5 Hubris and Nemesis (c. 1311–1356)
On 17 November 1350, Raoul IV, count of Eu and Guînes and constable
of France, was suddenly accused of treason. The next night he was
executed without trial, and his estates were declared forfeit to the throne.
Just overfive years later, Walter VI, count of Brienne and Lecce and
claimant to the duchy of Athens (and, incidentally, Raoul’s eventual
successor as constable of France) perished on the battlefield of Poitiers,
fighting on behalf of the very same crown that had killed his kinsman.
Walter had no surviving sons, marking the end of the main line’s phe-
nomenal run of genealogical good fortune, and so his lands, titles and
claims passed to another dynasty altogether: that is, to the Enghiens.
Taken together, these calamitous events mark the effective fall of the
house of Brienne–notwithstanding the fact that a junior branch of the
dynasty, the Beaumonts, held onto their viscounty in Anjou and Maine
until 1372, and retained a significant position in England for a long
time after that.
However, the early fourteenth century should not be regarded as a
period of inexorable decline, leading ultimately to the dynasty’s collapse.
This can be made clear by surveying the family’s fortunes, across the
board, during the mature career of Walter VI–the centralfigure around
whom this chapter is constructed. It is, of course, quite true that the
‘hubris and nemesis’labelfits him very well, and it is also rather apposite
for certain other members of the dynasty, such as Henry of Beaumont
and Raoul IV. We will turn to examine these individuals, and the
branches of the family that they represent, at appropriate points in the
chapter.
Yet there is an important caveat to mention here. Although the disas-
ters of the 1350s should not be regarded as inevitable, it is undeniable
that there was a distinct contraction in the Briennes’‘field of interest’,
which becomes especially discernible as we move from the late thirteenth
century into the middle of the fourteenth. By the end of our period, two
of the surviving branches of the family had drawn together, much more
firmly than previously. Moreover, the main focus of the dynasty as a
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