purchasing the mouvance of others. He consolidated both central and local
administration. A “governor” exercised executive authority in the count’s absence, and
financial “receivers” supervised the comital finances. Baillis oversaw the castellanies and
prévôtés and convened courts of the first instance. The supreme court of Champagne, the
Jours of Troyes, met regularly from this time, although its decisions are known only from
a later compilation known as the Coutumier of Champagne (ca. 1290).
The 1230s brought important changes to the county. In 1230–31, Thibaut franchised
his castellany towns after they had vigorously resisted an invasion by French barons led
by Pierre Mauclerc, duke of Brittany, to avenge Thibaut’s abandonment of their
conspiracy against Blanche of Castile. The count commuted tailles and personal
restrictions to a wealth-based tax, and he granted a large measure of self-governance
exercised by elected mayors and councils. Since the franchises included the towns and
their surrounding districts, they applied to most of the count’s nonfeudal tenants. A
number of barons subsequently franchised their own tenants. Those who were not
franchised in the course of the 13th century, primarily tenants on church lands,
and who therefore retained the old personal liabilities and restrictions, later were
stigmatized as “serfs.”
In 1234, Alix, queen of Cyprus, the second daughter of Henri II, arrived in
Champagne claiming the county as her inheritance. Thibaut bought her off for £40,000
and a pension, but unable to find the ready cash, he sold the mouvance of Blois (and
Sancerre) to Louis IX, thus severing the historic tie between Blois and Champagne. In the
The Encyclopedia 361