Thierry, Count of Flanders
Theoderic known as Thierry of Alsace, was the fifteenth count of Flanders from 1128 to 1168. He was the youngest son of Duke Theoderic II of Gertrude of Flanders. With a record of four campaigns in the Levant and Africa, he had a rare and distinguished record of commitment to crusading. After the murder of his cousin, Charles the Good, in 1127, Theoderic claimed the county of Flanders as grandson of Robert I, but William Clito became count instead with the support of King Louis VI of France. William's politics and attitude towards the autonomy of Flanders made him unpopular, by the end of the year Bruges, Ghent and Saint-Omer recognized Theoderic as a rival count. Theoderic's supporters came from the Imperial faction of Flanders. Louis VI of France had Raymond of the Archbishop of Reims, excommunicate Theoderic. Louis VI besieged Lille, but was forced to retire when Henry I of England, William Clito's uncle, transferred his support to Theoderic. However, Theoderic was fled to Bruges, he was forced to flee Bruges as well, went to Aalst, where he was soon under siege from William, Godfrey I of Leuven, Louis VI.
The city was about to be captured when William was found dead on July 27, 1128, leaving Theoderic as the only claimant to the seat. Theoderic set up his government in Ghent and was recognized by all the Flemish cities as well as King Henry, who had his Flemish lords in England swear fealty to him. Theoderic himself swore homage to Louis VI after 1132, in order to gain the French king's support against Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut, who had advanced his own claim on Flanders. In 1132, his wife, died, leaving only a daughter. In 1139, he went on pilgrimage to the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, married Sibylla of Anjou, daughter of King Fulk of Jerusalem and the widow of William Clito; this was the first of Theoderic's four pilgrimages to the Holy Land. While there he led a victorious expedition against Caesarea Phillippi, fought alongside his father-in-law in an invasion of Gilead, he soon returned to Flanders to put down a revolt in the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia, ruled at the time by Godfrey III of Leuven.
Theoderic joined the Second Crusade in 1147. He led the crossing of the Maeander River in Anatolia and fought at the Battla of Attalya in 1148, after arriving in the crusader Kingdom he participated in the Council of Acre, where the ill-fated decision to attack Damascus was made. Theoderic participated in the Siege of Damascus, led by his wife's half-brother Baldwin III of Jerusalem, with the support of Baldwin, Louis VII of France, Conrad III of Germany, he lay claim to Damascus. However, the native crusader barons preferred one of their own nobles, Guy Brisebarre, lord of Beirut. According to William of Tyre, the resulting dispute contributed to the final failure of the siege:'for the local barons preferred that the Damascenes should keep their city rather than to see it given to the count', so did all they could to ensure the siege collapsed. Therefore, William continues, many contemporaries blamed Theoderic for the ultimate failure of the Second Crusade. During his absence, Baldwin IV of Hainaut pillaged Artois.
The Archbishop of Reims intervened and a treaty was signed. When Theoderic returned in 1150, he took vengeance on Baldwin IV at Bouchain, with the aid of Henry I, Count of Namur and Henry II of Leez, Bishop of Liège. In the subsequent peace negotiations, Theoderic gave his daughter Marguerite in marriage to Baldwin IV's son, the future Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut. In 1156, Theoderic had his eldest son married to Elizabeth of Vermandois and heiress of Raoul I of Vermandois. In 1156, he returned to the Holy Land, this time with his wife accompanying him, he participated in Baldwin III's siege of Shaizar, but the fortress remained in Muslim hands when a dispute arose between Theoderic and Raynald of Châtillon over who would possess it should it be captured. He returned to Flanders 1159 without Sibylla, who remained behind to become a nun at the convent of St. Lazarus in Bethany, their son Philip had ruled the county in their absence, he remained co-count after Theoderic's return. In 1164, Theoderic returned once more to the Holy Land.
