Duchy of Burgundy

Who rules

Name

Odo III (Eudes III)

Title

Duke of Burgundy

Since

1192: his father Hugh III died before Acre in August 1192 and Odo was proclaimed duke at Saint-Benigne in Dijon

Born

1166 (one source gives August 1165), so about 33

Family

Capetian house of Burgundy: eldest son of Hugh III and Alice of Lorraine; a cousin of Philip Augustus in the male line. Full brother Alexander, lord of Montagu. Half-brother Andrew (Guigues VI), Dauphin of Viennois, born 1184, son of Hugh III and Beatrice of Albon.

Confidence

high

Ernest Petit, Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne de la race capetienne, vol. 3 (as summarised on fr.wikipedia); fr.wikipedia Alix de Vergy

What the realm holds

• Dijon with its commune (1183, amended 1187) and the ducal palace
• the castle of Vergy (from the 1199 settlement)
• the castellanies of Beaune, Nuits, Argilly, Rouvres, Talant (not yet built), Montbard, Semur-en-Auxois, Avallon, Chatillon-sur-Seine (shared with the bishop of Langres), Aignay and Villaines-en-Duesmois
• a share of Autun with the bishop
• the overlordship of Auxonne (Stephen of Auxonne did homage for it in 1197)
• the guard of Cistercian and Benedictine houses of the duchy, Citeaux above all (the dukes' burial church)

How it was acquired

The duchy has been in the Capetian house since Robert I (1032). Odo III succeeded his father in 1192. Vergy came to the duke by the 1199 marriage settlement.

Allies and rivals

Ally and cousin of Philip Augustus. Brother-in-law of Hugh of Vergy's son and lord of the Vergy kin. Overlord of Stephen of Auxonne. Uneasy neighbour of the bishop of Langres (Chatillon) and of the count of Champagne (Bar-sur-Seine). Kin of the Auvergne brothers and of the Dauphin of Viennois.

The realm that morning

Odo III rules the duchy in person from Dijon with his new duchess, at peace with Vergy and with his neighbours, loyal to Philip.

Threats

• the death of Otto I, count palatine of Burgundy, due on 13 January 1200, opens the county across the Saone to a girl and her mother and revives Stephen of Auxonne's claims
• the interdict decreed in his own city puts Burgundian prelates between king and pope
• a childless duke: the succession rests on the new Vergy marriage
• the crusade preached by Fulk of Neuilly and led by Theobald III draws his barons away

Consort

Alice of Vergy (Alix de Vergy), born about 1182 at Reulle-Vergy, daughter of Hugh of Vergy and Gillette of Trainel; widow of Odo the Elder of Neublans, lord of Bellevesvre (died 1198), by whom she has a son Hugh. Married to Duke Odo in summer 1199 to end the Vergy war. Odo's first wife, Teresa (Mafalda) of Portugal, widow of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders, married 1193 or 1194, was put away in 1195 on grounds of kinship.

Heirs

No child on 1 January 1200. The children of the Vergy marriage come later: Hugh IV (about six years old in 1218), Jeanne, Beatrice and Alice. Heir presumptive by custom: his full brother Alexander of Burgundy, lord of Montagu (died 1205); after him the half-brother Andrew, Dauphin of Viennois. No act settling the succession is known.

Officers

Seneschal: Hugh of Vergy, made hereditary seneschal of Burgundy under the 1199 marriage settlement; Stephen of Mont-Saint-Jean, the previous seneschal, gave up the office in return for ducal lands. Constable, chancellor, chamberlain and butler: not pinned for 1 January 1200. Local government runs through ducal provosts (prevots) at Dijon, Beaune, Avallon, Semur, Montbard, Chatillon and the like; the later baillis of Dijon, Auxois and Autun are not yet attested for 1200.

Court

Dijon, the ducal palace in the old castrum. The legate Peter Capuano held his council in the abbey of Saint-Benigne at Dijon in December 1199, so the duke's own city is where the interdict was decreed.

Treaties and wars

The Vergy war (1183-1199), in which Hugh III besieged Vergy and Philip Augustus relieved it and took Chatillon-sur-Seine (1186), is over since the 1199 marriage, mediated at Citeaux. In November 1198 at Vincennes Odo swore to Philip not to ally with Richard. Stephen of Auxonne, at war with his cousin Otto I, count palatine of Burgundy, since 1197, did homage to Odo for Auxonne in 1197. In Auvergne, Odo's mother's kin are at war: Count Guy II and Bishop Robert of Clermont are his first cousins, sons of his aunt Matilda of Burgundy.

Rome and interdict

Peter Capuano, cardinal-deacon and legate, held a council at Saint-Benigne in Dijon in December 1199 and there decreed an interdict on Philip's lands over Ingeborg, holding publication over until after Christmas; it is to be proclaimed at Vienne in mid-January 1200. On 1 January it is arriving, not in force. It names the king's lands; whether the duke's own churches will keep it is not pinned. Petit records that Burgundian officials had earlier detained papal envoys in the Ingeborg affair, under Celestine III.

The duchy lies in the dioceses of Langres, Autun and Chalon (province of Lyon) and Auxerre (province of Sens).

Coinage

The ducal mint of Dijon strikes deniers in the duke's name; detail for 1200 not pinned.

The host

The duke owes the king service and leads his own vassals; Burgundian knights served Hugh III on the Third Crusade. No figures.

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.

In 1200

1. 13 January 1200Otto I, count palatine of Burgundy, is murdered at Besancon; the county passes to his daughter Joan under her mother Margaret of Blois, and Stephen of Auxonne presses his claims.Depends on: Otto alive and in Besancon as on 1 January Stopped by: anything that keeps Otto out of Besancon or guards him
2. mid-January 1200The interdict decreed at Dijon is proclaimed at Vienne and falls on Philip's lands until September 1200.Depends on: Philip still refusing to put away Agnes of Merania Stopped by: Philip submitting to the legate before publication
3. 1200 (day not pinned)Duchess Alice bears a daughter, Joan (Jeanne), the first child of the Vergy marriage, later wife of Raoul II of Lusignan, count of Eu (en.wikipedia gives her as born in 1200).Depends on: The duchess's pregnancy; whether it has begun by 1 January 1200 is not pinned. Stopped by: Miscarriage, or the death of mother or child.

Later, on the likely course

1. May 1201 (later course)A peace between Count Guy II of Auvergne and Bishop Robert of Clermont is made by the mediation of Duke Odo (fmg, Medieval Lands, from the charter).Depends on: the Auvergne quarrel staying unsettled Stopped by: a royal settlement or a renewed war
2. 1201 to 1203 (later course)Montbard buys its liberties (1201); Beaune receives a commune charter (1203); after Theobald III's death (24 May 1201) Odo refuses the leadership of the crusade.Depends on: the duke's need for money and his choice to stay at home Stopped by: a crusade vow or a war

Where the sources disagree

• The date of Odo's first marriage is given as 1193 by fr.wikipedia's text and 1194 by a note; it does not touch 1 January 1200.
• en.wikipedia's Robert of Auvergne credits the May 1201 Auvergne peace to Henry of Sully, archbishop of Bourges, who died on 11 September 1199; fmg, Medieval Lands, reads the charter as mediated by Odo, duke of Burgundy. Odo is followed here.

Evidence: Petit's ducal history is thorough and charter-based; the officers other than the seneschal are not pinned, and the reach of the interdict into ducal Burgundy is not settled by the sources seen.

Primary sources for this realm

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