Langres

Who holds it

Name

Not pinned: Hilduin (Hutin) de Vendeuvre, newly elected, or his suspended predecessor Garnier de Rochefort

Title

Bishop of Langres, count of Langres

Since

1199 or 1200 (Hilduin)

Confidence

low

Garnier de Rochefort, once abbot of Auberive and of Clairvaux, bishop from 1193, was charged at Rome with reckless spending by Hilduin de Vendeuvre and suspended by Innocent III; he went to the Holy Land and on his return resigned and retired to Clairvaux. English Wikipedia ends his rule in 1199 and starts Hutin de Vandeuvre's in 1199; French Wikipedia and Geneawiki give Hilduin from 1200 to 1203. On 1 January 1200 the see is either newly in Hilduin's hands or still in transition; the day is not pinned.

What it holds

• Langres: city and county with the comital rights; the townsmen's franchises go back to 1168
• Mussy (Mussy-l'Évêque, now Mussy-sur-Seine): the bishops' town, enclosed with a wall of sixteen towers about 1147
• Montsaugeon: castle south of Langres, which the bishops defended at law against Duke Odo II of Burgundy in 1153
• Rights left in Dijon: the dukes took the city from the bishops in the early eleventh century, but the bishops kept some rights there

How it was acquired

Comital rights in Langres by King Lothar's grant of 967. The full county in 1179 from Duke Hugh III of Burgundy (Universalis says bought, other sources say given), put under the protection of the king of France by Bishop Walter of Burgundy.

How things stand that morning

Held by the church, but the episcopal chair itself is in transition after Garnier's suspension and resignation.

Wealth

Tolls on the roads that cross the Langres plateau, the county's justice and dues, the market of Mussy on the upper Seine, and woods.

Threats

• A disputed succession: a suspended and resigning bishop, and his accuser in his place
• The dukes of Burgundy's old claims
• The interdict on Philip's lands, if it is read to cover a fief held directly of the king

Advocates and rivals

The dukes of Burgundy, who once held the county and have fought the bishops over castles (Montsaugeon in 1153) and over Dijon. The counts of Champagne to the north. The cathedral chapter. The great Cistercian houses of the diocese (Clairvaux, Morimond, Auberive), exempt and rich.

Places of note

• Abbey of Clairvaux: Bernard's abbey, head of the largest Cistercian family, in the diocese of Langres; exempt and holding its own granges, not the bishop's land; Garnier de Rochefort had been its abbot

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The 967 and 1179 grants and Mussy's walls are well attested; the holder on 1 January 1200 is not pinned, and the full list of episcopal castles is not established here.

On the map: Only the city and the two best attested episcopal places are drawn. The county of Langres extended further around the city, and the bishop's fiefs ran across northern Burgundy; their limits in 1200 are not established here.

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.