Thibaut IV of Champagne: Picaresque antihero of 13th-century France

(Disclaimer: This began life as fragments of two much longer, very unfinished papers. I thought, 'Easy Peasy.' Except that they were in two completely different formats; one with numerous footnotes, the other merely with running parenthetical references. What you see is the result, for one, of extensive hacking through the verbal underbrush. The two remaining footnotes were seen as being of greater relevance to the historical context than to the flow, such as it is, of the narrative. Another concession to the quasi-academic cast of both the original papers is the bibliography. ...It's hard to resist quoting Richard Pryor (standup phase): "...I hope I'm funny.")




Thibaut IV, Comte de Champagne 1201-1253. AR Denier of Provins, 1224-1253.
Obv. Cross; Alpha and Omega in two angles; crescents in the others.
+TEBAT COMES.
Rev. In field (/’champ’), a comb (/’peigne’) of 17 teeth; above, three crenellated towers. (...Replete with the endemic ‘ghosting’ of the cross.)
[From 3 o’clock:] CASTRI PRVVINS
Adam, Corpus des monnaies féodales Champenoises, nos. 311, 313, 315, 319, 321. Cf. Boudeau 1765, Poey d’Avant 5980 /Pl. 138: 24; Roberts 473.
The only variants Adam notes involve the number of teeth in the comb. He lists individual examples in descending order of weight (despite varying levels of wear), rather than by variant, effectively ruling out any intuitive correlation between the latter criterion and the chronology of the issue. Likely enough, as Adam seems to imply, something as minor as the number of teeth varied on a more arbitrary level, as dies were sunk in real time.
Adam also notes the beginning of the type, “Provenois neufs,” in 1224. (P. 122; cf. Evergates, Aristocracy p. 44 and note, citing Bisson 134-5.) Regarding the the three towers above the comb, he notes 19th-c. speculation that they refer either to the city’s castle, with its distinctive multi-turreted donjon, or to the coat of arms of Thibaut’s patroness and literary love interest, Blanche of Castile, Queen and regent of France. Adam prefers the latter thesis, linking it to the equally novel appearance of the royal fleur-de-lis on the earlier issue of Troyes (p. 122; see below.).

(Le Tour César, Provins (c. later 12th centery); Wikimedia.)


Denier of Troyes, pre-reform, c. 1201-1224.
Obv. Cross, annulets in each angle.
+TEI3/\ [CO]MES (‘’TEBAV[T] COMES’’; Count Thibaut).
Rev. ‘TEBO’ monogram (as in the prototype of Thibaut II), but with the ‘’T’’ (left) changed to an ‘’I’’, with the ‘’E’’ and ‘’B’’ shifted to the right and lower parts of the field, and the ‘’O’’ (above) changed to a fleur-de-lis.
Adam 299-305; Boudeau 1750 (attributing the issue to Thibaut V, 1253-1270); Poey d’Avant 5957, Roberts 4148. (Evergates translates one charter of 1231, stipulating that money be paid in “heavy money of Provins.” Since this refers to property in southeastern Champagne, nearer Troyes and across the county from Provins, it suggests that, while the post-reform provinois was already dominant, other and former coinages continued to circulate, at a lower exchange rate. Feudal Society p. 85, No. 68. Cf. Spufford, esp. p. 197.)

