AVENAS
. Located on the Roman road from Lyon to Autun, Avenas in Beaujolais is the site of a
12th-century church whose Romanesque altar is one of the finest sculpted altars of
medieval France. Carved in white limestone, it depicts
Avenas (Rhône), altar. Photograph
courtesy of Whitney S.Stoddard.
Christ in a mandorla surrounded, on two levels, by the twelve apostles holding books
representing their writings. On the left lateral face are depicted scenes from the life of the
Virgin, and on the right face is King Louis VII offering the church of Avenas to the
chapter of Saint-Vincent of Mâcon.
William W.Kibler
AVESNES
. The Avesnes family of Hainaut became involved in dynastic quarrels there and in
Flanders and Holland. Jacques d’Avesnes was a vassal of both Count Baudouin V of
Hainaut and his brother-in-law, Count Philippe d’Alsace of Flanders, in the late 12th
century. The family’s fortunes were made when Burchard d’Avesnes married Marguerite,
sister and eventual successor (1244–78) of Countess Jeanne of Flanders (r. 1206–44). In
1219, however, he was imprisoned and his marriage to Marguerite declared invalid. After
Marguerite’s remarriage to Guillaume de Dampierre, the Avesnes and Dampierre
families quarreled over her inheritance. In 1246, Louis IX of France awarded rule of
Flanders to the Dampierres and of Hainaut to the Avesnes, but neither party accepted the
decision, and they continued to fight over imperial Flanders, which had been unaffected
by it. During the struggles between the Flemish count Gui de Dampierre and King Philip
IV of France during the 1290s, the Avesnes naturally followed France. Jean d’Avesnes
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