Along with Andrew of Ramerupt, John was often at Erard’s court and
witnessed charters for him quite frequently.^81
Whilst monastic benefactions could play their part in underlining
thestatusandpietyoftheBriennedynasty,theycouldalsoserveas
a relatively ‘safe’ way of strengthening ties with the counts of
Champagne. Perhaps we can see this at its clearest when we examine
the Brienne family in relation to various religious houses in or near the
city of Troyes. For instance, during the countship of Walter II, the
Briennes started to donate to the double priory of Foissy, of the order
of Fontevrault, soon after its foundation by the house of Blois in the
mid-twelfth century.^82 Turning to other nearby monasteries, a little
detective work reveals that Walter II also ceded certain rights ofusage
to the ancient abbey of Saint-Martin-ès-Aires, since we know that his
son, Erard II, later confirmed them.^83 Furthermore, in a grand cere-
mony,‘done publicly in the hall of Brienne’in 1177, Erard granted a
package of land and rights to the monastery of Saint-Loup, which had
grown out of Saint-Martin.^84
Soon after this, though, there came the most serious difficulties
between the Briennes and religious houses since the epoch of the struggle
against Montier-en-Der. An unpublished charter shows that, as early as
1182, there was a serious quarrel between Erard II and Molesme.^85 Two
years later, Erard made a point of describing himself as‘forced by the
needs of war’(‘necessitate guerre compulsus’) when he seized provisions
at Molins and Auzon that belonged to Saint-Loup.^86 This may indicate
that, along with his suzerain, Countess Mary of Champagne, Erard was
fitfully involved in the great struggle that was unfolding in the north in
the early 1180s, which set the count of Flanders against the new French
king, Philip II‘Augustus’.^87 However, it may also be a sign that, like so
many of their contemporaries, the earlier Briennes had been rather more
generous to the Church than their successors could later afford. Erard’s
(^81) ‘Catalogue’, nos. 60, 62–3, 67, 69, 83, 89, 92–3, 95, 98–9;Collection des principaux
cartulaires du diocèse de Troyes, vii,‘Cartulaire de Montiéramey’, no. 79; and BnF, MS
Français 20690, fol. 182.
(^82) It is curious to observe that the Briennes’charters for Foissy escaped the magisterial
notice of d’Arbois de Jubainville. The documents in question are housed in the Archives
départmentales de l’Aube, where he served as director from 1852 until 1880. I would
therefore like to thank Arnaud Baudin, assistant director of the Archives, for bringing the
following to my attention. See Archives départementales de l’Aube, series 27 H 3: above
all, nos. 4, 17, 29, 36 and 36bis, 82. See also MS Latin 5480, fol. 433, in the BnF; and
Roserot,Dictionnaire, ii, 585–7.
(^83) ‘Catalogue’, no. 79. (^84) Ibid., no. 76, and see also no. 77.
(^85) BnF, MS Français 20690, fol. 168. (^86) ‘Catalogue’, no. 85.
(^87) For Champenois involvement in the conflict, see d’Arbois de Jubainville,Histoire, iv, part
1, 2–7.
Piety and Plunder 27