3 In the Pages of Joinville (c. 1237–1267)
John of Joinville’sThe Life of Saint Louisis arguably the great French
chronicle of the central medieval period. As a result, it has been studied a
great deal. In this chapter, though, the text will be employed in a rather
unusual way. Joinville’s memoirs, which werefinally completed more
thanfifty years after most of the events that they describe, will be used as
a means of exploring the history of the Brienne dynasty in the middle of
the thirteenth century. To put the matter as simply as possible:The Life of
Saint Louismakes it clear that the Briennes had‘arrived’as a great family.
This comes across most plainly from the centrepiece of Joinville’s remin-
iscences: his account of thefirst crusade of Louis IX (the‘Seventh
Crusade’of 1248–54), which brought all the branches of the Brienne
dynasty together.
However, there is some room for doubt about how much Joinville
actually remembered about the Brienne family, for all his personal,
dynastic and regional links with them. For instance, Joinville describes
the notorious Erard I of Ramerupt and his wife, Philippa of Champagne,
as the founders of a‘great lineage’.^1 Whilst, in a sense, this is quite true, it
nevertheless reads rather oddly, since the other branches of the Brienne
dynasty were far more distinguished, both in the mid-thirteenth century
and later. It is quite possible that, in his old age, Joinville had become
rather confused about which members of the family hailed from which
line. Certainly, inThe Life of Saint Louis, he misses a number of oppor-
tunities to spell out the links between the various Briennes. For example,
although Joinville clearly states that John, who married the countess of
Montfort, was the brother of Empress Mary of Constantinople, Joinville
does not say the same about another of Mary’s brothers, Count Alfonso
of Eu–and this is despite the fact that Joinville discusses Alfonso at
length, as we shall see.^2
(^1) Joinville,‘Life’, section 78. (^2) Ibid., section 140; and see also below, 79–80.
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