His older brother Count Odo died in 1093,[2] leaving him master of Troyes, where he centred his court, Bar-sur-Aube and Vitry-le-François.

In this way the three contiguous countships that formed the core of an emerging Champagne[2] were united in his person, and though he preferred "Count of Troyes", the oldest of his lordships and site of the only bishopric in his domains, many contemporary documents call him the count of Champagne, the title preferred by his descendants.

Hugh's charter makes over to the new foundation Clairvaux and its dependencies, fields, meadows, vineyards, woods and water.

[5] Hugh married first Constance,[1] daughter of King Philip I of France and Bertha of Holland.

He married second Isabella,[1] daughter of Stephen I, Count of Burgundy and niece of Pope Callixtus II and they had issue: When Hugh became a Knight Templar himself in 1125,[6] the Order comprised few more than a dozen knights, and the first Grand Master of the Templars was a vassal of his, Hugues de Payens, who had been with him at Jerusalem in 1114.