Henry the Liberal the MIDDLE AGES SERIES
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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 Champagne, 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 Count, 1127–1145 1 Chapter 2. The Second Crusade, 1146–1151 16 Chapter 3. Count Palatine of Troyes, 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 princes of twelfth- century France. 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 prince 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 Reims, 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 counts 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 dynasty. 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 Burgundy 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 Langres 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 Perche 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 duke of Burgundy 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.