County of Champagne

Who rules

Name

Theobald III (Thibaut III)

Title

Count palatine of Troyes (Trecensis palatinus comes), count of Champagne and Brie

Since

1197, on the death of his elder brother Henry II at Acre (10 September 1197), who had named him heir before leaving in 1190. His mother Marie governed with him until her death on 11 March 1198.

Born

13 May 1179, at Troyes. He is 20 on 1 January 1200.

Family

House of Blois-Champagne. Son of Count Henry I the Liberal (died 1181) and Marie of France, daughter of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He is Philip Augustus's first cousin through his father (the king's mother Adela was Henry I's sister) and his nephew through his mother (Marie was the king's half-sister). The same mother makes him the nephew of King John and of the late Richard, and the grandson of Eleanor. His uncle William of the White Hands is archbishop of Reims. Sisters: Marie, countess of Flanders and Hainaut, wife of Baldwin IX; Scholastique, wife of William IV, count of Macon and Vienne. Nieces: Alice and Philippa, small daughters of Henry II and Queen Isabella of Jerusalem, in Acre.

Confidence

high

Birth 13 May 1179 at Troyes, marriage 1 July 1199 at Chartres, death 24 May 1201 at Troyes (English Wikipedia; fmg Medieval Lands gives the marriage 1 July 1199 and death 24/25 May 1201 from the Sens and Boulancourt necrologies). Married Blanche of Navarre, daughter of Sancho VI the Wise and Sancha of Castile, sister of Sancho VII and of Berengaria, Richard's widow. No child is born by 1 January 1200: a daughter, Marie, is born in 1200 (Villehardouin, fmg) and a son, the future Theobald IV, on 30 May 1201, after his death.

What the realm holds

• The county palatine of Troyes and the county of Meaux (Brie), held in liege homage of the king of France
• His own castellanies (the 1172 register of fiefs, the Feoda Campanie, arranges his vassals by them): Troyes, Isle, Villemaur, Ervy, Saint-Florentin, Mery, Pont-sur-Seine, Nogent-sur-Seine, Bray, Montereau, Provins, Sezanne, Chantemerle, Vertus, Epernay, Chateau-Thierry, Oulchy, Fismes, Meaux, Lagny, Coulommiers, Vitry, Rosnay, Bar-sur-Aube, La Ferte-sur-Aube, Wassy, Monteclair and others in the Bassigny (the full list for 1200 is not pinned here)
• The six fairs of Champagne and the conduct (safe-conduct) of merchants travelling to them
• Mints at Provins, Troyes and Meaux: the deniers of Provins (provinois) are the money of the fairs
• Lordship over the Jews of his lands
• Advocacy of churches and abbeys on his lands; the collegiate church of Saint-Etienne at Troyes is his own foundation (1157)
• Liege homage of the great vassal counts and barons (see the lord records)
• Fiefs held of lords other than the king: in 1143 Count Theobald II did homage to the duke of Burgundy for the county and city of Troyes, Ervy, Maligny, Chaource, Chateauvillain and the abbey of Saint-Germain of Auxerre; later counts do homage to the bishops of Langres and Chalons (1214) and to the abbot of Saint-Denis for Nogent-sur-Seine (1226) (charters translated in the Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook). Whether these homages were rendered by Theobald III by 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

How it was acquired

The county was put together by the house of Blois in the eleventh and twelfth centuries: Troyes and Meaux in the 1020s under Odo II; Bar-sur-Aube and Vitry were the counts' by the twelfth century. Theobald II (died 1152) and Henry I the Liberal (1152-1181) made it a single principality with a chancery, a register of fiefs (1172) and the fair cycle. Theobald III succeeded his brother in 1197.

