Agnes of Faucigny

Agnes von Faucigny († August 11, 1268 in Pierre-Châtel Castle ( Virignin , Ain )) was a French noblewoman. She was mistress of Faucigny in her own right and, by marriage, Countess of Savoy from 1263 .

Life

Agnes von Faucigny was a daughter of Aimon II of Faucigny . The popular assumption that her mother Beatrix , daughter of Count Stephan III. von Auxonne , was, is based only on an interpretation of the mention of Simon von Joinville in Agnes' will written in 1268 and is not entirely undisputed. Agnes had a sister named Beatrix who married Stephan II, Lord of Thoire and Villars.

In February 1234, the wedding of Agnes, led by Wilhelm , Bishop of Valence, to the Savoyard Prince Peter , a younger son of the then deceased Count Thomas I of Savoy , took place in Châtillon-sur-Cluses . Aimon II of Faucigny, who had not yet had any legitimate male offspring, appointed Agnes to be his heir and thus the rule of Faucigny, but the provisions made earlier in favor of his other daughter Beatrix were to remain unaffected. Peter of Savoy undertook to make male or female offspring that he would have with his wife as his heirs. Agnes' marriage contract also guaranteed the succession in the possession of Faucigny exclusively to her future children.

Not long after their marriage, Agnes gave birth to her husband an only child, Beatrix . Agnes' father hoped to have safeguarded the independence of Faucigny through the marriage of Agnes to Prince Peter, because at that time he was not yet heir to Savoy. To further safeguard his plan, he engaged his childhood granddaughter Beatrix, who was to inherit Faucigny after her mother, in December 1241 to the 16-year-old Dauphin Guigues VII of Viennois , who was a natural rival of the Counts of Savoy.

After the death of her father (1253) Agnes followed him as mistress of Faucigny and appears there in several documents as the sole sovereign, while her husband often stayed in England. In a will on May 13, 1262 in Mélan, not in Latin but in the vernacular, Agnes appointed her daughter Beatrix as sole heir, in accordance with her father's intention. When she soon became ill in Versoix in the autumn of the same year , she changed her last will in accordance with the wishes of her husband in two further wills, dated October 17 and November 16, 1262, so that her husband now has two thirds of her territories including all Castles and Beatrix should only get the rest. She even immediately gave her husband the two thirds of her rule that had been assigned to him and only reserved a usufruct for one year.

Since Agnes' husband became the new Count of Savoy as Peter II in June 1263, Aimons II's intention to obtain independence from Faucigny now seemed seriously endangered. However, Agnes was supposed to survive her husband - even if only by a few months - and, moreover, Peter II appeared in some documents concerning the administration of Faucigny, but was never referred to as the master of this area, but only Agnes as its sovereign, while she in turn did not bear her title of Countess of Savoy in documents. According to a declaration made by Agnes in 1263, he was to be reimbursed from her income or that of her heirs for the costs that her husband had expended in restoring or strengthening the castles of Flumet, Sallanches, Châtillon, Crédoz and many others in Faucigny. In the last will of Count Peter II, which was written shortly before his death on May 16, 1268, his wife was granted the usufruct of the Versoix, Allinges, Féternes, Charousse and Aubonne castles, but his younger brother Philip was his successor in the county Appointed Savoy.

About three months after the death of her husband, Agnes again designated her daughter Beatrix as the sole heir of Faucigny in her will, dated August 9, 1268, but also considered her sister Beatrix and Simon von Joinville. Agnes died on August 11, 1268 in Pierre-Châtel Castle and was buried according to her wishes in the church of the Benedictine priory of Contamine-sur-Arve . As a result, Beatrix's husband, the Dauphin Guigues VII of Viennois, took Faucigny in possession, which led to a long-lasting territorial dispute between his dynasty and the House of Savoy, which Faucigny also claimed for himself.

literature

• G. Pérouse: Agnes de Faucigny . In: Dictionnaire de Biographie française , Vol. 1 (1932), Col. 746f.

Web links

• Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands Agnes