Thibaut's nickname, ‘le Chansonnier’ derives from his avid participation the the trouvere idiom, a northern adaptation of the older troubadour literature of the south. If his maternal family connections are any indication, this was no accident. He was a great-grandson of Eleanor of Aquitaine (granddaughter of one famous troubadour, William IX, and mother of another, Richard I), and a son of Blanche, the heiress of Navarre, in northern Spain. Many of his lyrics are extant.
(Goldin, p. 333 for the c. later-12th-c. origins of the trouvere subgenre; 443-53 for a biographical and critical introduction to Thibaut's lyrics; 454-480 for the lyrics themselves.)
In a political capacity, however, he seems to have been much less adept. The first half of his lengthy comital reign, especially from his majority in 1222, was punctuated by unsuccessful revolts against the Crown, and the alienation of several of his neighbors among the middle and upper aristocracy. His fortunes dramatically improved with his accession to the Kingdom of Navarre in 1234, and, as Evergates notes, his administrative abilities were evident from the start. (Aristocracy 42-3; cf. the coinage reform of 1224, noted above.) However, one permanent consequence of his earlier lack of judgment was the sale to Louis IX of the oldest parts of his patrimony, comprising the western counties of Chartres and Blois (with the viscounty of Chateaudun), in 1234. While this took place, ironically enough, on the eve of his accession to the lucrative kingdom of Navarre, it ended the geographic pincer hold Champagne had had on the royal demesne for mostof a century, largely surrounding it west to east. As such, it was a strategic coup for Louis IX, and, more broadly, for the the ongoing consolidation of Capetian royal power, both territoritorial and administrative, from the reign of Philippe II (1180-1223) to Philippe IV (1285-1314).

...For Thibaut, things began auspiciously enough. As Lower observes, Thibaut spent his “long minority” at the court, and under the needed protection, of Philippe II of France. Accordingly, his “relations with the Capetians,” in their early phases, “had been close.” (Lower 96. Cf. Baldwin, Philip Augustus 197-8, 278-279; Evergates 47-8, Petit-Dutaillis 306 for the element of calculation in Philippe’s wardship, in the context of a Champenois succession crisis, from both of which the king profited handsomely.) ...If somewhat fraught. Some of his lyric poetry celebrates his devotion to Philippe’s daughter-in-law, Bianca /Blanche of Castile, the queen of Louis VIII during his brief reign (1223-1226), and formidable regent of the kingdom during the minority of their son, Louis IX. (1)
However, from this point, what Evergates characterizes as Thibaut’s “erratic behavior” took a distinctly ominous turn (Bailliage of Troyes, 3). On Louis IX’s accession in 1226, he joined, and quickly deserted, the “league of barons opposed to [Blanche’s foreign, female] rule,” including Pierre ‘Mauclerc,’ de jure Duke of Brittany; his brother, Robert, Count of Dreux, and Hugues X de Lusignan, Count of Angouleme and La Marche (1219-1249). (Grant 83, Lower 96-8; Le Goff 60. Cf. Painter (42-) 43-5; Petit-Dutaillis 291-2; Richard, St. Louis, 15.)
The baronial coalition, thwarted in their aims against the Crown, focused their hostility on Thibaut, making rhetorical capital of his alleged relationship with Blanche in the process. Thibaut was even accused of having poisoned Louis VIII. By this time, he had alienated Hugues IV, Duke of Burgundy, and Henry, Count of Bar under separate cover. (2) Lower continues: “[a]s 1229 turned into 1230, barons invaded Champagne one after another.” (97; cf. Joinville 184-5 /156-7.) Only the direct intervention by Louis IX, ultimately at the head of an army, saved the county, already “reduced [...] to chaos and financial exhaustion,” from impending collapse. Despite Thibaut’s excesses, royal shelter was followed, two regnal generations later, by royal rescue. (Evergates 4; cf. Le Goff 61-4, Lower 98, Perry 153.)


Thibaut composing, from a later-13th-c. manuscript; Pierre 'Mauclerc,' from the rose window he commissioned at Chartres Cathedral. (Both from Wikimedia Commons.)

The memoirist Jean de Joinville recounts one episode of the baronial invasion of Champagne in 1229-1230, involving his father, Simon, then seneschal of Champagne. While Pierre “Mauclerc,’ with his relations and cronies, attacked from the west, Hugues IV of Burgundy attacked from the east. Joinville recounts that
“The Duc de Bourgogne called in all the men at his disposal; the barons assembled theirs. The barons moved forward, burning and destroying everything on one side; the Burgundians did equal damage on the other. [....] The Comte de Champagne was so alarmed that he set fire to all his towns himself before the barons could reach them, so that his opponents might not find them full of supplies. [....] When the citizens of Troyes realized that they could not count on support from their own lord, they sent to ask Simon, Lord of Joinville, the father of the present lord, to come to their aid. As soon as this message reached him, he got all his men-at-arms together, left Joinville that same night, and arrived at Troyes the next morning before daybreak. Thus the barons’ plan to take the city was foiled. So they passed along in front of Troyes without attempting anything [...].”
(Joinville: Shaw 184-5; cf. Marzials 156-7.)


