Holland (whose power was, in fact, largely confined to the Low Countries),
and Charles of Anjou, younger brother of Louis IX. When the French
king returned to the West, though, he was determined to restore the
status quo ante. In 1256, John of Avesnes renounced all his rights in
Namur, and annulled his earlier grant to Henry of Luxemburg.^57
However, a new struggle soon broke out: the‘War of Namur’, which
is described in most detail by the‘Minstrel of Reims’. Although this
particular text is often untrustworthy, it is worth remembering that it was
written soon after these events, and not far away, in north-eastern
France.^58 According to the Minstrel, the conflict was sparked by the
aftermath of a tavern brawl, in which the empress’sbailliwas killed.
When the empress heard this, we are told,‘she almost went mad, and
she said:“Am I truly without friends in this foreign country?”’Neverthe-
less, she resolved to take a tough line against the Namurois, demanding
that the guilty parties should be turned over to her, and that the citizens
must‘be at my service, at my service, body and substance’.^59 It has to be
said that the substance of the Minstrel’s account is convincing, even if
it is told in a very exaggerated fashion. The root of the problem, surely,
was Mary’s determination to mulct Namur for the benefit of Latin
Constantinople. The Minstrel hints at this with dark references to the
empress‘taking [people’s] goods, and mistreating them...’^60 Under-
standably, the disaffected citizens were soon in touch with the recent
claimant to the marquisate, Henry of Luxemburg. Henry invaded at the
end of 1256, forcing Mary’s loyalists to retreat to the citadel.^61 The
empress did everything she could to relieve the castle, assembling a
motley host of kinsmen, friends, allies and supporters. First and fore-
most, the Minstrel mentions ‘the count of Eu [and] the count of
Montfort’, though he does not identify them as her brothers.^62 Mary
made a last plea to the Namurois in June 1258, before she quit the region
for good.^63 In the end, the problem was solved in a similarly pragmatic
way. Far from being a source of revenue, the marquisate had become an
(^57) Wolff,‘Mortgage and Redemption of an Emperor’s Son’, 62; and J. Le Goff,Saint Louis,
tr. G. A. Gollrad (Notre Dame, 2009), 189–90.
(^58) See de Wailly’s introduction toRécits d’un ménestrel de Reims au treizième siècle, pp. xvii–
xxxix.
(^59) In a sort of presentiment of the‘Burghers of Calais’story, it is even suggested that the
citizens of Namur should present themselves to the empress with ropes around their
necks. Seeibid., chs. 41–2.
(^60) Ibid., ch. 42. (^61) See Wolff,‘Mortgage and Redemption of an Emperor’s Son’, 63.
(^62) William of Nangis claims that all three brothers participated in the war, although it is
worth noting that they continued to witness charters for Alfonso X throughout this
63 period. Seeibid., 76 n. 77.
‘Régestes des empereurs latins de Constantinople’, no. 262.
The Fate of the Latin Empire 87