were virtually synonymous with the royal council. Thereafter, however, the Chamber
suffered political eclipse.
Consisting of eleven clerks and eight masters of accounts in 1320, the Chamber grew
by about 50 percent in the next two decades but was reduced to twelve clerks and seven
masters in 1346. In 1381, the Chamber acquired a president (then an ecclesiastic), and a
second (lay) president was added in 1400. The personnel was stabilized in 1408, when
the Chamber consisted of two presidents, eight masters, twelve clerks/auditors, two
“correctors,” plus notaries and ushers. Following the Burgundian (and later English)
occupation of Paris in 1418–20, the Chamber in Paris represented the Anglo-Burgundian
government, and Charles VII established a rival body at Bourges. After he regained Paris
in 1436, a single Chambre des Comptes resumed normal operations in Paris.
At the very time that it was becoming a stable institution in the later 14th century, the
Chambre des Comptes was losing its central position in royal finance. First, the currency
was put under a separate organ, then the increasingly regular “extraordinary” taxes, such
as the aide, taille, and gabelle, came under the authority of the généraux of the emerging
Cour des Aides. The crown’s domainal revenues, over which the Chamber retained
control, fell in both relative importance and absolute value. By 1400, the role of the
Chambre des Comptes was much reduced from what it had been sixty years earlier.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: AIDES; CONSEIL; GÉNÉRAUX]
Cazelles, Raymond. La société politique et la crise de la royauté sous Philippe de Valois. Paris:
Argences, 1958.
Favier, Jean. Un conseiller de Philippe le Bel: Enguerran de Marigny. Paris: Presses Universitaires
de France, 1963.
Jassemin, Henri. La Chambre des Comptes de Paris au XVe siè-cle, précédé d’une étude sur les
origines. Paris: Picard, 1933.
Lot, Ferdinand, and Robert Fawtier. Histoire des institutions françaises au moyen âge. 3 vols.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1957–63, Vol. 2: Institutions royales (1958).
CHAMPAGNE
. The county of Champagne was a classic feudal principality of the high Middle Ages and
among the most powerful of the realm. The counts, commanding almost 2,000 direct
feudal tenants, from great barons to simple knights, created a sophisticated and well-run
government. Their farsighted economic policies led to the vigorous development of both
the countryside and their castle towns and to the establishment of fairs that made
Champagne the center of international trade and finance. The counts were also noted
supporters of reformed monasteries, primarily the Cistercians, and patrons of writers, of
whom Chrétien de Troyes was the most illustrious. The proximity of Champagne to the
royal domain and intimate ties between the comital family and the Capetians led to close,
though not always amicable, relations between the two lands and resulted in the county’s
ultimate attachment to the royal domain.
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