Theobald III. (Champagne)

Theobald III. (French: Thibaut ; * May 13, 1179 in Troyes ; † May 24, 1201 there ) was a Count of Champagne from the House of Blois since 1197 . He was the younger son of Count Henry I of Champagne and Marie , the daughter of King Louis VII of France .

Life

Theobald succeeded his older brother Heinrich II as Count of Champagne when he died in 1197 in the Kingdom of Jerusalem . Any inheritance rights of Heinrich's daughters born in Palestine were ignored. Theobald's mother initially led the regency for him, which he took over after her death in 1198. In April of this year he swore his uncle King Philip II the feudal oath and was thus recognized as the rightful count.

Also in the same year called Pope Innocent III. on a fourth crusade , which was to be directed against the Muslims in the Orient. At first there was little enthusiasm among the French nobility for another procession to Jerusalem , but when the preacher Fulko von Neuilly appeared at a tournament at Theobald's court in Écry in November 1199 , many of them took the cross and chose Theobald as their leader. His cousin, Count Ludwig von Blois , and Count Balduin IX also joined him. from Flanders . The three counts decided to send two emissaries each (including Gottfried von Villehardouin and Conon de Béthune ) to Italy to look for a suitable port there that was ready to provide a passage for the crusader army to the Holy Land .

Before the train started Theobald died at his residence at Troyes to typhoid . According to his last will, he was buried in the robe of a crusader in the church of Saint-Etienne in Troyes. The leadership of the crusade was transferred to the Margrave Bonifatius von Montferrat , not without the help of Theobald's Marshal Gottfried von Villehardouin .

Theobald married Princess Blanka of Navarre , daughter of King Sancho VI, in Chartres in 1195 . A daughter born in 1200 died soon after giving birth. One week after Theobald's own death, Blanka gave birth to his heir Theobald IV (1201–1253). Blanka ruled the county as regent for the following 21 years, during which she had to deal with the inheritance claims of the daughters of Henry II.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ On the oath of trust see Catalog des actes de Philippe Auguste , ed. by Léopold Delisle (1856), no.534, p. 127

Web links

• Short biography of Theobald III. from Champagne (French)

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry II	Count of Champagne 1197–1201	Theobald IV.