County of Meulan

The lordship was based[4] on the north of the Madrie pagus and, on the other side of the Seine, on a narrow fringe extending about five kilometers, detached from the county of Vexin.

Both he and his son Count Hugh maintained an independence from the Capetian king at Paris by a judicious if dangerous alliance with the dukes of Normandy downstream.

The original island settlement was dominated now by a fortified bridge, at which river tolls were collected, and the church of St Nicaise, refounded by the count as a priory of the Norman abbey of Bec-Hellouin.

The county then ran west along the right bank of the Seine as far as the lordship of La Roche Guyon, and included the priory of St-Martin-la-Garenne, of which Robert I was a patron.

It was this division of loyalty that in the end led to the suppression of the county, when King Philip Augustus dispossessed Count Robert II in 1203 during his campaigns against Normandy.