LaFortune-Martel, Agathe. Fête noble en Bourgogne au XVe siècle. Montreal: Bellarmin, 1984.
La Marche, Olivier de. Mémoires d’Olivier de la Marche, maître d’hôtel et capitaine des gardes de
Charles le Téméraire, ed. Henri Beaune and J.d’Arbaumont. 4 vols. Paris: Société de l’Histoire
de France, 1883–88.
Scully, Terence, ed. “Du fait de cuisine, par Maistre Chiquart 1420.” Vallesia 40(1985):101–231.
Wheaton, Barbara K. Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
BAR-LE-DUC
. The county of Bar-le-Duc was created primarily from allodial lands located between
Champagne, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Luxembourg. In ca. 960, Frederick I, duke of
Upper Lorraine, in order to check incursions from Champagne, built a fortress on the
Ornain River that he called Bar (Lat. barra ‘barrier’) and settled his knights on
confiscated lands of the nearby abbey of Saint-Mihiel. Bar and its adjacent lands passed
to his great-granddaughter Sophie (d. 1093), who first adopted the title countess of Bar.
A line of energetic successors steadily expanded the county by usurpation, conquest,
purchase, and marriage. By the mid-12th century, the county had become an important,
autonomous principality between France and Germany, although it always was
dominated by French cultural and political interests. Count Renaud II (r. 1149–70)
married Agnès de Champagne, sister of Queen Adèle and Count Henri I of Champagne.
His second son, Renaud, became bishop of Chartres (r. 1182–1217). The prestige of the
counts of Bar was such that, when the barons of Champagne sought someone to lead
them on the Fourth Crusade after the death of their own count, they asked first the duke
of Burgundy, then Count Thibaut I of Bar (r. 1191–1214). Mindful of his own brother
Henri I’s death on the Third Crusade, Thibaut declined.
Counts Henri II (r. 1214–39) and Thibaut II (r. 1239–91) significantly increased the
political role of Bar in eastern France. By awarding substantial fiefs and by purchasing
the homages of important nobles in the frontier region, they effectively preempted further
eastward expansion by Champagne. In 1297, royal forces invaded Bar after Count Henri
III (r. 1291–1302) supported his father-in-law, King Edward I of England, against Philip
IV, and in 1301 the entire county west of the Meuse River, including the city of Bar,
became a fief (Barrois mouvant) held from the French crown. The counts continued to
figure prominently in French affairs and even married into the royal family. In 1354, they
acquired the ducal title and became peers of France. Following the loss of the duke’s four
sons at the battles of Nicopolis and Agincourt, Bar passed indirectly to a grandson, René
d’Anjou (r. 1430–80).
Theodore Evergates
[See also: ALLEU/ALLOD; COUNT/COUNTY; RENÉ D’ANJOU]
Collin, Hubert. “Le comté de Bar au début du XIVe siècle.” Bulletin philologique et historique du
Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques (1971):81–93.
Grosdidier de Matons, Marcel. Le comté de Bar des origines au traité de Bruges (vers 950–1031).
Paris: Picard, 1922.
Parisse, Michel. Noblesse et chevalerie en Lorraine médiévale. Nancy: University of Nancy, 1982.
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