He accompanied another half-brother of Sibylla, to Antioch and Tripoli. He returned home in 1166, adopted a date palm as his seal, with a crown of laurels on the reverse, he died on January 17, 1168, was buried in the Abbey of Watten, between Saint-Omer and Gravelines. His rule had been peaceful. There had been great economic and agricultural development, new commercial enterprises were established, his first wife, died in 1132, leaving only one daughter: Laurette of Flanders, who married four times: 1)Iwain, Count of Aalst. Laurette retired to a nunnery, where she died in 1170. Theoderic secondly married Sibylla of Anjou, daughter of Fulk V of Anjou and Ermengarde of Maine, former bride of William Clito, their children were: Philip of Flanders Matthew of Alsace, married Countess Marie I of Bou
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of Aosta Valley, a bilingual region in the Italian Alps, 110 km north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes. Aosta was settled in proto-historic times and became a centre of the Salassi, many of whom were killed or sold into slavery by the Romans in 25 BC; the campaign was led by Terentius Varro, who founded the Roman colony of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum, housing 3,000 retired veterans. After 11 BC Aosta became the capital of the Alpes Graies province of the Empire, its position at the confluence of two rivers, at the end of the Great and the Little St Bernard Pass, gave it considerable military importance, its layout was that of a Roman military camp. After the fall of the Western Empire, the city was conquered, in turn, by the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines; the Lombards, who had annexed it to their Italian kingdom, were expelled by the Frankish Empire under Pepin the Short.
Under his son, Aosta acquired importance as a post on the Via Francigena, leading from Aachen to Italy. After 888 AD it was part of the renewed Kingdom of Italy under Arduin of Ivrea and Berengar of Friuli. In the 10th century Aosta became part of the Kingdom of Burgundy. After the fall of the latter in 1032, it became part of the lands of Count Humbert I of Savoy; the privilege of holding the assembly of the states-general was granted to the inhabitants in 1189. An executive council was nominated from this body in 1536, continued to exist until 1802. After the Congress of Vienna restored the rule of Savoy it was reconstituted and formally recognized by Charles Albert of Sardinia, at the birth of his grandson Prince Amedeo, created duke of Aosta. Aosta has a transitional cool summer humid continental climate bordering on a cool summer humid oceanic climate, it is considered temperate continental in the Trewartha climate classification. Saint-Martin-de-Corléans Megalithic Area with artifacts and tombs dating to the Neolithic era.
The ancient town walls of Augusta Prætoria Salassorum are still preserved in their entirety, enclosing a rectangle 724 by 572 metres. They are 6.4 metres high. At the bottom, the walls are nearly 2.75 metres thick, at the top 1.83 metres. Towers stand at angles to the enceinte and others are positioned at intervals, with two at each of the four gates, making twenty towers in total, they are 6.5 metres square, project 4.3 metres from the wall. Of the 20 original towers, the following are well preserved: Tour du lépreux, was given this name after a leper called Pierre-Bernard Guasco was jailed there in the late 17th century. Le lépreux de la cité d'Aoste, a novel by Xavier de Maistre, is named after this leper. Tourneuve. Tour du Pailleron. Tower of Bramafan, built in the 11th century over a Roman bastion, it was the residence of the Savoy viscounts. In Franco-Provençal, Bramé la fan means "To scream for hunger". Tour du Baillage. Tour Fromage; the east and south gates exist intact. The latter, a double gate with three arches flanked by two towers known as the Porta Praetoria was the eastern gate to the city, has preserved its original forms apart from the marble covering.
It is formed by two series of arches enclosing a small square. The rectangular arrangement of the streets is modeled on a Roman plan dividing the town into 64 blocks; the main road, about 10 metres wide, divides the city into two equal halves, running from east to west. This arrangement makes it clear; the Roman theatre, of which the southern façade remains today, is 22 metres tall. The structure, dating from the late reign of Augustus, occupied an area of 81 by 64 metres. In the nearby was the amphitheatre, built under Claudius. A marketplace surrounded by storehouses on three sides with a temple in the centre with two on the open side, as well as a thermae, have been discovered. Outside the town walls is the Arch of Augustus, a triumphal arch in honour of Augustus, built in 35 BC to celebrate the victory of consul Varro Murena over the Salassi. About 8 kilometres to the west is a single-arched Roman bridge, called the Pont d'Aël, it has a closed passage, lighted by windows for foot passengers in winter, above it an open footpath.
