Amalrich VII of Montfort

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Coat of arms of the Lords of Montfort.

Amalrich VII of Montfort ( French : Amaury ; * 1195 ; † 1241 in Otranto ) was lord since 1218 and from 1223 a count of Montfort-l'Amaury and lord of Épernon . He was also from 1218 to 1224 a vice count of Carcassonne , Béziers and Albi and titular count of Toulouse and titular duke of Narbonne . From 1230 he held the office of connétable of France .

According to another count, Amalrich VII. Is also called Amalrich VI. guided.

Family and offspring

He was a son of Simon IV of Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester , and Alix de Montmorency , and the older brother of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester .

In 1214 he married Beatrix von Viennois († 1248), daughter of Guigues VI., Dauphin von Viennois ( Elder House of Burgundy ), and Beatrix von Sabran , Countess von Gap and Embrun . Your children were:

  • Johann I († 1249 in Cyprus during the Sixth Crusade ), Count of Montfort
  • Margarethe († 1284 or later),
    • ∞ Count Johann III. from Soissons
  • Laure († before August 1270), mistress of Épernon
    • ∞ around 1256 Infant Ferdinand of Castile, Count of Aumale († 1260)
    • ∞ around 1267 Heinrich von Grandpré, Lord of Livry
  • Adele († March 28, 1279),
  • Perenelle († December 5, 1275), Abbess of Port Royal des Champs

Life

Subsequent drawing of a church window of Chartres Cathedral made in 1231, showing Amalrich von Montfort with heraldic shield and banner.

Amalrich took part in the Albigensian Crusade in the wake of his father , where he was first mentioned in Castelnaudary in 1213 . There he was consecrated on the feast of John the Baptist at the instigation of his father by the bishops of Orléans and Auxerre and in the presence of his parents as a "Knight of Christ". He was first mentioned in battle in August 1216 before Beaucaire , where the crusaders suffered their first major defeat against Count Raymond VII of Toulouse . In June 1218 he also fought in the fateful siege of Toulouse , in which his father was fatally hit by a catapult projectile. As the eldest son, Amalrich now took over the leadership of the crusaders and should prove to be completely unsuitable against the increased resistance of the princes of Languedoc .

Supported by the French Crown Prince Louis VIII , Amalrich committed a massacre of the people of Marmande in December 1218 , lost a large army at Baziège in the spring of 1219 and lost Castelnaudary to the Count of Foix in 1221 . In January 1224, the Count of Toulouse finally conquered Carcassonne and enabled the heir Raimund II Trencavel, who grew up in exile, to move into the city. Amalrich then gave up the crusade, defeated and without major support, especially as Pope Honorius III. now pressed for an end to the fighting. Amalrich signed an armistice on January 14, 1224 and withdrew to his homeland in northern France the next day.

The now King Louis VIII convened a council of prelates of France in Bourges in November 1225 , where he proclaimed a new crusade to the Languedoc. The king decided to lead the campaign personally, claiming that all conquests should fall to the crown. The king's transfer of Amalrich's rights to the crown in Bourges served as the legal basis for this. These rights were the inheritance of his father, which included the vice-county of Carcassonne and the county of Toulouse. The legality of these claims, however, was controversial, as they came from an enfeoffment of the Pope and not from the King of Aragon , who was previously feudal lord of Carcassonne and Toulouse. However, the King of France recognized their validity. Amalrich took part in the crusade and took part in the siege of Avignon , which fell in August 1226. As a result, all major cities in the region surrendered without a fight, including Carcassonne, Narbonne and Montpellier , only the strong Toulouse refused to submit.

At Christmas 1230 Amalrich was appointed Connétable of France in Melun , the office previously held by his uncle Mathieu II of Montmorency . In addition, he had to abandon any claim to his family's possessions in England in favor of his brother. King Ludwig IX had this. demanded by all French barons who owned fiefs in France as well as in England, since the barons should only pay homage to one of the kings concerned. Above all, this was intended to reduce the overlapping of British interests in France.

In 1239 Amalrich took part in the crusade of Theobald von Champagne ( crusade of the barons ) to the Holy Land . The crusade enjoyed the support of King Louis IX, who took over full funding and allowed Amalrich to lead the royal lily banner . The company was not very successful, however, a victory against the Damascus Ayyubids was followed in November 1239 by a defeat against the Egyptian Ayyubids in the Battle of Gaza , in which Amalrich was captured. He was incarcerated in Cairo and released in the winter of 1240/1241 on the mediation of Richard of Cornwall .

On the way back to his homeland, he died in Otranto ( Apulia ) in April 1241 and was buried in the Church of St. Peter in Rome .

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Simon IV. Lord of Montfort
from 1223 Count
1218–1241
Johann I.
Simon IV. Vice Count of Carcassonne and Razès
Vice Count of Béziers and Albi
1218–1224
Raymond II Trencavel
Mathieu II. De Montmorency Connétable of France
1230–1239
Humbert V. de Beaujeu