It will be noticed that many of these (including the County of Soissons) are English titles. Enguerrand VII's first wife was an English Princess, Isabella, whom he married while he was a hostage in England under the terms of the treaty of Brétigny. She brought him estates in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumberland and Westmorland. This, in addition to his vast lands in France, made him very rich indeed – which was just as well, as Isabella was quite capable of spending any sum you might care to mention. Enguerrand managed, despite the Hundred Years War, to keep on the right side of both England and France. However, when his father-in-law King John died and Richard II took over, he handed back his English titles.

After Isabella died in1380, Enguerrand VII married another Isabel, daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, and eventually went off on the last Crusade and died of the plague in captivity in Turkey.

The fortress of Coucy is still awesome. The walls encircle the entire town, with the mighty castle as a citadel in one corner. It was restored by (inevitably) Viollet-le-Duc in the nineteenth century. The keep was one of the most massive towers in the world, but can only now be seen in a model in the museum. Coucy was in German hands in the First World War, and Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria made a point of asking General Ludendorf not to damage the place. Ludendorf, who didn't much care for interfering royalty, found that 28 tons of explosives did a nice demolition job.