Hugues
III of Maine Hugues
III of MaineHugues first appears witnessing a charter of Saint-Julien de Tours in March 967 along with his father count Hughes II and brother Fulcoin/Foulques ["Signum Hugonis, Cinomannorum comitis. Signum Hugonis, filii ejus. Signum Fulcuini, filii e[jus similit]er." Grandmaison (1885-6), 229 (#XXI)]. The chronology of the early part of his reign is vague, but he had succeeded by December 992, when his brother Fulcoin appears as "Fulcho, frater Hugoni comitis Cinnomanensis" in a Poitevan charter [Cart. S.-Maixent, 1: 78 (#LXI)]. Although he appears in a number of charters, most of them cannot be accurately dated [see Latouche (1910), 139-142]. Hugues III was still living in 1014, when he gave the land of Voivres to the monks of Mont-Saint-Michel [Cart. S.-Victeur, 6 (#4)]. His son Herbert I "Wake-Dog" appears as count in 1016 (see below).
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: 3 September or 25 October, 1014×5.
As already indicated above, Hugues
was still alive in 1014. His son Herbert I "Wake-Dog"
was already present as count of Maine at the Battle of Pontlevoy
on 6 July 1016. To rule 1016 out as the date of death, Latouche
pointed out that the cartulary of Évron (not seen by me) had
death dates for three different counts Hugues of Maine, 26 March,
3 September, and 25 October. The date 26 March belongs to Hugues
IV, and it is very likely that one of the others is the date of
death of Hugues III, ruling out 1016, since Herbert was already
count on 6 July of that year [Latouche (1910), 22, n. 1].
Place of Death: Unknown.
Father: Hugues II, d. 976×992, count of Maine.
Mother: Unknown.
Spouse(s): Unknown.
Child:
Herbert I
"Éveille-Chien", d.
1032×5, count of Maine.
The relationship between Hugues III and
Herbert I is stated by an early interpolation to Adémar de
Chabannes ["... Arbertum Cenomannis comitem [filium
Ugonis]" Adémar Chab., iii, 64, (p. 189); the addition
"filium Ugonis" appears in a twelfth century
manuscript] and Orderic Vitalis ["Herbertus
Cenomannorum comes ... Hugonis patris sui ..." OV iv (vol. 2, pp. 304-5)]. It is
further confirmed by the statement of the Actus that Herbert
Bacon (a brother of Hugues III, as confirmed by charters - see
the page of Hugues
II) was an avunculus of
Herbert I ["... Herbertus, comes, cognomine Baco,
avunculus Herberti, qui fuit temporibus Avesgaudi episcopi, ..."
Act. Pont. Cenom., 363].
Act. Pont. Cenom. = Busson & Ledru, eds., Actus Pontificum Cenomannis in urbe Degentium (Archives Historiques du Maine 2, Le Mans, 1902).
Adémar Chab. = Jules Chavanon, ed., Adémar de Chabannes - Chronique (Paris, 1897).
Cart. S.-Maixent = Alfred Richard, Chartes et documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Maixent, 2 vols. (Archives Historiques du Poitou 16, 1886; 18, 1887).
Cart. S.-Victeur = Paul de Farcy, ed., Cartulaire de Saint-Victeur au Mans (Paris, 1895).
Grandmaison (1885-6) = Charles de Grandmaison, ed., "Fragments de chartes du xe siècle provenant de Saint-Julien de Tours", Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 46 (1885): 373-429; 47 (1886): 226-273.
Latouche (1910) = Robert Latouche, Histoire de comté du Maine (Paris, 1910).
OV = Marjorie Chibnall, ed. & trans., The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969-80).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
Uploaded 10 January 2008.