Is there a historical relationship or link between St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and Mont Saint-Michel in France?
O Adamberry, by email A Although the French site is bigger, the two plainly have a lot in common, being conical-shaped islands close to the mainland and originally being inaccessible at high tide. This made them easily defensible, and both have a lot of military history to them.
Both locations became religious sites dedicated to the Archangel Michael. There is an unreliable legend that the saint appeared to fishermen at the Cornish site in the fifth century, while he instructed Bishop Aubert of Avranches to build a church at Saint-Michel in the early eighth century (though the bishop only complied once Saint Michael had made a hole in his head).
Mont Saint-Michel was home to a monastic community at the time of the Norman conquest, while Saint Michael’s Mount probably was too. It’s possible that both of these religious communities were originally founded by monks from Ireland.
There is a long-standing story that Edward the Confessor (1003– 66) gave St Michael’s Mount to the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel before 1066, but most historians question this, and it’s thought that an ancient charter conferring the gift is a forgery.
The Abbey of Saint-Michel did, however, support Duke William’s claim to the English throne and so at some point St Michael’s Mount was given to them, probably by Count Robert of Mortain, William’s half-brother. Count Robert, significantly, fought at Hastings under a banner bearing an image of St Michael and was rewarded with huge landholdings in England, including most of Cornwall.
Some time later, Bernard du Bec, abbot of Mont SaintMichel, ordered the building of a daughter house on St Michael’s Mount. This was completed in the 1140s and at first was strictly subordinate to Normandy.
The two houses prospered as places of pilgrimage, but drifted apart in the conflicts between England and France. The final break came in the 15th century, when Henry V formally took control of St Michael’s Mount. It was later given to Syon Abbey.