Gautier-Coutances

Gautier de Coutances - 1140

This English priest was the bishop of Lincoln (1183), then the Archbishop of Rouen (1183). he was one of the principal personages in the kingdom of Richard Coeur de Lion who made him his justiciary. During the Crusade and captivity of Richard, he protected Normandy against the Capetians, with whom he will easily join forces after the conquest of 1204.

In 1194, Gautier de Coutances was named justiciary of England by Richard I, Coeur de Lion.

In 1197, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, King of England and Duke of Normandy, gives all the wooded areas of Dieppe, Louviers, Bouteilles and the mills of Rouen to the Archbishop Gautier de Coutances in exchange for the rock of Andelys on which he constructed the Château-Gaillard.

Since that time and under the influence of the Popes, five parishes were established. They are saint-Nicolas, Notre-Dame, Sainte-Agathe, Croixdalle (Arrondissement de Neufchatel), and somewhat to the left, that of saint-Jacques. They were known as the daughters of the Archbishop of Rouen. Here is a text by Mr. Léopold Delisle justifying this name, especially that of Saint-Nicolas.

"It is nearly a certainty, according to the illustrious scholar, that the forest of Aliermont, when it was abandoned by Richard Coeur de Lion to Gautier de Coutances, was part of Arques. in 1217, the Archbishop made an exchange with Robert de Saint-Valery and his men of Saint-Aubin and Envermeu. Another agreement was made in 1255, between the Archbishop and the elder of the cathedral of Rouen and the men of Saint-Vaast: The elder was have the land called "les Fourneaux", near Saint-Vaast ; the men of Saint-Vaast would have the tillable land, at 4 or 5 pennies per acre ; and if the forest were to become destroyed, the Archbishop bring it under the plow and build villages."

However, under the reign of William the Conqueror, that is more than two centuries earlier, people already had begun to settle the Aliermont area. Around 1079, Maurice, bishop of London, gave to the nuns of Saint-Amand de Rouen, the tithe of the forests of Aliermont and Eawy, in cleared land as well as in money.

In the Middle Ages, this forest saw commercial activity, people made: firewood, tiles, bricks and coal. A well to extract coal was attempted in 1796 but a spring soon stopped the work. The priest Decorde estimates that they would have has to descend to 900 meters for any chance of success.

Master and Lord of Aliermont, with taxation and lower justice rights, Gautier de Coutances appears to have built a castle which remained the property of the bishops of Rouen until the Revolution. Eude Rigaud particularly favorable to a stay there. From 1248 to 1268, he visited one hundred and fifty times. it is the same Eude Rigaud who accompanied saint-Louis in Palestine and left us a very curious memento in his Journal of pastoral visits.

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