Saint-Denis

Who holds it

Name

Hugh (Hugues VI, 'du Milan' in French Wikipedia's list)

Title

Abbot of Saint-Denis

Since

1197

Confidence

medium

French Wikipedia's list of abbots gives Hugh V Foucault from 1180 (some lists 1186), Hugh VI from 1197, and Henry Troon from 1204. Nothing further about Hugh VI is pinned here.

What it holds

• Saint-Denis: lordship of the town round the abbey, with its market and justice
• The fairs of Saint-Denis and the Lendit on the plain toward Paris: the abbey has taken the merchants' dues since a royal grant of 710
• Toury in the Beauce: a fortified estate of the abbey (Suger's work against Le Puiset)
• Estates across the Paris basin and beyond (not detailed here)

How it was acquired

Royal foundation and gifts since the Merovingians; the fair dues by Childebert's order of 710.

How things stand that morning

Held, under the king's eye.

Wealth

The fairs, the market and dues of Saint-Denis, pilgrims at the royal tombs, and the rents of the abbey's estates.

Threats

• The Ingeborg interdict, which falls on the royal abbey above all
• The crusade fortieth

Advocates and rivals

The king, its protector, who takes the banner of Saint-Denis to war; the bishop of Paris; the townsmen of Saint-Denis.

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 royal abbey must close its doors or defy the legate.Depends on: Publication of the Dijon sentence. Stopped by: Philip giving way first.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The French Wikipedia article on the abbey could not be read (the fetch was rate-limited); the abbot comes from the list of abbots and the fair from the article on the Lendit. Toury's fortification is from Suger's well-known account, not checked against a source here.

On the map: Only the town and Toury are drawn; the abbey's many other estates are not.

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.