Enguerrand VI. de Coucy

Enguerrand VI. de Coucy (* 1313 ; † 1346 at Crécy) was a gentleman (sire) of Coucy , Marle , La Fère , Oisy and Montmirail from the house of Gent . He was a son of Guillaume and his wife, Isabelle de Châtillon.

Coat of arms of Enguerrand VI. by Coucy

At the instigation of King Philip VI. Enguerrand married the German noblewoman Katharina von Österreich , a daughter of Duke Leopold I of Austria, in November 1338 . This marriage served the alliance policy of the King of France, who was looking for allies among the German princes for the conflict with England ( Hundred Years' War ) that had broken out the year before . The bride brought a very large dowry into the marriage , provided by both her father and the French king .

In 1339 the English under Sir John Chandos besieged the castle of Oisy, which was successfully defended by Enguerrand's castle caretaker. He himself successfully defended Tournai with the royal troops . In 1346 he took part in a campaign by Duke John of Normandy in the Guyenne and fell a little later in battle, probably in the skirmishes before or in the battle of Crécy itself. He was buried in Ourscamp Abbey .

From his marriage he left a still underage son, Enguerrand , for whom his mother and the royal councilor Jean de Nesle, Lord of Offemont , took over the guardianship. Katharina von Österreich married Count Konrad II von Hardegg for the second time in 1348 , but died of the plague in 1349 .

literature

• Barbara Tuchman : A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century - Der ferne Spiegel. The dramatic 14th century. Claasen, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-546-49187-4