There are considerable remains of the ancient road from Eporedia to Augusta Praetoria into the Aosta Valley. The modern railway follows this route, notable for the Pont Saint-Martin, which has a single arch with a span of 35 metres and a roadway 4.5 metres wide. The Cathedral, built in the 4th century and replaced in the 11th century by a new edifice dedicate to the Madonna, it is annexed to the Roman Forum. The Romanesque-Gothic Sant'Orso, its most evocative feature is the cloister, which can be entered through a hall on the left of the façade. It is dedicated to Ursus of Aosta; the Saint-Bénin College, built about 1000 by the Benedictines. It is now an exhibition site; the Bridge of Grand Arvou, a medieval arch bridge-aqueduct, is located in the frazione. Aosta
Aosta Cathedral
Aosta Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Aosta, in north-west Italy, built in the 4th century. It is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Aosta. In the 11th century the Palaeo-Christian structure was replaced by a new one, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist; the architecture of the cathedral was modified during the 16th century. The present façade, in Neoclassical style, was built between 1846 and 1848; the structures remaining from the Romanesque period are two clock-towers and the crypt, the remaining part of an Ottonian fresco cycle on the church ceiling. Aosta Valley official website: Aosta Cathedral Webdiocesi.chiesacattolica website: article on Aosta Cathedral Website of the Banca Ipermediale delle Vetrate Italiane: article by E. L. Cappa on Aosta Cathedral Aosta Valley official website: article by L. Appolonia & D. Viquéry on restoration of cathedral façade organivalledaosta.altervista.org Private website on cathedral organ Lasteyrie, Ferdinand de.
La cathédrale d'Aoste: étude archéologique. Paris: V. Didron. Robert Berton, La cathedrale d'Aoste, Aoste: Imprimerie Marguerettaz Sandra Barberi, Cathédrale d'Aoste: les fresques du XIe siècle, Aoste: Imprimerie valdôtaine, 2006 Cortelazzo, Mauro - Perinetti, Renato - Papone, Paolo - Vallet, Viviana, La cathédrale d'Aoste: du chantier roman à nos jours, études archéologiques et textes: Mauro Cortelazzo, Paolo Papone, Renato Perinetti, Viviana Vallet, Aoste: Région autonome Vallée d'Aoste. Assessorat de l'éducation et de la culture. Département de la surintendance des activités et des biens culturels, 2008 Cadran solaire Paolo Curtaz, Omar Borettaz, Ronnie Borbey, L'eglise cathédrale d'Aoste: un lieu, une histoire, la foi d'un peuple, Aosta Lin Colliard, La Cathédrale d'Aoste au XVe siècle: extrait de l'ordinaire d'Aoste, Aoste: Imprimerie valdôtaine, 1978 Édouard Aubert, Les mosaïques de la Cathédrale d'Aoste, Paris: Librairie archéologique de Victor Didron, 1857 Joseph-Auguste Duc, Symbolisme architectural de la Cathédrale d'Aoste, Aoste: Imprimerie catholique, 1901 Joseph-Auguste Duc, Mosaique du chœur de la Cathédrale d'Aoste: son âge, in Société académique, religieuse et scientifique du Duché d'Aoste La restauration de la façade de la cathédrale d'Aoste, Aoste: Région autonome Vallée d'Aoste.
Assessorat de l'éducation et de la culture. Surintendance aux biens culturels, 1997 Abbé Joseph-Marie Henry, Maîtrise de la Cathédrale d'Aoste, Aoste: Imprimerie catholique, 1919 Orphée Zanolli, Mélodies inédites à l'usage de la Cathédrale d'Aoste: les Noëls en vieux français, Aoste: Musumeci, 1977 Charles Bonnet, Renato Perinetti, Remarques sur la crypte de la cathedrale d'Aoste, Aoste: Musumeci, 1977 Robert Berton, Les stalles de la cathédrale d'Aoste avec leurs miséricordes: un joyau d'art gothique du XVe siècle, préface d'Adrien Bruhl, Novara: De Agostini, copyr. 1961 Duc, Joseph-Auguste, Le Chapitre de la cathédrale d'Aoste a-t-il été autrefois régulier?, in Société académique, religieuse et scientifique du Duché d'Aoste Zanolli, Orphée Les "obitus" et les notes marginales du martyrologe de la Cathédrale d'Aoste Barberi, S. 2002: Cattedrale di Aosta. Gli affreschi dell'XI secolo. Published on behalf of the Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta, printed by Umberto Allemandi Editore, Torino Brezzi, E. Rossetti, 1989: La pittura in Valle d'Aosta tra la fine del 1300 e il primo quarto del 1500.
