ESTOUTEVILLE
. The Estoutevilles were a great seigneurial family whose senior line was based at
Vallemont in the Caux district of eastern Normandy. They claimed descent from a
legendary Viking ancestor, Stoot (or Estout) the Dane. Robert I d’Estouteville
participated in the Norman conquest of England, and his several sons by a second, Saxon,
wife produced the English Stutevill families.
The main line of the Estoutevilles, in Normandy, survived until the 18th century,
being loyal to the French crown after royal acquisition of Normandy in 1204. Jean II, lord
of Estouteville, was captured by the English at Agincourt in 1415 and lost his lands in the
subsequent English conquest of Normandy. His elder son, Louis, however, profited from
the French reconquest and regained the family lands, while Jean’s younger son,
Guillaume (1403–1483), held several bishoprics and abbacies, became archbishop of
Rouen and a cardinal, and was a major figure at the papal court for several decades.
The family produced prominent cadet lines, the most important being the lords of
Torcy, descended from Estout, a younger son of Jean I, lord of Estouteville (d. 1259).
Estout’s son, Jean, married the daughter of a constable of France and sired a large and
influential family. Their oldest son, Colart (a diminutive of Nicolas), had a military career
that spanned half a century (1364–1415), and he became a royal chamberlain and
councilor as well as serving fourteen years as seneschal of Toulouse. Among the younger
sons were Thomas, bishop of Beauvais; Guillaume, bishop of Évreux and then Auxerre;
Jean, lord of Charlesmesnil, a prominent member of the Marmouset party at the French
court under Charles VI; Estout, abbot of Cérisy; and Jeannet the younger, lord of
Villebon and a member of the royal household. A large number of adult Estoutevilles
were active in public life toward the end of the 14th century, but many of them died in
the period 1396–1416 and the family never again enjoyed so much influence.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
La Morandière, Gabriel de. Histoire de la maison d’Estouteville en Normandie. Paris: Delagrave,
1903.
ESTRABOT
. The estrabot was a French lyric of mockery and insult mentioned only by Benoît de
Sainte-Maure, Guillaume de Machaut, and perhaps Clément Marot. The two surviving
Occitan monorhymed Alexandrine estribotz by Peire Cardenal and Palais, from which
estrabot is probably derived, suggest that it was fixed in form. Its satirical nature has
disappeared in the subsequent Spanish estrambote and Italian strambotto.
Roy S.Rosenstein
Chambers, Frank M. An Introduction to Old Provençal Versification. Philadelphia: American
Philosophical Society, 1985, pp. 85–86.
Ricketts, Peter T. “L’estribot: forme et fond.” In Mélanges de langue et littérature occitanes en
hommage à Pierre Bec. Poitiers: CESCM, 1991, pp. 475–83.
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