General Notes

Slain in battle by Godfrey Martel, Count of Anjou.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Lysell, mlysell AT attbi.com, provided the following information via a post-em:

Jim - found the following under "The Counts of Champagne": "Thibaud I of Champagne, also known as Thibaud III of Blois, was born in 1019. Eldest son of Eudes II, he inherited the counties of Blois, Tours, Chartres and Sancerre in 1037. He equally had control over Chateau-Thierry, Provins and Saint-Florentin. His younger brother Etienne obtained the counties of Troyes, Meaux and Vitry as well as the abbey Saint-Médard of Soissons.

"A few years after the death of their illustrious father, Thibaud and Etienne participated in the revolt led by Raoul of Crépy and Galeran of Meulan against king Henri I. This rebellion lasted from 1041 to 1044. King Henri received military support from the powerful count Geoffroy of Anjou who laid siege to Tours. On August 21st 1044, in what is known as the battle of Saint-Martin-le-beau, the troops of the count of Anjou were victorious over the forces of Thibaud and his brother Etienne. Etienne managed to successfully retreat, but Thibaud was captured and held prisoner in the tower of Loches. To gain his freedom, and to most probably save his life, Thibaud was forced to give over control of the Touraine region as well as the castles of Chinon and Langeais to the count of Anjou. As a result of this loss, the center of the Blois-Champagne principality shifted away from the Loire valley towards the Seine and the East. Around 1048, Etienne died and left his young son Eudes III in the protection of his uncle who acted as his regent. Upon reaching his majority, Eudes III distanced himself from Thibaud.

"He came dangerously under the influence of king Philippe I before finally deciding to take part in the conquest of England in 1066. He left France never to return again. From this point onward, the count Thibaud took control permanently of all the lands belonging to his family. In 1045, Thibaud married Gersent of Le Mans who gave him his first son, Etienne-Henri. In 1049, Thibaud annulled this marriage, expressly at the demand of pope Leon IX, for reasons of parentage.

"Thibaud I was directly implicated in the establishment of at least 12 monastic and parish churches in the Champagne region (a Benedictine priory for Saint-Germain of Auxerre at Saint-Florentin after 1037 ; a Benedictine priory for Marmoutier at Ventelay before 1042 ; the Benedictine priory of Saint-Ayoul for Montier-la-Celle at Provins in 1048 ; the hôtel-Dieu of Provins in circa 1050 ; the parish church at La-Croix-sur-Ourcq circa 1050 ; the collegiate church of Oulchy-le-Château after 1050 ; the parish church of Charlesville in 1060 ; the Benedictine priory of Sainte-Foy for Sainte-Foy of Conques at Coulommiers after 1060 ; the Clunisian priory of Saint-Pierre at Coincy in 1072 ; the collegiate church of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes at Soissons in 1076 ; the collegiate church of Saint-Martin of Vertus in 1081 ; the Benedictine abbey Saint-Sauveur at Vertus in circa 1081 ; the Benedictine priory of Saint-Quentin of Troyes for Molesmes before 1089 or 1090). He was in fact a self-proclaimed protector of all monastic institutions in Champagne. This great interest for monasticism was in part due to his concern for maintaining the independence of these communities from political rivals and it was a means of assuring better, friendly control of territories in these newly acquired eastern lands. His sphere of influence was thus made more considerable. As for his western domains, Thibaud established fewer new communities there. He was however the defensor of the great monastic house of Marmoutier in the Touraine region to whom he gave several tracts of land which permitted the establishment of two new priories in the county of Blois. Later in his life, Thibaud was to play an important role in what is now known as the 'Quarrel of Investitures'.

Since the papacy of Leon IX (1049-1054), the Roman church began actively to fight simony in the ranks of the French episcopacy as well as to take steps in extracting itself from what was felt at the time to be heavy handed secular influence. Archbishops and bishops who had gained their office not by election, but by fraudulent means were to step down or risk anathema and excommunication. The reforms came to a climax during the reign of pope Gregory VII (1073-1085). The king of France, Philippe I, did not cooperate with Rome and had no desire to see French dioceses gain in independence. For decades the Capetian monarchs had themselves been appointing ecclesiastics to office. This was too often done in exchange for 'gifts' to the king and meant that the monarch had a great deal of influence over those appointed in this manner. The pope sent legates to France who were to reform the French episcopacy and to excommunicate those who did not heed the decisions of the popes representatives. Thibaud I invited the legates to hold a council in his city of Meaux in Brie. In 1081, this council decided the excommunication of several of the king’s appointees. Another decision of great importance made at Meaux was that all monastic communities in Champagne and elsewhere in the north of France with fewer than ten members were to be affiliated with Cluny or Marmoutier, thus they would be protected from those nobles and others who might try to exploit them. Thibaud I was undeniably an ally to the reformers and participated throughout his lifetime to revitalizing the Church in France.

"The count Thibaud I Champagne died in 1089 at the age of seventy and was buried not at Marmoutier, but in the collegiate church of Saint-Martin founded by his father in the heart ot the Champagne region at Epernay. His eldest son Etienne-Henri inherited the western counties as well as Meaux. His sons Eudes IV and Hugues, born from his second marriage in 1060 to Adela of Bar-sur-Aube, received the remaining eastern counties. His youngest son, Philip, would become bishop of Chalons, but would only be in office one year before dying at a rather young age."

This sheds some light on his marriage to and divorce from Gersende du Maine and indicates she is the mother of Stephen (Etienne-Henri).

The website is located at //lamop.univ-paris1.fr/baudin/anglais/Thibaud1. No authors or sources are listed.

I thought you would be interested in the information.

Mike Lysell
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wikipedia.org - Stephen II, Count of Blois
Wikipedia.org - Theobald III, Count of Blois
Ancestry - Jim Weber
Wikipedia.org - Odo II, Count of Blois
Ancestry - Cheryl Varner