Jeanne bore Philip four sons and a daughter before dying on April 2, 1305. In her
lavish testament, she used 40,000 livres parisis and three years’ revenues of Champagne,
assigned her by Philip, to endow a hospital at Château-Thierry and the Collège de
Navarre in Paris. Having rejected burial at Saint-Denis, the royal mausoleum, she was
interred at the Franciscan church in Paris.
Elizabeth A.R.Brown
[See also: MARIGNY, ENGUERRAN DE; PHILIP IV THE FAIR]
Arbois de Jubainville, Henry d’. Histoire des ducs et des comtes de Champagne. 7 vols. Paris:
Durand et Lauriel, 1859–69.
Brown, Elizabeth A.R. The Monarchy of Capetain France and Royal Ceremonial. London:
Variorum, 1991.
Favier, Jean. Un conseiller de Philippe le Bel: Enguerran de Marigny. Paris: Presses Universitaires
de France, 1963.
Lalou, Elisabeth. “Le gouvernement de la reine Jeanne, 1285–1304.” Cahiers Haut-Marnais
167(1986):16–30.
JEHAN BODEL
(d. 1210). A trouvère from Arras in the second half of the 12th century and one of the
most prominent writers of his time. Jehan Bodel’s life is only sketchily known—neither
the date nor the place of his birth has been established with accuracy.
Jehan Bodel had strong links with the city of Arras and its surroundings. He introduces
himself as a minstrel in his Congés: he was a member of the Arras minstrel and burgher
brotherhood and contributed to the rapid expansion of this society. Stanza 40 of the
Congés suggests that he was a familiar of the Arras échevinage, or town council, to
which he was presumably attached. Elated by Foulque de Neuilly’s preaching, he was
about to follow Baudouin of Flanders, the future conqueror of Constantinople, to the
Holy Land, when he began to suffer from the first signs of leprosy. In 1202, he withdrew
to a leprosarium in the Arras region, most likely at Grant Val near Beaurains, where he
died, according to the death-roll of the brotherhood, between February 2 and June 16,
1210.
Jehan’s work has only gradually unveiled its secrets. Long underestimated, it now
appears as one of the richest, most original œuvres in medieval literature. Because he
tackled various genres simultaneously, the chronology of his works is difficult to
establish. He is one of the earliest writers of pastourelles in langue d’oïl; five have been
ascribed to him. Such narrative lyrics had already been composed by troubadours, but the
Arragese minstrel left his mark upon the genre. Within a conventional framework, he
proved original in his skilled composition in a wide range of prosodic structures and in
the impression of truthfulness he gives due to subtle characterization and concrete details
taken from peasant life.
Slightly different in inspiration were his one fable and eight fabliaux, those merry tales
that give full scope to the imagination of an artist aiming at entertaining a noble audience
at the expense of the middle class, peasants, women, and churchmen. If not as incisive as
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