in southern Italy, amidst the wreckage of his father’s ambitions.^77
It would be easy to conclude that Walter III did not leave much of a
legacy, but this could not be more wrong. This will become clear as we
turn to examine at the remarkable career of Walter’s sole surviving
brother, John.
John of Brienne and the Call of JerusalemWalter III was certainly responsible for John’sfirst step onto the stage as
a major politicalfigure. John became the effective regent of the county of
Brienne whilst Walter was awayfighting in southern Italy. Although we
do not know very much about John’s period as regent (1201–5), we do
have a noteworthy charter that tells us something about John’s relation-
ship with the new ruler of Champagne, Countess Blanche. Blanche’s late
husband, Theobald III, had ceded the village of Mâcon to John, but
Blanche averred that he should not have done this without her consent,
since it was a part of her dowry. Accordingly, she bought the village back
from John for 800l., with the additional proviso that John would place
property to the value of 400l.infief within her dower lands. This is quite
interesting enough, but the really fascinating feature of the charter is that
eight prominent Champenois barons stood surety for John in this matter,
including Gaucher of Joigny (who had married John’s aunt, Alix of
Ramerupt) and Simon of Joinville. Furthermore, we know that, later,
John was also a part of a similar circle that stood surety for his close
kinsman, Hugh of Broyes. In all of these ways, then, we can begin to see
John acting as a part of his new peer group.^78
John’s next‘great leap forward’also came about through Walter III,
but in far less happy circumstances. Soon after Walter’s death at Sarno
in June 1205, John succeeded his brother as count of Brienne, despite
the fact that the rightful heir was Walter’s posthumous son, Walter IV.
Nevertheless, this cannot be regarded as a usurpation. John plainly held
the county‘in trust’for Walter IV, much as their kinsman, Manasses of
Bar-sur-Seine, had once done for his niece, Petronilla.^79
The new count of Brienne was soon involved in a gathering storm
around another young heir. Countess Blanche and her son, the infant
Theobald IV, were part of a cadet branch that had acquired the county of
Champagne in 1197, when Count Henry II of Champagne had died in
the Latin East, falling out of a window (seeGenealogy 4 for more
details). Henry had stipulated that, should he himself never return home,
(^77) Colbert-Fontainebleau, 308. (^78) See Perry,John,34–5. (^79) Ibid.,35–7.
John of Brienne and the Call of Jerusalem 47