Firenze: Casa Editrice Le Lettere Garino, Luigi, n.d.: Museo del Tesoro, Cattedrale di Aosta, catalogue edited by the Aosta Cathedral chapter Orlandoni, B. 1995: Architettura in Valle d'Aosta - Il romanico e il gotico. Ivrea: Priuli & Verlucca Orlandoni, B. 1995: Architettura in Valle d'Aosta - Il Quattrocento. Ivrea: Priuli & Verlucca Aosta Valley autonomous region, 2007: La Cattedrale di Aosta. Aosta: Cadran Solaire ditto, 2008
Alfonso Jordan
Alfonso Jordan was the Count of Tripoli, Count of Rouergue and Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence and Duke of Narbonne. He was the son of Raymond IV of Toulouse by Elvira of Castile, he was born in the castle of Mont Pèlerin in Tripoli. He was given the name "Jourdain" after being baptised in the Jordan River. Alfonso's father died when he was two years old and he remained under the guardianship of his cousin, William Jordan, Count of Cerdagne, until he was five, he was taken to Europe, where his half-brother Bertrand had given him the county of Rouergue. Upon Bertrand's death in 1112, Alfonso succeeded to the county of Toulouse and marquisate of Provence. In 1114, Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who claimed Toulouse by right of his wife Philippa, daughter of Count William IV, invaded the county and conquered it. Alfonso recovered a part in 1119, but he was not in full control until 1123; when at last successful, he was excommunicated by Pope Callixtus II for having expelled the monks of Saint-Gilles, who had aided his enemies.
Alfonso next had to fight for his rights in Provence against Count Raymond Berengar III of Barcelona. Not until September 1125 did their war end in "peace and concord". At this stage, Alfonso was master of the regions lying between the Pyrenees and the Alps, the Auvergne and the sea, his ascendancy was, according to one commentator, an unmixed good to the country, for during a period of fourteen years art and industry flourished. In March 1126, Alfonso was at the court of Alfonso VII of León. According to the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris and Suero Vermúdez took the city of León from opposition magnates and handed it over to Alfonso VII. Among those who may have accompanied Alfonso on one of his many extended stays in Spain was the troubadour Marcabru. About 1134 Alfonso seized the viscounty of Narbonne and ruled it during the minority of the Viscountess Ermengarde, only restoring it to her in 1143. In 1141 King Louis VII pressed the claim of Philippa on behalf of his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine besieging Toulouse, but without result.
That same year Alfonso Jordan was again in Spain, making a pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela, when he proposed a peace between the king of León and García VI of Navarre, which became the basis for subsequent negotiations. In 1144, Alfonso again incurred the displeasure of the church by siding with the citizens of Montpellier against their lord. In 1145, Bernard of Clairvaux addressed a letter to him full of concern about a heretic named Henry in the diocese of Toulouse. Bernard went there to preach against the heresy, an early expression of Catharism. A second time he was excommunicated. In August 1147, he embarked for the near east on the Second Crusade, he lingered on the way in Italy and in Constantinople, where he may have met the Emperor Manuel I. Alfonso arrived at Acre in 1148. Among his companions he had made enemies and he was destined to take no share in the crusade he had joined, he died at Caesarea, there were accusations of poisoning levelled either against Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Louis, or Melisende, the mother of King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, who may have wanted to eliminate him as a rival to her brother-in-law Raymond II.
