relations with the king, even entrusting his young son Henri to Louis’s entourage on the
Second Crusade. That crusade experience forged a bond that later permitted Henri and his
brother Thibaut to marry Louis’s two daughters by Eleanor, while the king in turn
married their sister Adèle (of Champagne). Their brother Guillaume, in part because of
the royal connection, enjoyed rapid promotion in the church as bishop of Chartres (1165–
68), then as archbishop of Sens (1168–75) and Reims (1176–1202).
Largely because of Thibaut’s attention, Champagne had become by his death the most
promising of his lands.
Not surprisingly, his eldest son, Henri, born and raised in Champagne and associated
early in its governance, chose it as his inheritance, leaving Blois-Chartres and Sancerre to
his younger brothers, Thibaut and Étienne. The Champagne lands of Henri I le Libéral (r.
1152–1181) consisted entirely of fiefs held from ten lords, of whom the most important
were the king (for Meaux), the duke of Burgundy (for Troyes), the archbishop of Reims
(for Vitry), and the bishop of Langres (for Bar-sur-Aube). Over his disparate lands, the
count created a new territorial unit, the county of Champagne, by imposing a single
administrative system of castellanies (districts of his own feudal tenants) and prévôtés
(districts of his domainal lands). The organization of the new principality is best seen
through the only surviving administrative record from his rule, the census of his feudal
tenants known as the Feoda Campanie (1170s), which furnishes the names and military
obligations of his barons and knights in each of the twenty-six Champagne castellanies.
No doubt, his officials kept equally exact but routine, and therefore expendable, financial
accounts of his domain and fair revenues.
Count Henri actively attracted immigrants to clear lands, to create new villages, and to
settle in his castle towns. Only two of his towns, however, could approach the size of the
neighboring episcopal cities like Reims, Châlons-sur-Marne, and Sens: his capital of
Troyes and Provins (which was becoming a second capital), with populations of ca.
15,000 and 10,000, respectively. The growing fairs of Champagne complemented the
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