Statue of Richard II in Falaise (Calvados)
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CHARTERS AND CHARTER BOOKS

The Book of Oaths of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen, established in 1291, included Giverny in the list of
properties of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen in Gasny. The nobility and the clergy understood very early
that the safeguarding of their properties, the recognition of their authority and therefore their
power, as well as the advantages that came from them, would only be guaranteed by the assertion of
their rights with the help of written documents, signed by influential witnesses whenever
possible. Since people did not live long during this period, oral pacts were not reliable,
especially since the spoken word was sometimes doubted. And so charters were created, written on
rolled parchment, certified by noteworthy people with wax seals asserting the authenticity of the
documents. During the High Middle Ages, these precious writings were kept in religious communities.

The invasions that followed one after the other led to the destruction of the Abbeys, and therefore
to the dispersal of its inhabitants and of the archives that had long been assembled and stored
there. The loss of this patrimony is enormous. During the XIth century monks who had returned to
their ruined abbeys reassembled, organized and signed different charters pertaining to a fief or
territory in one or several volumes: these “cartulaires” or charter books are copies of the
original texts that have the advantage of being easier to refer to than an individual
charter and without the risk of damage to the original.

However the monks did not have all the answers and sometimes errors of interpretation slipped into
the transcription of the originals. Sometimes the writings came from memory, and facts presented
are often altered. The charter books are nonetheless important elements for the knowledge of laws,
customs and families in the Middle Ages and are the only documents that allow for an understanding
of the origin of properties, their transmission and the chronology of their filiations.

I offer a few excerpts from this Charter Book (in collaboration with François Suzé)
14H819 – Donation to the abbey by Eudes Havart, for the redemption of his errors, of 20 payments of
annual income on his Cossé mill; September 30, 1228
- Sale to the Abbey by Guillaume Ameline and Marie, his wife, for 2 pints of wheat, of a
parcel of vineyard in Giverny, in the fiefdom of the monks, to whom the stated parcel of land owed
28 deniers of income and the sixth part of a capon; January 22, 1293
- Act of sale of half of a house and fishing rights on the site known as Tresle de Cossi in
Giverny, passed to the advantage of Claude Dubosc, winegrower; June 20-September 21, 1587.
- 14 pieces of parchment; 7 seals; 3 fragments of seals.
14H820 – Exchange between Robert Le Prévost, horseman and Agnes, his wife, and the monks of
Saint-Ouen of the Cossi mill against the rights and inheritance dependent on the provost-marshal
of Giverny; December 16, 1348.
Charters were procedures that vouched for the ownership of a good or a right. They were a title of
recognition or of use, of more or less importance, and they settled daily life questions for the
most noble or most humble. Confrontations were often severe and plaintiffs called upon the
High Court of Justice in Rouen.
- Renunciation of hunting rights.
- Abandonment of rights in the woods of the Abbey of Saint-Ouen.
- Minutes from a surveying.
- Auction of boundaries.
14H820 – Trial at Parliament in Rouen between Balthazar Poitevin, Abbot of Saint-Ouen, and the
inhabitants of Giverny on the one hand, and Nicolas Daniel, horseman, lawyer of the Grand Conseil,
on the subject of the exclusive use (‘banalité’) of the Cossi Mill; 1623-1626.
- Proceedings at Parliament in Rouen, at the request of the Abbot Charles de Clermont,
against Me Jacques Baudouin, priest of Giverny, for violent and excessive language spoken by
the latter in the wine-press and the church of Giverny; 1614.
14H822 – Trial between Charles de Clermont, Abbot, and the monks of Saint-Ouen on the one hand, and
Me Jacques Baudouin, priest of Giverny on the other hand on the subject of the congruent parcel of
land of the latter; 1609-1630. 4 pieces of parchment, 65 pieces of paper.
One will notice that “banalités” are common as early as the XI century. A “banalité” in feudal
rights is the right for a liege lord to require a vassal to make exclusive use of something he
owns; banalité of one or several mills, of fishing in the marshes, perhaps bread ovens if there
were any in Giverny. Tithes received by the clergy were numerous: hay, wine, pressing, without
counting the regular tithes.
- Proceedings on the subject of fishing in the marshes of Giverny; 1609-1622. On the subject
of the tithe of hay, wine and pressing of the provost-marshal in Giverny, 1532-1682.

Multiple payments are endured by the subjects of the fief; payments in goods, payments in money.
“The Duke deducted the ‘muaison’ in the territory of ‘Gani.’ Henri II had left to Richard of Vernon
the result of this right in the valley of Longueville.” L. Delisle 1850: Des Revenus Publics en
Normandie au douzième siècle.
The ‘champart’ is a seigniorial right with deduction from the harvest. It was paid in goods, in
proportion to the harvest, cereals in particular. It was also called ‘terrage.’ Going back to the
treatise in L. Delisle “That which in the Middle Ages gave a high value to the ownership of mills
also called factories, was, on the one hand, that competition did not exist and that each mill was
given the right to mill wheat consumed in certain houses or harvested on certain inherited land;
and, on the other hand, the upkeep and repair of mills was at least partially the responsibility,
not of the owner, but of the men forced to come mill there. Different quantities were required
depending on the sites, which varied from a 16th to a 19th of the wheat that one milled.
The right to mill wheat usually carried with it the right to bake bread.” Payments in money were
common and according to the sites and circumstances, were called
taxes, ‘cens,’ ‘ferme,’ ‘aide,’ ‘assise.’ The ‘fermages’ made up the primary source of revenue for
the Abbey. The tenancy agreements registered between the religious community and an individual
allowed the latter to make use of a property for a pre-determined price and time. In this way,
charters mentioned them in chronological order.
Excerpted from the treatise of “La Gestion d’une Seigneurie Ecclésiastique à la lumière des
registres comptables de l’Abbaye de Saint-Ouen” by Marc Feuilloley, I propose the image of a lease
established in 1724.