By his wife since 1125, Faydiva d'Uzès, he left two legitimate sons: Raymond, who succeeded him, Alfonso. His daughter Faydiva married Count Humbert III of Savoy, he left two other daughters: the legitimate Agnes and the illegitimate Laurentia, who married Count Bernard III of Comminges. Attribution: This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Alphonse I.". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1. Cambridge University Press. P. 733. This cites Histoire générale de Languedoc by De Vic and Vaissette, vol. iii.. Richard, Jean; the Crusades, C.1071-c.1291. Translated by Birrell, Jean. Cambridge University Press
Boniface of Savoy (bishop)
Boniface of Savoy was a medieval Bishop of Belley in France and Archbishop of Canterbury in England. He was the son of Thomas, Count of Savoy, owed his initial ecclesiastical posts to his father. Other members of his family were clergymen, a brother succeeded his father as count. One niece was married to King Henry III of England and another was married to King Louis IX of France, it was Henry who secured Boniface's election as Archbishop, throughout his tenure of that office he spent much time on the continent. He clashed with his bishops, with his nephew-by-marriage, with the papacy, but managed to eliminate the archiepiscopal debt which he had inherited on taking office. During Simon de Montfort's struggle with King Henry, Boniface helped Montfort's cause, but supported the king. After his death in Savoy, his tomb became the object of a cult, he was beatified in 1839. Boniface and his elder brother Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy, were sons of Thomas I, Count of Savoy, Margaret of Geneva, he is thus not to be confused with his nephew, fellow member of the House of Savoy, Count Boniface of Savoy, the son of Amadeus IV.
The elder Boniface was born about 1207 in Savoy. He was the eleventh child of his parents; some sources state. However, there is no evidence of this, it would have been unusual for a nobleman to enter that order with its strict discipline, he had a brother Peter of Savoy, named Earl of Richmond in 1240 and yet another brother William of Savoy, Bishop of Valence and a candidate to be Bishop of Winchester in England. Boniface was the Prior of Nantua in 1232 along with the bishopric of Belley in Burgundy; when his father died, he received the castle of Ugine as his inheritance, he surrendered any entitlement to any other inheritance in 1238. After the marriage of his niece, Eleanor of Provence to King Henry III of England, Henry attempted to have Boniface elected Bishop of Winchester, but was unable to get the cathedral chapter to elect Boniface. On 1 February 1241 he was nominated to the see of Canterbury. Pope Innocent IV confirmed the appointment on 16 September 1243, as an attempt to placate Henry.
Boniface did not, come to England until 1244 and was present, in the following year 1245, at the First Council of Lyon. There, he was consecrated by Innocent IV on 15 January at Lyons, but it was only in 1249 that he returned to England and was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 1 November 1249. Before he returned in 1249, he helped arrange the marriage another of his nieces, Beatrice of Provence, the sister of Queen Eleanor, to Charles of Anjou, the brother of King Louis IX of France; the medieval chronicler Matthew Paris said that Boniface was "noted more for his birth than for his brains." He showed little concern for the spiritual duties of his office. His exactions and his overbearing behaviour, combined with the fact that he was a foreigner, offended the English, he was involved in advancing the fortunes of his family on the continent, spent fourteen of the twenty-nine years he was archbishop outside England. He made strenuous efforts to free his office from debt, as he had inherited a see, in debt over 22,000 marks, but managed to clear the debt before his death.
He did this for seven years, from the papacy. When a number of bishops refused to pay, they were suspended from office, he worked for the canonisation of Edmund of Abingdon while he was at the papal court-in-exile at Lyon from 1244 to 1249. In 1244, Boniface rejected Robert Passelewe, selected as Bishop of Chichester, on the grounds that Passelewe was illiterate. Boniface nominated his own candidate, Richard of Chichester, although the king objected, Pope Innocent IV confirmed Richard's election. In 1258, Boniface objected to the selection of Hugh de Balsham as Bishop of Ely, tried to elevate Adam Marsh instead, but Hugh appealed to Rome, which upheld Hugh's election. Boniface held church councils to reform the clergy, in 1257 at London, in 1258 at Merton, in 1261 at Lambeth. During his archiepiscopate, a provincial court was established in the archdiocese of Canterbury, with a presiding Officialis appointed by Boniface. Boniface was energetic in defending the liberties of his see, clashed with King Henry over the election of Henry's clerk Robert Passelewe to the see of Chichester.