(Temp. Pierre ‘Mauclerc’ de Dreux /de Braine, Duc de jure uxoris (sometimes styled ‘Comte’) de Bretagne 1213-1237.)
AR anonymous denier of Nantes, c. late 12th c. – c. 1250.
Obv. Cross ancree. +LVX BRIT/\I-E (“DVX BRITANIE”).
Rev. Cross. +NANTIS CIVI (“NANTIS CIVI[TAS];” City of Nantes).
Boudeau 28, Duplessy 64, DeMay 62, Poey d’Avant 282-290 (recording numerous variants), Roberts 4502.


Robert II, ‘le Jeune,’ Comte de Dreux 1188-1218. AR denier parisis of Dreux, c. 1190-1210. (Possibly issued, or continued, by Robert's heir, Robert III, Comte 1218-1233.)
Obv. [In two lines, partially retrograde:] HC-O [/] M[E]S (‘A COMES;’ of the Count. Apparently a combination of the genitive case in Old French (‘a’) with the more conventional, formulaic Medieval Latin (‘comes’).
[From 3 o’clock:] X MI: ROBERTVS (“+M[E?]I ROBERTVS;” [of?] me, Robert).
Rev. Cross, Alpha (‘/\’) in lower right and (inverted) upper left angles.
+DRVCAS CASTA (Castle of Dreux).
Boudeau 4, Duplessy 421, Legros 113, Poey d’Avant 91, Roberts 3935.


Hugues IV, Duc de Bourgogne 1218-1272. AR denier of Dijon.
Obv. Double annile (conjoined curves, compared to the lower part of an anchor); ‘DVX’ in the center, extending into the field.
+VGO BVRGVNDIE (‘VGO (DVX) BVRGVNDIE;’ Hugues, Duc de Bourgogne).
Rev. Cross; diagonal lines terminating in a trefoil in upper right and lower left angles.
+DIVIONENSIS (Dijon).
Dumas-Dubourg 8-1-1 (cited in Alde, no. 308, along with Poey d’Avant); Boudeau 1212, Poey d'Avant 5678, Roberts 5784 (attributing this issue to Hugues V, Duc 1305-1315).
[HENRI, COMTE DE BAR --OOPS, CAN'T UPLOAD THIS ONE]
Following Thibaut’s now checquered past with the Capetian court, Louis IX’s assistance came at a price. In 1234, further exigencies induced Thibaut to sell Louis the direct suzerainty over his ancestral, western counties of Blois (with the neighboring viscounty of Chateaudun) and Chartres, as well as Sancerre. Once his accession to the potenially lucrative throne of Navarre was in sight, “Thibaut began to regret having sold so much land to the king. By the spring of 1235 he was actively plotting against Louis.” (Lower (98 - 99; cf. Evergates 4, Hallam 211, Joinville 185 /158, Painter 91, Petit-Dutaillis 303; Richard, St. Louis 46.) That summer, having been “firmly [...] established in his new kingdom [of Navarre ....,] he set to work to recover the fiefs which [ostensibly] had been extorted from him” (Painter 92). He proceeded to embark on another baronial revolt. The smell was not altogether fresh. Among the rogues’ gallery of baronial allies he assembled was Pierre Mauclerc, his former accomplice and foe, along with the no less volatile Hugues X of La Marche (Hallam 211, Painter 94).

