kin, the family of Rethel, who owned the‘other half’of Ramerupt.^113
Erard and Helisende had at least threechildren. Their fates are unclear,
but it is quite believable that Erard later sidelined them, in favour of his
offspring by his far more prestigious second wife.^114 Whenever it was
that Erard married for thefirst time, there is reason to believe that his
stepfather continued to play an influential role for some years after the
young lord came of age. In 1208, for instance, Erard sold agîtefor 100l.
and an annual rent of oats, but it is worth noting that Gaucher’sassent
is mentioned.^115
This sale was approved by Erard’s cousin and suzerain, Count John
of Brienne, from whom, we are told,‘thefief moved’.^116 It is clear, then,
that there was meaningful interaction between Erard and John before the
latter went east to become king of Jerusalem. Indeed, Erard was the
obvious candidate for John to leave asbailli(‘regent’) of the county of
Brienne whilst he himself was away. It may be worth stressing that John
was thefirstde jureking of Jerusalem to retain a great Western lordship
as well, and hence this is a marker on the road that led to the‘cross-
Mediterranean dynastic agglomerations’offigures such as Frederick II
and Charles of Anjou.^117 However, there are signs of a subtle challenge
to John’s rights that took place during his absence. In earlierFeoda
Campanie, which had been compiled in the 1170s and again in around
1200, Ramerupt had not been listed as a lordship in its own right. This
was because it was held, not directly from the count of Champagne,
but of the count of Brienne. Suddenly, though, in the fifth Feoda
(c. 1210–14), Ramerupt is recorded as a lordship of its own, and Erard
is described as‘ligiusto the count of Champagne’.^118 Evergates has
rightly seen this as part of wider efforts by the court at Troyes to impose
‘ligeance’over all Champenois magnates, regardless of previous patterns
of landholding.^119 Nevertheless, it is surely not an accident that this
policy was extended over Ramerupt in a period when there was no count
of Brienne present to contest it.
Helisende’s death, in the early 1210s, left Erard free to marry again,
and it is worth noting that this took place at around the same time as his
cousin John’s coronation as king of Jerusalem.^120 These years mark the
genesis of Erard’s scheme to marry Philippa of Champagne and to try to
(^113) See below,64. (^114) See Evergates,Aristocracy, 241.
(^115) Collection des principaux cartulaires du diocèse de Troyes,v,‘Cartulaire de Saint-Pierre’,
no. 123.
(^116) Ibid.,‘Cartulaire de Saint-Pierre’, no. 123. (^117) For this, see Perry,John, 50.
(^118) Feoda Campaniev, no. 3590, inDocuments relatifs au comté de Champagne et de Brie.
(^119) See Evergates,Aristocracy,34–6.
(^120) See the brief summary in Evergates,Aristocracy, 241.
The Notorious Erard of Ramerupt 57