Rotrou IV, Count of Perche

Rotrou IV (1135-1191), Count of Perche, son of Rotrou III, Count of Perche, and Hawise, daughter of Walter of Salisbury, and Sibilla de Chaworth. Rotrou was from the House of Châteaudun and descended from the Viscounts of Châteaudun. His mother was Hawise of Salisbury, a sister of Patrick of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Salisbury. Patrick’s sister Sibyll married John FitzGilbert, the Marshal of the Horses, whose son Henry was Bishop of Exeter and a knight in the service of Rotrou.

Upon the death of his father in 1144, Rotrou continued the fight against his archenemy, William III Talvas, Count of Ponthieu and Lord of Alençon. Not withstanding a long-running blood feud, his uncle Patrick had married William Talvas' daughter Adela as her second husband. His mother Hawise and her second husband, Robert I of Dreux, served as regents at Perche until he reached the age of maturity.

From 1152, he fought with Louis VII the Younger against Henry II of England in an ineffective war that saw their troops routed, lands ravaged and property stolen. He was forced to yield the communes of Moulins and Bonsmoulins to the crown England. Nevertheless, a matrimonial alliance with the House of Blois consolidated the declining power of the Counts of Perche.

In 1189, Rotrou joined Philip II of France and Richard I the Lionheart in the Third Crusade. He died sometime after the Siege of Acre in 1191.[1]

Family tree of Rotrou de Perche.

In 1160, Rotrou married Matilda of Blois-Champagne, daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Matilda of Carinthia.[2]

Rotrou and Matilda had:

Rotrou was succeeded as Count of Perche by his son Geoffrey upon his death.

References
  1. Thompson 2002, p. 113.
  2. Baldwin 2002, p. 46.
  3. Thompson 2002, p. 6.
  4. Van Tricht 2011, p. 109.
  5. Fassler 2010, p. 457.

Sources
  • Baldwin, John W. (2002). Aristocratic Life in Medieval France. Johns Hopkins University.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Fassler, Margot Elsbeth (2010). The Virgin of Chartres: Making History Through Liturgy and the Arts. Yale University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Thompson, Kathleen (2002). Power and Border Lordship in Medieval France: The County of the Perche, 1000-1226. The Boydell Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Van Tricht, Filip (2011). The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204–1228). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-20323-5.
French nobility
Preceded by
Rotrou III		 Count of Perche
1144–1191		 Succeeded by
Geoffrey III
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