Henry I, Count of Champagne
Henry I (French: Henri, * 1126, † March 16, 1181 in Troyes ), called the bountiful (le Libéral ), since 1151 was a Count of Champagne from the House of Blois. He was the eldest son of Count Theobald II of the Great and his wife Matilda of Carinthia.
Biography
Representing his father took Henry in the wake of King Louis VII on the Second Crusade, where he was knighted in Constantinople by Emperor Manuel I Comnenus Opel. In 1151 he supported together with the King Count Gottfried VI. of Anjou against his older brother, Henry Plantagenet.
At the death of his father Henry took over the Champagne and left the other dominions, including Blois, Chartres, Sancerre Châteaudun and his younger brothers, so he chose the economically more significant by the major trade shows part of the family property for themselves. The personal union of the territories of Blois was permanently dissolved by this division, but Henry assured to continue the undivided power of his house by the duty he pledged allegiance to him his younger brothers over. This feudal relation should also go to their descendants, and was only in 1234 by Henry grandson Theobald IV ended.
Under Henry the house of Blois underwent a revision of its traditional royal hostility, which in 1160 led to the marriage of Henry's sister, Adela, with the King. Due to his sister 's house Blois became a dominant influence on the royal court, as they led the regency during his lifetime of her husband. Heinrich himself married to four years later Princess Marie, a daughter of the King from his first marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine. In the role of a mediator Heinrich took his king in conflict with Henry Plantagenet or Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Especially during the schism between Pope Alexander III. and the emperor, Henry tried as an arbitrator and offered the Emperor homage to him if it did not succeed his king, the Pope Alexander supported to reconcile with the Emperor. In fact foundered on August 9, 1162, a balance between the two parties in Saint -Jean -de- Losne to the refusal of Alexander III. , After which Henry declared himself a vassal of the Emperor.
1179 Henry moved a second time in the Holy Land. On his return journey through Asia Minor he fell into the captivity of the Seljuks Kılıç Arslan II, but was released after an intervention Emperor Manuel. His absence meant that the influence of his family to the crown after the death of King Louis VII in 1180 collapsed. Because the new king, Philip II, Henry's nephew, the paternalism acquitted by his mother's family, and allied himself with the Count Philip I of Flanders.
Henry returned to his homeland in 1181, where he later died but little and was buried in the Church founded by him, Saint- Etienne to Troyes. He built an orderly dominion over the nobles of Champagne and could rely on the help of about 2,000 vassals, which in turn made him a nobleman, the same was hardly anyone in France. The Champagne was a safe place for merchants, who held in the Champagne fairs a focal point of trade and finance in medieval Europe. In addition, his farm was a famous literary and intellectual center that attracted leading scholars such as Walter Map in Troyes. Henry himself was more interested in spiritual formation and founded a great library, still he was of a pious nature and bestowed generous religious institutions, which earned him his nickname. At the same time his wife in Troyes was mistress of one of the most brilliant courts of the high medieval France, were sponsored by the major poets such as Chrétien de Troyes or Conon de Béthune.
Progeny
The children of Henry and Mary were:
- Henry II (* July 29, 1166, † September 10, 1197 in Acre ), Count of Champagne and King of Jerusalem ( uxor nomine ) ∞ on May 5, 1192 Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem ( † 1205 )
- ∞ on January 6, 1186 Baldwin IX. († 1205 ), Count of Flanders and Hainaut, Emperor of Constantinople Opel
- ∞ 1195 Blanche of Navarre († 1229 ), daughter of King Sancho VI. of Navarre
- ∞ Count William V of Macon and Vienne ( † 1224 )