Allies and rivals

Allies: his uncle the archbishop of Reims; his brother-in-law Baldwin IX of Flanders; Louis of Blois, his cousin and fellow crusader; the Navarrese house of his wife. Overlord to be kept sweet: Philip Augustus, who has a claim to the wardship of any child heir. Uncle at the other side of the war: John. Neighbours with old quarrels: Odo III of Burgundy, Theobald I of Bar, the counts of Nevers and Auxerre. Inside: great vassals who look outward (Brienne to Sicily, Chatillon to Saint-Pol and Burgundy, Dampierre to Bourbon, Montmirail to the king and Cambrai, Broyes and Bar to Lorraine).

The realm that morning

Theobald holds his county in peace on 1 January 1200. He is not at war with the king or with any neighbour, and his barons have just sworn the crusade with him. The cities of Reims, Chalons and Langres within his borders are their prelates', held of the king. His officers are in place: Joinville seneschal, Villehardouin marshal, Walter of Chappes chancellor, Gaucher of Chatillon butler. The Lagny fair opens tomorrow.

Wealth

Fair dues and tolls (entry, stalls, sales, weights, the conduct), the mints, the Jews, the comital mills and ovens, wine (Epernay, the Marne valley, Bar-sur-Aube, the Aube and Seine), woods and the salt and cloth that pass along the Seine, Marne and Aube. Cloth is woven at Provins, Troyes, Chalons and Reims, but the fairs sell far more than the county makes.

Military

The count summons his liege vassals by castellany for the host and for castle guard, as listed in the Feoda Campanie of 1172 and its later revisions. Henry II led the Champenois on the Third Crusade; Theobald III has not yet led a host. As a peer of France he owes the king service. His chief castles are Troyes, Provins (the great tower), Meaux (the Marche), Chateau-Thierry, Bar-sur-Aube, Vitry, Sainte-Menehould, Sezanne, Epernay, Montereau and Bray.

Threats

• No heir: a death before a child is born reopens the claims of his sisters and of Henry II's daughters in Acre
• The crusade vow: the cost, the absence of the count and his officers, and the pledging of land to pay for it
• The interdict, if his bishops shut the churches while the fairs are running
• Philip Augustus's grip as overlord: wardship, marriage, castles on the Seine (Bray, Montereau)
• Being the nephew of both John and Philip in their quarrel over the Angevin lands
• Great vassals pulled away by outside ventures (Walter of Brienne in Sicily, Gaucher of Chatillon in Saint-Pol and Burgundy)

Consort

Blanche of Navarre (born 1177), married 1 July 1199 at Chartres. Her dower is seven castellanies: Epernay, Vertus, Sezanne, Chantemerle, Pont-sur-Seine, Nogent-sur-Seine and Mery-sur-Seine (French Wikipedia, from the dower charter, witnessed among others by Queen Adela and by Berengaria of Navarre). Gaucher of Chatillon was a witness of the wedding.

Heirs

None born on 1 January 1200. If Theobald died that morning the county would be fought over between his sisters (Marie of Flanders, Scholastique of Macon) and Henry II's daughters Alice and Philippa, whose legitimacy is doubted because their mother's first husband, Humphrey of Toron, was alive when she married Henry. This is the quarrel that breaks out in 1216.

Officers in 1200

Seneschal

Geoffrey V of Joinville, called Trouillart, lord of Joinville; styled seneschal of Champagne in charters of 1191 and May 1196 (fmg). Hereditary office of the Joinvilles. He took the cross in 1199.

Marshal

Geoffrey of Villehardouin, marshal of Champagne since 1185, a younger son of the lord of Villehardouin, of Marie's old council. Took the cross at Ecry.

Chancellor

Walter of Chappes (Gautier de Chappes), chancellor since 1190, provost of the collegiate church of Saint-Etienne at Troyes, a younger son of Clarembaud IV of Chappes, viscount of Troyes. He keeps the office until his death in 1207 (French Wikipedia, after Arbois de Jubainville).

Butler

Gaucher III of Chatillon, lord of Chatillon-sur-Marne, butler (bouteiller) of Champagne since about 1189 in succession to Anseau II of Trainel; also seneschal of Burgundy since about 1196 and count of Saint-Pol by his marriage of 1196.

