Henry the Liberal THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES

Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor Edward Peters, Founding Editor

A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher. HENRY THE LIBERAL

Count of , 1127–1181

Theodore Evergates

university of pennsylvania press philadelphia Copyright © 2016 University of Pennsylvania Press

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104- 4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress

Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data ISBN 978- 0- 8122- 4790- 9 Contents

Preface vii

Chapter 1. The Young , 1127–1145 1

Chapter 2. The Second Crusade, 1146–1151 16

Chapter 3. of , 1152–1158 34

Chapter 4. The Late Bachelor Years, 1159–1164 61

Chapter 5. The Culture of Count Henry 86

Chapter 6. Pesky Prelates and English Exiles, 1165–1170 100

Chapter 7. Count Henry in Mid- Life, 1171–1175 124

Chapter 8. The Last Years, 1176–1181 148

Chapter 9. Legacy and Afterlife 170

Appendix 1. Tables 187

Appendix 2. Chronology 193

List of Abbreviations 201

Notes 203

Bibliography 273

Index 299

Acknowledgments 309 This page intentionally left blank Preface

Count Henry the Liberal of Champagne (1127–81) was justly celebrated in his own time for his generosity (hence “the Liberal”), for his unusually inquisitive mind, and for balancing the practical arts of governance with learning. And that is how he is generally remembered today. As I delved into the details of his life, however, those characterizations seemed inadequate to encompass the experiences and accomplishments of one of the most engaging of twelfth-century . Tutored in the liberal arts from an early age, men- tored in the practice of rulership from the age of seven, leader at twenty of the Champenois contingent on the Second Crusade, and count of two of his fa- ther’s counties from twenty-two to twenty-five, he was by then an experienced and well- traveled who would rule the county of Champagne for the next three decades. As the most reliable of King Louis VII’s great lords, Henry served the king in military affairs and on diplomatic missions, and he married Louis and Queen Eleanor’s eldest daughter, Marie. His brother Thibaut was royal seneschal for more than three decades, another brother, William, was archbishop successively of Sens and , and his sister Adele became Louis VII’s third wife and mother of the future Philip II. Henry knew all the major political and religious figures of his time— three popes, the emperors of Ger- many and Constantinople, Henry II of England and his sons, and a long list of archbishops, bishops, and abbots, not to mention learned clerics with whom he shared a love of books and history. It is curious that no contemporary writer saw fit to pen a biography or even a significant portrait of Henry, who lived so large in the public sphere. Obituaries remembered him primarily for his benefactions, and one simply noted his name, Henricus dictus Largus. Three lengthy praise letters by Philip of Harvengt (ca. 1160), Nicholas of Montiéramey (ca. 1160), and Guy of Ba- zoches (1170s) laud Henry as a literate and generous prince but offer few de- tails about his life, and the brief remembrances after his death are anecdotal rather than substantive. Pierre Pithou, who wrote the first history of the viii Preface of Champagne (1572), had little to say about the counts themselves, despite the title of his book.1 The first substantial account of Henry and his rule appeared in 1861, as volume 3 of Henry d’Arbois de Jubainville’s seven- volume history of the counts of Champagne.2 Beyond being a font of infor- mation about Henry and his world, it provides a catalogue of the count’s acts and establishes a framework for understanding Henry’s life and the evolution of his county. A century later, in 1959, John F. Benton revisited Arbois de Jubainville’s work preparatory to a study of the court of Champagne under Henry and Countess Marie, and although Benton was unable to complete the project, he made two enduring contributions.3 The first was to begin a critical edition of Henry’s known acts, which Michel Bur recently has brought to fruition with the publication of more than 550 acts.4 Benton also proposed that we reconceptualize the twelfth- century “court” of Champagne by extend- ing the concept of the court beyond the vernacular writers to include a galaxy of writers in Latin, the literati clerics and prelates who were intimately part of the “twelfth- century renaissance,” thus enlarging our understanding of the cultural achievements of twelfth- century Champagne.5 The world of Henry the Liberal is much better known today than only a generation ago thanks to the vigorous and probing scholarship devoted to medieval Champagne, its art and architecture, monasticism (especially Cister- cian), aristocratic families and their practices, the trade fairs, and literature both Latin and vernacular. Critical editions are now available of letter collec- tions, ecclesiastical and comital cartularies, library catalogues, and the regis- ters of the High Court that describe the customs of the principality. Among the significant new subjects opened to inquiry are Patricia Stirnemann’s iden- tification of Count Henry’s personal library and her recovery of southern Champagne as a center of book- making and manuscript painting from the mid- twelfth century.6 Within that broad cultural context the friendship net- works linking literati prelates in Champagne with their colleagues across northern France and England assume new significance, as does Count Hen- ry’s singular tomb commissioned from Mosan craftsmen. Without exaggera- tion it can be said that the rise of Champagne as one of the more important princely states of twelfth- century France and its cultural efflorescence can be attributed largely to the interests, vision, and policies of Henry the Liberal. This study traces Henry through the distinct stages of his life in order to capture the contingent events compelling his attention at those specific mo- ments. It is based on the premise that Henry was not the same person in his early twenties, when he led a company of Champenois barons and knights on Preface ix the Second Crusade, that he was in his forties, when he commissioned copies of books by ancient authors in concert with Thomas Becket, then in exile in Sens. The stages- of- life approach is especially useful for understanding Hen- ry’s life and policies as a bachelor prince, the thirteen years (1152–64) when the county of Champagne took shape as a new political entity. Seen from a dis- tance of almost nine centuries, that was Henry’s singular achievement, to con- struct a major new polity, the county of Champagne, and to endow it with the institutions and identity as a province in early modern France that would survive his . It should be said at the start that in the absence of contemporary ac- counts of Henry’s life we must rely primarily on several types of non- narrative sources to reconstruct his life and works: his sealed letters patent, the letters written by literati clerics to or about him, his chancery’s administrative regis- ters (the rolls of fiefs), the fragmentary catalogue of his library, and the re- mains or later sketches of his material works (his tomb, residences and chapels, and books). We also can learn something about Henry from his decision to construct a new capital in Troyes, to found chapters of secular canons, and to make the trade fairs the economic motor of his county’s economy. The chron- iclers who mention Henry’s military expeditions, crusades, and diplomatic missions beyond the county do so almost in passing, yet they testify to the considerable range of Henry’s travels and engagement in “foreign affairs.” This study consequently is highly contextual in that it locates Henry within the events of his time, even when he was not immediately involved, and often deals more with the individuals who directly influenced him than with Henry himself. From these disparate materials emerges the portrait of an engaging personage, as original and captivating as the better- known monarchs, prelates, and intellectuals of the time with whom he interacted. Count Henry and His Relatives William The Conqueror king of England 1066-87 Henry I Adela = Stephen king of countess count of England of Blois Blois 1100-35 d.1137 d.1102

