Life
William of Poitiers was born in Les Préaux, France, near Pont-Audemer to an influential Norman family, and Orderic Vitalis gives a short biography of him in his Historia ecclesiastica. Originally William trained as a soldier, which provided a much greater insight into the details of war than the typical medieval clerical writer. William studied at the renowned school of Saint Hilaire-le-Grand in Poitiers and was said by Orderic to have returned to Normandy 'more learned than all his friends and neighbours'. William was given positions of ecclesiastical authority, becoming chaplain to Duke William and archdeacon of Lisieux; but little is known about his old age, and he probably retired into a religious house, or possibly political disgrace Links between William of Poitiers and Duke William's rebellious son Robert can be found, and may explain the latter.
Read more about this topic: William Of Poitiers
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“All my life long I have been sensible of the injustice constantly done to women. Since I have had to fight the world single-handed, there has not been one day I have not smarted under the wrongs I have had to bear, because I was not only a woman, but a woman doing a man’s work, without any man, husband, son, brother or friend, to stand at my side, and to see some semblance of justice done me. I cannot forget, for injustice is a sixth sense, and rouses all the others.”
—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)
“A woman can get marries and her life does change. And a man can get married and his life changes. But nothing changes life as dramatically as having a child. . . . In this country, it is a particular experience, a rite of passage, if you will, that is unsupported for the most part, and rather ignored. Somebody will send you a couple of presents for the baby, but people do not acknowledge the massive experience to the parents involved.”
—Dana Raphael (20th century)
“Through the certain prospect of death, a precious, sweet- smelling drop of levity might be mixed into every life—but now you strange pharmacist-souls have turned it into a foul-tasting drop of poison through which all life is made repulsive.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)