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1. England comes to the aid of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem

In the latest fine of the month Michael Ray searches out the distant horizons in which English monarchs had involvement and the occasional shafts of light shone on European high politics and family relationships by the fine rolls

⁋1An apparently routine instruction to sheriffs enrolled in the fine rolls for 1224 opens up a window on a cosmopolitan world faraway from England and raises issues which still have echoes today. It tells us of Henry III’s piety and is also the first evidence of the impact of the astonishing Brienne family on England. Authorised at Bedford on 20 July 1224, during the siege of its castle, the writ reads:

1.1.1. C 60/21 Fine Roll 8 Henry III (28 October 1223–27 October 1224), membrane 4, no. 274

⁋1Order to the sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk to place in respite, until 15 days after Michaelmas in the eighth year, the demand he makes from P(andulph), bishop of Norwich, by summons of the Exchequer for the amercements of his men from the eyre of the king’s justices in the time of the king. Order not to distraint the bishop’s men to answer him for the monies which are owed to the King of Jerusalem, but to permit the monies to be collected by the hand of the bishop and his bailiffs. If he has received any of the aforesaid monies, he is to cause them to be rendered to the bishop without delay. [Witness the king]. Bedford. 20 July [1224].

⁋2The King of Jerusalem was John de Brienne.

1.2. Jean de Brienne, King of Jerusalem

⁋1Having received an embassy from the Holy Land asking him to provide a candidate, in 1210, Philip II of France announced that he had chosen John de Brienne, the sixty-year old brother of Walter III, Count of Brienne, to marry the young heiress of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Maria de Montferrat. ¹ In her right, he became King. It is to him that the writ of July 1224, which was not included in the in the nineteenth-century selection of the Fine Rolls, which covered only about 10% of the Rolls, refers. ² John married Maria in September 1210 but she died soon after giving birth to their daughter, Yolande. Whilst he was no longer King in his wife’s name, it was accepted that he should govern until his daughter’s marriage. John himself married again; this time his bride was Princess Stephanie of Armenia. When the Fifth Crusade was mounted in 1217, it made significant progress in Egypt but the crusaders were divided in what strategy to adopt; the Papal Legate favoured a rejection of terms with the Egyptians whilst John urged acceptance. At a crucial stage John was given leave to go Armenia to put forward the cause of his son by his second marriage to the vacant throne. Knowledge of the crusade was widespread in England as five earls had led an English contingent to fight in it. ³

⁋2The Crusade ended in failure in 1221. A year later, John travelled to the West to seek further aid for his Kingdom and to find a husband for Yolande. He was spectacularly successful in the latter quest as it was agreed that she should marry the Emperor Frederick II. During the summer of 1222 it was agreed in England that a subsidy should be raised to help John maintain his Kingdom. It was based on a sliding scale of minimum payments. An earl was to pay three marks and a baron, one. Knights were asked for twelve pennies and free tenants for one penny. ⁴

⁋3The Worcester chronicler believed that John was in England for the translation of St Thomas Becket in 1220. ⁵ In 1223, John visited the French royal court to attend the coronation of Louis VIII . At the end of August he arrived in England going first to Canterbury and then to London. ⁶ Here he was given four magnificent sapphires which he gave to the shrine of St. Thomas on his return journey. ⁷ The Barnwell chronicler, writing much later, also said that John received gold, silver and very large gifts. ⁸ In all, seven chroniclers noted his visit ⁹ and that it was not in 1222, as Mitchell supposed, is confirmed by the Receipt Rolls where thirty pounds for John’s expenses were recorded on 8 September 1223. ¹⁰

⁋4Of the proceeds of the subsidy, Christopher Tyerman has written that ‘the yield is impossible now to estimate, and, given the concern of the government to investigate the collectors’ accounts in 1230, it might not have been to easy at the time either.’ He wondered whether John actually received any of it, although he suggested that Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, might have taken some of the proceeds with him when he went to the Holy Land in 1227. ¹¹ Roches’s biographer, Nicholas Vincent, disagreed. ¹² But, in any event, by then John was no longer in control of events as we shall see.

