Thomas de Marle Lord of Coucy 1073-1118

The Deeds of Louis le Gros by Suger Chapter 31. On the following day, after his lands in the open country had been laid waste and the fishponds broken open, though the king spared the soil itself because it had a rightful lord, King Louis departed for Laon. Yet the utterly wicked man [Thomas [aged 45]] could be compelled neither by wounds, nor by imprisonment, nor by threats, nor by entreaties to restore the merchants whom he had treacherously robbed under safe-conduct and kept imprisoned with all their goods. When, by royal permission, he had summoned his wife [Ida of Hainaut], he seemed to grieve more over the restitution demanded for the merchants than over the loss of his life. And when, already almost pressed to death by the extreme pain of his wounds, many urged him to confess and receive the viaticum, he scarcely consented. But when the Body of the Lord was brought by the priest into the chamber where the wretched man lay, as though the Lord Jesus himself would not in any way enter the miserable vessel of a man who did not repent, no sooner had that wicked man raised his neck than it suddenly snapped back broken, and he breathed out his foul spirit deprived of the divine Eucharist¹. The king, disdaining to pursue further either the dead man or the dead man’s lands, compelled his wife and sons to free the merchants and to surrender the greater part of his treasures; and, peace having been restored to the churches by the death of the tyrant, he returned victoriously to Paris².

Sequente autem die, publicata terra plana ejus ruptisque stangnis, quia dominum terre habebat terre parcens, Laudunum fegressus dominus rex Ludovicus, hominem perditissimum nec vulneribus, nec carcere, nec minis, nec prece ad reddicionem mercatorum, quos mira prodicione in conductu spoliatos omnibus suis carcere detinebat, cogere valebat. Qui cum conjugem ex regia permissione sibi ascivisset, magis videbatur de mercatorum, qui ab eo exigebantur, quam de vite amissione dolere. Cumque jam plagarum dolore gravissimo pene ad mortem constrictus, a multis etiam confiteri et viaticum suscipere rogaretur, vix concessit. Cum autem corpus Domini manu sacerdotis in eam quam miser inhabitabat cameram deportatum esset, sicut siipse dominus Jesus miserrimum vas hominis minime penitentis nullo modo ingredi sustineret, mox, ut nequam ille collum erexit, ilico confractum retorsité, et spiritum teterrimum divine expers Eucharistieexalavit. Rex autem ulterius aut mortuum aut mortui terram persequi dedignatus, mercatorum emancipationem et thesaurorum ejus maximam partem a conjuge et filiis extorsit et, pace ecclesiis morte tiranni restituta, victor Parisius remeavit.

Note 1. On 9 November [1118], according to the obituary of Prémontré.

Le 9 novembre, d’après l’obituaire de Prémontré.

Note 2. Enguerrand, son of Thomas, succeeded his father without opposition from the king, on the condition that he would make all possible restitutions. Nevertheless, he soon in turn displeased Louis VI who, in the spring of 1132, on the advice of Raoul of Vermandois, took up arms against him and came to besiege La Fère. The siege lasted two months, from 6 May to 8 July, without any success. Finally matters were settled by the marriage of Enguerrand to a niece of Raoul (A. Luchaire, Annales, no. 491).

2. Enguerrand, fils de Thomas, succéda à son père sans opposition de la part du roi, en s’engageant à effectuer toutes les restitutions possibles. D’ailleurs, il ne tarda pas à son tour à mécontenter Louis VI, qui, au printemps de 1132, sur le conseil de Raoul de Vermandois, prit les armes contre lui et vint assiéger La Fère. Le siège dura deux mois, du 6 mai au 8 juillet, sans aucun succès. Finalement les choses s’arrangèrent par le mariage d'EÉnguerrand avec une nièce de Raoul (A. Luchaire, Annales, n° 491).