Thoire-Villars

Who he is

Title

Lords (sires) of Thoire and of Villars

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

Two baronial houses of the imperial side of the Saône, Thoire in the Bugey and Villars in the Dombes, joined by marriage in the late 12th century (date not pinned).

Confidence

low

We could not read a source on the house in this session; the OMNIA board names it as the house that holds the Dombes and much of the Bugey, and Montluel's history names it as the lord of Trévoux.

Overlord

The Empire in law (the kingdom of Arles); no king is obeyed in practice.

What it holds

• Thoire and Matafelon: the ancestral castles in the gorge of the Ain
• Montréal and the Oignin valley in the high Bugey (castle attested in later sources; tenure in 1200 not pinned)
• Villars in the Dombes, with Trévoux on the Saône (named by Montluel's history as a Thoire-Villars neighbour; date not pinned)

How it was acquired

Inherited; the union of the two houses by marriage is of the late 12th century (not pinned).

Allies and rivals

Rivals of the sires of Montluel and of Beaujeu in the Dombes; neighbours of the Cluniac priory of Nantua and the abbey of Saint-Oyend in the Bugey.

How things stand that morning

Holding their castles; no side in the throne war recorded.

Wealth

Tolls on the roads from Lyon to the Bresse and Geneva; carp and grain of the Dombes; Jura timber and pasture.

Military

Castles at Thoire, Matafelon, Montréal and Villars; no war recorded for 1198-1199.

Threats

• Savoy's old claim to the Bugey
• Beaujeu and Montluel in the Dombes

Places of note

• Villars: Seat of the Villars

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Drawn from general knowledge and the campaign board; no dated source read for 1200.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Low confidence throughout; drawn round the known castles.

Primary sources for Empire

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.

• Annals of Marbach (compiled to 1238, the section on 1198 to 1210 written in the early 13th century). Alsatian annals on the Staufen side of the Upper Rhine. Read online
• Annals of Reiner of Saint James, Liège, Reiner of Liège (1197 to 1230, kept year by year). Contemporary annals kept inside Liège. Read online
• Chronicle of Burchard of Ursberg, Burchard of Ursberg (about 1229 to 1230, reworked by Conrad of Lichtenau). Written a generation later by a fierce partisan of the Staufen and a critic of Innocent III. Read online
• Chronicle of Otto of St Blasien, Otto of St Blasien (about 1209 to 1210). A Swabian continuation of Otto of Freising written from the Staufen side. Read online
• Chronicle of Reinhardsbrunn; Chronicle of St Peter's, Erfurt (Erfurt chronicle in the 13th century; Reinhardsbrunn compilation about 1340 to 1349 from older annals). The two Thuringian chronicles. Read online
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs. Read online
• Royal Chronicle of Cologne (in stages from about 1175 to about 1250; the section on 1198 to 1220 written soon after the events). The fullest German narrative of the throne war from the Welf and Cologne side. 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

8 more in the sources library for The Rhineland, the Low Countries and the Swiss Lands.