Vaucelles et la rançon de Jean le Bon : la crise d'une abbaye à la lumière d'une enquête de 1358

Abstract

S. Lebecq, Vaucelles and Jean le Bon's ransom : the crisis of an abbey as witnessed by an inquiry made in 1358. Around November 1358, the monks of the Cistercain Abbey of Vaucelles (founded near Cambrai in 1132) asked to be dispensed with the paying of the tithes they owed on their French dominions for the paying of the ransom of Jean le Bon, King of France, made prisoner by the Black Prince at the battle of Poitiers in 1356. Among the Abbey records, though generally poor as regards the end of the Middle Ages, one kept the report of the investigators commissioned by the bishop of Cambrai, collector of the tithes, to confirm the value of the monks' request. The goal of this article is to publish and comment this report. It contains first the text of the monks' petition, which enlarges upon the causes of economical strain of the monastery (barreness of the soils, devastations brought by the wars, cost of the labourers, weight of the taxes) ; it then justifies this petition by a previsional account bearing on the eight coming months (November 1358 - August 1359) which forecasts a budgetary deficit, being itself a prelude to a further increase of the debts.