The valleys immediately below and commanded by the castle bear marks of high and early cultivation, and no doubt contributed largely to its support. More distant, chiefly on the eastern and northern sides, are the immense woodland tracts of the high and low forests of Coucy, St. Gobain, and Monceau, while to the south are those of Pinon and Mostier. Occupying fertile spots amidst these forests were the abbeys of Nogent, St. Nicholas, Barizy, and Prémontre, where was the burial-place of the De Coucys, and the remains of which religious houses are interspersed with those of the castles of St. Gobain, Folembray, Anizy, La Fère, Pinon, and many others, showing the value attached to this tract of country by the jealousy displayed in its defence.
The etymology of Coucy has not been explained. The district in which it stands was known as Le Mege in the sixth century, and Coucy was probably included in that part of it granted by Clovis to St. Remi for the archiepiscopal see of Reims, a.d. 500. In 909 it was in the hands of Archbishop Hervé, who, moved by the rising power of the Norman, here first built the castle known henceforward as Coucy.
Whatever may have been the particulars of this fortress, its area must have been identical with that of the latter work, governed by the configuration of the ground; and, whatever may have been its construction, its position could not but endow it with strength and importance. It became at once a place of note. Here, Hervé, Count of Vermandois, imprisoned Charles the Simple, whom he sold to his rival king for the county of Laon. Nevertheless, in 930, Hervé was forced to give up Coucy to Boson, brother to Raoul, king of France. Boson was slain before St. Quentin in 931, and, after a century of vicissitudes, the domain, held by a mere quit-rent of the Church, was in 1037 the signory of Alberic, the founder of the baronial name of Coucy. It is uncertain whether Alberic was of the family of Eudo de Chartres or that of the Counts of Vermandois. By marriage he added Amiens and its adjacent castle of Bôves to Coucy, and is thought to have founded the abbey of Nogent-sous-Coucy.
Alberic was succeeded by his son Enguerrand, Sieur de Coucy, Count of Amiens, and Lord of Bôves. He married Ada, heiress of Letard de Roucy, Lord of Marle, second son of Gilbert, Count of Reims, with whom he acquired Marle and La Fère. He—or more probably his son—first assumed the well-known armorial bearings, “Barry of 6, vaire and gules.” He died 1116, leaving Thomas.
Thomas de Marle, de Coucy, his son and successor, long in rebellion against his father, bore a bad name for violence. He lost Amiens; but, again by marriage, acquired Crécy-sur-Serre and Nogent. He died 1130.
Enguerrand II., known as Le Sire de Coucy—this title, it is said, denoting the lord of an allodial fief—held also Marle, Crécy, Vervins, Pinon, and La Fère, in which latter castle he defended himself with success against Louis le Gros and Raoul, Count of Vermandois, in 1132. His reign was one of peace and justice.
This Enguerrand is said to have slain in personal combat a ferocious beast called a lion that infested the neighbourhood; and this tale is no doubt the origin of the lions which were used by the family as crest and supporters. Such tales were common in the twelfth century, only the scene of the exploit was usually more safely laid in Palestine. This combat was commemorated in a bas-relief over the door of the keep at Coucy, and was probably the foundation of a singular ceremony which only ceased at the Revolution. Thrice annually, at Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, the Abbot of Nogent, or his attorney, entered Coucy by the lower gate, a whip in his hand and mounted upon a crop-eared and docktailed bay. On his poitrel was suspended a seed-bag of white linen filled with wheat, and in a basket certain crescent-shaped cakes stuffed with minced veal, cooked in oil, and called rissoles, probably the earliest mention of a dish which has descended to our own times.
Behind the abbot came a red dog, also with cropped ears and tail, and having a rissole suspended from his neck. This singular procession then entered the castle, and at the base of the keep the abbot made the circuit of a central and three lesser couchant lions there carved in stone, and afterwards embraced the larger beast. This done, he offered the cakes in homage to the lord, who distributed them to the people, and then witnessed the record of the homage by affixing to it a special seal, representing a mitred and crosiered abbot, having for feet the hoofs of a buck. A representation of this ceremony in tapestry long adorned the walls of the castle, and is thought to have been taken into Lorraine after the marriage of a later Coucy with a daughter of that house.
Enguerrand II. died while on a crusade in Palestine about 1148; but his body was laid in his abbey of Prémontre, near the castle, where his effigy remained in 1682.
Raoul de Coucy, son and successor, was under age at his father’s death. He married, about 1169, Agnes of Hainault; and secondly, Alix, niece of Louis-le-Jeune, and sister of Robert de Dreux. By this match he connected himself with the blood royal. He accompanied Philip Augustus to Palestine in 1188, and fell before the walls of Acre in 1191. He was buried at Foigny, and his son by Alix was his successor.