[HUGUES X, COMTE DE LA MARCHE AND ANGOULEME --OOPS, CAN'T UPLOAD THESE]

At the same time, Thibaut ‘took the cross,’ guaranteeing himself papal immunity from royal reprisals (Lower 99). The upshot was that in the following June, when Louis “mustered his forces [...] for his long-expected invasion of Champagne,” Pope Gregory IX “forbade [him] to attack Thibaut, citing the count’s protected status as a crusader” (100; cf. Painter 94). Nonetheless, “the conspirators’ resistance soon collapsed” (Hallam 211; cf. Richard, Crusades 320). As Lower continues, “Thibaut [...] hasten[ed] to Paris to make his submission. All in all, the punishments demanded of the two-time rebel were mild: Thibaut confirmed the sale of the four counties and placed two fortresses into Louis’s temporary custody. Louis’s brother, Robert of Artois, received the satisfaction of throwing a fresh cheese in Thibaut’s face, although this did not constitute part of the formal settlement.” (100; cf. Richard, St. Louis 46-7.)

1. For Blanche’s career as regent, see Duby, France 246, 249-50; Fawtier 28-9; Grant, esp. 78-105; Hallam 206-8, Pernoud 120-62 passim, Petit-Dutaillis 247, 291-2; Richard, St. Louis, 2-9.
The precise nature of the relationship between Thibaut and Blanche is lost to history. One representative example of Thibaut’s lyrics appears on the website of Joan Ferrante, Epistolae: Medieval Women’s Latin Letters, hosted by Columbia University: http://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/738.html. Cf. Goldin 443-453 (introduction to Thibaut’s lyrics); 454-475 passim (the lyrics, in parallel translation). Regarding Thibaut’s relentlessly courtly, correspondingly envelope-pushing rhetoric toward Blanche, Bianchini provides further, resonantly eloquent ambience. In a more official context, she cites a letter of Thibaut from 1234, immediately following his accession to Navarre, to Blanche’s sister, Berenguela of Castile and Leon, and her son, Fernando III. Here Thibaut implicitly but unmistakably acknowledges the parallels between Blanche’s relationship to Louis IX, as queen mother, and Berenguela’s to Fernando. As Bianchini proceeds, the letter was addressed ‘To the most excellent and most dear dona Berenguela, by the grace of God queen of Castile and Leon, and to that most illustrious man, his dearest friend, F[ernando], by the grace of God king of Castile and Leon.’ It is remarkable that Thibault accorded Berenguela the title of ‘queen of Castile and Leon,’ which she rarely claimed for herself. [....] Moreover, the fact that Thibault addressed himself first to Berenguela, and only then to Fernando III, indicates that he expected to deal primarily with the queen. (244-5.)
The dynamics betwen Thibaut and Blanche are given further evocative, if irreducibly circumstantial evidence by Richard, who notes that it had been Blanche who “herself invited Thibaut to attend the coronation” of Louis IX as early as 1226, immediately following the death of her husband (St. Louis (12-) 13). At the very least, this provides an eloquent counter to later baronial accusations that Thibaut had poisoned Louis VIII (cf. p. 9 and note 2 below).
Pernoud qualifies this with the observation that when, for Louis IX’s coronation Reims in 1226, Thibaut “sent his sergeants-at-arms to prepare a lodging for him at Rheims, […] she had had the mayor send them packing. Theobald’s banners had been thrown into the street and his servants ejected. Blanche was not about to pardon him for his behaviour towards her husband” --reducible, as Pernoud carefully points out, to Thibaut’s desertion of Louis VIII’s army while on campaign in the Albigensian Crusade earlier in the same year. (118; cf. 105 ff., esp. 110, 112. Cf. Grant’s more cursory description of the same episode, p. 79., cited in note 2.)
Continuing the theme of a more benign relationship between Blanche and Thibaut --irreducibly personal, given Thibaut’s formative years at the royal court, but likely more prosaic on other levels-- Le Goff notes Blanche’s direct role in the negotiations ending Thibaut’s participation in the revolt of 1226 (p. 60).
With this as context, Grant’s assertion that “Blanche could not face seeing the man who was said to have poisoned her husband so soon after his death” (emphasis mine) admits of a measure of nuance (p. 79). As Grant broadly implies in other contexts, Blanche’s own motives are likely to have preponderated to political self-interest, on both personal and dynastic levels. (Cf. pp. 247-9.) Regarding her own ‘foreign’ origins no less than the alleged excesses of Thibaut, the already unfavorable consensus among key members of the baronage was likely a dividing factor in her response on this occasion.
2. Evergates 3-4, 48; Fawtier 127, Grant 89, Hallam 209 (-210), Lower 96-8, Perry 152-3; Richard, St. Louis, 13. Le Goff comments on the rumors themselves, from those of the original Baronial ‘pamphleteers’ to their “unoriginal” retailing by Matthew Paris, with particular, dismissive acuity (61-2; 345-6 and note 9).

