Thomas, Lord of Coucy

Thomas of Marle, Lord of Coucy and Boves, was born in 1073 to Enguerrand I of Boves, the Lord of Coucy and his wife Adele of Marle. After the death of his father, Enguerrand I, Thomas would become the Lord of Coucy and his family's other holdings. As the most well-known of the Lords of Coucy, Thomas of Marle would become infamous for his aggressive and brutal tactics in war and his continued rebellion against the authority of Louis VI.

The new Lords of Coucy that Thomas was descended from had not been landed nobles in the area for very long. In 1035, the first lord of Coucy, Dreux, Seigneur de Boves, seized the Castle of Coucy from Alberic, its original owner, and established himself as Lord of Coucy. This move seems to have set the tone for the behavior of the following Lords of Coucy, including his grandson Thomas who would become infamous for his ruthlessness in war.

In 1073, Thomas of Marle was born as the heir of Enguerrand I of Boves, the Lord of Coucy, and his wife the Dame of Marle, Adele. Enguerrand was known as a womanizer but his faults were overlooked by chroniclers due to his continued support of various religious institutions in the area. Although he supported the Catholic Church, Enguerrand I and the previous lords of Coucy were known to participate in a number of local wars in order to gain land and resources.

As the first born heir, Thomas would have been educated in the affairs of nobility which would have included the skills and virtues of a knight. As a knight, he was expected to uphold certain chivalric virtues that were used to control knightly and noble violence and disorder. Chivalry was nurtured in France and was used to influence and control the behavior of knights and nobility. It was used as a sustaining ethos of warrior groups who were identified on one hand by their martial skill as horsemen and by a combination of pride in ancestry, status, and traditions of service. Three themes are woven into the fabric of the ideals of knighthood: religious, social, and martial service to their lord. In Thomas' lifetime, the social status of knights and nobles in France was becoming parallel which culminated in the structured world of knighted nobility in the thirteenth century. Through this shift in the status of knights, the code of chivalry was becoming the basis for society's expectations of knightly behavior. When Thomas began his own military campaigns, it was for his continued abuse of knightly virtues and expected behaviors that he would be remembered.

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