Despite all this, the Briennes’debut in our sources is quite clear.
A charter shows that, in 950 or 951, a certain Engelbert was already a
significantfigure in the Carolingianpagusof Brienne. Engelbert not only
held land near Piney, but also consented to a donation, made by Duke
Gislebert of Burgundy, to the monastery of Montiéramey.^2 Thankfully,
there are a couple of narrative sources thatfill out the picture, namely
Flodoard’sAnnalesand Richer’s Histories(which is largely based on
Flodoard). However, these accounts can make the earliest Briennes
seem like a caricature of the emergent high aristocracy of the period (that
is, of the so-called‘feudal transformation’). Taken together, Flodoard
and Richer observe that, in 951, the West Frankish king, Louis IV, laid
siege to the castle of Brienne. This stronghold had recently been built, or
fortified, by two brothers, whom our chroniclers indignantly label as
mere brigands: Engelbert and Gobert.^3
Who were these two? It is unlikely that they were complete parvenus,
and it can be tentatively suggested that they were of Burgundian origin.
We should, perhaps, see Engelbert as a landholding vassal of Duke
Gislebert.^4 Moreover, Richer notes that it was a Burgundian count who
intervened with the king, for Engelbert and Gobert’s freedom under
oath, after Louis had captured and razed their fortress.^5 Whatever the
truth on this particular point, it is a sign of the times that royal wrath
could do little, in the long run, to thwart the burgeoning ambitions of
Engelbert and Gobert. A castle was swiftly rebuilt at Brienne, and the
head of the family soon bore the comital title, presumably against the
king’s wishes.^6
If these events constitute the key birth-pang, what followed was a
mysterious century during which various Count Engelberts were active
in the Briennois. What little is known confirms the crucial role that these
counts played. Above all, they consolidated and retained their nascent
territorial entity, the county of Brienne. In part, at least, they did this
by forging a web of aristocratic connections, and it is possible to discern
the odd detail. This includes, for example, the development of a link
(^2) ‘Catalogue’, no. 1. For the Briennes’subsequent relationship with the monastery, see
ibid., nos. 30, 38 and 72; andCollection des principaux cartulaires du diocèse de Troyes, ed.
C. Lalore, 7 vols. (Troyes, 1875–90), vii,‘Cartulaire de Montiéramey’, nos. 17, 74,
79 and 84; and the following document in the BnF: Collection de Champagne, vol.
cxxxix, fol. 326.
(^3) SeeTheAnnalsof Flodoard of Reims, 919– 966 , ed. and tr. S. Fanning and B. S. Bachrach
(Plymouth, 2004), ch. 33F; and Richer of Saint-Rémi,Histories, ed. and tr. J. Lake, 2 vols.
4 (London, 2011), ii, ch. 100.
6 See Bur,La formation du comté de Champagne, 143.^5 Richer,Histories, ch. 100.
See‘Catalogue’, no. 2, tentatively redated toc.980 inThe Cartulary of Montier-en-Der,
no. 28; and also no. 25 (6 September 971), which refers to the‘comitatu Brigonenense’.
The Mists of Time 11