Tournai

Who holds it

Name

Stephen of Tournai (Étienne d'Orléans)

Title

Bishop of Tournai

Since

1192

Confidence

high

Born at Orléans on 18 March 1128, so about 71. Canon regular of Saint-Euverte at Orléans about 1150, student of canon and Roman law at Bologna, abbot of Saint-Euverte in 1167 and of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris in 1177, which he rebuilt. Author of a Summa on Gratian's Decretum and a large collection of letters. English Wikipedia says he was much hampered as bishop by the opposition of his people. He dies at Tournai on 11 September 1203.

What it holds

• Tournai: the bishop's lordship and justice in part of the city, shared with the king and the commune (the shares are not pinned here)
• Episcopal lands in the Tournaisis (not detailed here)

How it was acquired

Old episcopal rights in the city; the commune's royal charter of 1188 cut into them.

How things stand that morning

Held in part, against a hostile town.

Wealth

Scheldt traffic, the city's market and the bishop's dues and justice.

Threats

• The commune
• The Flemish war, which the Treaty of Péronne on 2 January 1200 is about to end

Advocates and rivals

The commune of Tournai, backed by the king; the castellan of Tournai; the count of Flanders, Baldwin IX, whose county surrounds the Tournaisis.

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. 2 January 1200Treaty of Péronne between Philip Augustus and Count Baldwin IX of Flanders: peace on the Flemish border, with Saint-Omer and Aire going to Flanders.Depends on: Both sides sealing the treaty. Stopped by: A last-minute breakdown.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Stephen's life is well attested; the division of lordship in Tournai in 1200 is not established here.

On the map: A disc over the medieval city; the modern commune of Tournai covers a large rural area.

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.