Renaud of Burgundy

Renaud of Burgundy was a son of Hugues de Chalon, lord Salins and of Adelaide or Alix de Méranie.

Count de Montbéliard of 1282 with 1321, it granted in May 1283 a charter of stamping to the town of Montbeliard. This charter of the franknesses, whose ceremony proceeded with the St-Martin borough, fixes the new statute of Montbéliardais. She proclaims the end of the constraints, founds a new concept of individual freedom advanced enough for the time. The inhabitants of Montbeliard will pay 1.000 Books estèvenantes (currency of Besancon) their collective stamping. In the charter of 1283, Renaud also founds an urban administration which will perdurera until the French revolution. This division of the capacity between the lord (because often absent) and the middle-class constitutes a dash towards a new design of public life. Montbeliard becomes thus a medieval city “modern”. The administration of the city is entrusted to the Council of the IX, composed of nine franc-middle-class men (each one of them is chief of one of the nine “guets” or districts forming the city). They have at their head two Master-middle-class men and a mayor. This last is representing it near the count. All are annually elected by drawing lot. The unit trains the “Magistrate”, or the Council of city, body of administration and jurisdiction of this one; the majority are tradesmen, craftsmen. They meet to exert justice in a municipal court, i.e., which they exert Low Justice and consider the causes ordinary. However, the sovereign count remains the supreme referee. Needing always money to carry out its war against the Emperor Rodolphe Ier of the Holy roman Empire, it will free in 1307 the town of Belfort.

Of Guillemette de Neufchâtel countess of Montbeliard, his wife, it had a boy and four girls:

Othein, or Othenin of Montbeliard, a mentally handicapped person boy, deceased in 1339
Agnès, which married Henri de Montfaucon (deceased in 1377)
Jeanne, which married Ulrich III, count de Ferrette, then Rodolphe de Hesse, margrave de Bade, and in 3rd weddings, the count Guillaume de Katzenellenbogen (it deceased in 1349).
Marguerite, which married Guillaume d' Antigny, lord of Holy-Cross.
Alix, which married Jean II of Trawl-net-Auxerre (deceased 1363).

September 1st 1314, Renaud writes a will which envisages the setting under supervision of Othenin in the event of incapacity of this one. It will be Hugues of Burgundy, the youngest brother of Renaud, who will be the tutor. If five years after the death of his/her father, Othenin is still unable to manage the businesses of the county (what was the case), then the inheritance will be shared between the children, but the county of Montbeliard will provide for its needs until the end for its days. He dies 17 years after his father. Renaud of Burgundy dies in 1321.

Note : Renaud had several brothers, of which Othon IV of Burgundy, the elder one of the family, which died in 1303 during the battle of Cassel. He became Count Palatine of Burgundy to the death of his mother and married in second weddings, Mahaut d' Artois, emblematic countess of Artois, character (with his Robert nephew) of the novel of Maurice Druon " the kings maudits". The youngest brother, Hugues of Burgundy, died in the years 1330 without posterity. He was lord of Maubusson, Aspremont, Fraisans, Orchamps, Lavans, Gendrey, the Dampierre-on-Saone, the Port-on-Saone, and of Châtillon-the-Duke (close to Beançon). After the duke Eudes IV of Burgundy had attached the County to the Duchy, this last had named it lieutenant-general of the County.

Sources

" The Novel of Principauté" D. Lord. Editions Cêtre, Besancon.

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