Gervais, Count Of Rethel
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Gervais, Count of Rethel (
fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
11th century) was a French archbishop and nobleman. He was the son of Count Hugh I and his wife Melisende of Crécy. He succeeded his father as
Count of Rethel The first rulers of Rethel might have governed under the Abbey of Saint-Remi and later independently, before the county passed first to the counts of Nevers, then to the counts of Flanders, and finally to the dukes of Burgundy. In 1405 the coun ...
.


Biography

Gervais served as an
archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...
of
Rheims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...
before being nominated as
Archbishop of Rheims The Archdiocese of Reims or Rheims (; French: ''Archidiocèse de Reims'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese around 250 by Sixtus of Reims, the diocese was elevated to ...
by the King's supporters against (Ralph the Green) in 1106. The next year Paschall II declared him unfit, quashed his election and Gervais resigned as archbishop in 1109, returning to his former role as archdeacon. Upon the death of his elder brother, Manasser, in 1115, Gervais resigned from the clergy and married Elisabeth, daughter of
Godfrey I, Count of Namur Godfrey of Namur (attested in 1080; died 19 August 1139) was a Lotharingian nobleman. He was Count ''jure uxoris'' of Porcéan from 1097 until his death. From 1102, he was also Count of Namur. He was the oldest son of Count Albert III and his ...
and in 1118 he succeeded his father as Count of
Rethel Rethel () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture and third-most important city and economic center in the department. It is situated on the river Aisne, near the northern border of Champagne and 37 ...
. Gervais died in 1124 and his widow Elizabeth remarried to Roger Clarembauld, Lord of Rosoi in Thierache who gave the hand of his step-daughter to Robert Marmion, Baron of Tamworth. Because Gervais' younger brother Baldwin was in the
Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...
, where he served as
King of Jerusalem The king or queen of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Church, Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was Siege of Jerusalem (1099), conquered in ...
, he was succeeded as ruler of Rethel by his sister Matilda and her husband
Odo of Vitry Odo of Vitry (Eudes) (died 1158) was a French nobleman. Counts and dukes of Rethel, Count of Rethel and Châtelain de Vitry. His parentage is unclear. It is sometimes stated that he was a son of André, castellan of Vitré and of Agnès de Mort ...
.''Kingship, Identity and Name-giving in the Family of Baldwin of Bourcq'', Alan V. Murray, ''Knighthoods of Christ: Essays on the History of the Crusades and the Knights Templar'', ed. Norman Housely, (Ashgate Publishing, 2007), 31.


Family and Issue

He was married to Elisabeth, a daughter of
Godfrey I, Count of Namur Godfrey of Namur (attested in 1080; died 19 August 1139) was a Lotharingian nobleman. He was Count ''jure uxoris'' of Porcéan from 1097 until his death. From 1102, he was also Count of Namur. He was the oldest son of Count Albert III and his ...
. According to the Chronicle of
Alberic of Trois-Fontaines Alberic of Trois-Fontaines ( or ''Aubry de Trois-Fontaines''; ) (, died 1252) was a medieval Cistercian chronicler who wrote in Latin. He was a monk of Trois-Fontaines Abbey in the diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne. He died after 1252. He wrote a ch ...
they had a single daughter:- * Melisende de Rethel (Millicent) married to Robert Marmion (d.1181) and forebear of all three English Marmion Baronys. Married secondly to Richard de Camville, with at least one son,
Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gervais Rethel Counts of Rethel 1124 deaths People from Rethel 11th-century French nobility 12th-century French nobility Bishops of Rouen 12th-century Roman Catholic bishops 12th-century counts in Europe