By the start of the twelfth century Chartres was strong commer- cially, intellectually and spiritually. The city hosted four great fairs each year on the feast days of the Virgin: the Purification (2 February), Annunciation (25 March), Assumption (15 August) and Nativity (8 September). The Chartrain merchants grew wealthy on the proceeds, such that around 1160 the French poet Wace described Chartres as having an ‘opulent citizenry’ – although such claims should be kept in proportion, for the city was never large, grew very little during the twelfth century, and was probably not the economic powerhouse that