Stephen du Perche (died 1205)

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Stephen's seal

Stephen du Perche (died 14/17 April 1205) was a French nobleman and crusader. He was a partisan of the

County of Perche on behalf of his father and brother during their absence on crusade. He himself joined the Fourth Crusade in 1202 and travelled to the Holy Land. Afterwards, he went to the Latin Empire and was appointed duke of Philadelphia in Asia Minor in 1204. He died in battle against the Bulgars
.

Early life

Born before 1173, Stephen was the second of five sons of Count

archbishop of Palermo.[1] His younger brothers entered the church.[2]

His father and older brother,

Geoffrey III, joined the Third Crusade in 1189.[3] During their absence, Stephen shared the administration of the county with the seneschal Warin of Lonray.[4] After Geoffrey's return in 1192 or 1193, Stephen accompanied him to England.[2] It has sometimes been thought that Stephen and Geoffrey divided the Perche between themselves, but this is based on a misreading of a document of 1202.[5]

Around 1200, Stephen gave land he possessed at Arponnel and in the forested gâtines (wasteland) between Chartres and Thiron-Gardais to the Knights Templar.[6]

Anglo-Norman service

By the early 1190s, Stephen held rights to a portion of the comital revenues of the manors at Rivray,

money fief and Stephen fought for Richard in the war with France that year.[2]

In July 1200, King

William Marshal. In the autumn of 1201, when King John returned to Anjou after a circuit of the Duchy of Aquitaine, Stephen stood as a guarantor of the settlement reached between John and one of his most powerful Angevin vassals, Juhel III of Mayenne, who had supported John's rival for the throne, Arthur of Brittany, in 1199.[9]

Fourth Crusade

In 1200, Stephen's brother Geoffrey joined the

Hospitallers.[12] During the interval between his brother's death and his departure, Stephen seems to have governed the county of Perche again.[13] After his departure, Geoffrey's widow Matilda took over the regency for her minor son, Thomas.[11]

In June, Stephen and the Percheron contingent joined the main French force massing at Chartres.

Louis I of Blois.[11]

Stephen made the rendezvous at Venice in October 1202, but he was physically incapable of leaving with the army. His ship, the Violet, sank shortly after sailing and it is unclear if Stephen was injured in the wreck or if he had not been aboard because of an illness. In this way he avoided the controversial siege of Zara in November. In March 1203 he decided not to rejoin the main army and went to southern Italy with Rotrou of Montfort and Yves of La Jaille.[15] From there they sailed directly to the Holy Land, possibly in the same flotilla or ship as Simon of Montfort.[16]

Baron in Greece

Only after the

Renaud of Montmirail.[15] In 1204, after the partition of the Byzantine Empire by the crusaders, the new emperor Baldwin I granted Stephen the duchy of Philadelphia in Asia Minor as an imperial fief.[17] It is not likely that much or any of this fief was under crusader control at the time.[6][18] Nevertheless, Stephen distributed fiefs to his own vassals within his duchy. The grant of a large and autonomous fief, as connoted by the term "duchy", is an indication that Stephen was considered among the first rank of crusaders.[19] The actual ruler of Philadelphia, Theodore Mangaphas, was defeated by the imperial regent Henry of Flanders at the battle of Adramyttion on 19 March 1205, bringing at least part of the region briefly under crusader control.[20]

Stephen was one of twelve barons who sat on the council that advised the emperor.

necrology of Chartres, however, his requiem was celebrated on 17 April.[6]

Stephen's participation in the crusade and his brief career in Greece is narrated in Geoffrey of Villehardouin's chronicle and the Devastatio Constantinopolitana.[15]

Notes

  1. ^ Thompson 1995, p. 26.
  2. ^ a b c Thompson 1995, p. 80.
  3. ^ Thompson 2002, p. 115.
  4. ^ Thompson 2002, p. 116.
  5. ^ Thompson 1995, p. 143, n7.
  6. ^ a b c d e Longnon 1978, p. 105.
  7. ^ Thompson 2002, p. 119.
  8. ^ Thompson 1995, p. 136.
  9. ^ Thompson 2002, pp. 139–141.
  10. ^ a b Thompson 2002, p. 143.
  11. ^ a b c Thompson 1995, p. 143.
  12. ^ a b Thompson 2002, p. 146.
  13. ^ Thompson 1995, p. 84.
  14. ^ For an annotated list of all Stephen's surviving acts, see Thompson 1995, pp. 203–204.
  15. ^ a b c Queller, Compton & Campbell 1974, p. 449.
  16. ^ Queller, Compton & Campbell 1974, p. 453, n61.
  17. ^ Wolff 1969, p. 192.
  18. ^ Van Tricht 2011, p. 106.
  19. ^ Van Tricht 2011, p. 109.
  20. ^ Hendrickx 2015, p. 309.
  21. ^ Van Tricht 2011, p. 254.

Sources

  • Hendrickx, Benjamin (2015). "Les duchés de l'Empire latin de Constantinople après 1204: origine, structures et statuts". Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire. 93 (2): 303–328.
    doi:10.3406/rbph.2015.8837
    .
  • Longnon, Jean (1978). Les compagnons de Villehardouin: Recherches sur les croisés de la quatrième croisade. Geneva: Librairie Droz.
  • Queller, D. E.; Compton, T. K.; Campbell, D. A. (1974). "The Fourth Crusade: The Neglected Majority".
    S2CID 163442765
    .
  • Thompson, Kathleen H. (1995). The Counts of the Perche, c.1066–1217 (PDF) (PhD diss.). University of Sheffield.
  • Thompson, Kathleen H. (2002). Power and Border Lordship in Medieval France: The County of the Perche, 1000–1226. Boydell Press.
  • Wolff, Robert L. (1969). "The Latin Empire of Constantinople, 1204–1261". In R. L. Wolff; H. W. Hazard (eds.). History of the Crusades, Vol. 2: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 186–233.
  • Van Tricht, Filip (2011). The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204–1228). Brill.
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