century and, along with certain unrepealed and much-resented seigneurial ones, lasted
until the French Revolution.
Less common and onerous than manual labor and carriage (the duty to help transport
with carts, draft animals, and wheelbarrows), a specialized corvée consisted of serving in
the host and the guard (watch and ward).
William A.Percy‚ Jr.
COUCY
. A town and barony in the Laonnais region, Coucy (Aisne) first became prominent under
Thomas de Marle, who was lord of the place between 1116 and 1130 and a brutal warrior
against whom Louis VI of France campaigned repeatedly at the behest of the clergy.
Thereafter, the lords of Coucy tended to be loyal to the king without surrendering their
spirit of independence. Enguerrand III the Great (1191–1243) turned the family castle
into an enormous fortress. His daughter Alix married the count of Guines, and when the
male line of the family died out in 1311, their son succeeded as Enguerrand V.
Enguerrand VII (b. 1340; lord of Coucy 1346–97) was a hostage in England in the
1360s and married the daughter of Edward III. In 1376, he returned to France, becoming
a major military commander under Charles V and Charles VI. Like many nobles from
northern France, he had been associated with Charles the Bad of Navarre in the faction
opposing the ruling house of Valois and in later life was linked with the faction at court
that supported Olivier de Clisson against the dukes of Berry and Burgundy. Yet he
managed not to become too closely tied to any faction and retained the respect of all
parties. Besides serving the French crown, he participated in crusades in 1390 and 1396.
The latter campaign, which culminated in the disastrous Battle of Nicopolis in Hungary,
led to his death in captivity. Enguerrand VII was the last male member of the Coucy
family; his daughter Marie sold the lordship to the duke of Orléans.
The château of Enguerrand III, a masterpiece of military architecture, covered a vast
site and stood on an easily defensible position, which may explain why, aside from
repairs and rebuilding of the gateways and the donjon by Enguerrand VII in the 14th
century, the complex survived largely intact until World War I. The original structure had
some twenty-eight towers and walls that stretched for almost a mile. The château itself
sits on the northern promontory of the site and is separated from the lower court, the
bailey, by a trench, the whole dominated by the huge circular donjon. Two other deep
trenches separate the bailey from the town and the town from the plateau. The parish
church was built in the 12th and 13th centuries but extensively altered in the 16th.
John Bell Henneman, Jr./William W.Clark
[See also: MARMOUSETS; NICOPOLIS]
Barthélemy, Dominique. Les deux âges de la seigneurie banale: pouvoir et société dans la terre
des sires de Coucy, milieu XIe-milieu XIIIe siècle. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1984.
Chaurand, Jacques. Thomas de Marle, sire de Coucy, sire de Marle: seigneur de la Fere, Vervins,
Pinon et autres lieux. Marle: Syndicat d’Initiative, 1963.
Dufour, Étienne. Coucy-le-Château et ses environs. Soissons: Nougarède, 1910.
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