Walter III of Brienne (French : Gautier, Italian : Gualtiero; died June 1205) was a nobleman from northern France. Becoming Count of Brienne in 1191, Walter married the Sicilian princess Elvira and took an army to southern Italy to claim her inheritance. He became Prince of Taranto in her right in 1201 but died fighting before he could establish himself as King of Sicily.
Walter III was the eldest son of Erard II of Brienne and Agnès of Montfaucon. [1] He was likely born after 1166, [2] and succeeded his father as Count of Brienne in 1191. [3] In the late 1190s, Walter and his brothers became involved in the conflict between Peter II of Courtenay (first cousin of King Philip II of France) and Peter's vassal Hervé IV of Donzy. Possibly provoked by Philip's support of his cousin, Walter briefly "abandoned the King of France" during the latter's conflict with King Richard I of England. Philip then became weary of the growing influence of the Brienne brothers. [4]
At the end of the 12th century, Sibylla of Acerra, widow of King Tancred of Sicily, arrived with her daughters in France. Sibylla sought a capable nobleman who would marry her eldest daughter, Elvira (known by a handful of other names, including Albinia and Maria), and press her claim to the Kingdom of Sicily. Sicily was then controlled by the regents of the orphaned infant king Frederick, whose parents, Henry and Constance, had deposed Sibylla's family. King Philip II of France, having been approached by the former Sicilian queen, convened a meeting in Melun. It was agreed there that Elvira should be married to Walter. Philip thereby emphasized his authority over Walter while at the same time encouraging him to leave France. Walter reportedly received an impressive sum of 20,000 livre parisis from the King, though this is doubtful. [5] For the House of Brienne, however, Walter's marriage to Elvira signified a sudden rise and the beginning of the dynasty's golden age. [6]
The Fourth Crusade was launched by Walter's immediate suzerain, Count Theobald III of Champagne, in November 1199. Walter promptly took the cross and started persuading prospective crusaders, such as his cousin Walter of Montbéliard, to assist him in his upcoming campaign in southern Italy on their way to the Holy Land. [7] Besides recruiting men, Walter energetically collected money and supplies from 1200, selling or mortgaging all of his land by April 1201. [8] He also secured the blessing and significant aid from Pope Innocent III. Innocent was the guardian of King Frederick but determinedly opposed to his regents. [7] He refused Walter's petition to recognize Elvira's claim to Frederick's throne; instead, he recognized the couple's right to the Principality of Taranto and the County of Lecce. [7] [9] In return, Tancred's family was compelled to recognize Frederick as their king. [9] Walter knew that securing possession of Taranto and Lecce would give him a sufficient power base and agreed. [7]
Leaving his younger brother John in charge of Brienne, [10] Walter arrived to the Italian Peninsula with a small army, including sixty knights and forty mounted sergeants. [5] By the late spring of 1201, he had arrived to Frederick's realm and appeared victorious, having won battles at Capua and Cannae. Innocent urged Walter to cross to the island of Sicily. Walter was reluctant to combat Innocent's enemies on the island before consolidating his position on the peninsula. [7]
By 1204, Walter was besieged in the fortress of Terracina by Diepold of Vohburg and lost an eye to an arrow, but he broke the siege and put Diepold to fight. [11] One night in June 1205, a contingent of enemy soldiers infiltrated Walter's camp, cut the ropes of his tent, felled it on Walter and stabbed him. [12] Walter died of his wounds soon afterwards, [7] June 1205. [11]
Elvira, pregnant at the time of Walter's death, quickly remarried. She gave birth to a posthumous son, Walter IV. [12] Their family's claims posed problems for the rest of Frederick's reign. [9] Walter III was succeeded in Brienne by his brother John, who held the county until Walter IV reached the age of majority. [13]
Year 1190 (MCXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Tancred was King of Sicily from 1189 to 1194. He was born in Lecce an illegitimate son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia by his mistress Emma, a daughter of Achard II, Count of Lecce. He inherited the title "Count of Lecce" from his grandfather and is consequently often referred to as Tancred of Lecce. Due to his short stature and unhandsome visage, he was mocked by his critics as "The Monkey King".
John of Brienne, also known as John I, was King of Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in Champagne. John, originally destined for an ecclesiastical career, became a knight and owned small estates in Champagne around 1200. After the death of his brother, Walter III, he ruled the County of Brienne on behalf of his minor nephew Walter IV.
