Nevers

Who he is

Name

Herve IV of Donzy and Mahaut of Courtenay

Title

Count of Nevers (by marriage) and countess (by inheritance)

Since

1199: agreement mediated by Philip Augustus; wedding in October 1199 (probably the 20th)

Born

Herve about 1175; Mahaut about 1188

Family

See the realm record. Herve's father Herve III died in 1187; his mother was Mathilde Gouet, lady of Montmirail.

Confidence

high

fr.wikipedia Herve IV de Donzy and Mathilde de Courtenay (from Medieval Lands and Lespinasse)

Overlord

Philip II, king of France

What it holds

• Nevers city and castle, with the bishop of Nevers
• Decize on its Loire island
• Clamecy and the Vaux d'Yonne
• Moulins-Engilbert and the Bazois
• the comital guard over the priory of La Charite and the claim to rights at Vezelay
• fiefs of the Morvan (Chateau-Chinon, Lormes: holders not pinned)

How it was acquired

1199 marriage settlement, approved by Philip Augustus.

Allies and rivals

Herve: favoured by the king; rival of his father-in-law Peter of Courtenay; neighbour of the duke (who later cedes him Liernais, 1210) and of the Bourbon lords to the south.

How things stand that morning

Held and ruled by Herve from Nevers and Donzy. Across the Loire to the west lies royal Berry (see the Royal researcher); Gien, downstream, has been royal since 1199; the Bourbonnais lies across the Allier to the south; the duchy of Burgundy lies beyond the Morvan.

Wealth

Loire traffic and tolls at Nevers, Decize and La Charite; iron of the Nivernais; wood and cattle of the Morvan.

Military

Nevers walled by Peter of Courtenay in the 1190s (date not pinned here); Decize castle; Herve's Donziais knights.

Threats

• Peter of Courtenay's grievance
• the missing papal dispensation for the marriage

Places of note

• Nevers castle: comital seat
• Decize: comital castle on a Loire island
• Clamecy: comital town on the Yonne

Where the sources disagree

• Bouchard (1987), as cited in en.wikipedia's Herve IV, dates the marriage to 1200; October 1199 is followed (see the realm record).

Evidence: The transfer is well attested by year; the castellanies drawn follow the later county.

On the map: Church lordships inside (La Charite, Vezelay, the bishop of Nevers's Premery, Corbigny) come from the Church map; the Morvan fiefs are approximate.

Primary sources for Nevers

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
• 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