worth noting that unseemly wrangling over the rent continued until
1227.^143 At around the same time, though, Erard bought the‘other
half’of Ramerupt from his kinswoman, Helisende of Rethel, and so he
reunited the lordship for thefirst time in almost a century. In return, he
ceded much of the rent land that he had acquired through the peace
deal.^144 In this way, he did use his marriage scheme to advance his
position in Champagne, although nowhere near as much as he had once
hoped. Nevertheless, all his achievements were tainted with a very real
legacy of mistrust. For instance, Erard was prohibited from completing
the fortifications of any residences that he might built on the new
territories assigned to him by the count of Champagne.^145 Theobald
IV, who had come of age in May 1222,was right to be cautious. Less
than a decade later, when Champagne was facing an invasion from a
coalition of other French magnates, Erard’sfidelity to his lord could
well have been wavering. Theobald quickly purchased his loyalty with
an additionalfief worth 200l.tournois. However, the count also obliged
Erard to surrender his castles for the duration of the war and to obtain
oaths from all of his knights, vowing to support Theobald against his
enemies.^146
Erard died in the mid-1240s, at the age of around sixty. His wife,
Philippa, survived him for a few years at the most. They were laid to rest
in different places. Although Erard had played a leading role in the
endowment of the abbey of La Piété, near Ramerupt, he was not buried
there. Instead, he was interred, alongside his mother, in the Cistercian
house of Pontigny.^147 By contrast, Philippa was entombed in a rather
more prestigious foundation than either of these: that is, in the new
nunnery of Maubuisson, the designated burial-place of the French
queen mother, Blanche of Castile.^148 Although there may well have
been a number of good reasons forthis, it is hard not to discern a
reflection of Erard’s career, and of his status in relation to his wife.
He had never quite shaken off the tag of‘lucky adventurer’, who had
married a woman above his station.
(^143) Evergates,Aristocracy, 41; d’Arbois de Jubainville,Histoire, iv, part 1, 186–7.
(^144) Seeibid., v, nos. 1766–8; and Roserot,Dictionnaire, iii, 1228.
(^145) See d’Arbois de Jubainville,Histoire, v, no. 1345.
(^146) See Evergates,Aristocracy, 241. For a different interpretation of events, see d’Arbois de
Jubainville,‘Les premiers seigneurs de Ramerupt’, 448.
(^147) For the relationship between Erard, his forebears and the monastery, seeLe premier
148 cartulaire de l’abbaye cistercienne de Pontigny, nos. 35–6, 80–3, 216.
See d’Arbois de Jubainville,‘Les premiers seigneurs de Ramerupt’, 447–9; Roserot,
Dictionnaire, iii, 1228; and Evergates,Aristocracy, 241.
64 Breakthrough and High Point (c. 1191–1237)