Ynys Trebes - Mont St Michel, France

Ynys Trebes

Mont St Michel, France

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Le Mont-Saint-Michel (English: Saint Michael’s Mount) is a rocky tidal island and a commune in Normandy,France. It is located approximately one kilometre off the country’s north coast, at the mouth of theCouesnon River nearAvranches. The population of the island is 41.

History

 

Mont-Saint-Michel was used in the sixth and seventh centuries as an Armorican stronghold of Romano-Breton culture and power, until it was ransacked by the Franks, thus ending the trans-channel culture that had stood since the departure of the Romans in AD 460.

 

Before the construction of the first monastic establishment in the 8th century, the island was called “monte tombe”. According to legend, St. Michael the Archangel appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, in 708 and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel’s instruction, until St. Michael burned a hole in the bishop’s skull with his finger.^[3]

 

The mount gained strategic significance in 933 when William “Long Sword”, William I, Duke of Normandy, annexed the Cotentin Peninsula, definitively placing the mount in Normandy. It is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the 1066 Norman conquest of England. Ducal patronage financed the spectacular Norman architecture of the abbey in subsequent centuries.

 

In 1067, the monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel gave its support to duke William of Normandy in his claim to the throne of England. It was rewarded with properties and grounds on the English side of the Channel, including a small island located at the west of Cornwall, which, modelled after the Mount, became a Norman priory named St Michael’s Mount of Penzance.

During the Hundred Years’ War the English made repeated assaults on the island but were unable to seize it due to the abbey’s improved fortifications. Les Michelettes, two wrought-iron bombards left by the English in their failed 1423–24 siege of Mont-Saint-Michel, are still displayed near the outer defense wall.

 

When Louis XI of France founded the Order of Saint Michael in 1496 he intended that the abbey church of Mont Saint-Michel be the chapel for the order, but because of its great distance from Paris his intention could never be realized.

 

 The wealth and influence of the abbey extended to many daughter foundations, including St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. However, its popularity and prestige as a centre of pilgrimage waned with the Reformation, and by the time of the French Revolution there were scarcely any monks in residence. The abbey was closed and converted into a prison, initially to hold clerical opponents of the republican régime. High-profile political prisoners followed, but by 1836 influential figures, including Victor Hugo, had launched a campaign to restore what was seen as a national architectural treasure. The prison was finally closed in 1863, and the mount was declared a historic monument in 1874. The Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979, as it was listed with criteria such as cultural, historical, and architectural significance, as well as human-created and natural beauty

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 The last stand of the British kingdom of Benoic, Ynys Trebes is a beautiful city of stone, cristals and gardens, located on top of a mountain of rocks not built to withstand an attack. With your fairly small forces, Ynys Trèbes runs great risk of turning ruins into the hands of the Saxons.

 

 

 Derfel Cadarn (“Derfel the Mighty”) is a fictional character and the main protagonist in The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. He is a straight-forward and gifted warrior who is loyal and trustworthy. He is a highly-fictionalized version of Saint Derfel Gadarn of Wales.

  Derfel joined Arthur’s spearmen and after several years became one of Arthur’s warlords and acquired the surname of Cadarn, which means “powerful”. Derfel took his troops to Brittany in place of Arthur in order to help fortify King Ban at Ynys Trebes (Mont St. Michel) against the Franks. Derfel met Lancelot and Galahad, and found Merlin in Ynys Trebes. When the city was taken by the Franks, Galahad returned to Dumnonia with Derfel and Merlin on Merlin’s boat.

 

Mont S. Michel – Archiplanet

The Winter King, by Bernard Cornwell (512p)

‘Mont Saint Michel’ ~ Mike Oldfield

Druids – Merlin

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