(‘Henricus de Brena’) suddenly appears in a charter issued in the king-
dom of Jerusalem in 1119.^100 Could this Henry be a knight of Erard’s
who had gone out with him to the Latin East, and had then decided to
stay on there? Whatever the truth on this particular point, we are edging
our way towards a better conception of the Briennes’earliest visit to the
kingdom that they would rule, a century later.
If all of this is correct, then the Briennes’debut in the great exped-
itions to the East came not in the late 1090s butfifty years later, in the
1140s. It would seem that Count Walter II took part in the Second
Crusade, accompanied by his son, the future Erard II.^101 It is reason-
able to suppose that they did so under the leadership of the heir to the
county of Champagne, Henry the Liberal, and as part of a sizeable
contingent that included their kinsman, Milo III of Bar-sur-Seine.^102
It is unfortunate that so little is known about the role played by all these
Champenois during the expedition.Milo, certainly, was back at home
by the end of 1149, and the chances arethat Walter and Erard returned
at around the same time.^103
The Holy Land was not forgotten during the long years that followed,
after Erard succeeded his father. Something of this can be discerned in
an unpublished charter issued by Erard in 1168. The dating clause
concludes in a striking and unusual way:‘when my kinsman (‘sorori-
nus’), the count of Nevers, was at Jerusalem.’^104 Thankfully, this is
reasonably straightforward. It is a reference to the Briennes’near neigh-
bour, William IV, who perished soon after landing at Acre.^105
Erard had kickstarted his career on the Second Crusade, but he would
end it forty years later, in the Third. Along with his brother, Andrew of
Ramerupt, the aged count of Brienne set off for the Holy Land ahead of
their lord, Henry II of Champagne. There is quite a contrast with the
events of the 1140s, though, in that the Briennes’deeds are recorded
much better this time. Andrew, in particular, is remembered and lauded
extravagantly:‘may his soul never suffer, for never did another such [a]
(^100) Regesta regni Hierosolymitani, 1097– 1291 , incl.Additamentum, compiled by R. Röhricht,
2 vols. (Innsbruck, 1893–1904), no. 87.
(^101) ‘Catalogue’, nos. 45–6. No. 46 starts with an obvious error. It should begin‘Gautier,
comte de Brienne...’
(^102) See Roserot,Dictionnaire, i, 109.
(^103) Seeibid., i, 109;‘Catalogue’, no. 48, and a charter overlooked by d’Arbois de
Jubainville: BnF, MS Français 20690, fol. 180 (which is also in Duchesne 76,
104 fol. 71).
105 BnF, MS Français 20690, fol. 180, also in Duchesne 76, fol. 71.
William of Tyre,A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, tr. and ed. E. A. Babcock and
A. C. Krey, 2 vols. (New York, 1943), ii, 347.
30 ‘Between Bar-sur-Aube and Rosnay’(c. 950–1191)