Bouchard was the son of
Hervé of Montmorency the
Grand Butler of France, and Agnes. Bouchard's first marriage was to Agnes, daughter of Count
Yves II de Beaumont. As a dowry, he received Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, the first fief in importance of the
Bishop of Paris. Because of this, the lords of Montmorency subsequently occupied the first place at the enthronement ceremony of the bishop and received the first rank among his vassals. Since the bishops themselves held the fief of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine from the French crown, the lords of Montmorency began to call themselves the "First Barons of France". In the mid 1080s, war broke out between Bouchard and his brother-in-law
Mathieu I, Count of
Beaumont-sur-Oise and heir to Yves II, over the Beaumont inheritance. In 1086, Bouchard burned down the church in
Conflans, thus making the conquest of Conflans unappealing to Mathieu I. In the 1090s, he came into conflict with
Adam, abbot of
Saint-Denis over the collection of
Seigneurial dues. The conflict escalated into a
feudal war, and the abbot, who had suffered a defeat, brought a complaint to the King. The case was heard by
Philip I at
Passy, and the
royal court ruled in favor of the abbot. Bouchard did not submit to the verdict and Prince
Louis organized a military expedition against him. Having gathered a royal army, joined by troops from Count
Simon II de Montfort, Count
Robert II of Flanders and
Princess Adela of England, Louis marched against Bouchard in 1101, ravaged his lands, and besieged him in the castle of
Montmorency, forcing him to surrender. Later, Bouchard became a loyal vassal of
Louis VI, carrying out various tasks for him. In 1116, at his request, the King approved the donation made by the lord of Montmorency to the
Abbey of Cluny. The last mention of Bouchard is in 1124, when he issued a charter confirming previous donations made to the
priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. The calendar of the episcopal Church of
Amiens commemorates him on 12 January, and on the basis of an entry in the memorial book of the
Abbey of Notre-Dame-du-Val, it has been suggested he died in
Jerusalem in 1132. ==Family==