Maubuisson Abbey ( or ) is a Cistercian nunnery at Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, in the Val-d'Oise department of France. It was founded in A.D. 1236 by Blanche of Castile, Queen of France, who may have been buried there in 1252. The site is now within the north-western suburbs of Paris. The surviving buildings are listed as a monument historique.
History The abbey was founded in 1236 by Blanche of Castile, the queen consort of Louis VIII. It thrived financially under royal patronage until the Hundred Years' War.
In the fifteenth century the nuns twice supported rival abbesses.
After a century of decline the abbey was disbanded in 1787 by order of Louis XVI.
From foundation to the Hundred Years War As part of an effort to strengthen the ties between royalty and the abbeys, Blanche of Castile decided to finance and build her own abbey. In 1236 she annexed the lands of Pontoise and Saint-Ouen, which only became Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône much later. These lands had the advantage of being close to the castle at Pontoise, at the confluence of the River Oise and the Liesse stream.
She built Maubuisson Abbey between the villages of Saint-Ouen and Épluches, on the left bank of the Oise. According to local legend, the name "Maubuisson" was translated from Latin as ("Cursed bush"), because of the prevalence of bandits in the surrounding woodland. However, this story is not confirmed by local archaeologists researching Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône archives.
The abbey's enclosure of land covered .
To breathe life into the abbey, from 1237 until 1242 Blanche of Castile devoted herself to a chapter of the Cistercians, and in 1242 she installed, in barely-finished buildings, a group of nuns from Saint-Antoine near Paris. She named the abbey "Notre-Dame-la-Royale", in honour of the Virgin Mary, patron saint of the Kingdom of France, but the name "Maubuisson" has been used from the start.
After the groundbreaking in 1241, it became attached to the Order of Cistercians in 1244. Because of its royal connections it was well protected, and played an important role in the local economy.
Blanche of Castile gave the Abbey three well-defined roles: As a gathering-place for young noblewomen As a royal residence As a royal necropolis: Bonne of Luxembourg was interred there; her son Charles V had his own tomb built; and in 1599 Gabrielle d'Estrées was interred in the chapel choir.
In 1307, King Philip IV of France annihilated the Knights Templar, to whom he was deeply indebted. On 14 September 1307 – the day of celebration of the True Cross – he issued the order for the trials of the Knights Templar from the abbey.According to Julien Théry, this choice of date has a religious significance, since the accusations of the royal prosecutors were mainly those of direct or indirect offences against Christ. According to prosecutors, the Knights Templar "crucified our Lord once more", and in 1308 the lawyer Guillaume de Plaisians affirmed before the Pope that the arrest of the "perfidious Templars" by the King of France was "the greatest victory won by Christ since his death on the Cross".
From 5 to 8 September 1463, while touring the , King Louis XI (born 1423; reigned 1461–1483) stayed at Pontoise, and awarded Royal protection to Maubuisson Abbey by means of Letters Patent, doing so again in December 1474.
The abbey's robust budget let it survive the Hundred Years' War.
From 16th to 18th centuries
At the start of the 16th century, under the auspices of Abbess Antoinette de Dinteville (1482 – 1523), new wings were constructed and the abbey numbered 120 nuns. However, it was a trying time as the French Wars of Religion progressed: at least twice, in 1566 and 1588, the abbey and its associated land and buildings were ransacked by Protestant troops.
In 1597, Angélique d'Estrées, sister of Gabrielle d'Estrées, was appointed Mother Superior of the Royal Abbey by Henri IV. The abbey's doctrine diverged from that of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the spirit of Saint Bernard. The of the Cistercians gave Angélique Arnauld orders to leave the Abbey of Port-Royal des Champs and go to reform that at Maubuisson. She found d'Estrées and her entourage troublesome. With the intervention of the Parlement of Paris, the prévôt of Île-de-France removed them, and installed Arnauld as abbess. François de Sales made several visits to the new abbess.
Later, Arnauld was replaced by Madame de Soissons, but, in Racine's words, she:
de Soissons died in 1627. Her successor Marie Suireau, known as Marie des Anges ("Mary of the Angels"), was chosen (on Arnauld's proposal) as Maubuisson's leader, a position she held until 1648. From 1628, she fought against the influence of Molinism on some of the sisters, but with two nuns suspected of this heresy having been ejected, the orthodoxy and canons of the Cistercian Order were affirmed.
Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate (1622 – 1709), daughter of Frederick V of the Palatinate and aunt of Elizabeth Charlotte of Bavaria, second sister-in-law of Louis XIV, also served as Abbess of Maubuisson.
On 27 April 1769, Archbishop Christophe de Beaumont, the Duke of Saint-Cloud, visited the abbey to restore friendly relations between the abbess and her nuns.
In the 18th century, the abbey shrank in numbers, from 70 nuns in 1720 to only 18 in 1780. In 1786, Louis XVI decided to disband it.
Before the French Revolution, the Abbess earned around 5,000 livres in tithes.
