generally more frugal government. The king, however, was emotionally unstable, and
when he suffered an attack of mental illness on an expedition to Brittany in 1392, the
royal dukes quickly regained power and dismissed Clisson, Le Mercier, and La Rivière
from the government.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: CHARLES VI; CLISSON]
Autrand, Françoise. Charles VI. Paris: Fayard, 1986.
Henneman, John Bell. “Who Were the Marmousets?” Medieval Prosopography 5(1984):19–63.
MARQUIS/MARQUISATE
. The title “marquis” (OFr. marchis or marquis, Occitan marques) was coined in the early
9th century to describe the counts who had been placed in command of the new
multicounty border districts, or “marches,” created by Charlemagne. Under Charlemagne
himself, these officers were commonly designated by some descriptive phrase, but under
his son Louis the Pious three distinctive titles began to be used to designate them:
praefectus marcae or limitis (“prefect of the march” or “border”), dux (“duke”), and
marchio (“march man” or “marquis”). The last of these titles, first attested in 828, was
used after 850 with increasing frequency by the West Frankish chancery, along with its
adjectival equivalents marchisus and marchensis.
In the 10th century, the marches that survived were converted into hereditary
principalities, but the princes who ruled them and other comparable dominions continued
to employ the title marchio and its variants, along with the titles princeps (“prince”),
comes (“count”), and in most cases dux (“duke”), in various combinations, in reference to
the same dominion. The wives and widows of these princes were usually styled comitissa
(“countess”). This usage persisted until the period 1060–1120, when one by one the
princes of France abandoned the title marchio, or “marquis,” in respect to their French
principalities, in favor of either dux or comes. Between 1120, when the count and
marquis of Flanders abandoned the title, and 1504, when a new marquisate was erected in
Provence, there was no dominion bearing the title “marquisate” (Lat. marchionatus, Fr.
marquisat) subject to the king of France.
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
[See also: MARCH]
Boulton, D’A.J.D. Grants of Honour: The Origins of the System of Nobiliary Dignities of
Traditional France, ca. 1100–1515. Forthcoming.
Dhont, Jean. “Le titre de marquis à l’époque carolingienne.” Bulletin du Cange 19(1948):407–17.
——Études sur la naissance des principautés territoriales en France (IXe-Xe siècles). Paris: De
Tempel, 1948.
Kienast, Walther. Der Herzogstitel in Frankreich und Deutschland (9. bis 12. Jahrhundert).
Munich: Oldenbourg, 1968.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1120