Constable

Guy II of Dampierre is styled constable of Champagne in the late twelfth century (fmg; English Wikipedia says the office was not hereditary). Whether he still holds it on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Chamberlain

Not pinned.

Where the court is this winter

The count's palace at Troyes, beside his collegiate church of Saint-Etienne where his father lies, is the seat of his court, chancery and treasury. On 28 November 1199 he held the tournament at Ecry on the Aisne. Where he spends Christmas 1199 and 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Treaties and ties

• Liege homage to Philip Augustus in 1198, for the lands his father held of the king's father (charter of 1198, Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook), with an oath of fidelity sworn at Melun and sureties among his barons, Gaucher of Chatillon among them (French Wikipedia). The month is not pinned here.
• September 1198: Theobald and Philip exchange charters on the Jews, each binding himself not to keep the other's Jews (English Wikipedia; renewed in later charters down to 1231)
• Marriage alliance with Navarre (1 July 1199): Blanche is the sister of Sancho VII and of Berengaria, Richard's widow
• His sister Marie is countess of Flanders and Hainaut: Baldwin IX, at war with Philip until the treaty of Peronne (2 January 1200), is his brother-in-law
• The Ecry crusade oath of 28 November 1199 binds him to the barons who swore with him: Louis of Blois, Simon of Montfort, Renaud of Montmirail and the Champagne lords

Church and interdict

His uncle William of the White Hands is archbishop of Reims and presided over the council of Compiegne that annulled the Ingeborg marriage in 1193. The bishops in his lands are Garnier of Troyes (who took the cross with him), Anseau of Meaux, Rotrou of Chalons and, at Langres, a see passing from Garnier of Rochefort to Hilduin of Vendeuvre. The interdict decreed at Dijon in December 1199 falls on the king's lands; whether and where it is kept in Champagne depends on each bishop.

His crusade vow puts him under the pope's protection.

Coinage

Deniers of Provins (provinois), the money of account of the fairs, also struck at Troyes and Meaux. The Senate of Rome copies the Provins denier for its own coin (the provisini), a sign of how far the fair money travels. The mark of Troyes is the weight for silver.

Jews

The count protects and taxes the Jews of his lands. Troyes is the town of Rashi (died 1105) and the cradle of the Tosafist school; Rabbenu Tam taught at Ramerupt (died 1171) and Isaac of Dampierre at Dampierre-sur-Aube (died about 1189). There are communities at Troyes, Provins, Meaux, Chateau-Thierry, Epernay, Vitry and Ramerupt among others. In 1192 Philip burned the Jews of Bray, a castle in the countess's land. The September 1198 charters bind count and king not to keep each other's Jews; Philip had let Jews back into his own demesne in 1198.

