This order was composed of double monasteries, in which the community consisted of both men and women — in separate quarters of the abbey — all of whom were subject to the authority of the Abbess of Fontevraud.

Robert of Arbrissel had served as the Archpriest of the Diocese of Rennes, carrying out the reformist agenda of its bishop.

He then became a hermit in the forest of Craon, where he practiced a life of severe penance, together with a number of other men who went on to found major monastic institutions.

His eloquence and asceticism attracted many followers, for whom in 1096 he founded a monastery of canons regular at La Roë, of which he was the first abbot.

In that same year Pope Urban II summoned him to Angers and appointed him an apostolic missionary, authorizing him to preach anywhere.

When the canons of that house objected to the influx of candidates of lower social states, he resigned his office and left the community.

[2] Around 1100 Robert and his followers settled in a valley called Fons Ebraldi where he established a monastic community.

Initially the men and women lived together in the same house, in an ancient ascetic practice called Syneisaktism.

In his Rule, Robert dealt with four principal points: silence, good works, food and clothing, encouraging the utmost in simplicity of life and dress.

[1] Abbess Louise de Bourbon left her crest on many of the alterations to the abbey building which she made during her term of office.

At the end of the 12th century, the Abbess of Fontevrault, Matilda of Flanders (1189–1194), complained about the extreme poverty which the abbey was suffering.

The fragile economic basis of the Order was exacerbated by the devastation of the Hundred Years War, which lasted throughout the 14th century.

The last abbess, Julie Sophie Charlotte de Pardaillan d'Antin, is said to have died in poverty in Paris in 1797.