shall see; the other was Mary, who, again, died young.^20 Perhaps the
most significant feature of Raoul III’s marriage, however, is the way in
which it strengthened the importance of the Lusignan connection.
Jeanne of Mello was the coheiress to various estates in northern and
eastern England and also in Ireland, derived ultimately from her great-
uncle, Geoffrey of Lusignan.^21
Nonetheless, the acquisition of these estates does not seem to have
stopped Raoul III from riding high in the service of thefirst Valois king of
France, Philip VI. Soon after the death of the elderly constable, Gaucher
of Châtillon, in 1329, the king chose Raoul as his successor. Although we
do not know the precise reason for Raoul’s appointment, it is clear that
the Châtillons and the house of Brienne were very closely connected.
Moreover, Lebailly has found evidence to suggest that the old and new
constables had known each other rather well. Indeed, Raoul’s earliest
campaigns may well have been fought under Gaucher’s leadership.^22
Raoul’s early years as constable could well have been the easiest and
most relaxed times that he was ever to know. He may well have been free,
for example, to join a campaign in northern Italy in 1332.^23 However,
Raoul’s role in the‘Robert of Artois’affair was far more ominous for the
future. Robert had long nursed a claim to his grandfather’s county of
Artois, and, in the end, he resorted to forgery to try to prove his case.
When his deception was discovered, hefled into exile, to the duke of
Brabant. King Philip promptly dispatched an army to the Low
Countries, under the command of the constable.^24 The duke of Brabant
gave in, obliging Robert toflee once again. In the long run, as is well-
known, he ended up in England, where he played his part in provoking
the outbreak of the Hundred Years’War.^25 This would not be particu-
larly interesting or important were it not for the fact that Robert’s son and
heir, John, eventually received the county of Eu as a sort of‘consolation
prize’, when the Briennes there were ruined in their turn.^26
(^20) Ibid., 447.
(^21) It is worth noting that one of these estates, Laughton (mod. Laughton-en-le-Morthen, in
south Yorkshire) was a part of the honour of Tickhill, which, of course, the house of Eu
still claimed as its own. See theCalendar of the Close Rolls: Edward III, 14 vols. (Nendeln,
1972), vi, 531; and Lebailly,‘Raoul d’Eu, connétable de France et seigneur anglais et
irlandais’, 243.
(^22) Lebailly,‘Le connétable d’Eu et son cercle nobiliare’,41–2.
(^23) See R. E. C. Waters,Genealogical Memoirs of the Counts of Eu in Normandy, 996–1350,
and of the English Earls of Eu of the House of Bourchier, 1419– 1540 (London, 1886), 41.
(^24) See esp.The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel, 1290– 1360 , tr. N. Bryant (Woodbridge, 2001),
25 ch. 19.
26 See the brief summary in W. M. Ormrod,Edward III(London, 2011), 189–90.
See Below,177.
The Coming of the Hundred Years’War 145