Letter By Count Henry II example essay topic

The fundamental institutions of medieval feudal society are something that many historians have researched at great length. One of the best existing windows into medieval institutions, society, culture, and other matters, is Feudal Society in Medieval France: Documents from the County of Champagne; One of the sections contained in this compilation of documents is on the Crusades. The documents contained in this section are of correspondence between various parties all pertaining to the Crusades. Contained in this subsection, there are eighteen different compositions pertaining to the crusades, their subjects vary widely as do the motivations of the authors. 1.

Work by William of Tyre describing the Templars, a group of Knights whose sworn duty was to protect pilgrims to the holy land and keep the routes safe for travel, also known as the Knights of the Temple. 2. Letter by Bernard of Clairvaux, in this letter he justifies the need for a "monastic military order" to protect the holy land and all pilgrims. He also writes this to show the benefit of knights who were out for nothing but protection of Christianity, instead of the usual Knights who were out for material gain and used protection of Christianity as an excuse. 3. Letter by Bernard of Clairvaux, to the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Comnenus, requesting that Henry, the son of Count Thibaut II of Champagne, be granted a Knighthood by the Emperor.

He makes this request to make an impression on Henry and most likely also in an effort to strengthen ties between the two powers. 4. Letter from Louis VII to Count Thibaut II, praising his son Henry. This letter was written as a peace offering to Thibaut, with whom Louis had had extensive prior conflict.

5. Letter by Bernard of Clairvaux, to Abbot Suger of Sait-Denis, reminding him of the Church's prohibition of tournaments and alerting him to an upcoming one staged bye Robert, Louis' brother, as a direct provocation that could lead to an attempt to seize the throne. Bernard wants Suger to stop the tournament before it can happen. 6. Letter from Henry, son of Thibaut, to Abbot Suger, requesting a meeting to arrange the release of Ans eric Lord of Montreal. 7.

Letter by Bernard of Clairvaux, to Countess Mathilda, in response to her son Henry the new successor for Count of Champagne's behavior towards her. 8. Statement by J osbert of La Fete-sur-Aube giving his property to Clairvaux as part of his preparations for going on Crusade this also serves as a document proving title to the land. 9.

Statement by Thibaut II noting the sale of the townsman Odo of Troyes' mills to the Church, also noting the lease of his oven by the monks and stating that it will be returned to his full possession upon his return or turned over to his family along with the lease fee if he doesn't return. This was basically a written contract. 10. Letter by Count Henry II notifying the priests of the Cathedral church of Sens, and the residents of Chablis, that he had collected the tithe approved by the king of Spain and would not be collecting it again. This was in response to unrest among the clergy that this would set a precedent and become commonplace.

11. Statement by Knight Hagan of Envy contr actualizing the sale of a 10 l a year fief from sales tax paid by the merchants of Ypres at Troyes, to the chapter Saint-Etienne of Troyes, to give his sons monies with which to pay their way to Constantinople. 12. Excerpt from the "Life of Saint Louis" by Jean of Joinville, describing his preparations for the first crusade of Louis IX. 13. Statement by Count Henry of Troyes, rendering judgment on a petition raised by Guy of Garland e and his son, to get the barony of Possess e, because its owner Hugh went on crusade to Jerusalem and had not returned yet.

It was decided that Hugh had one year to return, which he did not, and the Barony was passed on to Ansley, Guy's son. 14. The Rule of the Order of Trinitarians, is a statement by the pope Innocent outlining the rules that govern this new sect of Christianity. The Trinitarians primary purpose was to retrieve Christian hostages from their captors, after they were captured in the crusades. 15.

A Thirty-Year Captivity talks about the legal disputes between Renaud II, Lord of Dampier re-le-Chateau, and the monks of Mon tiers-en-Argonne. The dispute was based on the monks usurping much of Renaud's lands during his captivity, and over lost revenues. Renaud ended up winning back most of his lands, but was not awarded the lost revenues. Feudal society was greatly different than any contemporarily known in many respects. To begin with the institution of the Church was not anything like it is known in modern times. In medieval times the church wielded great powers and controlled or owned great areas of land, and other sources of wealth.

The upper levels of the church hierarchy was often called on to resolve disputes and even to prevent actions that were being undertaken by noblemen. Another institution that was drastically different was that of the judicial. In this era the only judicial authorities there were resided in the hands of the feudal lord, in the case of disputes or crimes committed by common people, and in the case of land disputes or disputes between nobles either the church would mediate or a council of powerful nobility would be assembled to hold court and decide these issues. In terms of societal values, the value of religion was paramount. This is evident in the readiness of Lords, Knights and commons alike to join crusades and go headlong into grave peril that often resulted in death or long imprisonment by the enemy Muslims. Although there were many material reasons for joining the crusades the underlying desire to defend Christianity from the infidels was a great factor.

Many perceptions of medieval feudal society exist in the historical community of modern times. Some of these perceptions, such as that of the role of the church and the power of the feudal lords, are confirmed by these works, but some are not. Although the live of a serf was near slavery there were other commoners who did do very well, owned property and very often owned mills or other means of agricultural processing, or industrial manufacture. Although when observed quickly feudal society seems convoluted and contradictory, there was an underlying order to it all, that no matter where applied, can be seen.