Robert Grosseteste, the Bishop of Lincoln, had examined Passelewe, found him unfit for episcopal office, Boniface quashed the election in 1244. He was involved in disputes with the king's half-brothers Aymer de Valence, Bishop of Winchester, he quarrelled with his suffragan bishops, who resented his attempts to supervise their affairs closely. In 1250 Boniface attempted a visitation of his province, this disturbed his suffragan bishops, who protested that Boniface was taking exorbitant amounts of money during his visits, they appealed to the pope, who reaffirmed the right of Boniface to conduct his visitation, but set a limit on the amount that could be taken from any monastery or church. After the visitation, Boniface left England again, only returned in 1252, after the pope had decided the bishops' appeal in Boniface's favour. After his return, he continued to assert his rights and settled a number of disputes with his bishops, he secured professions of obedience from all but three of the 37 bishops consecrated during his time as archbishop.
He set up a court at Canterbury that heard appeals from the ecclesiastical courts of his suffragan bishops. Boniface clashed with Henry's half-brothers, the Lusignans, who arrived in England in 1247 and competed for lands and promotions with the queens' Savoy relativ
Charles Albert of Sardinia
Charles Albert was the King of Sardinia from 27 April 1831 to 23 March 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, with the First Italian War of Independence. During the Napoleonic period, he resided in France; as Prince of Carignano in 1821, he granted and withdrew his support for a rebellion which sought to force Victor Emmanuel I to institute a constitutional monarchy. He became a conservative and participated in the legitimist expedition against the Spanish liberals in 1823, he became king of Sardinia in 1831 on the death of his distant cousin Charles Felix, who had no heir. As king, after an initial conservative period during which he supported various European legitimist movements, he adopted the idea of a federal Italy, led by the Pope and freed from the House of Habsburg in 1848. In the same year he granted the Albertine Statute, the first Italian constitution, which remained in force until 1947. Charles Albert led his forces against the Imperial Austrian army in the First Italian War of Independence, but was abandoned by Pope Pius IX and Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and was defeated in 1849 at the Battle of Novara, after which he abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.
Charles Albert died in exile a few months in the Portuguese city of Porto. The attempt to free northern Italy from Austria represents the first attempt of the House of Savoy to alter the equilibrium established in the Italian peninsula after the Congress of Vienna; these efforts were continued by Victor Emmanuel II, who became the first king of a unified Italy in 1861. Charles Albert received a number of nicknames, including "the Italian Hamlet" and "the Hesitant King" because he hesitated for a long time between the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the reinforcement of absolute rule, he was born at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin on 2 October 1798, to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano and Maria Cristina of Saxony. His father was the great-great-great-grandson of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, youngest legitimate son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, founder of the Carignano line of the House of Savoy. Since he did not belong to the main line of the House of Savoy his chances at birth of succeeding to the kingdom were slim.
Although the reigning king, Charles Emmanuel IV, had no children, at his death the throne would pass to his brother Victor Emmanuel and to the latter's son Charles Emmanuel. After that in the line of succession there were two further brothers of Charles Emmanuel IV: Maurizio Giuseppe and Charles Felix, but in 1799, two of these heirs died: Maurizio Giuseppe. Charles Albert's father, Charles Emmanuel of Carignano, had studied in France and had been an officer in the French army. Sympathetic to liberalism, he travelled to Turin in 1796, in the wake of the French invasion of 1796 and King Charles Emmanuel IV's flight into exile. There Charles Emmanuel of Carignano and his wife joined the French cause. Despite this, the pair were sent to Paris, where they were placed under surveillance and forced to live in poor conditions in a house in the suburbs; these were the circumstances in which their children, Charles Albert and his sister Maria Elisabeth, grew up. On 16 August 1800, Charles Emmanuel of Carignano died suddenly.