References: numismatic.
Alde Numismatique: Catalogue 68: 16 and 17 June 2011. “Pierre Crinon [formerly of OGN,] expert.”
Bisson, Thomas N. Conservation of Coinage: Monetary Exploitation and its Restraint in France, Catalonia and Aragon (c. A.D. 1000-c. 1225). Oxford: Clarendon, 1979.
Boudeau, E. Monnaies Françaises Provinciales. Paris: Cabinet de Numismatique, 1913. (This is from a xerox of the 2nd edition, kindly provided by a French collector, but without complete bibliographic info, which was obtained online. I know of two reprints; Maastricht, 1985 and Paris, 1996.)
Dumas-Dubourg, Francoise. Les monnayage des ducs de Bourgogne. Louvain-leNeuve, 1988. (Cited in the Alde catalogue, above.)
Duplessy, Jean. Les Monnaies Françaises Féodales. Tome I. Paris: Maison Platt, 2004.
Poey d’Avant, Faustin. Here I gratefully cite Wikipedia.fr., for links to the three volumes on Google Books:

• Faustin Poey d'Avant, Monnaies féodales de France, vol. I, 1858 En ligne sur Google Book Search [archive]
• Faustin Poey d'Avant, Monnaies féodales de France, vol. II, 1860 En ligne sur Google Book Search [archive]
• Faustin Poey d'Avant, Monnaies féodales de France, vol. III, 1862 En ligne sur Google Book Search [archive]

Roberts, James N. The Silver Coins of Medieval France (476-1610 AD). Attic Books, 1996.
Spufford, Peter. Money and its Use in Medieval Europe. 1988. Cambridge UP, 1989.

References: other.

Baldwin, John W. The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages. 1986. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991.
Berger, Elie. Blanche of Castile, Queen and Regent of France, 1188-1252. Tr. Frank H. Wallis. Paris, 1895. (N. p.: ) CreateSpace Independent Platform, 2015.
Bianchini, Janna. The Queen’s Hand: Power and Authority in the Reign of Berenguela of Castile. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 2012.
Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A Prosopography of Medieval European Royal and Noble Families. A subsite of the of the online presence of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/index.htm
Duby, Georges. France in the Middle Ages: 987-1460. Trans. Juliet Vale. (1987/) 1991. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
Evergates, Theodore. The Aristocracy in the County of Champagne, 1100-1300. U of Pennsylvania, 2007.
---- Feudal Society in the Balliage of Troyes under the Counts of Champagne: 1152-1284. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U P, 1975.
---- (ed. /trans.). Feudal Society in Medieval France: Documents from the County of Champagne. 1993. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1996. (Secondary material.)
Fawtier, Robert. The Capetian Kings of France. Trans. Lionel Butler and R. J. Adam. 1960. London: Macmillan, 1965.
Goldin, Frederick, ed. /trans. Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouveres. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday /Anchor, 1973.
Grant, Lindy. Blanche of Castile: Queen of France. New Haven: Yale UP, 2016.
Hallam, Elizabeth M. Capetian France: 987-1328. 1980. London: Longman, 1992.
Joinville, Jean de. Two abridged translations.
(Shaw, Margaret R. B., ed. /trans. Joinville & Villehardouin: Chronicles of the Crusades. 1963. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.
(Marzials, Sir Frank T. ed. /trans. Memoirs of the Crusades by Villehardouin & de Joinville. New York: Everyman /Dutton, 1958.)
Le Goff, Jacques. Saint Louis. Trans. Gareth Evan Gollrad. 1996. Notre Dame, Indiana: U of Notre Dame P, 2009.
Lower, Michael. The Barons’ Crusade: A Call to Arms and its Consequences. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2005.
Painter, Sidney. Scourge of the Clergy: Peter of Dreux, Duke of Brittany. 1937. New York: Octagon, 1969.
Pernoud, Regine. Blanche of Castile. Trans. Henry Noel. 1972. New York: Coward, McMann & Geoghegan, 1975.
Perry, Guy. John of Brienne: King of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople, c. 1175-1237. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2013.
Petit-Dutaillis, Charles. The Feudal Monarchy in France and England from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century. Trans. E. D. Hunt. 1936. New York: Harper, 1964.
Richard, Jean. The Crusades: c. 1071-c. 1291. Trans. Jean Birrell. 1999. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2005.
----. Saint Louis: Crusader King of France. Ed. /abr. Simon Lloyd; trans. Jean Birrell. 1983. Cambridge U P, 1992.

