Louis V, Count of Chiny

Louis V (1235-1299), Count of Chiny (1268-1299), the youngest son of Arnold IV, Count of Looz and Chiny, and Jeanne, Countess of Chiny. He became Count of Chiny in 1268 when his parents entrusted him with the county before their death..

In 1285, he brought to Chauvency-le-Château one of the most famous jousting tournaments (a “tournament of chivalry”) of the Middle Ages, which pitted the greatest knights of Europe, more than 500 strong, against each other in a single contest. The Tournament of Chauvency was described in verse by the troubadour Jacques Bretel. Participants included Rudolf I, King of Germany, Ottokar II, King of Bohemia, Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine, John I, Duke of Brabant, Theobald II, Count of Bar, and Henry V, Count of Luxembourg, among hundreds of others.

In 1258, he married Jeanne de Bar (1225-1299), widow of Frederick de Blâmont (d. 1255) and daughter of Henry II, Count of Bar, and Philippa de Dreux.

Louis and Jeanne had no children and, after his death, Chiny reverted to his nephew Arnold V of Looz. Oer his last wishes, his heart was embalmed and buried in a lead box in front of the altar at Saint-Thibault, in the village of Suxy.

Sources

Settipani, Christian, La Préhistoire des Capétiens (Nouvelle histoire généalogique de l'auguste maison de France, vol. 1), Villeneuve d'Ascq, éd. Patrick van Kerrebrouck, 1993, 545 pg.

Arlette Laret-Kayser, Entre Bar et Luxembourg : Le Comté de Chiny des Origines à 1300, Bruxelles (éditions du Crédit Communal, Collection Histoire, série in-8°, n° 72), 1986

Medieval Lands Project, Upper Lotharingian Nobility, Comtes de Looz

Bretel, Jacques, Le Tournoi de Chauvency, 1285 (manuscripts: Mons MS 330-215 and Oxford MS Douce 308).

Henriot-Walzer, Dominique Dictionnaire du Tournoi de Chauvency, 1285