Cluny

Who holds it

Name

Hugh V (Hugues V, called 'd'Anjou' in French Wikipedia's list)

Title

Abbot of Cluny

Since

1199

Confidence

medium

French Wikipedia's list gives Hugh IV of Clermont (1184-1199), then Hugh V (1199-1207), then William II of Alsace (1207-1215). Nothing more about Hugh V's family is pinned here.

What it holds

• Cluny: the abbey and the town that has grown round it, under the abbot's lordship
• The sacred ban (1095): a protected district a few kilometres round the abbey, marked by landmarks on the roads toward Berzé, Massilly, Bezornay, Brancion, Tournus, Péronne and Igé, where the abbey's peace and justice rule
• Lourdon: the abbey's castle on the hill above Lournand, an old Carolingian seat where tenth-century abbots signed about a hundred acts; a deanery that supplies the abbey's wheat and wine, and its strongroom in later wars
• Saint-Gengoux: a town where the abbot asked Louis VII in the twelfth century to install a royal lord to secure it, so that king and abbey share it
• Deaneries and estates in the Mâconnais and beyond (not detailed here)

How it was acquired

Foundation charter of Duke William of Aquitaine (909 or 910) giving the abbey to Saints Peter and Paul under the pope's protection; Urban II's bull of 25 October 1095 defining the sacred ban.

How things stand that morning

Held. The abbey is rich in lands but past its peak, and a new abbot has just taken charge.

Wealth

Rents and offerings from hundreds of dependent houses, the wheat and wine of the Mâconnais deaneries, the town's market and the dues of the ban.

Threats

• Debts and the slow decline of the order's prestige beside the Cistercians
• The crusade fortieth
• Violence from the castellans of the Mâconnais

Advocates and rivals

Castellan neighbours on the edge of the ban (the lords of Berzé and Brancion); the counts of Mâcon; the bishops of Mâcon, who resent the exemption; the king, now present at Saint-Gengoux.

Places of note

• Castle of Lourdon: The abbey's castle, treasury and refuge above Cluny
• Priory of La Charité-sur-Loire: One of Cluny's great 'daughters', lord of its own town on the Loire; not drawn here
• Priory of Paray-le-Monial: Cluniac priory and town; not drawn here
• Priory of Souvigny: Cluniac priory, burial place of the abbots Majolus and Odilo, beside the lords of Bourbon; not drawn here
• Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs: Cluny's great priory in Paris; not drawn here

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The foundation, the 1095 ban and Lourdon are well attested; the abbot's family and the exact line of the ban are not established here. The Saint-Gengoux arrangement is attested without a precise date.

On the map: The commune of Cluny stands in for the sacred ban, whose landmarks lay a few kilometres from the abbey in each direction. The many deaneries and the great priories' towns are not drawn.

Primary sources for Held of the king

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Andres, William of Andres (about 1220 to 1234). The chronicle and cartulary of a small abbey between Guines and Ardres, near the border of Flanders and Boulogne. Read online
• Chronicle of Hainaut, Gislebert of Mons (about 1195 to 1196). Ends in 1195, so it has no 1200 entries, but it is the indispensable background for Flanders and Hainaut: the career of Count Baldwin V of Hainaut (VIII of Flanders), his union of the two counties, the settlement with Philip over Artois, the rights, castles, fiefs and vassals of Hainaut listed by a man who ran its chancery, and the youth of Baldwin IX, who held both counties in 1200. Read online
• Chronicles of Saint-Martial of Limoges, Bernard Itier and other monks of Saint-Martial; Geoffrey of Vigeois for the earlier chronicle (Geoffrey's chronicle to 1184; Bernard Itier's notes about 1195 to 1225). Bernard Itier, librarian of Saint-Martial, kept dated notes through 1200 of what reached Limoges: Richard's death at Chalus in 1199, the viscounts of Limoges and the lords of the Limousin, John's passage through Aquitaine in 1200 and the affairs of Angouleme and the Lusignans, and the abbey's own elections and prices. Read online
• The Great Chronicle of Tours, Anonymous (a canon of Saint-Martin of Tours) (about 1227). The Loire valley's view of the Angevin succession. Read online
• Universal Chronicle of the Anonymous of Laon, Anonymous (an English-born canon of Laon) (about 1219). A Picard chronicle whose author had lived in England and keeps an eye on both kingdoms. Read online
• Deeds of Philip Augustus, Rigord (about 1186 to 1206, in stages). The French court's own chronicle for the year, from the monk of Saint-Denis who called himself the king's chronographer. Read online
• Deeds of Philip Augustus; The Philippide, William the Breton (Guillaume le Breton) (Gesta about 1214 to 1220; Philippide 1214 to 1224). William abridged Rigord for the years before 1207 and then continued him, so for 1200 the Gesta is a shortened Rigord with a few added touches: the Le Goulet settlement, Blanche's marriage, and the interdict. Read online
• History of the Counts of Guines, Lambert of Ardres (about 1196 to 1203, unfinished). A house history of the counts of Guines and lords of Ardres, written while Count Baldwin II and his son Arnold were alive and finishing in 1203. Read online

4 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.