Theobald I. (Champagne)

Theobald III. von Blois ( French: Thibaut ; * around 1010; † September 29/30, 1089 ) was a Count of Blois , Chartres , Châteaudun , Tours and Sancerre and since 1063 as Theobald I, Count of Meaux and Troyes ( Champagne ). He was the eldest son of Count Odo II of Blois ( Odo I of Meaux-Troyes ) etc. and of the Ermengarde of Auvergne .

Life

Theobald is first attested in 1026 in his father's army, who tried in vain to recapture the Saumur castle occupied by the Count of Anjou . In 1037 he fought in the battle of Bar-le-Duc in which his father was killed. From this, Theobald inherited his family's ancestral estates around Blois , Chartres , Châteaudun and Tours , while his younger brother Stephan inherited the territories around Meaux and Troyes , newly won by their father , which formed the core of the Champagne region.

At the beginning of their reign, both brothers, like their father, were in conflict with King Henry I , whom they refused to take the feudal oath. The king was able to fall back on strong allies such as Count Fulko Nerra of Anjou , who attacked Theobald's castles in Touraine . Likewise, the brothers inherited from their father the hostility to the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire ; whose Duke Gotzelo I of Lorraine invaded the Champagne region, where he took the border castle Donchery ( Département Ardennes ), which King Henry had confiscated and given to the Lorraine as a fief.

King Henry I of France in 1044 fighting the troops of Count Theobald I of Champagne. (Miniature by Jean Fouquet , Grandes Chroniques de France , 15th century)

After Fulkos of Anjou died in 1040, the brothers moved Prince Odo to revolt against his royal brother in 1041. However, the king quickly became master of the rebellion and thereupon declared Theobald of the county of Tours for loss, which he transferred to Gottfried Martel , the son of Fulkos, who was allied with him . In an attempt to relieve Tours, which was besieged by Gottfried , Theobald and his brother suffered a heavy defeat against Gottfried in the battle of Nouy in 1044 . Theobald himself fell into captivity, which he spent at Loches Castle . As the price of his freedom, he had to hand over Tours and all the Touraine castles to Gottfried, who in return was willing to recognize Theobald as a liege lord for the area in question.

This serious loss was followed in the next few years by Theobald's rapprochement with the king, as he was worried about the increase in power of his former ally Gottfried. In 1048 Gottfried had the Bishop of Le Mans captured after he brokered the marriage of Count Hugo IV of Maine with the sister Theobalds. Gottfried's reach out to Maine was followed by the marriage of his stepdaughter Agnes von Poitou to Emperor Henry III in 1043 . Above all, this marriage was intended to strengthen the emperor's rule in the Kingdom of Burgundy and provide him with cover against Theobald and his brother, whose father had still registered claims to this kingdom. Against Gottfried, Theobald joined an alliance between King Heinrich I, Duke Wilhelm II of Normandy and other great barons of France on Easter 1048 in Senlis . Theobald's brother died around the same time, leaving behind the underage heir Odo . Theobald led the guardianship for this in Champagne, where he advanced to the determining authority and was able to oust his nephew by 1063 at the latest. Thus, he reunited the full inheritance of his father in his hand.

The fight against Gottfried came to an end in 1052 after Gottfried had reconciled himself with the king. Theobald initially accepted this change in the situation and in the spring of 1054 participated in the king's invasion of Normandy against Duke Wilhelm, which ended in a defeat at Mortemer . In the same year Theobald broke with the king again and instead paid homage to the emperor in Mainz . This fief of Theobald led to a long lasting rift between France and Germany at a meeting between King Heinrich I and the Emperor in Ivois in 1056.

This had no lasting consequences for Theobald, as the king was bound against the Duke of Normandy and died in 1060. His successor Philip I , in whose coronation Theobald did not take part, was still a minor and could hardly assert the royal authority over the great vassals even later . Theobald spent the last years of his life stabilizing his rule in Champagne, where he mediated, among other things, in the conflict between the Abbey of Montier-en-Der with the Counts of Brienne and the Lords of Joinville . He led a changeful dispute with the Bishop of Meaux over the power of rule in Meaux; Tensions with Count Rudolf IV of Valois were settled by marrying his daughter. This marriage should bring Theobald into the counties of Bar-sur-Aube and Vitry in 1077 , after his brother-in-law Simon von Crépy withdrew into a spiritual life. He also founded several religious institutions in Champagne, such as the Clunician priory in Coincy in 1072 . During the investiture controversy, Theobald supported the reform papacy , with which he opposed King Philip I's church policy. He hosted a council in Meaux in 1081, which excommunicated several supporters of the king .

Theobald was buried in the Saint-Martin church in Épernay .

For a long time, the count was considered the godfather of Saint Theobald von Provins (* around 1017, † 1066), who was canonized by Pope Alexander II in 1073 , but this is unlikely due to both years of birth.

Marriages and offspring

Theobald III. married three times. His first wife was Gersende, a daughter of Count Herbert I, the watchdog of Maine, whom he disowned in 1048 after a childless marriage.

His second wife was an unknown Gundrade or Gondrée, who became the mother of his heir:

• Stephan Heinrich († fallen on May 19, 1102 near Ramlah ), Count of Blois, Chartres, Châteaudun, Sancerre and Meaux

Before 1061 he married a third time, Adela or Alix von Crépy († May 12, 1093/1100), a daughter of Count Rudolf IV of Valois and Adela of Bar-sur-Aube. With her he had three other sons:

• Odo III. († 1093), Count of Troyes
• Philip († 1100), from 1093 to 1100 Bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne
• Hugo I († June 14, 1126), Count of Troyes 1093, from 1102 "Count of Champagne"

Web links

• Short biography of Theobald III./I. (French)
• material collection

predecessor	Office	successor
Odo II of Blois	Count of Blois, Count of Chartres, Count of Châteaudun, Count of Sancerre 1037–1089	Stephan Heinrich
Odo II of Champagne	Count of Meaux 1063-1089	Stephan Heinrich
Odo II of Champagne	Earl of Troyes 1063-1089	Odo III.
Simon of Crépy	Count of Bar-sur-Aube Count of Vitry 1077–1089	Odo III.