⁋5What the writ makes clear is that the collection of the aid had not gone well. The Waverley Chronicler wrote ‘but the grant amounted to little or nothing because it was afterwards opposed and produced little’. ¹³ The Dunstable chronicler confirmed the same assessment. ¹⁴ New instructions needed to be authorised. This is confirmed by a writ patent of 10 September 1223, issued whilst John was in England, giving protection to two Cahorsin merchants acting in the matter. ¹⁵ The bishops and abbots granted a carucage based on their lands. ¹⁶ There is evidence that sums raised from this were lodged with the wardrobe ¹⁷ and the Receipt Rolls also show that significant sums were collected. By Michaelmas 1224, £1,600 were in custody. ¹⁸

⁋6Later John de Brienne made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella where he married for the third time, his second wife having died in 1219. His new wife was the sister of King Ferdinand III of Castile and later aunt of Eleanor, the future Queen of England. John was probably back in Italy in 1224 by the time the writ was sent.

⁋7The imperial marriage went ahead in November 1225 but the Emperor then announced that he would not let John continue as Regent of Jerusalem. So any money that reached the Holy Land would have been of little use to him. John retired to the Papal Court but one more opportunity awaited him. In 1228, the infant Latin Emperor of Constantinople needed a regent and he was married to John’s second daughter, Maria. Whereupon John, himself, became Emperor until his death in 1237.

⁋8When the decision was made to grant the subsidy to the King of Jerusalem, Henry III was fourteen. He was not yet in control of the government but perhaps he did endorse it personally. If so, it would be one of the first pieces of evidence of his personal piety. As David Carpenter has written, ‘Many contemporaries doubted Henry III’s sincerity as a crusader, and some later historians have echoed their scepticism’. But, as Carpenter went on to demonstrate, the collection of a large amount of gold treasure proves his genuine commitment. ¹⁹ The fine roll entry shows that the King and/or his government was, at least for a while, determined to help the beleaguered King of Jerusalem maintain his hold on the Holy Land. To this day, the government of England is still embroiled in the debate over the political future of this beautiful but tragic region of the Middle East.

1.3. The Brienne family in European politics

⁋1Nowadays Brienne-le-Chateau in Champagne ²⁰ is famous as the place where, for five years, the schoolboy Napoleon learnt some of his military skills. It is possible to visit the remains of the school but the castle, which dominates the town, was rebuilt in the eighteenth century and is closed to the public. However, this castle was the base of one of the most fascinating families of the early Middle Ages, the Counts of Brienne. In addition to John’s achievement in becoming King of Jerusalem and Emperor of Constantinople, the Counts also acquired the counties of Eu (1250) and Guines (1295) in France, Jaffa in the Holy Land (1221) and Lecce in Italy (1289). The Viscountcy of Beaumont in France was gained by the marriage of Louis de Brienne to the heiress of the Viscount in 1253. Henry de Beaumont became Earl of Buchan in Scotland (1334) and other counts were Dukes of Athens in Greece, beginning with Walter IV (1308). For a while Walter VI governed Florence (1341–42). In England the family was represented by Louis de Beaumont, bishop of Durham (1317) and Henry de Beaumont won a barony (1309) which was later raised to a viscountcy (1440). They still have descendants in the male line, the head of which branch holds the Beaumont baronetcy (1661). Members of the Brienne family were, at times, Constable, Butler and Chamberlain of France and Justiciar of Scotland (1338). They suffered for their successes; John II fell at the French defeat of Courtrai (1302), and Walter V died at the crucial battle of Halmyros when the Frankish domination of Greece was overturned (1311). His son, Walter VI was killed fighting, as Constable of France, at Poitiers (1356). Having been captured by the Egyptians, Walter IV was threatened with death, but he asked his men not to surrender, and died in Cairo (c. 1247). It was on St. Louis’s crusade to Tunis that Alphonse died of plague in 1270. Ralph II was executed for felony under mysterious circumstances (1350), whilst his father, Ralph I, died in a tournament (1344). The marriages made by the Briennes were astonishing. All John’s marriages were royal ones. Walter III married the heiress of the Kingdom of Sicily (1200) and Walter IV wed the daughter of the King of Cyprus (1233). John de Brienne, known as John of Acre, married the widow of Alexander II of Scotland (1257). ²¹