County of Champagne

The County of Champagne was a medieval territory and feudal principality of the Kingdom of France, growing up on the rich plains between Paris and the Holy Roman Empire in the twelfth century and becoming an economic hub of northern France and an international trading centre. Its name comes from the open lands between the Aisne, Meuse and Yonne, a fragmented frontier between the French royal domain and the empire. The consolidation began in 1021, when Odo II of Blois inherited Meaux and Troyes, and by 1100 the counties of Troyes, Bar-sur-Aube and Vitry formed its core under Hugh. Theobald II drew settlers and merchants, and the trade fairs he founded made the region famous, while his son Henry the Liberal made Troyes the capital and enlarged the state, and the court under Henry and Countess Marie gathered literary authors. In the thirteenth century Theobald III, Blanche and Theobald IV centralised government, and the house supported the crusades and monastic foundations, with the Cistercians rising inside its borders. From 1234 the counts were also kings of Navarre, and after the marriage of Joan I of Navarre to Philip IV of France the county passed into the French royal domain in the fourteenth century.