of Eu. However, Count John’s side was far more illustrious. It began, we
are told, with a representation of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem, and
then it continued with a large number of others, including the Latin
emperor, Baldwin II; Louis IX and Philip III of France; Charles of
Anjou, king of Sicily; an unnamed ruler of Spain; and various lesser
figures.^37 TheChroniquealso reveals that the Eu family chapel contained
a painted family tree. It is worth noting that this genealogy began, once
again, with King John of Jerusalem. The words ascribed to him, on the
mural, spelt out the point that he was the founder:‘Rex ego Jerusalem,
sobolem genuique sequentem’. At a lower level, there were images of
Alfonso of Eu and Countess Mary, and then of John II himself, seated
between his wife and his sister, extending a hand to each. Nearby, there
were portraits of various other lords, including John’s uncle and name-
sake (‘messire Jehan d’Accon’), and the latest scion of the dynasty, the
future John III.^38 All of this makes it overwhelmingly clear that John II
continued to regard himself in the same highly exalted manner that his
predecessor had done. Indeed, on the strength of this, it could be argued
that the Brienne family’s heritage and connections were being more
vigorously asserted here, at Foucarmont, than anywhere else in France.
This makes it all the more interesting that the short career of John III
was dominated by a quite different inheritance: namely, that of his wife,
Jeanne of Guînes. Her grandfather, Arnold III, had been obliged to sell
the county to the French crown in the early 1280s. His son, Baldwin, had
spent the next decade trying to claim it back. Perhaps the fundamental
problem was simply that, for all Baldwin’s remaining possessions nearby,
he lacked the status and connections to assert himself effectively.^39 It is
noteworthy that success followed, remarkably quickly, when the new
count of Eu took up the matter on his wife’s behalf. Within a year or
so, it seems, Philip IV had returned Guînes to the couple, except for the
castellany of Tournehem.^40
Although this was a tremendous coup for John, it is hard to think of a
worse time to become so beholden to the French crown. Part of the
problem was that John was now a vassal of Count Robert of Artois.^41 It is
(^37) Chronique des comtes d’Eu, 445. It is worth noting that John II’s uncle and namesake, the
former count of Montfort and butler of France, is mistakenly described as‘le roy
d’Acres’.
(^38) Ibid., 446.
(^39) See R. P. Pruvost,‘Les comtes de Guines de la maison de Gand’,Revue belge et étrangère,
40 12 (1861), 165–7.
See the short summary in L. Vanderkindere,La formation territoriale des principautés belges
41 au Moyen âge, 2 vols. (Brussels, 1902), i, 268.
Ibid., 268 n. 4.
The House of Eu and Guînes 111