Archambaud de Grailly

Archambauds de Grailly family coat of arms

Archambaud de Grailly (* around 1330, † 1412 ) was Vice Count of Castillon and Gruson from 1356 until his death, and Count of Bénauges and Captal de Buch from 1369 . He was the younger son of Pierre II. De Grailly and his wife Erembourg of Périgord.

Origin and the Hundred Years War

Archambaud came from the noble family of Grailly, which originally lived on Lake Geneva . But Archambaud's father entered the service of the King of England and was entrusted by him with the governorship in the south of the Guyenne (Captalat de Buch), where the Grailly proved to be loyal followers of England in the Hundred Years War against France.

After the death of his father Archambaud received the rule of Castillon and Gruson from his inheritance. A little later Archambaud fought together with his nephew Jean III. de Grailly on September 19, 1356 in the victorious battle of Maupertuis where the French King John II was captured by England. This victory led to the Peace of Brétigny in 1360 in which England was able to extend her holdings over a considerable part of the south of France. In the following years the Graillys were occupied with the defense of the conquered territories which the French Marshal du Guesclin was able to recapture. They supported King Charles II of Navarre, who was revolting against France and who had hopes for the French royal crown. But in the battle of Cocherel on May 16, 1364, the Anglo-Navarre army, which was led by the Graillys, was defeated by the French under Du Guesclin, Archambaud and his nephew were taken prisoner. Archambaud was not to be released from this until 1272 after the payment of 500 gold francs, before his nephew had died in 1369 without heirs and had declared Archambaud to be his testamentary heir. Archambaud was also appointed Seneschal of Biscay on March 2, 1377 by the English king .

Page change

In 1381 Archambaud married the only daughter of the Aragonese Vice Count of Castelbon . Isabelle de Foix was a member of the Earl's House of Foix whose head Gaston Fébus was one of the most powerful and wealthy princes in the south of France, Isabelle was a second cousin of Fébus. Around the same time, however, the only son and heir of Count Fébus allegedly died as a result of the father's involvement, so Isabelle's younger brother Mathieu , as the closest relative, was able to inherit Fébus in 1391. But Mathieu also died in 1398 without leaving an heir, so that his sister Isabelle, as the last member of the Foix family, inherited its extensive property.

Archambaud thus became his wife's co-regent ( de jure uxoris ) in the county of Foix , the vice-counties of Béarn , Marsan , Lautrec and Castelbon and the co-rulership of Andorra . The French crown, however, objected to this inheritance, as they could not accept it if one of the largest territories of the kingdom should fall into the hands of a subject of England. So the French Connétable de Sancerre marched with an army into the county of Foix and occupied larger parts of it. Isabelle and Archambaud alone could not counter this threat and showed a willingness to submit to French authority. In the Treaty of Tarbes, signed on May 10, 1399, Isabelle and Archambaud recognized the French crown as feudal lords for the County of Foix, Archambaud had to renounce his allegiance to England and the couple's two eldest sons had to be taken hostage at the royal court sent to Paris so that they could receive their education there.

This ensured the continued existence of the new counts dynasty of Foix within the French feudal world, which was reflected in its name. Archambaud's descendants carried on the names and coats of arms of his wife's family, while those of the Grailly family were dropped. Archambaud was to be spared from conflicts of loyalty between England and France, since the Hundred Years War came to a temporary standstill due to internal conflicts between the two kingdoms. Archambaud's new loyalty to France was rewarded when he was appointed royal lieutenant-general of the Languedoc in 1412 . But shortly afterwards he passed away.

Marriage and succession planning

Archambaud de Grailly was married to Countess Isabelle von Foix († 1428) since 1381, with whom he had five sons:

• John I (1382 - May 4, 1436), successor as Count of Foix, Vice Count of Béarn, Marsan, Lautrec and Castelbon and co-lord of Andorra
• Gaston I († after 1455), Captal de Buch , Count of Longueville , Vice-Count of Bénauges and Lord of Grailly
• Archambaud († September 10, 1419), Lord of Navailles, in the service of Duke John of Burgundy, murdered with him on the bridge of Montereau
• Mathieu († December 1453), ∞ I) 1419 Countess Marguerite von Comminges , ∞ II) 1446 Catharine d'Aspet
• Pierre l'Ancien (* 1386; † December 13, 1464 in Avignon ), cardinal since 1409 , 1405–1422 Bishop of Lescar , 1450–1463 Archbishop of Arles

In order to ensure that the Foix legacy in the tension between the kingdoms of France and England is held together for the future, it was inherited in full to Archambaud's eldest son John I, according to a family arrangement, while the second oldest, Gaston I, received the inheritance of his father, for whom in its entirety the King of England had to be recognized as feudal lord.

Web links

• Thierry Borel: Short biography on Isabella von Foix and Archambaud de Grailly. In: Histoire des Comtes de Foix. 2009, archived from the original on February 1, 2012 (French).