Blois Carinthia Stephen Henry Agnes== Hugh III Thibaut IV Mathilda Henry Ida = William IIIII Sibyl = Roger II Henry Walter king of bishop of of Le Puiset count of Blois- countess of Blois bishop of countess count of king of bishop of bishop of England Winchester d.1132 Champagne 1126-52 Troyes of Nevers Nevers Sicily Autun 1135-54 1129-71 1120-52 d.1160 1145-68 d.1179 1147-61 1140-54 1148-70 1163-79

William IV Roger of Apulia = Elizabeth of count of Nevers d.1149 Champagne 1161-68

France Evrard IV Hugh Hugh Henry I ==Marie Alice Thibaut V Stephen William Adele =Louis VII Marie= Odo II Elizabeth= Roger Mathilda= Rotrou Agnes = Renaud II of Le Puiset bishop of abbot of 1152-81 countess countess count count of archbishop queen king duke of of Apulia count of countess of count of viscount of Durham Lagny 1165-98 of Blois of Blois Sancerre of Sens, of France of France Burgundy d.1149 Bar-le-Duc Bar-le-Duc Chartres 1153-95 1163-71 1164-97 1152-91 1152-90 1168-75 1160-80 1137-80 1143-62 1144-91 1165-70 1149-70 1129-90 archbishop d.1206 d.1207 of Reims, 1176-1202 Philip II Hugh III Henry I king of France count of 1180-1223 1165-92 Bar-le-Duc Henry II Thibaut III 1170-90 count of count of Champagne Champagne 1187-90/97 1198-1201 Figure 1. Genealogy: Count Henry and his relatives. Chapter 1