...Especially if you made it this far, please post anything from a ruler with less than stellar political acumen, or anything medieval ...or anything else; you earned it.

 

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Here are the other ones.
Henri II, Comte de Bar-le-duc 1214-1239. AR denier.
Obv. Cross, fleurs de lis in two angles.
X hENRICVS COMES.
Rev. The canting arms of Bar: between a spur (rowell at the top), two bars (fish).
+ BARRI DVCIS. ("Duke' of Bar --denoting Bar's location on the frontier between the Duchy of Lorraine (in the German empire) and the County of Champagne.)
Boudeau 1425.

A contemporaneous illustration from the English chronicler Matthew Paris, minus the spur.




Hugues IX and X, Comte d'Angouleme et La Marche, 1199-1219-1249.
Obv. +VGO COMES [annulet].
Rev. Crosslet between 2 annulets and 2 crescents.
+MARCHIE [annulet].
Duplessy 960, variant (annulet on obverse).

Angouleme, AR denier (anonymous immobilization), 12th-13th century.
Obv. +LODOI[VS (Louis [IV, 10th-c. Carolingian king].)
Rev. Crosslet between 3 annulets and one crescent.
+EGOLISSIME.
Duplessy 947.

 

Excellent write up. Unfortunately I have no coins to contribute as I don't collect European medievals (yet). Living in the UK, it would make much sense to get into those, and I also particularly enjoy Plantagenet and Tudor history. Alas, my wallet has suffered a lot due to my Greek/Byzantine obsession, so adding medievals to the equation might be the final blow!

 

@Only a Poor Old Man, I could have said most of what you did about collecting Byzantine (and, for that matter, too much more in the way of English hammered). I get lots of joy from your posts ...most of it vicarious!

 

This one makes for a fine drinking song

 

Brilliant, @seth 77. Calls for another one, from a c. 1967 Telefunken LP I only could access from the public library across the bridge.

Regarding Thibaut's connection to the south, he was happy to spend most of his time in Navarre, as soon as he got the chance. (Evocative of how his contemporary, Friedrich /Federico II, preferred his maternal, Sicilian heritage to all those variously boring and scary Teutons.) This is another later-13th-c. ms., where he's happy, however posthumously, to show off the arms of Navarre instead of the the two bends of Champagne.

...Wish you could stop me. Since you can't, one cool thing about the northwest corner of 'Frankish' Iberia (conspicuously including Aragon) is its effectively seamless connection to Occitanian language and culture. Which, just through the 12th century, travelled south, and north to Poitou, in northern Aquitaine, and east to Savoy and Lombardy.
...My favorite part of Bingley's reading is the introductory instrumental, on something called (from memory, back to the LP) a 'gitara saracena' --Nope, lutes and ouds (like what he's posing with in the picture) are bigger than this, and more alike. But I always leaned toward seeing the element of Muslim musical influence on this distinctly secular European literature along the lines of the early mainstreaming of rock 'n' roll. ...There's this, from the Book of Games of Alfonso IX of Castile and Leon (...also later 13th-century than one could wish).

...Back to drinking songs, there's this, which, while blatantly revisionistic relative to the present context, manages a vaguely similar combination of cultural dynamics.