HELGAUD

died 1048 also spelled Helgaldus French Benedictine monk at the abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire whose major work, Epitoma vitae Roberti regis, is an artless, historically unreliable biography of the French king Robert II the Pious. Exhibiting more adulation than knowledge of the King, Helgaud related how Robert cured blind men and allowed himself to be robbed by beggars. Nevertheless, Helgaud furnishes a few details of the little-known reign and private life of Robert. He also wrote a history of the founding of the abbey at Fleury-sur-Loire in the 7th century. The text of his works is printed by J.-P. Migne in Patrologia Latina (vol. 141, 1844).