ew ed., 1905); L. Kurz, _Climbers'
Guide to the Chain of Mont Blanc_ (London, 1892); also works referred
to under BLANC, MONT. (W. A. B. C.)

CHAMPAGNE, an ancient province of the kingdom of France, bounded N. by
Liege and Luxemburg; E. by Lorraine; S. by Burgundy; and W. 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--in Latin Campania, "country of plains"--is derived from
the immense plains near Reims, Chalons and Troyes. It was constituted
towards the end of the middle ages by joining to the countship of
Champagne the ecclesiastical duchies of Reims and Langres, together with
the ecclesiastical countship of Chalons. Documents of the 12th and 13th
centuries make it possible to determine the territorial configuration of
the countship of Champagne with greater accuracy than in the case of any
other fief of the crown of France. Formed at random by the acquisitions
of the counts of the houses of Vermandois and Blois, Champagne reckoned
among its dependencies, from 1152 to 1234, the countship of Blois and
Chartres, of which Touraine was a fief, the countship of Sancerre, and
various scattered fiefs in the Bourbonnais and in Burgundy. Officially
called the "countship of Champagne and Brie" since 1217, this state was
formed by the union of the countships of Troyes and Meaux, to which the
greater part of the districts embraced in the country known, since the
beginning of the middle ages, by the name of Champagne and Brie came in
course of time to be attached. Placed under the authority of a single
count in 960, the countships of Troyes and Meaux were not again
separated after 1125. For the counts of Troyes before the 11th century
see TROYES. We confine ourselves here to the counts of Champagne of the
house of Blois.

About 1020 Eudes or Odo I. (Odo II., count of Blois) became count of
Champagne. He disputed the kingdom of Burgundy with the emperor Conrad,
and died in 1037, in a battle near Bar-le-Duc. In 1037 he was succeeded
by his younger son, Stephen II. About 1050 Odo II., son of Stephen II.,
became count. This prince, guilty of murder, found refuge in Normandy,
where he received the castle of Aumale. He took part in 1066 in the
conquest of England, and became earl of Holderness. About 1063 Theobald
(Thibaud) I., count of Blois and Meaux, eldest son of Odo I., became
count of Champagne. In 10