In the
Middle Ages Mortain was the head of an important county (
comté), reserved for the reigning house of
Normandy. Around 1027 it was established for Robert, who was probably an illegitimate son of
Richard I of Normandy. He was succeeded by William Warlenc ("the waning") who was probably his son. In or about 1049 Duke William took it from William Warlenc and bestowed it on his half-brother,
Robert, thenceforth known as "count of Mortain," whose vast possessions in
England after the Conquest (1066) gave name to "the small fees of Mortain," which owed less feudal service than others. Robert was succeeded as count by his son
William, Count of Mortain, who rebelled against
Henry I, was captured at the
battle of Tinchebrai (1106) and forfeited his possessions. Some years later, Henry bestowed the comtéship on his nephew
Stephen, who became king in 1135. On Stephen's death (1154) his surviving son William became count of Mortain, but when William died childless in 1159 the title was resumed by Henry II. On the accession of
Richard I (1189) he granted it to his brother
John, who was thenceforth known as count of Mortain until he ascended the throne (1199). With his loss of Normandy the
comté was lost, but after the recapture of the province by the House of Lancaster, Edmund Beaufort, a grandson of
John of Gaunt, was created count of Mortain and so styled till 1441, when he was made
earl of Dorset. In August 1944, Mortain was the site of an important battle between the German and American forces. Over a period of six nights the
30th Infantry Division fought (with one radio with dying batteries) against the German Panzer counter-attack of
Operation Lüttich, to preserve the breakout established in
Operation Cobra. The defence failed and the Germans recaptured the town but could not hold it owing to developments along the front. The famed American author
J.D. Salinger, who wrote
The Catcher in the Rye, fought alongside the American forces, an experience that his daughter claims led to his
post-traumatic syndrome.
Heraldry ==Sights==