Corbie

Who holds it

Name

Foulques of Fouilloy (Foulques II)

Title

Abbot of Corbie

Since

1198

Confidence

high

Abbot from 1198 to 1201 by the list of abbots; his successor is Walter II (1201-1209).

What it holds

• Corbie: lordship of the town, with military and fiscal powers since the late ninth century; the commune of 1124 keeps the ramparts
• Estates and villages of the abbey in the Amiénois and beyond (not detailed here)

How it was acquired

Royal foundation of the seventh century; the lord's powers over the town taken by the abbots after 881.

How things stand that morning

Held, with the commune's royal liberties cancelled by papal intervention.

Wealth

Cloth, mills and river traffic on the Somme, and the abbey's estates.

Threats

• The commune and the king's sympathy for it (the king will restore the commune's liberties after Bouvines, 1214)
• The Ingeborg interdict

Advocates and rivals

The commune of Corbie, which looks to the king against the abbot; the king, lord of the Amiénois since 1185.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The town's history is well attested in French Wikipedia; the abbey's estates outside the town are not detailed here.

On the map: Only the town's commune is drawn.

Primary sources for France (royal)

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 Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. 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
• Chronicle of Robert of Auxerre, Robert of Auxerre (Robert of Saint-Marien) (about 1190 to 1211; continued at Saint-Marien to 1227). A universal chronicle whose last twenty years are contemporary and well informed from Burgundy and the Auxerrois. Read online
• Chronicles of the Churches of Anjou (Saint-Aubin, Saint-Serge, Saint-Florent and others), Various (monks of Angers and the Loire) (11th to 13th centuries; the Saint-Aubin annals run to the 1220s). The Angevin houses' own annals of the succession crisis in their city: Arthur received at Angers in 1199 with Constance and the Breton and Angevin barons, John's counter-moves, the defection of William des Roches and the Angevin lords to John, and the peace of 1200 that left Arthur John's vassal. 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
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Flowers of History, Roger of Wendover (about 1220 to 1235 at St Albans). For 1200 Wendover is mostly Howden rewritten, so he is a second witness only where he adds St Albans material: a long account of Hugh of Lincoln's last months, death and funeral, and anecdotes about John's conduct toward the Cistercians and his new queen. Read online

15 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.