Laon

Who holds it

Name

Roger de Rozoy

Title

Bishop of Laon

Since

1174 or 1175

Confidence

high

Of the lords of Rozoy in the Thiérache. Lists give his accession as 1174 (campaign notes) or 1175 (English Wikipedia); he dies in office in 1207. He has ruled the city for a quarter of a century, through the long quarrel between the bishops and the commune.

What it holds

• Laon: lordship and justice of the city; the commune keeps the tolls and market dues (cambage, tonlieu, rouage), as later royal settlements spell out
• Anizy: the bishops' country seat in the Laonnois, church land since the Merovingian age; the vidame of Laon still held rights there, bought out by the bishop in 1218-1221
• Villages and dues of the Laonnois, some shared with the cathedral chapter (for example Mons-en-Laonnois)
• Homage of great vassals: the bishops' cartulary records homages from the lords of Coucy and the count of Roucy (mostly in thirteenth-century acts)

How it was acquired

Anizy came to the church of Laon from Saint Remi, to whom tradition says Clovis gave it. The bishop's lordship of the city grew out of the Carolingian royal city; the bishop's help to Hugh Capet in taking Laon earned the see its high rank among the king's churchmen.

How things stand that morning

Held. Roger has ruled for a quarter of a century; the commune exists and keeps its dues, the bishop his justice.

Wealth

Justice and dues of the city, the vineyards of the Laon hill and the Laonnois, mills, and the tithes and dues of the episcopal villages.

Threats

• The Ingeborg interdict, which falls on the king's lands in January
• The commune's endless jurisdiction quarrels
• The crusade fortieth

Advocates and rivals

The commune of Laon, born in blood (the townsmen killed Bishop Gaudry in 1112) and always ready to dispute jurisdiction over the bishop's men. The king, who keeps his own rights in this old royal city and arbitrates between bishop and town. The cathedral chapter, a lordship in its own right. The vidame of Laon (the Clacy family), the bishop's officer with rights at Anizy. Powerful neighbours and vassals, above all the lords of Coucy.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. mid-January 1200The interdict on Philip's lands is published; Laon's churches are expected to close.Depends on: Publication of the Dijon sentence. Stopped by: Philip giving way first.

Places of note

• Prémontré: Mother house of the Premonstratensian canons, founded in 1120 by Norbert in the forest west of Laon with the support of Bishop Bartholomew of Laon; it holds its own estates, not the bishop's

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The bishop's justice and the commune's dues are well attested, but mostly from thirteenth-century acts; the shape of the episcopal lands in 1200 is not pinned. The fortress at Anizy was walled by Bishop Robert in 1212, later than the game's start.

On the map: Whole modern communes; Anizy-le-Château now lies inside the merged commune of Anizy-le-Grand, which is larger than the medieval lordship. Other episcopal villages are not 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.