Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/524

478 MedicBval Military Architecture, He accompanied Philip Augustus to Palestine in 1188, and fell before the walls of Acre in 11 91. He was buried at Foigny, and his son by Alix was his successor. Enguerrand IH., called the Great, Lord of Montmirail, Oisy, Crevecour, la Ferte-Ancoul, la Ferte-Gaucher, Vicomte de Meaux, and Chatelan of Cambrai. He was the founder of the present castle, and at the same time walled in the considerable town that had risen under the protection of his ancestors. As he was a child at his accession, his mother administered the signory, and conceded a charter of liberties to the town in 1197, which he confirmed when of age. In 1200, more 7tiajorum^ he attacked the property of the Church of Reims. In 12 10, he joined the Count of Vermandois in the first crusade against the Albigenses, and again in 1219 and 1226; then assisting at the siege of Toulouse and the taking of Avignon. H^ distinguished himself also at the battle of Bovines. Enguerrand, though not wanting in territorial power, exercised an influence far beyond that due to wealth or breadth of possessions, and which was in great measure personal. He appears to have submitted with an ill grace to the government of Queen Blanche during the minority of St. Louis, and is said to have even contem- plated regal power. However this may be, the consciousness of his influence, no doubt, led him to erect the Castle of Coucy, it is thought, between 1225-1230; and it maybe that in so doing he proposed to himself to cast into the shade the grand tower of the Louvre, the work, a few years before, of Philip Augustus. He is also said to have rebuilt his other castles of St. Gobain, Assis, Marie, Folembrai, and St. Aubyn, and the Hotel Coucy at Paris. In 1244, he was in the confidence of St. Louis, and attended a conference of nobles at Chinon, where he supported the plan of a descent upon England ; but while assembling his vassals for this purpose he was flung from his horse and killed by his own sword. Of his children by Marie de Montmirail, Raoul IL, who fell in the crusade of 1250, and Enguerrand IV., became successively Sieurs de Coucy ; but both died childless, and with the last closed the male line of these great barons. Alix, half-sister to the last lords, married Arnoul, Count de Guines. Enguerrand the Great had also a daughter, Mary, who in 1239 became the second wife of Alexander II. of Scotland, and the mother of Alexander III. Mary was a very remarkable person, and exercised the duties of guardian to her son in difficult times in a very efficient manner, devising and executing a vigorous policy of her own. Arnold Comte de Guines sold Guines to Philip le Hardi in 1282. Alix de Coucy, his wife, was daughter of Enguerrand HI. by Marie Dame d'Oisy, his third wife. They had Enguerrand V. de Guines, Sire de Coucy, &c., who lived at the court of his cousin-german, Alexander HI., in Scotland, where he married, before 1285, Christine de Baliol. He died 1321. Wilham, his son and heir, married Isabel, daughter of Guy de Chatillon, Comte de St. Pol. He died 1335, and was succeeded by