MINORITY, 1118–20

On 5 June 1118 Count Robert I of Meulan died at one of his English residences. His end was not a happy one: life at King Henry's court tended to put a burden on the consciences of its inmates. It would have pleased Count Robert's old enemy, Archbishop Anselm, that in his last painful hours it seems to have been the count's offences against the Church that haunted him. Henry of Huntingdon, giving a maliciously gloomy account of the count's end, describes him as broken and morose after his wife ran off with a fellow earl. He talks of Robert refusing confession and the last offices since they were conditional on his restoring the lands he had taken from the Church and others. Count Robert is supposed to have said that he would do nothing to lessen his sons' inheritance. Henry was overdoing the gloom – it is a characteristic of his writings – but nonetheless there is some confirmation elsewhere that Count Robert's end was a hard one. A letter has been preserved that purports to have been from Archbishop Ralph d'Escures of Canterbury to the count's recently bereaved sons. The archbishop's letter also dwells on the many tears of the dying count, but says that he was properly confessed, that he repented of his sins against the Church, and that he was persuaded to make some minor restitutions to the abbey of La Croix St-Leuffroy.