Bishops' city lordships · Lands of John and Eleanor · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Limoges

Limoges is a double town.

The Cité round the cathedral of Saint-Étienne is the bishop's; the Château round the abbey of Saint-Martial, the richer half, belongs to the abbey and the viscount. Richard died in April 1199 at Châlus while punishing the viscount, Aimar V. The bishop rules only his Cité, but it is a walled town of its own and will choose its own side in later wars.

Who holds it

Name
Jean de Veyrac
Title
Bishop of Limoges
Since
1198
Confidence
medium

Nothing is added here to the campaign notes on the man himself.

What it holds

  • The Cité of Limoges: the bishop's walled town round the cathedral, separate from the Château
  • Episcopal lands in the Limousin (not detailed here)

How it was acquired

The split between Cité and Château grew in the tenth to twelfth centuries as the town round Saint-Martial's tomb outgrew the old episcopal city.

How things stand that morning

Held.

Wealth

Dues and justice of the Cité; Limoges enamels and pilgrim traffic enrich the Château more than the Cité.

Threats

  • The viscount and the Château
  • The Angevin succession war in Aquitaine

Advocates and rivals

Viscount Aimar V of Limoges and the abbey of Saint-Martial in the Château; the dukes of Aquitaine (John, and Eleanor in her own right).

Places of note

  • Grandmont: Mother house of the Grandmontine hermits in the diocese of Limoges; the order refuses lordship and is torn by quarrels between its lay brothers and its clerics; not the bishop's land

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The double town is well attested; the bishop's lands outside the Cité are not established here. His allegiance is not pinned: the see is in the Capetian archbishop of Bourges's province but the Limousin is Angevin ground.

On the map: A small disc stands in for the walled Cité.

Primary sources for Angevin lands

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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Chronicle; Deeds of the Kings, Gervase of Canterbury (Chronica about 1188 to 1199; Gesta Regum about 1199 to 1210). The Chronica stops in 1199, so for 1200 the witness is the briefer Gesta Regum, which notes John's peace with Philip, the coronation of Isabella at Westminster on 8 October 1200, and matters touching Canterbury: the archbishop Hubert Walter as chancellor, the cathedral priory's quarrel with him, and the Lambeth college dispute lately settled by the pope. Read online
  • English Chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall, Ralph of Coggeshall (about 1200 to 1224, in stages). Short but independent entries for 1200 from a Cistercian house in Essex: John's levy on the Cistercians and the carucage, the peace with Philip, the king's new marriage and the queen's coronation, and the death of Hugh of Lincoln. Read online

14 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.

Sources and studies

  1. Limoges (fr.wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.