Rouen

Who holds it

Name

John, duke of Normandy; Archbishop Walter of Coutances

Title

Duke of Normandy (the castle and the city's lordship); archbishop of Rouen (the cathedral close and his own fiefs)

Since

1199

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

John as duke holds the castle, the vicomte and the ducal rights; the commune governs the townsmen; Archbishop Walter of Coutances (since 1184-85) is lord of the cathedral precinct and the church's fiefs.

How things stand that morning

Firmly John's; the ducal treasury and the keep are held by his men. Philip's frontier at Gaillon and Vernon is about a day's march up the Seine.

Threats

• Philip on the Seine at Gaillon and Vernon and on the Epte at Gisors

Charter

A commune recognised by the dukes since Henry II; its constitution, the Etablissements de Rouen, was drafted about 1170 under Henry II. Shortly after his accession John confirmed and enlarged the citizens' rights in detail (Webster, citing Vincent and Cheruel; exact date not pinned). Earlier ducal charters (Henry as duke, about 1150) gave the citizens their quay at Dowgate in London and freedom from tolls.

Council

A mayor with three bodies: the hundred peers, and the twenty-four jures (twelve echevins and twelve councillors). The mayor in office this winter is not pinned. The civic officials come from the leading merchant families.

Communities

One of the largest Jewish communities of northern Europe, in the Jewry around the rue aux Juifs (its stone hall, the 'Maison sublime', is of about 1100); merchants of England and Flanders.

Fairs and markets

Markets on the Seine quays; a fair at Saint-Romain in the autumn is traditional but its 1200 form is not pinned.

Militia

The commune's militia; it held the walls against Louis VII in 1174 and, with the earl of Leicester, against Philip in 1193.

Walls and castle

Walled city on the right bank with the ducal castle (the old ducal tower near the Seine); the stone bridge of Empress Matilda across the Seine to the Saint-Sever suburb.

Trade and crafts

Wine of the Ile-de-France and Burgundy shipped down the Seine and wine of Poitou up from the sea; the Rouen merchants' monopoly of the lower Seine below Paris; trade with London and Dublin; cloth, leather, salt, fish and grain; the ducal mint.

Places of note

• Rouen castle: Ducal castle and treasury

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Constitution and trade well known; the mayor's name and the exact date of John's charter are not pinned here.

Primary sources for Angevin lands

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
• Chronicles of Saint-Martial of Limoges, Bernard Itier and other monks of Saint-Martial; Geoffrey of Vigeois for the earlier chronicle (Geoffrey's chronicle to 1184; Bernard Itier's notes about 1195 to 1225). Bernard Itier, librarian of Saint-Martial, kept dated notes through 1200 of what reached Limoges: Richard's death at Chalus in 1199, the viscounts of Limoges and the lords of the Limousin, John's passage through Aquitaine in 1200 and the affairs of Angouleme and the Lusignans, and the abbey's own elections and prices. 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
• Chronicle; Deeds of the Kings, Gervase of Canterbury (Chronica about 1188 to 1199; Gesta Regum about 1199 to 1210). The Chronica stops in 1199, so for 1200 the witness is the briefer Gesta Regum, which notes John's peace with Philip, the coronation of Isabella at Westminster on 8 October 1200, and matters touching Canterbury: the archbishop Hubert Walter as chancellor, the cathedral priory's quarrel with him, and the Lambeth college dispute lately settled by the pope. Read online
• English Chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall, Ralph of Coggeshall (about 1200 to 1224, in stages). Short but independent entries for 1200 from a Cistercian house in Essex: John's levy on the Cistercians and the carucage, the peace with Philip, the king's new marriage and the queen's coronation, and the death of Hugh of Lincoln. Read online

14 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.