- Hugh, Count of Champagne
Hugh (c. 1074–1125) was the
Count of Champagne from 1093 until his death.The third son of
Theobald I of Champagne , bearing the title comte deBar-sur-Aube , his older brotherOdo V, Count of Troyes , died in 1092, leaving him master ofTroyes andVitry . In this way the three countships were united in his person, and his descendents chose to carry only the County of Champagne.The act of his that resonated longest in history was his granting lands in 1115 to the monk Bernard of the reformed Benedictines at
Cîteaux , in order to found a Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux, in a wild valley of a tributary of the Aube, where Bernard was appointed abbot and became famous asBernard of Clairvaux . Hugh's charter makes over to the abbey Clairvaux and its dependencies, fields, meadows, vineyards, woods and water. A deeply affectionate letter from Bernard to Hugh survives (References), written in 1125, as Hugh went off for a third time [Previous forays to the Holy Land had been made in 1113 and 1121, according to the chronicler Albéric.] to fight in the Holy Land, joining theKnights Templar , leaving his wife pregnant, and, disinheriting his son Eudes, transferring his titles to his nephew, who becameTheobald II of Champagne .Hugh was also the generous patron of abbeys of
Moustier-Ramey and ofMolesme . A letter to him from Yves of Chartres (Letter CCCXLV), in which the Bishop of Chartres reminds him of his obligations of marriage, perhaps to deter him from making vows of continence.Notes
External links
* [http://lamop.univ-paris1.fr/baudin/anglais/comtes/hugues/hugues.htm Hugues of Champagne (1093-1125)]
* http://lamop.univ-paris1.fr/baudin/anglais/Hugues.htm
* [http://www.templiers.net/saint-bernard/index.php?page=lettres-de-bernard Bernard of Clairvaux, Letter XXXI: A Hugues, comte de Champagne, qui s'était fait Templiers en l'an 1125] The editors' notes furnished biographical material for this article.
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