FONTEVRAULT, Fons Ebraldi, a small t. of France, in the department bf Maine-et Loire, 8 m. s.e. of Saumur, with a pop. of (1876) 2,651, owes its origin to a wealthy and celebrated abbey, now converted into a prison for eleven departments. This abbey was founded by Robert d'Arhrissel, a Breton monk, in 1099, as the residence of a mon astic society composed of penitents of both sexes. This society took the name of the order of Fontevrault. It followed the austere rule of Benedict, but had this peculiarity, that the monks were ruled by an abbess, and not by an abbot. The order of F. soon spread through France, and into Spain, and in the former country especially acquired great riches. The abbesses of F. belonged, for the most part, to illustrious families, and were subject only to the popes. At a later period, the strictness of the monastic discipline was relaxed in favor of the nuns, whence, however, in the 14th c., sprung
great disorders. Gradually, the order of F. fell into disrespect, but even at the out break of the French revolution it possessed 57 priories in France, which, however, were then abolished along with the other monasteries. The town is of peculiar interest to Englishmen, from the fact that it contains the cemetery of several of the Plantagenet kings of England and of the counts of Anjou. Of these, however, only the tombs of Henry II., of his queen Eleanor of Guienne, of Coeur-de-Lion, and of Isabelle, the queen of John, have been preserved. The old monastic buildings and court-yards, surrounded by walls, and covering from 40 to 50 acres, now form one of the larger prisons of France, in which about 2,000 men and boys are confined, and kept at indus trial occupations. See an account of this prison in Chambers'a Edinburgh Journal, 2d series, vol, i. p. 104.