Knighted in 1209 by Philip II Augustus, Pierre was secure in his position as ruler of
Brittany as long as Philip, with whom he got along well, continued to reign. But with the
old king’s death in 1223, Pierre became a less trustworthy ally of the new king, Louis
VIII (r. 1223–26), although he did take part in crusading expeditions against the
Albigensian heretics led by Louis as prince (1219) and king (1226). His emerging lack of
devotion to royal policies originated partly from his claims to land in England, claims
that made him always eager to cultivate the Capetians’ traditional enemy, the
Plantagenêts. His own overweening ambition to be the preeminent baron in northwest
Europe fueled his political maneuvering. After the death of his first wife, he aspired to
the hand of the countess of Flanders in 1226 and the queen of Cyprus (who had claims in
the great fief of Champagne) in 1229, only to be thwarted by the king and the pope, who
had their own interests to preserve in the disposition of the heiresses and their fiefs. He
was reduced to marrying a minor baroness, Marguerite de Montaigu, in 1230; and his
resentment was strong. He had already become an open rebel in 1227 because of the
failure of the regent, Blanche of Castile, to submit to his influence or cede the regency of
the young Louis IX. He was instrumental in 1229 in attacking the count of Champagne, a
supporter of the regent whose fief Pierre coveted. He courted the favor of the English
king, received military support and large subsidies from him, and rebelled against the
French crown again in 1230–31 and still again briefly in 1234. In all of these efforts, his
forces were soundly thrashed, though never completely eliminated, by the royal troops.
In November 1237, after his son reached majority and took over control of Brittany,
Pierre succeeded in consolidating a small lordship around the nucleus of his wife’s lands
in the Breton-Poitevin march. His subsequent career saw him active as a crusader against
the Muslims, an effort that achieved a reconciliation with the papacy (1235) if not with
local clerics, whom he continued to harass whenever he was in a position to do so. He
served with distinction on the crusade of Thibaut de Navarre (1239–40) and died of
illness and wounds in 1250 on the return home from St. Louis’s crusade.
William Chester Jordan
[See also: BLANCHE OF CASTILE; BRITTANY; DREUX]
Painter, Sidney. The Scourge of the Clergy: Peter of Dreux, Duke of Brittany. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1937.
PILGRIMAGE
. Pilgrimage—journeying from one’s home to a hallowed site—has a long tradition. In
ancient and modem times, and in many cultures and religions, adherents have traveled to
venerate holy places, to visit tombs of holy persons or heroes, to seek counsel from
oracles or cures.
Although the earliest Christian pilgrimages seem to have been to the Holy Land, the
practice of pilgrimage soon expanded to include sites of veneration of the Virgin,
martyrs, and saints. Of particular importance for early Christian pilgrimage and its
development in France was the growth of the cult of saints. Early Christianity introduced
the concept of Heaven and Earth joined at the tomb of a saint, who was a martyr or holy
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