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- BIOGRAPHY
Gui, called 'le Rouge', was a seneschal of France of the house of Monthléry. He was a younger son of Gui I de Monthléry, seigneur de Monthléry et Chevreuse, and Hodierne de Gometz-la-Ferté.
From his parents he inherited the castles of Rochefort-en-Yvelines, Gometz and Châteaufort, while the family seat Monthléry went to his older brother Milon I. Gui is considered to be the builder of the castle of Bréthencourt.
Gui had three children with his first wife Elisabeth, of whom a daughter, possibly called Béatrice or Agnès, would have progeny, becoming the second wife of Anceau de Garlande, comte de Rochefort.
His second wife was Adélaide de Crécy, dame de Gournay-sur-Marne, widow of Bouchard II, comte de Corbeil, who brought the castles of Crécy-en-Brie and Gournay-sur-Marne to the marriage. Of their children Hugues and Lucienne, the latter would have progeny.
Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis wrote that Gui was a close friend of Philippe I, king of France, who appointed him as his seneschal. Suger wrote that he also received the title of count. Gui had a dominant influence at the royal court, to the considerable benefit of his family, in the centre of a closely related group of families of castle lords on the Ile de France. He took part in the Crusade of 1101 in the Lombard contingent, in part to restore the family honour after his nephew Gui Troussel had deserted at the siege of Antioch during the First Crusade.
After his return Gui immediately resumed the leading position at court. He looked to cement the position of his family through a marriage into the royal family. In 1104 he married a grand-niece Elisabeth de Monthléry to Philippe de France, the king's son from his second marriage, and in the same year he married his daughter Lucienne de Rochefort to Louis, the heir to the throne, the future King Louis VI 'the Fat'. Shortly afterwards he passed the position of seneschal to his son Hugues. However in 1107 the dauphin Louis determined to free himself from the influence of the house of Monthléry-Rochefort and he divorced Lucienne. He withdrew the position of seneschal from Hugues and awarded it to Anceau de Garlande, Gui's son-in-law.
The family of Monthléry then launched a long insurgency by the castle lords of the Ile de France that preoccupied King Louis VI for years. In 1108 Gui and his son Hugues had to defend the castle of Gournay against the king's army. Gui succeeded in winning the powerful Thibaut IV-II, comte de Blois et Chartres, to his cause, but Thibaut was defeated by the king in attempting to relieve the siege. Gui had to give up the castle of Gournay, and he died shortly after. His son Hugues then led the insurgency, which continued until 1118.
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