Champagne (province) in the context of "Champagne wine region"

Courtly love (Occitan: fin'amor [finaˈmuɾ]; French: amour courtois [amuʁ kuʁtwa]) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies because of their "courtly love". This kind of love was originally a literary fiction created for the entertainment of the nobility, but as time passed, these ideas about love spread to popular culture and attracted a larger literate audience. In the High Middle Ages, a "game of love" developed around these ideas as a set of social practices. "Loving nobly" was considered to be an enriching and improving practice.

Courtly love began in the ducal and princely courts of Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne, ducal Burgundy and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily at the end of the eleventh century. In essence, courtly love was an experience between erotic desire and spiritual attainment, "a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and disciplined, humiliating and exalting, human and transcendent". The topic was prominent with both musicians and poets, being frequently used by troubadours, trouvères and Minnesänger. The topic was also popular with major writers, including Dante, Petrarch and Geoffrey Chaucer.

Châtillon-sur-Marne (French pronunciation: [ʃatijɔ̃ syʁ maʁn], literally Châtillon on Marne) is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.

It lies in the valley of the Marne, surrounded by the Parc Naturel de la Montagne de Reims. It lies in the historic province of Champagne. The village stands above sloping vineyards and fields: Épernay, the principal entrepôt of the Champagne wines, is within walking distance.

John of Brienne (c. 1170 – 19–23 March 1237) was the king of Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in Champagne. John, originally destined for an ecclesiastical career, became a knight and owned small estates in Champagne around 1200. After the death of his brother Walter III, he ruled the County of Brienne on behalf of his minor nephew Walter IV, who lived in Italy.

The barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem proposed that John marry their queen, Maria. With the consent of Philip II of France and Pope Innocent III, he left France for the Holy Land and married Queen Maria; the couple were crowned in 1210. After Maria's death in 1212 John administered the kingdom as regent for their infant daughter Isabella II; Maria's influential uncle, John of Ibelin, attempted to depose him. King John was a leader of the Fifth Crusade. Although his claim of supreme command of the crusader army was never unanimously acknowledged, his right to rule Damietta (in Egypt) was confirmed shortly after the city fell to the crusaders in 1219. He claimed the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia on behalf of his second wife, Stephanie, in 1220. After Stephanie and their infant son died that year, John returned to Egypt. The Fifth Crusade ended in failure (including the recovery of Damietta by the Egyptians) in 1221.

Picardy (/ˈpɪkərdi/; Picard and French: Picardie, French: [pikaʁdi] , Picard: [piˈkaʀdi]) is a historical and cultural territory and a former administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained its first official recognition in the 13th century through the nation of Picardy at the University of Paris and entered French administration in the 14th century. Unlike regions such as Normandy, Brittany, or Champagne, Picardy was never established as a duchy, county, or principality, and its boundaries fluctuated over the centuries due to the political instability in the area it covered. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France.

The first geographic description of Picardy appeared in the late central Middle Ages, including the bishoprics of Amiens, Beauvais, Arras, Tournai, and Thérouanne. In the late Middle Ages, it also encompassed Saint-Quentin, Douai, Abbeville, Béthune, Clermont, and other towns like Noyon, Valenciennes, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Hesdin, and Laon. At that time, Picardy was divided into Upper and Lower Picardy: Upper Picardy was closer to Île-de-France, while Lower Picardy, which Barthélemy the Englishman referred to as Hainaut, was closer to Flanders and Brabant.

The Nivelle offensive (16 April – 9 May 1917) was a Franco-British operation on the Western Front in the First World War which was named after General Robert Nivelle, the commander-in-chief of the French metropolitan armies, who led the offensive. The French part of the offensive was intended to be strategically decisive by breaking through the German defences on the Aisne front within 48 hours, with casualties expected to be around 10,000 men. A preliminary attack was to be made by the French Third Army at St Quentin and the British First, Third and Fifth armies at Arras, to capture high ground and divert German reserves from the French fronts on the Aisne and in Champagne. The main offensive was to be delivered by the French on the Chemin des Dames ridge (the Second Battle of the Aisne). A subsidiary attack was to be made by the Fourth Army (the Third Battle of Champagne). The final stage of the offensive was to follow the meeting of the British and French armies, having broken through the German lines, to pursue the defeated German armies towards the German frontier.

The Franco-British attacks were tactically successful; the French Third Army of Groupe d'armées du Nord (GAN, Northern Army Group) captured the German defences west of the Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung) near St Quentin from 1 to 4 April, before further attacks were repulsed. The British Third and First armies achieved the deepest advance since trench warfare began, along the Scarpe river in the Battle of Arras, which inflicted many casualties on the Germans, attracted reserves and (specifically the four Canadian divisions of the First Army) captured Vimy Ridge to the north. The main French offensive on the Aisne began on 16 April and also achieved considerable tactical success but the attempt to force a strategically decisive battle on the Germans was a costly failure and by 25 April the main offensive had been suspended.

The Second Battle of Champagne (French: Bataille de Champagne, German: Herbstschlacht, [Autumn Battle]) in the First World War was a French offensive against the German army in Champagne that coincided with the Third Battle of Artois in the north and ended in a German victory.

Champagne-Ardenne (French pronunciation: [ʃɑ̃paɲaʁdɛn]) is a former administrative region of France, located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium. Mostly corresponding to the historic province of Champagne, the region is known for its sparkling white wine of the same name.