Overview
Enguerrand VII de Coucy, (1340 – 18 February 1397), also known as Ingelram de Coucy and Ingelram de Couci, was a medieval French nobleman and the last Lord of Coucy. He became a son-in-law of King Edward III of England following his marriage to the king's daughter, Isabella of England, and the couple was subsequently granted several English estates, among them the title Earl of Bedford. Coucy fought in the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 as part of a failed crusade against the Ottoman Empire, but was taken prisoner and contracted the bubonic plague. He died in captivity the following year at Bursa.
Coucy had no surviving legitimate sons. Fierce legal disputes were fought over the succession of his lordship of Coucy, which, as a result, passed to the crown lands of France.
Early years
Coucy became Lord of Coucy at the death of his father, Enguerrand VI, Lord of Coucy, during the sequence of battles ending with the Battle of Crécy in 1346. He also gained the titles of 4th Lord Gynes, Sire d' Oisy, in the district of Marle, and the Sire de La Fère. His mother, Catherine of Austria, oldest daughter of Leopold I, Duke of Austria, had died in 1349, during a wave of the Black Death. Coucy first became involved in the war against England at the age of fifteen, serving among the barons of Picardy in the battalion of Moreau de Fiennes. In 1358, at the age of eighteen, Coucy acted as a leader during the suppression of the peasant revolt known as the Jacquerie.
Between England and France
Young Coucy first met King Edward III of England in 1359, as one of forty royal and noble hostages exchanged for the future release of the captured King John II of France. He was retained as a hostage in 1360, when the Treaty of Brétigny established territorial adjustments between the two countries, and set the monetary payments for King John's release. The hostages finally arrived in England in November 1360. Coucy was to spend the next five years as a guest of the Royal Court. Chronicler Jean Froissart records that, "the young lord de Coucy shined in dancing and caroling whenever it was his turn. He was in great favour with both the French and English..."
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