Ref:

Histoire des ducs de Normandie -Guillaume de Jumi�ges, Orderic Vital et Robert de Torigni, �d. Guizot, 1826, p.82-83
La Seigneurie de Bell�me (Xe-XIIe si�cle)- G�rard Louise, le Pays Bas-Normand, n�199 � 202, 1990-1991, 2 volumes, pp. 351, 429

m. MATHILDE de CONDE sur NOIREAU

Before 1026 William was involved in a battle with his lord, Herbert I of Maine which he wins with the help of the Giroie family. Afterwards he was a faithful follower of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. In 1027 he rebelled against the new Duke of Normandy, Robert "the Magnificent". William retreated to his castle of Alencon but was compelled to surrender and he was forced to go to the Duke wearing a saddle on his back. The peace was short lived and a few years later he sent his two sons to fight the Duke's army and they are defeated and his son Fulk is killed. William hears of the defeat and the death of his son and he himself dies of grief. Around 1020 William founded the Abbey of Lonlay and also donated to the church in Domfront.

Issue-

Ref:

History of Normandy- Orderic Vitalis, Volume 2, ed. Guizot, 1825, p.20
History of the Dukes of Normandy- William of Jumieges, Ed. Guizot, 1826, Book VI, p.139

m.1. HILDEBURGE
2. Habergasse Beaumont, d. of Raoul de Beaumont, Viscount of Maine

William Talvas became lord of Belleme after the murder of his brother Robert by Gauthier de Sordains. Robert hanged Gauthier's father and brothers after their capture during the battle. His reputation was that of a cruel, wicked and tyrannical man without a human face, the "worst of his brothers by far, his cruelty flourished to this day among his descendants," "a Bear in cruelty but timid as a hare." According to the historian of the time, William Jumi�ges, William Talvas, dissatisfied with his first wife, had her strangled by two robbers on the way to church before all the people. He remarried shortly with Habergasse Beaumont, daughter of Raoul V de Beaumont, Viscount of Maine. For the wedding he invited William Giroie, Lord Montreuil-l'Argill�, D 'Echauffour et de St. C�neri to whom he had great obligations of fealty. He received and treated him kindly for several days before having him secretly arrested. Before leaving for a hunting party, he gave orders to put out his eyes, cut off his nose and ears and castrated him in front of the people of Alencon. Outraged by this act, the brothers of William Giroie, Raoul dit "Mal Couronne" (evil crowned), Robert, and their allies avenged themselves by ravaging, pillaging and burning his lands and laying siege to his castle and challenged him to come out and fight.

It was his own son, Arnulphe, who threw him out, condemning him to a life of wandering and exile taking all the wealth and land from his father. The historians wrote that "If the cruelty of William Talvas was great, the wickedness of his son went further" His actions availed him little because he was strangled in his sleep at his manor of St. B�mer-les-Forges.

The sequence of events is then unclear. It seems that William had asked the Count of Anjou to intervene to help recover his lost land. He accepted and Alencon and Domfront then rebelled against the Normans. The Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, undertook a military campaign to subdue the rebels and seize control of the lordship of Belleme. The military offensive was a success. According to Orderic Vitalis, after years of wandering, the Montgomery Family eventually takes back Talvas and his daughter Mabel in exchange for which Talvas offered her in marriage to Roger Montgomery, Vicomte de l 'Hi�mois. It appears that this marriage was imposed by William the Conqueror so that the lordship would enter into the orbit of the duchy as Roger de Montgomery was a follower of the Duke and a distant cousin.

The name "Talvas" derives from talevassier- a warrior robber, devastating, living by rapine.

Issue-

Ref:

History of Normandy- William Jumi�ges, Orderic Vital, Robert Torigni, V. 1070, Ed. Fran�ois Guizot, Caen, Mancel, 1826
"The Lordship of Belleme Xe--XIIecentury. Devolution and territorial construction of a domain border to border of Normandy and Maine at the turn of the millennium "- G�rard Louise The Netherlands-Norman, 3-4, 1993