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Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WC1R 4EJ, ENGLAND 7918300 RQZANKOUSKI* JANUSH JOSEPH THEOBALD OF CHAMPAGNE: COUNT* CRUSADER* AND KING. FORDHAM UNIVERSITY* PH.D.* 1979 CQPR. 1979 RQZANKQUSKI* JAHUSH JOSEPH Unnii\versite VMi crdrilms ..... International 300 N ZEEB ROAO, ANN ARBOR. Ml 48106 © 1979 JANUSH JOSEPH ROZANKOWSKI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THEOBALD OF CHAMPAGNE: COUNT, CRUSADER, AND KING JANUSH J . ROZANKOWSKI A.B., Fordham U niversity, ’75 M.A., Fordham U niversity, '76 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY NEW YORK 1979 FORDHAM UNIVERSITY G raduate School o f A rts and Sciences Ap.nJLL.1.7.*..........................19.7.9... This dissertation prepared under my direction by Janush Rozankowski entitled Theobald of Champagne: Count, Crusader, and King. has been accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Ph.D. Degree of. {Faculty Adviser) THEOBALD OF CHAMPAGNE: COUNT, CRUSADER, AND KING TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...................................... 1 Chapter I. THEOBALD, THE DEVIOUS COUNT................................................... 8 I I . THE COUNTY OF CHAMPAGNE............................................................. 47 Government........................................................................................ 47 F inances............................................................................................. 76 The F a irs .............................................. 85 The Church of Champagne........................................................ 92 I I I . THE CRUSADE OF TROUBADOURS................................................ 110 IV. THE KING OF NAVARRE...................................... 138 A ccession.......................................................................................... 138 Domestic Turmoil in N avarre.............................................. 152 F inances............................................................................................. 173 Economy................................. 179 B a ttle w ith a B ishop................................................................ 182 V. AN ASSESSMENT..................................................................................... 193 APPENDIX.............................................................................................................. 209 ABBREVIAT IONS.................................................................................................. 211 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................... 212 i i i I INTRODUCTION The career of Theobald IV of Champagne (1201-1253) was one of great d iv e rsity and of immense in te re s t since i t embodied th ree d iffe re n t asp ects: count, crusader, and king. As Count of Champagne, T heobald's lif e o ffers an excellent p o rtra it of a royal vassal to rn between lo y alty to h is sovereign, fe a r of a larg e baronial conspiracy and a concern fo r h is personal in te re s ts . He was able to surmount these d iffic u ltie s although paying a heavy p rice in the devastation of h is country. His fortune took an upturn in 1234 when he became King of N avarre. As founder of a new dynasty in th a t Iberian kingdom, he was able to quiet opposition and to bring c e n tra liz a tio n to a land of unruly barons. Not only did he give Navarre peace w ithin but also he was able to preserve the independence of a realm beleaguered by power-hungry C a stile and Aragon. This he accom plished not by arms which would have drained the resources of h is country but by tre a tie s which, sup­ ported by the Roman p o n tiff, he was able to in itia te and to m aintain. During h is reig n , Theobald embarked on an­ other adventure: the Crusade of 1239. This expedition, plagued by the d isu n ity of Outremer, ended in a m ilita ry I 1 d isa ste r but Theobald was able to win some concessions from th e Moslems by n eg o tiatio n s. Such a varied lifesp an has not gone unnoticed. A number of h isto rian s have w ritten about T heobald's a c tiv i­ tie s . Of th ese, Jean Beraud and Henri d'A rbois de Jubain- v ille provided the most thorough study of Theobald as Count of Champagne.1 The major weakness of the form er's work is th a t i t does not provide su ffic ie n t docum entation. The l e tte r 's , in co n tra st, is considerably superior since i t is based on a m eticulous study of the prim ary sources. Both works, however, are of le sse r value in the in te rp re ­ ta tio n and in th e treatm ent of in s titu tio n s . Beraud and Ju b ain v ille wrote during the mid-1800s and th e ir work re ­ fle c ts the rom anticism of the age. An ex cellen t case in point is th e ir o verrating of T heobald's alleged love in ­ te re s t in Blanche of C a stile , mother of Louis IX and regent of France. A ll h is early a c tiv itie s , consequently, are p ictu red as the re su lts of passionate love when a clo ser exam ination shows th a t every one of Theobald's moves had a p o litic a l tw ist to i t . Beraud ignores in s ti­ tu tio n s com pletely w hile Ju b ain v ille devotes considerable space to them. His work, however, is weak on th e treatm ent of the fa irs of Champagne and slig h tly erroneous on ^Henri d'A rbois de Ju b a in v ille, H isto lre des dues e t des comtes de Champagne. 6 vole. (P a ris, 18621; Jean Heraud. H isto lre des comtes de Champagne et de B rie. 2 v o ls. (P a ris, . government. Jubainville's sketchy discussion of the fairs becomes very evident when compared w ith F elix B ourquelot1s o m asterful stucty. Concerning government, he p ain ts a fa r more dem ocratic and in stitu tio n a liz e d organization than actu ally was the case. To name one example, he depicts a le g isla tiv e council th a t is ahead of its tim e, as i t was not a d is tin c t in s titu tio n w ith fix ed rep resen tatio n . T heobald's career as a Crusader has received fu lle r a tte n tio n w ith Runciman, G rousset, and P ain ter devoting considerable tim e to i t . A ll of these are well-docum ented stu d ies w ith a slig h t weakness in th a t l i t t l e e ffo rt is expended in assessing the d iffic u ltie s of Theobald's lead ersh ip . Too much tim e is spent in c ritic iz in g Theo­ bald w ithout focusing on the im p o ssib ility of transform ing European barons and disagreeable Holy Land nobles in to an e ffic ie n t m ilita ry fo rce. T heobald's successes in nego­ tia tio n s are sim ila rly played down. T heobald's kingship of N avarre, in c o n tra st, has been alm ost com pletely neglected. For y ears, the standard work on th e subject has been th a t of Jose M oret, w ritten 2 Felix Bourquelot^ "Etudes sur les foires de Cham­ pagne," Memoires presentes par divers savants a 1 'Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de l 'instltut Imperial de France, 2nd series, 5 (.Paris, 1 8 6 . g Steven Runciman, A H istory of the C rusades. 3 v o ls. (Cambridge, 1966); Rene G rousset. H lsto ire des cro isad es. 3 v o ls. (P a ris, 1936); Sidney P a in te r. wThe Crusade or Theobald of Champagne," in Kenneth S etton, A H istory of th e C rusades. 3 v o ls. (M adison, 1962), 2:463-85. 4 in th e seventeenth century. While M oret's work has much u sefu l inform ation and some docum entation, h is in te rp re ta ­ tio n s have to be used w ith extreme caution. An ex cellen t example of th is is h is ap p licatio n of the word cortes to assem blies which are not q u ite the in s titu tio n which the well-known word suggests. Andre Finot follow s Moret too closely in h is biographical sketch of Theobald as King of N avarre, repeating many of h is in te rp re ta tio n s. There is a more serious flaw in Finot*s work in th a t h is comments on in s titu tio n s are re fle c tiv e of the fourteenth century which he tre a ts as c h a ra c te ristic of Theobald's reig n . At th is p o in t, th e purpose of th is d isse rta tio n should be c le a r. An attem pt w ill be made to study a ll of the aspects of T heobald's career and to try to re c tify some of th e d eficien cies of the e a rlie r works. This suggests a re -in te rp re ta tio n of many of th e h ig h lig h ts of Theobald's lif e , such as h is alleg ed love a ffa ir w ith Blanche, the reason fo r h is s h ift from the reb els to the king in 1227, a new evaluation of h is leadership of the Crusade of 1239 and of h is o v erall success as King of N avarre. A thorough discussion w ill also be presented of governm ental, 4 / Jose M oret, Anales del Reino de N avarra. 12 v o ls. (Pamplona, 1890). ^Andre F ino t, "Don T h ib alt, e l Prim ero," Memoires de la Societe d 'A g riia ltu re . -ies Sciences, des A rtes. et des Beile-JbettreB du~T>epartment de l 'Aube 82 (.P aris. 1918): 313-432.