the first Sunday after returning to France, Rotrou paid a visit to the monastery of Nogent-le-Rotrou, a foundation of his family's and the location of his father tomb. There he asked to become a confrater (brother) of the Abbey of Cluny, Nogent's mother house, and to show his sincerity and prove the fulfillment of his crusading vow he placed a charter confirming his predecessors' donations to the abbey and the palm frond brought back from Jerusalem on the altar.
Rotrou's position in the Duchy of Normandy was that of defender of the frontier with the Île-de-France. His position was probably enhanced by his participation in the First Crusade. Whereas his father had only held the title of viscount, Rotrou is usually called a count.Lucas Villegas-Aristizábal, Norman and Anglo-Norman Participation in the Iberian Reconquista, c.1018–c.1248 , PhD thesis, University of Nottingham (June 2007), 109–10. In the war between Henry I of England and Robert Curthose, Rotrou sided with the former and was an important figure in Henry's administration of the duchy after the capture of Robert at Tinchebrai in 1106. Rotrou was a direct vassal of Henry in England, where he held fiefs jure uxoris, in right of his wife, the king's daughter Matilda. He was not often in England, but is purported to have been close to his wife.Villegas-Aristizábal, 121.
Reconquista
Early participation Rotrou's actual first participation in the Reconquista dates to the first decade of the twelfth century (possibly 1104–5). He and a group of Normans are said to have fought the Muslims in the service of Alfonso the Battler, then King of Aragon and Navarre, until the Aragonese plotted against them and they returned home.The source is Orderic Vitalis. Among the Rotrou's retinue whom Orderic says returned with him from Spain in 1125 were two minor knights, Silvester of Saint-Calais and Reginald of Ballieul-en-Gouffren, who were probably the chief source of information on Rotrou's doings in Spain for the Norman historian, cf. Villegas-Aristizábal, 128–29. It has been speculated that the Norman involvement in the campaign originated as gossip designed to discredit Alfonso by Cluny, an ally of Alfonso's rival, Alfonso VI of Castile.The suggestion is Nelson's, cf. Villegas-Aristizábal, 111. More probably the Normans just accomplished too little to be noticed, or were perhaps sent back home without encountering any Muslims because their services were not need at the time, when Alfonso the Battler had an alliance with the taifa (faction-kingdom) of Zaragoza. Perhaps the 'Aragonese plot' originated as a rumour with dissatisfied returning Normans.
After the death of his wife, eldest son and two of his nephews in the wreck of the White Ship (1120), Rotrou returned to Spain.Villegas-Aristizábal, 118–19. His parting may have been an act of penitence (perhaps he believed his sins had brought on the tragedy), or perhaps a public demonstration of grieving, since his wife was a daughter of the king, who had also lost his heir, William Adelin, in the wreck. According to the Chronicle of San Juan de la Peña, Rotrou took part in the conquests of Zaragoza (1118) and Tudela (1119), but this account has been shown to be apocryphal.A study of this question is Lynn Nelson, "Rotrou of Perche and the Aragonese Reconquest", Traditio, 26 (1970), 113–33. Many French barons can be connected with the expedition against Zaragoza, but although his Anales de la Corona de Aragón name Rotrou as fighting under Alfonso of Aragon on several occasions, Jerónimo Zurita does not mention him by name when recording the call for transpyrenean assistance put out by the Battler.Sucedió así (según por muy ciertas memorias parece) que, estando aún en Castilla, [Alfonso I] mandó venir de Francia para esta empresa—como está dicho—muchas compañías de gente de guerra de las partes de Bearne y Gascuña, cuyos generales eran los que estaban nombrados, y otros principales señores que habían seguido y servido en guerras pasadas que hizo contra los infieles ("It happened thus, according to very certain memories it seems, that, being still in Castile, Alfonso I sent for to come from France for this enterprise—as is said—many companies of men of war from the regions of Béarn and Gascony, whose generals were those that were named [before], and other principal lords that had followed and served in past wars that he [Alfonso] had made against the infidels"), quoted in Villegas-Aristizábal, 122. Likewise Rotrou is attested fighting for Henry I in Normandy in 1119 and so could not have had any hand in the conquest of Tudela, although the Chronicle of San Juan makes him out to be the chief conqueror and the first and independent ruler of the town. Neither is he mentioned in the charter of surrender of Tudela.Villegas-Aristizábal, 124–25.
Rule of Tudela Rotrou was still in Normandy in 1120 when he signed the reconfirmation act of the abbey of Arcisses. Since he received land in Zaragoza after the conquest, it might be assumed that he sent either money or men to assist in the enterprise. He did not sign the city's fueros, which the nobles of southern France who had participated in its conquest did.Villegas-Aristizábal, 122–23. He had arrived in Aragon by 1123, perhaps as early as 1121. His first participation was probably in the campaign against Lleida. An Aragonese charter dating to April 1123 refers to Rotrou as "count in Tudela", although it does not specifically refer to him as the ruler of the place."comes Retro in Tudela" in the charter published by José María Lacarra, "Documentos para el estudio de la reconquista del valle del Ebro", Estudios de la Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón, 3 (1950), doc. 125. The Norman lord Robert Burdet, who later held the Tarragona as a principality, may originally have fought alongside Rotrou in Normandy and then followed him to Spain c.1123. Robert is first mentioned in a charter issued by Rotrou in Spain, in which the count granted some houses in Zaragoza to a knight of his named Sabino in gratitude for his services (December 1124). There is a slightly later reference which shows that Rotrou was in control of Tudela and that he had appointed Robert to act as his alcalde (mayor) or military commander of the citadel and one Duran Pixon to act as administrator (justiciar).The charter reads: "Equitaniensis comitis nomine Retrot, sub iussu Adefonsi imperatoris est dominator Tutele. De manu comitis est alcaite in Tutela Rotbert Bordet, et iusticia Duran Pexo" (the Aquitanian count Rotrou, under the rule of the emperor Alfonso is the lord of Tudela. From the count's hand Robert Burdet is mayor in Tudela, and the justiciar is Duran Pixon.), quoted in Villegas-Aristizábal, 125. This charter also affirms, against the Chronicle of San Juan, that Rotrou ruled Tudela as a vassal of Alfonso the Battler, who is called "emperor" in the document. Similar charters from February 1128 and November 1131 show that this arrangement continued for almost a decade, even though Rotrou was often absent in Normandy and Robert Burdet in Tarragona.Villegas-Aristizábal, 125. When Alfonso granted fueros to Tudela in 1127 he also mentioned Rotrou, Robert and Duran.The specifying of Robert as "Robert Bordet alchaite in illo castello de Tudela" confirms the distinction between alcalde and justiciar for Robert is said to be holding the city's castle, cf. Villegas-Aristizábal, 126. It has been suggested that Rotrou's rise to an important frontier post in a city in whose conquest he played no role was either recompense for the mistreatment he received in the first decade of the century or due to the deterrent effect of his private army of Normans on the neighbouring Muslims.Villegas-Aristizábal, 127–28.