erous 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 and 1240
he took part in an expedition to the Holy Land, probably accompanied St
Louis in 1242 in the campaign of Saintonge against the English, and died
on the 14th of July 1254 at Pampeluna. If the author of the _Grandes
chroniques de France_ can be believed, Theobald IV. conceived a passion
for Queen Blanche, the mother of St Louis,--a passion which she
returned, and which explains the changes in his policy; but this opinion
apparently must be relegated to the category of historical fables. 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. the Young, eldest son of Theobald IV.
and, like his father, king of Navarre, became count of Champagne. He
married Isabelle 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, under the
tutelage of her mother, Blanche of Artois, and afterwards of Edmund,
earl of Lancaster, her mother's second husband. In 1284 she married the
heir-presumptive to the throne of France, Philip the Fair, to whom she
brought the countship of Champagne as well as the kingdom of Navarre.
She became queen of France in 1285, and died on the 4th of April 1305,
when her eldest son by King Philip, Louis Hutin, became count of
Champagne. He was the last independent count of the province, which
became attached to the French crown on his accession to the throne of
France 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 th