Duke of Burgundy

Who he is

Name

Odo III (Eudes III)

Title

Duke of Burgundy

Since

1192

Born

1166 (or August 1165)

Family

Capetian house of Burgundy; see the realm record

Confidence

high

Petit, Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne, vol. 3, via fr.wikipedia

Overlord

Philip II, king of France

What it holds

• Dijon: city, palace, commune and provostship
• Vergy castle and the lands on the near side of the Tille (from the 1199 settlement)
• Beaune and the vineyards of the Cote; Nuits; the castles of Argilly and Rouvres in the Saone plain
• Montbard and Semur-en-Auxois in the Auxois
• Avallon and the Avallonnais
• Chatillon-sur-Seine, shared with the bishop of Langres; Aignay and Villaines in the Duesmois
• a share of Autun and the Autunois with the bishop
• Saint-Jean-de-Losne and Seurre on the Saone (provost or vassal, not pinned)
• overlordship of Auxonne across the Saone (homage of Stephen of Auxonne, 1197)
• guard of Citeaux, Saint-Benigne and the ducal abbeys

How it was acquired

Inherited 1192; Vergy by the 1199 settlement; Flavigny received at Vincennes in November 1198 (as reported from Petit; what exactly was granted there is not pinned).

Allies and rivals

See the realm record. Barons who fought the duke in the Vergy war are reconciled; Stephen of Mont-Saint-Jean took the duke's side.

How things stand that morning

Held and governed by Odo III in person. The duchy is at peace on 1 January 1200. Across the borders: Theobald III's Champagne and the count of Bar-sur-Seine to the north, the bishop of Langres's county to the north-east, the county of Burgundy (Otto I, imperial) and Stephen of Auxonne across the Saone, the county of Chalon to the south, Peter of Courtenay's Tonnerrois and Auxerrois and Herve's Nivernais to the west.

Wealth

The wines of the Cote (Beaune, Nuits) and of the Auxerrois border; tolls on the Saone and on the road from Champagne to Lyon through Chatillon and Dijon; the Dijon commune's yearly payment to the duke; salt bought in from the Franche-Comte.

Military

Rock castles of Vergy and Mont-Saint-Jean, the walls of Dijon (castrum and the twelfth-century enclosure after the fire of 1137), Semur's castle on its granite spur, Montbard, Chatillon. Burgundian knights served on the Third Crusade under Hugh III.

Threats

• the Comte's succession crisis after 13 January 1200
• the interdict decreed in Dijon
• no heir of his body yet

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. 13 January 1200Murder of Otto I at Besancon unsettles the county across the Saone, where the duke's vassal Stephen of Auxonne has claims.Depends on: Otto in Besancon Stopped by: Otto guarded or absent

Places of note

• Ducal palace and castrum of Dijon: the duke's chief residence and the commune
• Castle of Vergy: the Vergy rock, ducal since summer 1199
• Citeaux abbey: mother house of the Cistercians and burial church of the dukes; the Vergy peace was mediated there
• Castle of Semur-en-Auxois: ducal castle of the Auxois

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The ducal demesne list follows the later bailliages and Petit; which castellanies were in hand rather than enfeoffed on 1 January 1200 is not pinned one by one.

On the map: The polygon is the duchy as a whole; the vassal baronies inside it are drawn as their own records, and Church lordships (Langres's share of Chatillon, Saint-Seine, Flavigny, Saulieu, Cluny's priories) come from the Church map. The Brionnais and the Morvan edges are approximate.

Primary sources for Burgundy

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
• 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