Dijon

Who holds it

Name

Odo III, duke of Burgundy, with the sworn commune

Title

Lord of the town

Since

1192

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

Duke Odo III, lord of the town and its palace; the commune governs the townsmen under the duke. The abbey of Saint-Benigne holds its own bourg outside the old walls. Dijon lies in the diocese of Langres (the bishop is not its lord).

How things stand that morning

Ducal city under its commune; host to the legate's council just ended.

Charter

Commune granted by Duke Hugh III in 1182-1183 on the model of Soissons and confirmed (guaranteed) by Philip Augustus in 1183; amended in 1187. The commune pays the duke a yearly sum (500 marks in one reading of Petit, 5,000 in another).

Council

A mayor and sworn councillors (jures) elected by the commune; detail of their number in 1200 not pinned.

Communities

Jews live under the duke's protection (Burgundy was not touched by Philip's expulsion of 1182 from the royal demesne); size not pinned. Monks of Saint-Benigne and canons of Saint-Etienne and of the ducal Sainte-Chapelle (founded by Hugh III).

Fairs and markets

Weekly markets; no great fair pinned for 1200.

Militia

The commune owes the duke host and riding service; no figures.

Walls and castle

The late Roman castrum with its towers, and the wider twelfth-century enclosure raised after the great fire of 1137; the ducal palace inside the castrum.

Trade and crafts

Wine of the Cote de Nuits, grain of the Saone plain, the road from Champagne to Chalon and Lyon. Mustard-making is said to begin about this time (the date is approximate).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Commune dated by the charters and Philip's confirmation; the council's composition in 1200 is not pinned.

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