CHAMPAGNE, an ancient province of France, bounded north by Liege and Luxemburg; east by Lorraine ; south by Bur gundy ; and west by Picardy and Isle de France. It now forms the departments of Ardennes, Marne, Aube and Haute Marne, with part of Aisne, Seine-et-Marne, Yonne and Meuse. Its name is derived from the immense plains near Reims, Chalons and Troyes. The province was constituted by joining to the countship of Champagne the ecclesiastical duchies of Reims and Langres and the ecclesiastical countship of Chalons. From 1152 to the countship of Champagne reckoned among its dependencies the countship of Blois and Chartres, of which Touraine was a fief, the countship of Sancerre and various scattered fiefs in the Bour bonnais and in Burgundy. The countships of Troyes and Meaux were also absorbed into this amalgamation of territories which became known as the "countship of Champagne and Brie." (See TROYES.) About 1020, Odo I. (Odo II., count of Blois, q.v.) became count of Champagne. In 1037 he was succeeded by his younger son, Stephen II. About oso, Odo II., son of Stephen II., became count and was followed about 1063 by Theobald I., count of Blois and Meaux, eldest son of Odo I. In 1077 he seized the countships of Vitry and Bar-sur-Aube, left vacant by Simon of Valois, who had retired to a monastery. In 1089 Odo III., second son of Theobald II., became count, and was succeeded about 1093 by his younger brother, Hugh, who became a templar in 1125, and gave up the countship to his suzerain, the count of Blois. In 1125 the countship of Champagne passed to Theobald II. the Great, already count of Blois and Meaux, and one of the most powerful French barons of his time. After him the countship of Blois became the appanage of a younger branch of his house. In 1152 Henry the Liberal, eldest son of Theobald II., became count of Champagne ; he married Mary, daughter of Louis VII. of France, and went to the crusade in 1178. He was taken prisoner by the Turks, recov ered his liberty through the good offices of the emperor of the East, and died a few days after his return to Champagne. In 1181 his eldest son, Henry II., succeeded him under the tutelage of Mary of France. In I190, he went to the Holy Land and became king of Jerusalem in 1192 through his marriage with Isabelle, widow of the marquis of Montferrat. He died in 1197 in his town of Acre. In 1197 Theobald III., younger son of Henry I., became count, and was succeeded in 1201 by Theobald IV., "le Chanson nier," the son of Theobald III. and Blanche of Navarre. His reign was singularly eventful. In 1226 he followed King Louis VII. to the siege of Avignon, and after the death of that monarch played a prominent part during the reign of St. Louis. He became king of Navarre in 1234 by the death of his maternal uncle, Sancho VII., but as a result of the onerous treaty which he concluded in that year with the queen of Cyprus he was compelled to cede to the king, in return for a large sum of money, the overlordship of the countships of Blois, Chartres and Sancerre, and the viscounty of Chateaudun. In 1239-40 he took part in an expedition to the Holy Land, and died on July 14, 1254 at Pampeluna. The witty and courtly songs he composed place him in the front rank of the poets of that class, in which he showed somewhat more originality than his rivals. In 1254 Theobald V., his eldest son and, like him, king of Navarre, became count of Champagne. He married Isa belle of France, daughter of St. Louis, and followed his father-in law to Tunis to the crusade, dying on his return. In 1270 he was succeeded by Henry III. the Fat, king of Navarre. Henry was succeeded in 1274 by his only daughter, Joan of Navarre, who married in 1 284 the heir-presumptive to the throne of France, Philip the Fair. She became queen of France in 1285, and died on April 4, 1305, when her eldest son by King Philip, Louis Hutin, became count of Champagne, which was attached to the French crown on his accession as king in 1314.
The celebrated fairs of Champagne, which flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries, were attended by merchants from all parts of civilized Europe. They were six in number ; two at Troyes, two at Provins, one at Lagny-sur-Marne and one at Bar-sur-Aube. They formed a kind of continuous market, divided into six periods, and passed in turn from Lagny to Bar, from Bar to Provins, from Provins to Troyes, from Troyes to Provins and from Provins to Troyes, to complete the year. It was, in fact, a perpetual fair, which had at once unity and variety, offering to the different parts of the countship the means of selling successively the special pro ductions of their soil or their industry, and of procuring in ex change riches and comforts. These fairs had special legislation ; and special magistrates, called "masters of the fairs," had control of the police. For the wine see CHAMPAGNE WINES.