Epistolæ

• Blanche of Navarre, Countess of Champagne

• public

I countess Blanche, countess palatine of Troyes, make known to all that these are the agreements with my lord Philip, illustrious king of the French, namely that he will hold my son Thibaut from the coming feast of the Purification of blessed Mary for four years, and from then on I shall have my said son whenever I wish.
2. The lord king will hold Bray-sur-Seine and Musterol (?) as he holds them now by those agreements by which he now holds them, until my son Thibaut is 21, and moreover I wish the surety of barons and cities, and castles of my land to be held by my lord king of the French until my said son is twenty one.
3. When I wish to have my son at said term, truly, if the lord king wished the sureties of my land, that I as well as my son will be faithfully in his service, we will provide more.
4. When my said son is 21, the lord king will receive him as his liege man for the land which his father held when he died, saving the right of another; nor will he receive him as his man before that said time as long as I am alive, unless through me.
5. And if the daughters of count Henry or anyone else should bring a claim against my said son or myself for the county of Champagne, before my son has reached 21, neither my son nor I will be held to respond within the foresaid term as long as that son lives; nor will the lord king hear that claim because it is the usage and custom of France that no one has to answer before his twenty-first year against his will for the heredity his father held when he died.
6. To hold to the aforementioned agreements, I must give the lord king 15,000 L. by these terms: on the coming feast of St. Andrew 2,500 L; on the octave of the following Easter, 2,500 L.; on the following octaves of St. Remigius, 2,500.1
7. If, far be it, my said son Thibaut dies within the period from the coming Purification of blessed Mary in four years, if the lord king holds the county in his hand, he will make good the said 15,000 within the year; and if the lord king wishes to give the county to another, he will seisin no one in it until he has made me secure for the said 15,000 to be given back to me within the year; and if in the said period from the coming Purification of blessed Mary for four years, no one, not a lord nor the king, nor others who might hold the county of Champagne, may be restrained from giving back said 15,000 L.
The lord King assured me he would hold all these agreements, and I assured him; and the lord King ought to have them assured by lord Louis his son.
Enacted in the year of the lord 1209, in the month of August.

This is the text of an agreement reached between king Philip of France and the countess by which he would hold her son Thibaut four years and would recognize his right to his father’s lands when he came of age, to assure which she contracts to pay the king 15,000 pounds, which will be returned to her if her son dies and the county is given to someone else.

The document says 2,015, which the editor corrects to 2,500.

HGF 19.536, fn (a), citing Martenius, I Collect. Ampliss. c.1094.