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. 2 January 1200The fair of Lagny opens.Depends on: Custom and the count's conduct. Stopped by: War on the Marne or an interdict closing Lagny's churches.
2. mid-January 1200The interdict over Ingeborg is proclaimed. Each bishop in Champagne must decide whether to shut his churches.Depends on: The legate's publication. Stopped by: Philip sending Agnes away first.
3. 23 February 1200 (Ash Wednesday)Baldwin IX of Flanders and his wife Marie, Theobald's sister, take the cross at Bruges.Depends on: Peace with Philip at Peronne (2 January). Stopped by: A renewed Flemish war.
4. March 1200, or March 1201 if the charter counts the year from EasterTheobald gives John of Brienne property in exchange for Herbisse, with Walter of Brienne as guarantor (fmg, from a charter dated March 1200).Depends on: Ordinary business. Stopped by: Little.
5. 14 March 1200The fair of Bar-sur-Aube opens (Tuesday before Mid-Lent).Depends on: Custom. Stopped by: War or interdict.
6. 1200, dates not pinnedThe crusade barons meet at Soissons and then at Compiegne. Theobald, Baldwin and Louis are given full power and name six envoys to find shipping: Geoffrey of Villehardouin and Milo the Brabancon for Theobald. The envoys reach Venice in February 1201 and make the treaty in April 1201.Depends on: Theobald staying alive and willing; Baldwin being free of war. Stopped by: A new war with Philip or John, Theobald's illness.
7. 16 May 1200The May fair of Provins opens (Tuesday before Ascension).Depends on: Custom. Stopped by: War or interdict.
8. 22 and 23 May 1200Peace of Le Goulet between Philip and John; Louis marries Blanche of Castile at Port-Mort. Theobald's part in it is not pinned.Depends on: Both kings willing to settle. Stopped by: Either king breaking off.
9. 1200, day not pinnedCountess Blanche bears a daughter, Marie.Depends on: A pregnancy that is not yet known on 1 January. Stopped by: Miscarriage or death.
10. 1200Walter III of Brienne marries Elvira of Sicily, Tancred's daughter, at Melun before Philip (fmg; Alberic dates it 1201), and seeks the pope's recognition of her claims to Lecce and Taranto.Depends on: Philip's and Innocent's goodwill. Stopped by: The pope refusing; the Staufen party.
11. 11 July 1200The hot fair of Troyes opens.Depends on: Custom. Stopped by: War or interdict.
12. September 1200The interdict is lifted after Philip submits.Depends on: Philip's submission. Stopped by: Philip holding out.
13. 14 September 1200The fair of Saint-Ayoul opens at Provins.Depends on: Custom. Stopped by: War or interdict.
14. 2 November 1200The cold fair of Troyes opens.Depends on: Custom. Stopped by: War or interdict.

Later, on the likely course

1. 24 May 1201 (later course)Theobald falls ill as the envoys return from Venice and dies at Troyes, aged 22. Blanche, pregnant, bears Theobald IV on 30 May 1201, and in May 1201 at Sens does liege homage to Philip: she will not remarry without his consent, her children are to be raised at his court, and she hands him the castles of Bray-sur-Seine and Montereau. The crusade turns to Boniface of Montferrat.Depends on: His natural death. Stopped by: Play that changes his health or circumstances.

Places of note

• Palace of the counts and Saint-Etienne, Troyes: Seat of the court, chancery and treasury; burial church of Henry I.
• Ecry on the Aisne (now Asfeld): Tournament of 28 November 1199 where the Champagne barons took the cross.
• Chartres: Wedding of Theobald and Blanche, 1 July 1199.

Where the sources disagree

• The brief says Theobald was elected to lead the crusade at Ecry on 28 November 1199. English Wikipedia says the barons took the cross there and elected him; Villehardouin's own account has the barons give Theobald, Baldwin and Louis full power together at the later Compiegne parliament. He is the natural chief from Ecry, but a formal election at Ecry is a reading, not a quoted act.
• GM Church notes name the bishop of Troyes Garnier de Trainel. French Wikipedia says he was of the Gastebled family, vassals of the house of Trainel, and that older historians wrongly made him a Trainel. Name kept as the campaign has it.
• GM Church notes say the interdict is to be proclaimed from Vienne in mid-January; the exact day is not pinned in our sources either.
• The Fordham Internet Medieval Sourcebook's translation dates Blanche's liege homage and the surrender of Bray and Montereau to 1200. fmg cites the charter as dated May 1201 at Sens, and its terms (a widow and regent placing her children in the king's care) only make sense after Theobald's death on 24 May 1201. Treated here as May 1201, later course.

Evidence: The count, his marriage, death and officers are well documented (charters, Villehardouin, the Feoda Campanie); the fair days for 1200 are reckoned from later custom; the full list of comital castellanies in 1200 is not pinned.

On the map: The principality is drawn through its lord and town records and the anchors; the count's own demesne is the record Count's demesne.

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 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 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
• 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
• 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
• Deeds of Philip Augustus; The Philippide, William the Breton (Guillaume le Breton) (Gesta about 1214 to 1220; Philippide 1214 to 1224). William abridged Rigord for the years before 1207 and then continued him, so for 1200 the Gesta is a shortened Rigord with a few added touches: the Le Goulet settlement, Blanche's marriage, and the interdict. 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
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. 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