supporting the duke of Burgundy against the Marmousets and Orléanists at court, but
when John the Fearless succeeded his father as duke of Burgundy in 1404, Berry (and
therefore Cramaud) shifted to the Orléanist party. Soon, Cramaud was on a list of
counselors whom Burgundy considered his enemies.
Because the duke of Berry was the French prince most committed to ending the papal
Schism, Simon de Cramaud assumed a leading role in the unionist policies of the French
crown. More than any other person in Europe, he succeeded in articulating, over a
fifteen-year period, the via cessionis that called for the abdication of both popes. A
skillful politician, he presided over several major councils of the Gallican church and
over the Council of Pisa in 1409–10, as well as performing important diplomatic missions
on behalf of church union. His influential treatise De subtraccione obediencie (1397) was
a crucial document in the campaign to persuade the princes of Europe to endorse the via
cessionis and the sanctions to enforce it.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: JOHN, DUKE OF BERRY; MARMOUSETS; SUBTRACTION OF
OBEDIENCE]
Auber, Charles-Auguste. “Recherches sur la vie de Simon de Cramaud.” Mémoires de la société
des antiquaires de l’ouest 7(1840):249–380.
Kaminsky, Howard. “Cession, Subtraction, Deposition: Simon de Cramaud’s Formulation of the
French Solution to the Schism.” Studia Gratiana 15(1972):295–317.
——. Simon de Cramaud and the Great Schism. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1983.
CRAON
. A town and castle in northwestern Anjou, Craon (Mayenne) gave its name to one of the
most important families of northwestern France. Like many other such families, the lords
of Craon can be traced to a castellan of the mid-11th century. They served the counts of
Anjou and by the 13th century were hereditary seneschals of Anjou and lords of
Chantocé, Ingrande, Sablé, Briole, and Châteauneuf-sur-Sarthe. They intermarried with
the great seigneurial families of neighboring regions, such as the Clisson, Lusignan, and
Laval. Amaury IV (d. 1373) was the last male member of the senior line. His sister
Isabelle, who succeeded him, was the wife of Louis I, lord of Sully, and their daughter,
Marie, married Guy VI de La Tremoille, bringing with her an inheritance that made the
fortune of her husband’s family. Cadet lines in the 14th century included the viscounts of
Châteaudun, the lords of La Suze, and the lords of La Ferté-Bernard. The last male heir
of each of these lines died at Agincourt in 1415. The inheritance of the La Suze line
passed through a woman to Gilles de Laval, lord of Rais and marshal of France. The line
of La Ferté-Bernard produced the Pierre de Craon whose scandal-ridden life included a
bungled attempt to assassinate his second cousin, Olivier de Clisson, constable of France,
in 1392. This act triggered the ill-fated royal expedition against Brittany during which
Charles VI had his first attack of mental illness.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: CLISSON; RAIS, GILLES DE]
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