Constance I was reigning Queen of Sicily from 1194–98, jointly with her spouse from 1194 to 1197, and with her infant son Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1198. She is particularly notable for her actions against her own family, the Norman kings of Sicily; she played an important role in the end of the Hauteville presence in Sicily. She was also Holy Roman Empress and later Dowager by marriage to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
William III, a scion of the Hauteville dynasty, was the last Norman King of Sicily, who reigned briefly for ten months in 1194. He was overthrown by his great-aunt Constance and her husband Emperor Henry VI.
Boniface I, usually known as Boniface of Montferrat, was the ninth Marquis of Montferrat, a leader of the Fourth Crusade (1201–04) and the king of Thessalonica.
Isabella I was reigning Queen of Jerusalem from 1190 to her death in 1205. She was the daughter of Amalric I of Jerusalem and his second wife Maria Comnena, a Byzantine princess. Her half-brother, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, engaged her to Humphrey IV of Toron. Her mother's second husband, Balian of Ibelin, and his stepfather, Raynald of Châtillon, were influential members of the two baronial parties. The marriage of Isabella and Humphrey was celebrated in Kerak Castle in autumn 1183. Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, laid siege to the fortress during the wedding, but Baldwin IV forced him to lift the siege.
Walter V of Brienne was Duke of Athens from 1308 until his death. Being the only son of Hugh of Brienne and Isabella de la Roche, Walter was the heir to large estates in France, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Peloponnese. He was held in custody in the Sicilian castle of Augusta between 1287 and 1296 or 1297 to secure the payment of his father's ransom to the Aragonese admiral Roger of Lauria. When his father died fighting against Lauria in 1296, Walter inherited the County of Brienne in France, and the counties of Lecce and Conversano in southern Italy. He was released, but he was captured during a Neapolitan invasion of Sicily in 1299. His second captivity lasted until the Treaty of Caltabellotta in 1302.
Raoul of Mérencourt was the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1214 to 1224, succeeding the assassinated Albert Avogadro.
Hugh, Count of Brienne and Lecce was the second surviving son of Count Walter IV of Brienne and Marie de Lusignan of Cyprus.
The Principality of Taranto was a state in southern Italy created in 1088 for Bohemond I, eldest son of Robert Guiscard, as part of the peace between him and his younger brother Roger Borsa after a dispute over the succession to the Duchy of Apulia.
Walter IV (French: Gauthier was the count of Brienne from 1205 to 1246.
Sibylla of Acerra (1153–1205) was Queen of Sicily as the wife of King Tancred. After Tancred's death, she was regent in 1194 for their son, King William III. She was the sister of Count Richard of Acerra.
The Hauteville was a Norman family originally of seigneurial rank from the Cotentin. The Hautevilles rose to prominence through their part in the Norman conquest of southern Italy. By 1130, one of their members, Roger II, was made the first King of Sicily. His male-line descendants ruled Sicily until 1194. Some Italian Hautevilles took part in the First Crusade and the founding of the Principality of Antioch (1098).
Dipold, known in German as Diepoldvon Schweinspünt, was a German ministerialis who was raised to the Duchy of Spoleto in 1209. Of Bavarian origin, he was a reputed younger son of Berthold II of Vohburg and Adelaide of Ballenstedt. He was originally a vassal of the count of Lechsgemünd. His career in the Mezzogiorno was marked by continual raids and sieges, battles, and sacks recounted in exhaustive detail by Richard of San Germano, a monk of the abbey whose lands were especially hard hit.
Peter of Capua was an Italian scholastic theologian and prelate. He served as cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata from 1193 until 1201 and cardinal-priest of San Marcello al Corso from 1201 until his death. He often worked as a papal legate. He wrote several theological works and was a patron of his hometown of Amalfi.
Erard II of Brienne was count of Brienne from 1161 to 1191, and a French general during the Third Crusade, most notably at the Siege of Acre. He was the son of Gautier II, count of Brienne, and Humbeline Baudemont, daughter of Andrew, lord of Baudemont and Agnes of Braine. His paternal grandparents were Erard I, Count of Brienne and Alix de Roucy. During this siege he saw his brother André of Brienne die on 4 October 1189, before being killed himself on 8 February 1191. Erard II's nephew was Erard of Brienne-Ramerupt.
Henry VI, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.
Walter of Montbéliard was regent of the Kingdom of Cyprus from 1205 to 1210, and Constable of Jerusalem from around 1204 to his death.
Elvira of Sicily was a member of the House of Hauteville who claimed the throne of the Kingdom of Sicily. She is known by an exceptional number of names, including Albinia, Elvira, Maria, Albidina and Blanche.
| House of Brienne |  | |
|---|---|---|
| House of Enghien | ||
| House of Luxemburg | ||
| House of Loménie | ||
