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Le Mans and Fontevraud Abbey united by the Plantagenets

Le Mans and Fontevraud Abbey united by the Plantagenets

Published on 19 August 2013 - Updated 11 September 2013
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 11 ans

The City of Le Mans and Fontevraud Abbey have forged a partnership around the Plantagenets, with support from the Pays de la Loire Region. This is because both these sites are the birthplace and necropolis of the dynasty of Kings of England that dominated West France for several decades in the Middle Ages. The first output of this partnership is the publication – with the magazine L’Histoire – of an illustrated book on the Plantagenet Empire.

French and English historians, such as Martin Aurell and David Bates, clubbed together to tell and shed light on this story from all its dimensions: from the empire's creation with the rise to power of Henri II to the formation of a fully-fledged European power and to the birth of England and its monarchy. They draw a map of mediaeval Europe in which French and English powers confront each other on the battlefields and in the falsely muffled atmosphere of the royal courts.

With a print run of 4,000 copies, the book is on sale in the Fontevraud Abbey bookshop and the Maison du Pilier Rouge in Le Mans for €13.90.