Feudal Society in Medieval France: Documents from the County of Champagne 9780812200461

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Feudal Society in Medieval France

University of I'ennsylvatlia I'ress MIDDLE AGES SERIES Edited by Edward I'eters Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History University of Pennsylvania

A listing of the available books in the series appears at the back of this volurne

F e ~ d a Society l in Medieval France Documents from the County of Champagne Translated and edited by Theodore Evergates

PENN University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia

Copvright O 1993 by the University of Pennsyl\.ania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Feudal society in Mecheval France: docunlents from the County of Champagne 1 translated and edited by Theodore Evergates. p. cm. - (Middle Ages series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8122-3225-9.- ISBN 0-8122-1++1-2 (pbk.) I. Chlillpagne-Ardennes (France)-History-Sources. 2. Feudalism-FranceChampagne-Ardennes-History-Sources. I. Evergates, Theodore. 11. Series. DC611.C457F48 1993 944'.3-d~20 93-19240 CIP Second paperback printing 1996

Contents

List of Illustrations Preface

xiii

Acknowledgments Introduction

Chapter I. The Governance of a Feudal State Feudal Policies 1. Permission to Clairvaux to acquire fiefs, ca. 1145 2. The count acquires a castle and grants fiefs for castleguard, 1200 3. The assignment of a new fief, 1201 4. Liege homage is imposed 011a younger brother in 1201 5. Authorization to build a castle, 1206 6. An exemption to the castle policy, 1223 7. An allodial castle is feudalized, 1221 8. Confiscation of an unauthorized alienation, 1234 9. The repurchase of a fief, 1244 10. The great feudal inquest, 1249- 1250 11. Unauthorized alienations to the church, 1250-1252 12. Restrictions on Templar acquisitions, 1191, 1255 13. Authorization to acquire feudal property, 1260 14. Royal taxation of alienated fiefs, 1291 15. Count Thibaut V taxes his feudal tenants, 1257

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vi

Contents

Rural and Urban Policies 16. Count Henry franchises a new village, - 1175 17. A joint sponsorship (parzag-e)of a new community, 1223 18. The communal franchises of 1230- 1232 19. A tax on the Jews, 1222

The Fairs oj'Champafine 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

Regulations of the Fairs of May, 1164 The official weigh station, 1 174 Cloth merchants must pay the sales tax, 1175 Clothmakers at Provins must be residents, ca. 1223 The merchants of Piacenza are banned from the fairs, 1243

Chapter 11. Family Affairs

Marriage and Divorce 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 3 1. 32.

An unconsummated marriage is undone, 1153 A prenuptial agreement, 1205 A baronial dowry, 1223 A contract of marriage between knightly families, 1231 Count Thibaut IV's marriage contract, 1233 A projected divorce settlement, 1224 A marriage depends on a divorce, 1231 A woman takes her estranged husband to court, 1284

Inheritances

A younger son contests his inheritance, 1215 Fiefs are allotted to future heirs, 1230 The statute on the female inheritance of castles, 1212 The custom regarding feudal inheritances, ca. 1270, 1287 37. The age of feudal majority, 1278

33. 34. 35. 36.

Contents 38. An inquest on the age of Countess Jeanne, 1284 39. When a noblea~omanmarries a commoner, ca. 1270 The Dower Custovn 40. Count Thibaut 111dowers Countess Blanche, 1199 41. The seneschal's wife does homage for her dower lands, 1209 42. Two knights dower their wives, 1221, 1223 43. The dower custom of Champagne, ca. 1270 Ecclesiastical Placements 44. Abbess Heloise founds the convent of La Pomrneraye, ca. 1147 45. Countess Marie and her tutor at Avenay, 1159 46. Limitation on the number of nuns at Avenay, 1201 47. A knight becomes a monk at Clairvaux, ca. 1205 48. The lord of Reynel becomes a monk at Clairvaux, 1216 49. The castellan of Vitry places his daughter in Avenay, 1238 50. Pope Urban IV orders a convent to accept a literate girl, 1262 Testaments 5 1. 52. 53. 54.

The testatnent of the knight Hagan of E r y , ca. 1190 The testament of the knight Erard of Nully, 1249 The testanent of Count Thibaut V, 1257 The testanent of Lady Marie of Esternay, 1279

Chapter 111. Feudal Affairs and Lordship

55. A renunciation and a renewal of homage, 1216, 1219 56. A sale of the vnouvance of rear-fiefs, 1219 57. A knight's family must approve his sale, 1226

vii 54 57 58 58 59 60 61 62

62 64 64 65 65 66 67 67 68 69 70 72

74

75 76 77

.. .

58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64.

Contents Permission to sell a rear-fief, 1229 The two seals of the lady of Ramelupt, 1222 The former chamberlain does not recall a grant, 1238 The lord of Vignory corrects King Louis IX, 1239 A cadet pays relief for his brother's fief, 1252 Feudal tenants must pay homage to a new lord, 1252 The nobles of Champagne protest royal taxation, 1314

Mortgages, Debts, and Sales

65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73.

Castles are mortgaged to the count, 1201, 1210 A baron's debt to a Sienese merchant, 1224 A baron's debt to the count's Jews, 1231 A fief is mortgaged to the Hospitallers, 1231 A fief is mortgaged to the Cistercians, 1238 The custom regarding feudal mortgages, ca. 1270 A knight creates an annuity, 1202 A real estate transaction, 1219- 1220 A lady has misplaced a letter of debt, 1245

Lordship

74. A new village is dismantled, 1171 75. A lord's rights over his villagers, 1203 76. The lord of Chacenay exacts four extraordinary taxes, 1218 77. The High Court upholds Jean of Joinville's rights, 1288

Chapter IV.The Crusades The Templays

@

78. William of Tyre describes the Templars in 1118 79. Bernard of Clairvaux, I n Pyaise of the New I