Les tombeaux des comtes de Champagne (1151-1284). Un manifeste politique

Abstract

The Tombs ofthe Counts of Champagne (1151-1284). Apolitical manifesto (traduction Patricia Stirnemann). Little is known about the ceremonies surrounding the deaths of the counts of Champagne. At most we are certain that Thibaut III, unlike his father Henri 1er, was embalmed, although quite ineptly. The tombs are better known, even though most have been destroyed, sometimes early on, as in the case of that of Henri III in 1276. Each tomb celebrated the power of the counts of Champagne and seemed to be a way of establishing the legitimacy of a dynasty whose royal aspirations were given form by the accession in 1234 to the throne of Navarre. Recently discovered drawings dating before the destruction of the tomb of I hibaut III show that the tomb was conceived later than had previously been thought and was not meant to assure the Champenois inheritance of Thibaut IV, but his legitimacv on the throne of Pamplona. In a larger framework, the tombs of the counts of Champagne appear to be an essential pivot in the historv of funerary art, as much by the new practices that they introduce as by the imitations they inspired.