Enguerrand IV. De Coucy

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Coat of arms of Enguerrand IV of Coucy

Enguerrand IV. De Coucy († 1310 ) was lord of Coucy , Marle and La Fère . He was a son of Enguerrand III. and his wife, Marie de Montmirail.

In 1250 he succeeded his brother Raoul II , who died on the sixth crusade . From his mother he inherited the vice-county of Meaux and the castles of Montmirail and Crèvecœur .

In his first marriage (around 1262) he was married to Margarethe von Gelderland († around 1286), a daughter of Count Otto II von Geldern . His second wife was Johanna von Flanders († 1333), a daughter of Count Robert III. of Flanders . Enguerrand had no children, so Coucy's first house died out with him in the male line. His possessions passed to his nephew Enguerrand von Guînes ( Gent (noble family) #The lords of Coucy ).

See also House Boves

process

Enguerrand is best known as a defendant in a trial that was spectacular at the time. In July 1259 he hanged three young Flemish noblemen who had hunted illegally in his forests without trial. The royal Connétable Gilles le Brun was a relative of the victims and sued Enguerrand before King Louis IX. (Saint Louis) at. Enguerrand insisted in his class awareness that his case should be heard in a pair court, especially since he could count on sympathy from his baronial classmates. On the other hand, however, the king refused and ordered a process in which he himself presided as a judge. Enguerrand was also denied chivalrous imprisonment, instead simple sergeants carried out his arrest on royal orders.

Louis IX the saint judges Enguerrand IV. de Coucy. Miniature from an edition of Vie et miracles de Saint Louis by Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, 14th century.

These processes were unique up to then and revealed a development that the royal conception of rule in France had taken up to the middle of the 13th century. Louis IX In his capacity as king he also regarded himself as the chief judge of all subjects of his kingdom, including the nobility. The once powerful feudal nobility of France had increasingly lost power under Ludwig's predecessors. And the neutralization of the judicial privileges of the nobility, which they had appropriated in previous centuries, in favor of royal legislation and jurisprudence, was an aim of the Capetian kings of the 13th century.

Enguerrand was sentenced to death. However, the king was persuaded by his advisors to soften the sentence. Enguerrand had to pay 10,000 Paris pounds ( livres parisis ) to religious institutions as a fine and continued to take a crusade vow. He bought himself free of the vow after paying another 12,000 pounds, for which he had to sell his own land.

He died in 1310 and was buried in the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Longpont . His widow entered the Cistercian abbey of Sauvoir near Laon , where she died as abbess.

source

literature

personal data
SURNAME Enguerrand IV. De Coucy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lord of Coucy, Marle, La Fére, Crèvecœur and Montmirail, Vice-Count of Meaux
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH 1310