Reims

Who holds it

Name

William of the White Hands (Guillaume aux Blanches Mains, of Champagne)

Title

Archbishop of Reims, cardinal-priest of S. Sabina

Since

1176

Confidence

high

Born 1135, a son of Count Theobald of Blois and Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia; schooled under Bernard of Clairvaux. Bishop of Chartres from 1164, archbishop of Sens from 1168 or 1169 (holding both until 1176), translated to Reims in 1176, cardinal in 1179. In 1179 he anointed his nephew Philip II. In 1182 he gave Reims the 'charte willelmine', which let the townsmen of his ban elect their own échevins, and the same year issued the Loi de Beaumont for his village of Beaumont-en-Argonne, a charter of fixed dues and elected officers later copied by scores of villages from Champagne to Luxembourg.

French Wikipedia says his complaisance over Ingeborg cost him the pope's favour and his rank as legate. He goes to Rome in 1201 to justify himself and dies at Laon on 7 September 1202, after a stroke.

What it holds

• Reims: lordship of the city with the comital rights (justice, mint, tolls, military summons), the archbishop's palace beside the cathedral and his prisons; held directly of the king
• Inside Reims but not his: the ban of the cathedral chapter and the ban of the abbey of Saint-Remi, each with its own court
• The échevinage of his ban: townsmen's officers elected under his charter of 1182, ruling under him
• Bétheniville: tower built in 1171 by Archbishop Henry of France, seat of an archiepiscopal castellany guarding the Suippe crossing
• Sept-Saulx: castle built by Archbishop Henry of France (1162-1175), seat of a castellany on the Vesle
• Cormicy: castle built by Archbishop Henry of France on the road north to Laon, round which a small fortified town grew
• Courville: archiepiscopal castellany west of Reims
• Mouzon on the Meuse: town and Benedictine abbey, church land since the early Middle Ages (tradition makes it Clovis's gift to Saint Remi)
• Beaumont-en-Argonne: his village, freed by the Loi de Beaumont in 1182
• The right to anoint and crown the king of France

How it was acquired

Comital rights in the city came to the archbishops in the tenth century: French Wikipedia puts the county's transfer about 940; the national monuments service dates full comital rights (justice, coinage, the feudal host) to 1020. The castellanies on the plain were fortified by twelfth-century archbishops, above all Henry of France (Bétheniville 1171, Sept-Saulx, Cormicy). Mouzon is ancient church land.

How things stand that morning

Firmly held. The archbishop rules his ban of the city and his castellanies, and the town has been quiet under the 1182 charter. His weak point is his person: he is about 64, Philip's uncle, and the man who presided over the 1193 annulment of the king's marriage that Rome is now punishing.

Wealth

Tolls and market dues of a large trading city, the archiepiscopal mint, the profits of justice, grain from the Champagne plain and wine from the slopes round the city, and the gifts that come with coronations.

Threats

• The Ingeborg interdict: decreed at Dijon in December 1199 and about to be published; he must decide whether his churches close
• Papal displeasure at his part in the 1193 annulment
• The crusade fortieth, to be raised from his own clergy
• His age: a vacancy at Reims would be the greatest prize in the French Church

Advocates and rivals

The townsmen, who rose against Archbishop Henry of France in the 1160s and were put down with his brother Louis VII's help, and who won their échevinage only in 1182. The cathedral chapter and the abbey of Saint-Remi, jealous of their own bans and courts. The counts of Champagne, William's own family (Theobald III is his nephew), whose county surrounds the archbishop's lands. The counts of Rethel and the lords of the Porcien and the Meuse valley around Mouzon.

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; the archbishop must enforce it in his province or defy the legate.Depends on: The legate Peter Capuano publishing the Dijon sentence. Stopped by: Philip giving way before publication.
2. September 1200 (7 September in the usual account)The interdict is lifted after Philip promises to take Ingeborg back.Depends on: Philip's formal submission to the legate. Stopped by: Philip refusing; the interdict would then stay in force.

Places of note

• Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the archbishop's palace: Seat of the archbishop and coronation church of the kings
• Abbey of Saint-Remi: Holds its own ban in the southern bourg of Reims; keeps the Holy Ampulla used at the anointing
• Abbey of Notre-Dame of Mouzon: Benedictine abbey under the archbishop's lordship; its new church was begun in 1195

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: William's career, the 1182 charters and Henry of France's castles are well attested. The list of castellanies comes from local histories and is not complete: other villages, woods and fiefs of the see are not drawn. The archbishops' castle at the Porte de Mars in Reims dates from 1228 and is not yet standing.

On the map: Drawn as whole modern communes. The archbishop's ban covered only part of Reims; the chapter and Saint-Remi held their own quarters. Scattered villages, woods and fiefs beyond these castellanies 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.