Chartres

Who holds it

Name

Louis of Blois; Bishop Renaud de Mouçon (1182-1217)

Title

Count of Chartres and bishop of Chartres

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

Shared: the count (Louis of Blois) holds the castle and the comital prévôté; the bishop, Renaud de Mouçon, and the chapter hold the cloister, their own courts and much of the city. A viscount and the bishop's vidame hold hereditary offices beside them.

How things stand that morning

Count and chapter in their usual quarrels; no war. Whether the bishop will observe the coming interdict is open.

Charter

No commune.

Council

None recognised.

Communities

Not recorded for 1200.

Fairs and markets

Pilgrim fairs at the Virgin's feasts (not pinned in detail).

Militia

Not recorded.

Walls and castle

Walled city with the count's castle; the cathedral and its cloister form a town within the town.

Trade and crafts

Beauce grain, cloth and leather worked on the Eure, the chartrain penny, the pilgrim trade, the cathedral building site.

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. January 1200 onwardThe interdict on Philip's lands is proclaimed; the bishop must decide whether it binds his church (Chartres is in the province of Sens, whose see is vacant).Depends on: The legate's proclamation. Stopped by: Philip submitting first.

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