Count of Blois

Who he is

Name

Louis (Louis de Blois)

Title

Count of Blois, Chartres and Châteaudun (Dunois); count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis in right of his wife

Since

1191, on the death of his father Theobald V at the siege of Acre

Born

1172 (aged about 27)

Family

Son of Theobald V of Blois and Alix of France, daughter of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine: so nephew of Philip Augustus and of King John, and first cousin of Theobald III of Champagne. Married Catherine of Clermont, heiress of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis (marriage date not pinned). Son Theobald (VI), who succeeds in 1205; other children Ralph and Joan died young. His sister Isabelle is the wife of Sulpice III of Amboise.

Confidence

high

Wikipedia life; marriage date and the children's birth years not given there.

Overlord

Philip II, king of France

What it holds

• The county of Blois with Blois castle and town, the Sologne and Romorantin
• The county of Chartres: the count's castle and rights in the city beside the bishop and chapter, and the Chartrain
• The county of Châteaudun (Dunois), with the viscount as his vassal
• Overlordship of Chaumont (held by Sulpice of Amboise), Fréteval, the Perche-Gouet baronies (Montmirail, Authon, Brou, Alluyes, La Bazoche-Gouet), Saint-Aignan and other Blésois and Chartrain fiefs
• Mints of the blésois, chartrain and dunois pennies

How it was acquired

Inherited 1191.

Allies and rivals

Theobald III of Champagne (cousin and crusade partner); Baldwin IX of Flanders (fellow ally of Richard); Sulpice of Amboise (brother-in-law); the bishop of Chartres, Renaud de Mouçon, his kinsman, with whom the counts share and dispute the city. Uneasy with Philip after siding with Richard.

How things stand that morning

Holds his counties in peace. He has taken the cross (28 November 1199) and is planning the crusade with Theobald and the Champagne barons. His formal standing with Philip that morning is not pinned: Baldwin IX makes his own peace at Péronne on 2 January 1200.

Wealth

The Beauce grain lands around Chartres and Châteaudun, Loire tolls at Blois, Sologne forests, the Chartres market and pilgrim trade, three comital coinages. In 1196 he issued a charter freeing serfs on his domains.

Military

Castles of Blois, Châteaudun, Chartres, Romorantin and Fréteval (by his vassals); his own knights and the service of the Blésois, Dunois and Chartrain vassals.

Threats

• Philip's displeasure over his Angevin alliance
• Absence on crusade leaving a young son
• The interdict, if the bishop of Chartres enforces it

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.

In 1200

1. 1200-1201Crusade planning with Theobald III and Baldwin IX; envoys go to Venice (treaty of April 1201).Depends on: The crusade going ahead. Stopped by: Death of the leaders, war at home.

Later, on the likely course

1. 24 May 1201Theobald III dies; the crusaders turn to Boniface of Montferrat.Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: Theobald surviving.
2. 1202Louis leaves for the East with a parting gift of money from John; he dies at Adrianople on 14 April 1205.Depends on: The crusade sailing. Stopped by: Staying home.

Places of note

• Castle of Blois: Seat
• Chartres: Count's castle and city
• Châteaudun: Count's castle
• Romorantin: Count's castle in the Sologne

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Holder, family and crusade dates are secure; his officers, his marriage date and the state of his relations with Philip on 1 January 1200 are not pinned.

On the map: The three counties are drawn as blocks; in 1200 they were a patchwork of comital castellanies, church lands (Chartres chapter, Bonneval, Marmoutier's Blésois estates) and vassal lordships. The eastern edges against the royal Orléanais (Beaugency, Janville) and the northern edge against Épernon and Nogent-le-Roi are approximate.

Primary sources for Blois

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 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
• 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
• The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
• Documents of the French Royal Treasury of Charters, vol. 1 (755 to 1223) (755 to 1223; the archive was organised from the 1190s). The treaties and bonds the French crown kept in its own archive, printed in date order. Read online
• The Acts of Philip Augustus, with Delisle's Calendar, Various (the French royal chancery) (1179 to 1223). The king's own charters and treaties for the year: the peace of Peronne with Baldwin IX in January 1200, the treaty of Le Goulet with John on 22 May 1200, the marriage settlement for Louis and Blanche, the privilege for the scholars of Paris, grants to towns, abbeys and Norman lords, and the first acts of the king's new acquisitions in the Vexin, Evreux and Berry. Read online