The Young Count, 1127–1145

We know the date of Henry’s birth, December 1127, only because his father, Count Thibaut, was so overjoyed that he franchised a certain Walter, his wife Emeline, and their children from all taxes and personal service, including guard duty at the walls and towers of Vitry and service in the count’s army.1 The original castle (castrum) of Vitry was built in the late ninth century on a natural elevation dominating the Saulx valley, where two towers and a wall protected a compound of brick buildings containing the count’s residence, a bakery, storehouses, stables, and ancillary residences and shops.2 Directly below the fortress, which was accessed by a single road passing through a gate and incline to the upper ridge, a small town (burgus) was surrounded by a moat. Count Thibaut had acquired Vitry only two years earlier, in 1125, and apparently upgraded the site for his new bride, for Robert of Torigni later called Vitry “a very fine fortress.”3 Count Thibaut (1120–52) was one of the most powerful princes of north- ern France, esteemed by laymen and religious alike for his honesty, piety, and personal comportment. According to a sober writer like Orderic Vitalis, he was renowned among knights, a lover of peace and justice, and distinguished among the princes of France by wealth and character.4 Before 1125 his vast as- sortment of lands extended from his ancestral counties of Blois and Chartres in western France (he was always called count of Blois) to the northern plains of Champagne east of the royal domain, in what later would be called . His eastern lands included one episcopal town, Meaux, which he shared with its bishop but seldom visited. Thibaut favored rather his castle-towns located on rivers, notably Château-Thierry on the , Bray- sur- Seine, and Montereau- fault- , and a few inland towns: the centrally located Sézanne, where he often held court with his barons; Coulommiers, a favorite Map 1. Count Thibaut’s lands in 1150. The Young Count 3 retreat of his mother, Countess Adela of Blois; and especially Provins, his most important commercial center. The fertile plains of Brie supported many of the count’s knights who rendered castle- guard in his towns in return for their fiefs, but beyond the castellans who administered the count’s fortified sites, Brie harbored relatively few castle lords. In 1125 Thibaut acquired his uncle Count Hugh’s three contiguous coun- ties of Troyes, Bar- sur-, and Vitry in southern Champagne, which con- trolled the upper reaches of the Seine, Aube, and Marne Rivers and included the old episcopal city of Troyes (Map 1).5 It was with good reason that Thibaut was regarded as the most powerful lord in northern France and royal sympa- thizers cast him as the chief rival to King Louis VI. The chronicler of Morigny, writing in the early 1130s, called Thibaut “count of Chartres, Blois, Meaux, and many other provinces, who was count palatinate and within France sec- ond only to the king.”6 Not only did his lands bracket the royal domain and dwarf it in size, Thibaut was, at thirty- three, the most eligible bachelor prince of the realm in 1125. But the count was not interested in marriage, having turned from his youthful bellicosity to an inner life after the White Ship (1120) sank with his sister and brother- in-law and many noble- born men and women.7 He considered becoming a monk in the manner of Godfrey of Cap- penberg, who famously dismantled his castles in order to follow Norbert of Xanten, founder of the Premonstratensian monks. But Norbert advised Thi- baut to become instead a responsible prince and to beget descendants, and so Thibaut sent emissaries to Regensburg (November 1125), where with the assis- tance of Bishop Hartwich of Regensburg and Archbishop Frederick of Co- logne, he obtained the hand of their niece Mathilda, the eighteen-year- old daughter of Duke Engelbert II of Carinthia.8 The couple married in 1126 and took up residence in Vitry, which provided a secure and tranquil home for a family that would grow to nine children. Thibaut’s acquisition of Count Hugh’s lands brought him into direct con- tact with the new order of Cistercian monks, especially with the charismatic Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1115–53), who became a personal friend of the count and his family during the quarter century of explosive growth in Cister- cian houses.9 Thibaut provided substantial material support to Clairvaux, Signy, and Pontigny in the 1130s and facilitated the Cistercian takeover of several existing but materially or spiritually deficient monastic communities. “He bought land, built new monasteries, and gave money everywhere that the servants of God established new colonies,” wrote Bernard’s biographer in eu- logizing Thibaut.10 The count’s support extended to the Cistercians’ stepchild, 4 Chapter 1 the Knights Templar, the band of knights founded in part by a local baron, Hugh of Payns, to defend Christian pilgrims from the depredations of Mus- lim bandits while traveling from the Mediterranean coast to Jerusalem.11 On 31 October 1127, only weeks before Henry’s birth, Count Thibaut donated a house and land at Barbonne near his castle- town of Sézanne for use by Hugh’s knights, and confirmed the donations his barons had made to “the knights of the Temple of Solomon.”12 At the Council of Troyes on 13 January 1129 Thi- baut and his seneschal André of Baudement heard Hugh of Payns, fresh from a recruiting tour in western France, Flanders, England, and Scotland, present his case for the recognition of his knights as a new religious order.13 Bernard of Clairvaux had prepared a tract, In Praise of the New Knighthood, reconciling a deep personal aversion to violence with current needs to protect pilgrims and early Christian sites in the holy land, thus justifying the concept of a new monastic order dedicated to sacred violence.14 In the cathedral church of Troyes the papal legate Cardinal Mathieu of Albano, the archbishops of Reims and Sens, ten bishops, and eight abbots heard Hugh of Payns’s proposal. There followed an animated discussion joined by Count Thibaut and his lay com- panions.15 Ultimately the council accepted the constitution of a militarized monastic order based on the Benedictine Rule. Bernard’s tract promoting the Knights Templar was instrumental in recruiting knights to the new order, which soon evolved into the premier military organization of the West, far beyond what Hugh of Payns could have imagined in 1129.16 But Hugh had planted the idea of permanent armed confrontation in the Holy Land, a worldview that two decades later would draw the Cistercians into all- out sup- port for the Second (the Cistercian) Crusade, in what would prove to be a formative experience for young Henry.

The Education of a Prince

Henry was five in 1132, when first mentioned in a document. His parents had taken him to Coulommiers, one of his grandmother Adela’s favorite retreats in the middle of the plains of Brie, where they renewed her grants to the priory of Ste- Foy in honor of a saint known for her miracles. A hand-drawn cross at the end of the document, identified as “the signum of Henry, son of Count Thibaut,” indicated the boy’s consent.17 Henry’s tutor Stephen accompanied the family, suggesting that Henry had begun a program of study from an early age. Philip of Harvengt, abbot of Bonne-Espérance, later congratulated Henry