Paris

Who holds it

Name

Philip II, through the prevot of Paris; the bishop, chapter and great abbeys hold their own quarters

Title

Lord of the city

Since

Capetian capital

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

The king, through his prevot at the Chatelet (Thomas in 1200, see Prévôté of Paris). Bishop Odo de Sully (since 1197) holds the episcopal quarter and the cloister of Notre-Dame; the abbeys of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Sainte-Genevieve, Saint-Victor and Saint-Martin-des-Champs hold their own bourgs and justice.

Allies and rivals

The king and the water merchants; the bishop and the abbeys, each defending its justice; the masters and scholars against the prevot.

How things stand that morning

Royal and prosperous, the court's base. The interdict, published 13 January, will close its churches if Bishop Odo obeys Rome.

Wealth

The greatest market and river port of the demesne.

Military

Walls in building, the Chatelets, the Louvre; the prevot's sergeants.

Threats

• The interdict and the bishop's choice.
• Town and gown violence.

Charter

No commune. The hanse of the water merchants of Paris holds the monopoly of Seine trade upstream of the city, confirmed by Louis VII in 1170 and favoured by Philip. The masters and scholars have no royal charter yet: they receive their first royal privilege in 1200.

Council

None of its own. Six Paris burgesses were named in the 1190 ordinance to help keep the treasure and be consulted on the city's business during the crusade; the water merchants' guild leaders speak for the townsmen.

Communities

Jews, readmitted in 1198 after the expulsion of 1182, back in the Juiverie of the Cite under the king's protection and taxation; the scholars and masters of many nations; the clergy of the cathedral and abbeys.

Fairs and markets

The Lendit, held in June on the plain of Saint-Denis (shared with the abbey); the fair of Saint-Lazare, taken over by the king and moved to the halls at Champeaux in 1183; the abbey fair of Saint-Germain [season not pinned].

Militia

The townsmen serve under the prevot when the king summons; Paris's own quota in the prisee des sergents is not pinned here.

Walls and castle

The old walls of the Cite; the Grand Chatelet and Petit Chatelet guarding the bridges; Philip's new wall on the right bank (begun about 1190, the left bank stretch only from about 1200); the Louvre tower and castle outside the west end of the wall (building about 1190-1202); the royal palace on the island.

Trade and crafts

Seine trade in wine, grain, salt and timber; the butchers of the Grande Boucherie; money-changers and goldsmiths on the Grand-Pont; the building yards of Notre-Dame (begun 1163); parchment, book and tavern trades of the schools.

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. 1200, month not pinnedThe students' riot and the prevot's attack; the king's privilege takes the scholars out of lay justice.Depends on: The brawl happening. Stopped by: Changed circumstances.

Places of note

• Notre-Dame (building): Cathedral under construction since 1163.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Rigord and the king's acts.

On the map: The tierra is the prevote's banlieue, roughly.

Primary sources for France (royal)

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 Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. 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
• 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
• Chronicles of the Churches of Anjou (Saint-Aubin, Saint-Serge, Saint-Florent and others), Various (monks of Angers and the Loire) (11th to 13th centuries; the Saint-Aubin annals run to the 1220s). The Angevin houses' own annals of the succession crisis in their city: Arthur received at Angers in 1199 with Constance and the Breton and Angevin barons, John's counter-moves, the defection of William des Roches and the Angevin lords to John, and the peace of 1200 that left Arthur John's vassal. Read online
• The Great Chronicle of Tours, Anonymous (a canon of Saint-Martin of Tours) (about 1227). The Loire valley's view of the Angevin succession. Read online
• Universal Chronicle of the Anonymous of Laon, Anonymous (an English-born canon of Laon) (about 1219). A Picard chronicle whose author had lived in England and keeps an eye on both kingdoms. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Flowers of History, Roger of Wendover (about 1220 to 1235 at St Albans). For 1200 Wendover is mostly Howden rewritten, so he is a second witness only where he adds St Albans material: a long account of Hugh of Lincoln's last months, death and funeral, and anecdotes about John's conduct toward the Cistercians and his new queen. Read online

15 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.