John of Brittany, who sailed with the prince, not John of Brienne.^39
By then, of course, the burning issue in English politics was the rela-
tionship between the crown and the baronial‘reform movement’,
spearheaded by John of Brienne’s kinsman through his deceasedfirst
wife, Simon de Montfort. There is some evidence to suggest that John
was hopefully selected to play the role of peacemaker in this conflict.
Not long after Simon’s defeat and death at the battle of Evesham, John
was sent as an envoy to England, by Louis IX, to encourage clemency
towards the de Montfort family.^40 Moreover, the English could well
have been pleased when, only two or three years later, John formally
separated from his wife, Queen Mary.^41 Thismeantthattheycould
rest assured that he would have even less to do with Scotland in
the future.
These developments, in turn, may have opened the way for the most
remarkable part of John’s career, which followed in the late 1270s
and early 1280s. This period marks the dying days of the county of
Champagne, which would soon be absorbed, to all intents and purposes,
into the crown of France. The county’s ruler, at the time, was Edmund
‘Crouchback’, the younger brother of Edward I. Edmund appointed
John of Brienne to govern Champagne for him during a period of
prolonged absence. It is not clear why John was selected for the post,
but we may infer that he had the backing of the French and English
crowns, as well as his own Champenois ancestry to commend him. Not
much is known about John’speriodinoffice, but what little information
we have suggests a strongfigure. If anything, he was rather too forceful.
When an insurrection broke out in Provins in 1280, John arrived in the
town with troops at his back, and swiftly restored order with the full
gamut of medieval punishments, from mutilation and banishment
through to execution. A contemporary observer was quick to criticize
with some Old French doggerel:‘Mesire Jehan d’Acrefist / Grant péchié
quant s’en entremist’.^42 In a sense, then, the Briennes had briefly
achieved Erard I of Ramerupt’s old dream of ruling the county of
Champagne.
(^39) SeeFlores historiarum, ed. H. R. Luard, 3 vols. (London, 1890), ii, 466:‘Johanne de
Braynes sororio suo’.
(^40) The best account of all this is still to be found in Maurice Powicke’s classic,King Henry
III and the Lord Edward: The Community of the Realm in the Thirteenth Century(Oxford,
41 1966), 535–6.
42 See Stringer’s article on Mary in theODNB.
D’Arbois de Jubainville,Histoire, iv, part 1, 449–51, and part 2, 463.
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