Stephan of Joinville

Stephan von Joinville (fr. Étienne de Vaux ; * around 1000; † around 1060) was the first lord of Joinville , as well as the progenitor of the French noble family of the same name , whose most famous member was the chronicler Jean de Joinville .

He came from the village of Vaux-sur-Saint-Urbain on the Meuse between Neufchateau and Vaucouleur in what is now the Haute-Marne department . The chronicler Alberich von Trois-Fontaines called him in his chronicle Stephanus de Vallibus, juxta abbatiam Sancti Urbani . He is also called Stephan von Neufchateau ( Stephanus de Novo Castello ).

Stephan had the reputation of a particularly belligerent warrior who, together with the Counts of Brienne , with whom he was related by marriage , made a name for himself through his raids in the region. He came into the possession of the Abbey of Saint-Urbain and shared the income of the Abbey of Montier-en-Der with the Counts of Brienne. In 1018 he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Toul after robbing the monks of Saint-Blin .

With the help of his father-in-law, Count Engelbert II of Brienne , Stephan built the new castle ( Novo Castello ) of Joinville , from which he ruthlessly robbed the surrounding monasteries and abbeys. After he returned only part of the church property he had stolen, despite the intervention of the royal authority, even Pope Leo IX threatened . even to intervene on this matter. He was finally stopped by King Robert II in 1027 to return the property illegally appropriated by the Montier-en-Der Abbey.

Stephan von Joinville was married to a daughter of Count Engelbert II von Brienne. With her he had a son and heir, Gottfried . His wife's mother was Adelaide (Alix) von Sens, in turn widow of Count Gottfried I von Joigny . As Alberich von Trois-Fontaines reports, after the death of his mother-in-law, Stephan, with the help of his father-in-law, claimed control of Joigny Castle against his wife's half-siblings, which explains his title as comes Ioviniaci . It is not unlikely that he succeeded, but the rule of the Joinville in Joigny Castle was not likely to have lasted, since in March 1042, Count Gottfried II , a son of Adelaide from their first marriage, again commanded Joigny. In Alberich's case, the story of the hereditary feud about Joigny, because of its similar spelling in Latin with Joinville, led to a confusion in the genealogical facts between the two master families, in that he identified the first generations of those from Joinville as identical to those of Joigny. In fact, however, there were two different families that were related by marriage to Adelaide von Sens as the unifying link. The Lords of Joinville never named themselves Counts of Joigny in their documents.

literature

• Jules Simonnet: Essai sur l'histoire de la généalogie des sires de Joinville (1008–1386) accompagné de chartes  - Internet Archive . F. Dangien, Langres 1875, pp. 1-18 ().
• Henri-François Delaborde, Recherches critiques sur les premiers seigneurs de Joinville, in: Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, vol. 51 (1890). Pp. 618-629.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Variorum Epistolæ IX, in: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France 10 (1874), p. 495. Here called Stephanus de Novo Castello .
2. ↑ Variorum Epistolæ XLII, in: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France 10 (1874), p. 613
3. ↑ Cf. Alberich von Trois-Fontaines , Chronica , ed. Paul Scheffer-Boichorst in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS 23 (1874), p. 790.
4. ↑ Cf. Maximilien Quantin, Cartulaire générale de l'Yonne, Vol. 1 (1854), No. XCIII, pp. 178f.

Web link

• Seigneurs de Joinville at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy.ac (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
---	Lord of Joinville 1027-1060	Gottfried I./III.
Gottfried I.	Count of Joigny (de iure uxoris ) until 1060	Gottfried I./III.