ABSTRACT
In 1111, the newly installed count of Flanders, Baldwin VII, received a complaint from the abbot and monks of Saint-Vaast of Arras. It is known that Saint-Vaast had received the toll of the market of Arras from Charles the Bald in 868 and had continued to hold and exploit it ever since. Servile or half-free dependents of Saint-Vaast – members of its familia – were exempt from the tax, even if they lived in Arras and even if they were negociatores. John W. Baldwin was the son and heir of Count Robert II of Jerusalem, who had died in 1111 and was buried on October 6 – at Arras in fact, in the monastery of Saint-Vaast itself. The ritual was designed to show the abbot and cellarer of Saint-Vaast victorious in a matter where their lordship had been evaded. It was designed to put the burghers and scabini back in their places. Baldwin then summoned the scabini to judgment.
