Feudal society in medieval France : documents from the County of Champagne / translated and edited by Theodore Evergates.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Evergates, Theodore.

Series:

Middle Ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feudalism.

History.

Champagne-Ardenne (France)--History--Sources.

Champagne-Ardenne (France).

Feudalism--France--Champagne-Ardenne--History--Sources.

France--Champagne-Ardenne.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 162 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [1993]

Summary:

The medieval county of Champagne, one of the most prosperous regions of France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, is a classic example of a feudal society in the strictest sense of the term. Theodore Evergates has assembled, translated, and annotated some two hundred documents from the county of Champagne into a sourcebook that focuses on the political, economic, and legal workings of a feudal society, uncovering the details of private life and social history that are embedded in the official records.

Most of these documents have never before been translated into English, and many are unavailable in any printed edition. Evergates has included selections from chronicles, personal correspondence, papal bulls, inquests, petitions, court decisions, official directives, and grants of the counts, as well as a variety of private contracts of the barons and knights. The documents are concerned with feudal affairs such as homage and tenure; marriage contracts, dower assignments, inheritances, the rights of widows, and testaments; regulations of the trade fairs of Champagne, community franchises, and taxation; and acts of personal violence, liberality, and charity.

Feudal Society in Medieval France offers a coherent picture of a complex and evolving society at a time when fundamental social, economic, and administrative institutions were being defined.

Contents:

Chapter I. The Governance of a Feudal State 1

Feudal Policies 1

1. Permission to Clairvaux to acquire fiefs, ca. 1145 2

2. The count acquires a castle and grants fiefs for castle-guard, 1200 3

3. The assignment of a new fief, 1201 4

4. Liege homage is imposed on a younger brother in 1201 4

5. Authorization to build a castle, 1206 5

6. An exemption to the castle policy, 1223 7

7. An allodial castle is feudalized, 1221 7

8. Confiscation of an unauthorized alienation, 1234 9

9. The repurchase of a fief, 1244 9

10. The great feudal inquest, 1249-1250 10

11. Unauthorized alienations to the church, 1250-1252 12

12. Restrictions on Templar acquisitions, 1191, 1255 13

13. Authorization to acquire feudal property, 1260 15

14. Royal taxation of alienated fiefs, 1291 16

15. Count Thibaut V taxes his feudal tenants, 1257 18

Rural and Urban Policies 19

16. Count Henry franchises a new village, 1175 20

17. A joint sponsorship (pariage) of a new community, 1223 21

18. The communal franchises of 1230-1232 23

19. A tax on the Jews, 1222 26

The Fairs of Champagne 28

20. Regulations of the Fairs of May, 1164 28

21. The official weigh station, 1174 30

22. Cloth merchants must pay the sales tax, 1175 31

23. Clothmakers at Provins must be residents, ca. 1223 32

24. The merchants of Piacenza are banned from the fairs, 1243 32

Chapter II. Family Affairs 37

Marriage and Divorce 37

25. An unconsummated marriage is undone, 1153 38

26. A prenuptial agreement, 1205 39

27. A baronial dowry, 1223 40

28. A contract of marriage between knightly families, 1231 41

29. Count Thibaut IV's marriage contract, 1233 42

30. A projected divorce settlement, 1224 45

31. A marriage depends on a divorce, 1231 47

32. A woman takes her estranged husband to court, 1284 48

Inheritances 49

33. A younger son contests his inheritance, 1215 49

34. Fiefs are allotted to future heirs, 1230 50

35. The statute on the female inheritance of castles, 1212 51

36. The custom regarding feudal inheritances, ca. 1270, 1287 52

37. The age of feudal majority, 1278 53

38. An inquest on the age of Countess Jeanne, 1284 54

39. When a noblewoman marries a commoner, ca. 1270 57

The Dower Custom 58

40. Count Thibaut III dowers Countess Blanche, 1199 58

41. The seneschal's wife does homage for her dower lands, 1209 59

42. Two knights dower their wives, 1221, 1223 60

43. The dower custom of Champagne, ca. 1270 61

Ecclesiastical Placements 62

44. Abbess Heloise founds the convent of La Pommeraye, ca. 1147 62

45. Countess Marie and her tutor at Avenay, 1159 64

46. Limitation on the number of nuns at Avenay, 1201 64

47. A knight becomes a monk at Clairvaux, ca. 1205 65

48. The lord of Reynel becomes a monk at Clairvaux, 1216 65

49. The castellan of Vitry places his daughter in Avenay, 1238 66

50. Pope Urban IV orders a convent to accept a literate girl, 1262 67

Testaments 67

51. The testament of the knight Hagan of Ervy, ca. 1190 68

52. The testament of the knight Erard of Nully, 1249 69

53. The testament of Count Thibaut V, 1257 70

54. The testament of Lady Marie of Esternay, 1279 72

Chapter III. Feudal Affairs and Lordship 74

Notifications 74

55. A renunciation and a renewal of homage, 1216, 1219 75

56. A sale of the mouvance of rear-fiefs, 1219 76

57. A knight's family must approve his sale, 1226 77

58. Permission to sell a rear-fief, 1229 78

59. The two seals of the lady of Ramerupt, 1222 78

60. The former chamberlain does not recall a grant, 1238 79

61. The lord of Vignory corrects King Louis IX, 1239 79

62. A cadet pays relief for his brother's fief, 1252 80

63. Feudal tenants must pay homage to a new lord, 1252 80

64. The nobles of Champagne protest royal taxation, 1314 81

Mortgages, Debts, and Sales 83

65. Castles are mortgaged to the count, 1201, 1210 83

66. A baron's debt to a Sienese merchant, 1224 84

67. A baron's debt to the count's Jews, 1231 84

68. A fief is mortgaged to the Hospitallers, 1231 85

69. A fief is mortgaged to the Cistercians, 1238 85

70. The custom regarding feudal mortgages, ca. 1270 86

71. A knight creates an annuity, 1202 86

72. A real estate transaction, 1219-1220 87

73. A lady has misplaced a letter of debt, 1245 90

Lordship 91

74. A new village is dismantled, 1171 91

75. A lord's rights over his villagers, 1203 92

76. The lord of Chacenay exacts four extraordinary taxes, 1218 94

77. The High Court upholds Jean of Joinville's rights, 1288 94

Chapter IV. The Crusades 96

The Templars 96

78. William of Tyre describes the Templars in 1118 97

79. Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise of the New Knighthood, ca. 1130 98

80. A gift to the Templars, 1201 102

Prince Henry and the Second Crusade 102

81. A letter of introduction to the Byzantine emperor, 1147 103

82. Louis VII praises Henry to his father, 1149 105

83. Bernard complains to Abbot Suger about a tournament, 1149 106

84. Henry requests a meeting with Abbot Suger, 1149 107

85. Bernard consoles Countes Mathilda over her son's behavior, ca. 1152 107

Preparing for a Crusade 108

86. Josbert of La Ferte-sur-Aube settles his affairs, 1146 109

87. A townsman of Troyes finances his journey, 1147 109

88. Count Henry II collects the Saladin Tithe, 1188 110

89. A knight finances his sons' trip to Constantinople, 1212 111

90. The seneschal describes his preparations, 1248 112

Consequences of the Crusades 113

91. The High Court considers a pilgrim's prolonged absence, 1166 113

92. Count Henry's vow while a hostage, 1182 114

93. The Rule of the Order of Trinitarians, 1198 115

94. A mother seeks to ransom her son, 1215 120

95. A thirty-year captivity, 1233 120

Chapter V. Acts of Violence, Liberality, and Charity 123

Violence 123

96. An assassination attempt on Count Hugh, 1104 124

97. Count Henry resists the archbishop of Reims, 1171-1172 125

98. The death of an excommunicated marshal, 1185 129

99. The great fire at Troyes, 1188 130

100. A holocaust of heretics, 1239 130

101. The wrath of nuns, 1266 132

Liberality 135

102. The Cistercian monastery of Vauluisant, 1127 135

103. Clairvaux is exempted from tolls and taxes, 1154 136

104. The Cistercian convent of Argensolles, 1224 137

Charity 140

105. Foundation of the hospital of La Barre, 1211 140

106. Fish for the Cistercian Chapter General meeting, 1216 142

107. Light for Clairvaux and its charnel house, 1223 143

108. Clothing and shoes for the poor, 1228 143.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [145]-151) and index.

ISBN:

0812232259

0812214412

OCLC:

27895012