Edward I and the Little Battle of Chalon

[sirjoh...@gmail.com]

Some time ago I posted a query on here regarding the identity of Edward I's opponent at the tournament in 1274 called the 'Little Battle of Chalon' by Walter of Hemingburgh. Hemingburgh and Rishanger are the two main sources for the tournament, but I just discovered it is also referred to in La Rossignol, a French version of a Latin devotional poem by John of Howden, a clerk in the service of Edward's mother, Eleanor of Provence.

The verse in question reads:

'Ne Maucler qui si bien se paine,
Ke Bretaigne avoit en demaine,
Ne Jhans quiens de Chalon qui maine,
Valor, com rosiers quaint il graine.'

The footnotes for the verse seem to say this refers to either Jéan de Chalon, comte d'Auxerre, or Jean le Sage, 'dernier comte de Chalon'. See p512 below:

http://www.persee.fr/doc/roma_0035-8029_1946_num_69_276_3629

Any thoughts, please?

Thanks,

David

[wjhonson]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_I_of_Chalon-Arlay

This one? Seems awfully young

[Peter Stewart]

Not him, but his paternal half-brother of the same name who was born in
the early 1240s to their father's second wife, Isabelle de Courtenay.

The footnote cited does not say or imply "either" this Jean or his
father, but rather explicitly states that it most probably refers to
this Jean, whose father was his namesake ("sans doute Jean de Chalon,
comte d'Auxerre du chef de sa femme, fils de Jean le Sage, dernier comte
de Chalon"). The father Jean was count of Chalon, the son Jean was count
of Auxerre by his second marriage, to Alix of Burgundy.

Peter Stewart

[sirjoh...@gmail.com]

Thanks both - so much for my effort at French translation. Since John of Howden was a clerk of the royal household, might the verse suggest that Edward's opponent was the Count of Auxerre, instead of the Pierre 'le Bouvier' suggested by Michael Prestwich?

[Peter Stewart]

The poem does not make any clear reference to the 'little battle' - this
is an editorial fancy, that may have never crossed John of Howden's mind
for all we know.

However, Jean of Auxerre was a count and this at least makes him a
plausible candidate for Edward's combatant. His younger and
comparatively insignificant brother Pierre was never a count, and not at
all likely to have taken on a king in such a way.

Peter Stewart

[sirjoh...@gmail.com]

On Monday, August 14, 2017 at 10:12:37 PM UTC, sirjoh...@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks again. I'll have to see if I can obtain a translation of Howden's verses.