It was up to Charles Albert's mother to deal with the French, who had no intention of recognising her rights, titles or property. She nonetheless refused to send her son to the Savoy family in Sardinia for a conservative education. In 1808, Maria Christina married for a second time, to Giuseppe Massimiliano Thibaut di Montléart, whose relationship with Charles Albert was poor; when he was twelve years old, Charles Albert and his mother were granted an audience with Napoleon, who granted the boy the title of count and an annual pension. Since it was no longer appropriate for him to be educated at home, Charles Albert was sent to the Collège Stanislas in Paris in 1812, he did not attend regularly. In the meantime, Albertina had moved to Geneva, where Charles Albert joined her from March 1812 to December 1813, she was married to the Protestant Pastor, Jean-Pierre Etienne Vaucher, a follower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the family left Geneva, fearing the arrival of Austrian forces and returned to France.
At the beginning of 1814, Charles Albert enrolled in the military school in Bourges, hoping to become an officer in the French army. He was sixteen years old. Napoleon named him a lieutenant of dragoons in 1814. After Napoleon was defeated for good, the new king Louis XVIII celebrated the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in Paris on 16 May 1814. Among those present at the festivities were Princess Maria Christina di Carignano and her children Charles Albert and Elisabetta. Despite their past, the family was treated well, although Charles Albert had to renounce the title of Count of the Empire, conferred upon him at the military school in Bourges and the annuity which Napoleon had granted him; the re-establishment of peace in Europe meant that Charles Albert could return to Turin, he was advised to do so by his tutor, count Alessandro Di Saluzzo di Menusiglio, by Albertina. He arrived in Turin on 24 May. There he was welcomed affectionately by King Victor Emmanuel I (Charles IV had abdicated i
Amadeus III, Count of Savoy
Amadeus III of Savoy was Count of Savoy and Maurienne from 1103 until his death. He was known as a Crusader, he was born in Carignano, the son of Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy, the daughter of William I of Burgundy. He succeeded as count of Savoy upon the death of his father. Amadeus had a tendency to exaggerate his titles, claimed to be Duke of Lombardy, Duke of Burgundy, Duke of Chablais, vicar of the Holy Roman Empire, the latter of, given to his father by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, he helped restore the Abbey of St. Maurice of Agaune, in which the former kings of Burgundy had been crowned, of which he himself was abbot until 1147, he founded the Abbey of St. Sulpicius in Bugey, Tamié Abbey in the Bauges, Hautecombe Abbey on the Lac du Bourget. In 1128, Amadeus extended his realm, known as the "Old Chablais", by adding to it the region extending from the Arve to the Dranse d'Abondance, which came to be called the "New Chablais" with its capital at Saint-Maurice. Despite his marriage to Mahaut, he still fought against his brother-in-law Guy, killed at the Battle of Montmélian.
Following this, King Louis VI of France, married to Amadeus' sister Adélaide de Maurienne, attempted to confiscate Savoy. Amadeus was saved by the intercession of Peter the Hermit, by his promise to participate in Louis' planned crusade. In 1147, he accompanied his nephew Louis VII of France and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine on the Second Crusade, he financed his expedition with help from a loan from the Abbey of St. Maurice. In his retinue were many barons from Savoy, including the lords of Faucigny, Seyssel, La Chambre, Montbel, Montmayeur, Viry, La Palude, Chevron-Villette, Châtillon. Amadeus travelled south through Italy to Brindisi, where he crossed over to Durazzo, marched east along the Via Egnatia to meet Louis at Constantinople in late 1147. After crossing into Anatolia, leading the vanguard, became separated from Louis near Laodicea, Louis' forces were entirely destroyed. Marching on to Adalia, Louis and other barons decided to continue to Antioch by ship. On the journey, Amadeus fell ill on Cyprus, died at Nicosia in April 1148.
He was buried in the Church of St. Croix in Nicosia. In Savoy, his son Humbert III succeeded him, under the regency of bishop Amadeus of Lausanne. With his first wife Adelaide, he had. W.. The Early History of the House of Savoy: 1000-1233. Cambridge University Press. Cawley, Medieval Lands Project on Amadeus III of Savoy, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