Abbesses
Yearfrom Yearto Abbess 1242 1275 Guillemette I 1275 1276 Agnès de Laval 1276 1309 Blanche de Brienne d'Eu 1309 1345 Isabelle de Montmorency 1345 1362 Marguerite I de Moncy 1362 1390 Philippa Paynel of Hambye 1390 1391 Catherine I of Flins 1391 1406 Jeanne d'Ivry 1406 1456 Catherine II of Estouteville 1456 1461 Madeleine I 1461 1473 Marguerite II Danes 1473 1482 Guillemette II Martine 1482 1523 Antoinette of Dinteville des Chenets 1523 1524 Henriette de Villers la Faye 1524 1543 Mary of Montmorency 1543 1546 Mary II of Annebault 1546 1574 Mary III of Pisseleu d'Heilly 1574 1594 Madeleine II Tiercelin of Brosses 1594 1597 Françoise Tiercelin de Brosses 1597 1618 Angélique d'Estrées 1618 1621 Interim of the Abbess of Port-Royal des Champs 1623 1626 Charlotte I of Bourbon-Soissons 1626 1648 Mary IV Suireau of Rocheren 1648 1652 Suzanne of Hénin-Liétard de Roches 1652 1653 Marguerite III of Béthune of Orval 1653 1664 Catherine III Angélique of Valois-Orléans-Longueville 1664 1709 Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate 1709 1719 Charlotte II Joubert of the Bastide of Chateaumorand 1719 1765 Charlotte III of Colbert-Croissy 1765 1766 Mary V Margaret of Jarente of Senas d'Orgeval 1766 1780 Venture-Gabrielle of Pontevès of Maubousquet 1780 1786 Gabrielle-Césarine of Beynac
After the Revolution
In 1786, Louis XVI decreed that the abbey had lost its religious function, and the French Revolution only entrenched that view. In 1793 it became a military hospital, and then served as a stone quarry at the start of the 19th century. Such buildings as were still useful by the mid-19th century either became part of a textile mill or were closed.
In 1947 the abbey was classed as a monument historique, and became the property of the Departmental Council of Val-d'Oise in 1979. For two years, until 1981, there were some exploratory archaeological digs, followed by important restorative works, in particular to the tower of the tithe barn.
Centre of Contemporary Arts As of 2018, the abbey houses a Centre of Contemporary Arts which stages exhibitions. Since 2001, it has specialised in plastic and visual art. Artists are invited based on their relevance and newsworthiness, but also for their capacity to explore a space of such unique heritage.
Large specialist exhibitions take place each year, lasting from two to eight months. They are dedicated to the production of original works and reflect the richness and diversity of contemporary installation art, video, photography, sculpture, painting, digital arts, sound, and so on. The abbey is a project incubator lab: all year, it develops research, production and direction programmes along the three axes which make up its identity: architectural heritage, contemporary works, and natural history.
The abbey takes part in , a federated network of contemporary art producers in Île-de-France, which facilitates dialogue between art practitioners.
Description Notre-Dame-La-Royale
According to the writings of Noel Tallepied, dated 1584, the abbey church was an extremely tall building:
Grilles and woodwork separated the cloisters from the nunnery. The high altar was adorned with a white marble altarpiece, donated by Jeanne d'Évreux in 1340. It was demolished during the French Revolution. The centrepiece, a relief of the Last Supper, is preserved at the Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes church in Paris. Other features include a reliquary of the Madonna and Child, situated near the side altar. Dating from the 16th century, it is tall, carved from walnut, painted and gilded. The Virgin Mary is sitting, holding the infant Jesus on her knee. This forms the middle of a triptych composed of three hollow parts, each subdivided into boxes with wooden columns and statuettes representing Paradise, Hell, Purgatory and scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
In 1792, the nuns entrusted it to their groundkeeper, and in 1839, it was given to the church of Saint-Ouen in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône. It had lost its original statuettes, that of the Twelve Apostles at Calvary being replaced around 1840. It was classified as historical monument on 13 May 1897 and stolen on 13 April 1973.
Burials Until the end of the 15th century, the church served as a necropolis for royalty and nobility, as well as for the abbesses who are buried there. There are five burial grounds within the abbey:
Abbey church
This was reserved for the Royal Family and others of high class. 1252: Blanche of Castile During the 1907 excavations, many precious objects were found which mysteriously vanished without trace. 1320: Jeanne de la Marche (daughter of Charles IV of France and Blanche of Burgundy), buried in a black marble tomb on a white marble base. 1271: Alphonse de Poitiers (1220–1271), burial of his remains. 1275: Marie of Brienne (1225-1275)Obituaires de Sens Tome I. 2 de l'abbaye de Maubuisson, p. 655 1296: Jean de Brienne (died 1296), court butler, son of Jean de Brienne.Married in 1251 or 1252 to Marie de Coucy, widow of King Alexander II of Scotland, and daughter of Enguerrand III de Coucy Buried in the choir. 1302: Robert II d'Artois (1250-1302), buried in the choir. 1307: Catherine of Courtenay. 1309: Blanche de Brienne (1276-13 July 1309), abbess, buried in the nuns' small winter choir. 1326: Blanche of Burgundy, died in the abbey on 29 April, buried in the choir. 1328: Charles IV of France (1294-1328), died 1 February, his remains were buried in the choir to the right of the high altar, before the first pillar. 1328: Marguerite de Beaumont, died 9 April, daughter of Louis de Brienne and Agnès de Beaumont-au-Maine. She married Bohemond VII of Antioch in Naples on 2 January 1278 1329: Mahaut, Countess of Artois (1269 or 1270–1329), died 27 November and buried in the choir. 1349: Bonne of Luxembourg (1315-1349), died 11 September, reburied with his son Charles V of France on his death in 1380, to the left of the altar in a space in front of the nuns' small winter choir. : Philippe de Montmorency, to the left of the nave before the second pillar. 1371: Jeanne d'Évreux, together with her husband Charles IV. 1390: Jeanne de France (1388-1390), eldest daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabel of Bavaria. 1390: Philippa of Paynel, abbess, to the left of the nave before the second pillar.
In April 1599, the body of Gabrielle d'Estrées was interred in the choir by her sister Angelique, then abbess, together with her child.