Aymar (Angoulême)

Aymar (actually Adémar ; * around 1160; † June 16, 1202 in Limoges ) was a Count of Angoulême from the House of Taillefer . He was a younger son of Count Wilhelm VI. and Margaret, a daughter of Vice Count Raimund I of Turenne .

His older brothers were Vulgrin III. († 1181) and Wilhelm VII. Taillefer († before 1186), who ruled in Angoulême before him .

Resistance to Richard the Lionheart

After the death of Vulgrin III. Wilhelm VII and Aymar got into a conflict with Richard the Lionheart , the Duke of Aquitaine and thus their liege lord. Lionheart claimed the guardianship of Mathilde , the daughter of Vulgrin III., And thus the power of disposal over Angoulême. Aymar and his brother denied this and asserted their own inheritance rights, but had to flee to their half-brother, Vice Count Adémar V of Limoges , for the time being. William VII died at an unknown point in time and Aymar revolted in 1188 in league with Gottfried von Lusignan and Gottfried II von Rancon against Lionheart, who soon gained the upper hand with the conquest of Taillebourg . Submission was made easier for the rebels, primarily through the offer to participate in the third crusade while at the same time renouncing prosecution.

The capture of Richard the Lionheart in Germany in 1192 favored the situation of the Aquitanian nobles and Aymar was now able to take over the actual rule in Angoulême. With the approval of King Philip II August , he began to devastate the Poitou in 1193 . In 1194, Lionheart was set free and defeated the French king in the battle of Fréteval . Aymar and his comrades in arms had to submit to Richard, who was moving to Aquitaine, who was able to move into Angoulême unmolested. In the armistice negotiated in July 1194 at Tillières between the Lionheart and Philip II August, however, he was included so that he could keep his possessions. The peace did not last long and soon Aymar and his half-brother Adémar V of Limoges reunited with Philip II August. And after he was defeated again in 1198 in the Battle of Gisors , both were again alone against the seemingly invincible King of England. After his victory, he moved back to Aquitaine with the intention of subjugating the Vice Count of Limoges and besieging his castle, Châlus . There he was seriously wounded in April 1199, whereupon he died completely unexpectedly.

Aymar and Adémar von Limoges immediately seized the opportunity and in the same month declared their loyalty to King Philip II August, thus rejecting the suzerainty of Johann Ohneland , brother and heir to Richard the Lionheart. Adémar von Limoges died just a few months later, allegedly murdered by Philipp von Cognac .

Conflict with the Lusignan and "bride robbery"

Aymar had been married to Alix von Courtenay , daughter of Peter I von Courtenay and granddaughter of King Ludwig VI , from around 1186 . of France . Their only child and thus heiress was Isabella († May 31, 1246).

He shared a conflict with the House of Lusignan over the county of La Marche , which had been in the direct possession of the English royal and Aquitaine ducal house since 1177, the Plantagenet , but both Aymar and Hugo IX. von Lusignan could claim an inheritance on it. When Aymar immediately expressed his loyalty to King Philip II August at the news of the death of Richard the Lionheart, he received from him the promise of a hearing of the La Marche succession before the royal court, where his claim should be considered positively. Hugo von Lusignan, however, found his own way to enforce his claims. He remained loyal to the new Duke of Aquitaine, Johann Ohneland, but took his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine prisoner and was thus able to successfully force his enfeoffment with La Marche in January 1200.

This is the background to the engagement of Aymar's heir to Hugo IX. from Lusignan, which was probably done in the spring, perhaps April, 1200. With the marriage of the heiress of Angoulême to Lusignan, the dispute over the inheritance could have been settled by combining the claims of both families. In the subsequent treaty of Le Goulet (May 22, 1200), however, King Philip II August agreed with John Ohneland that the Count of Angoulême and the Vice-Count of Limoges should come back under the suzerainty of John as Duke of Aquitaine and that John in return theirs Should recognize claims, including Aymar's on La Marche. Shortly after the conclusion of the contract, Johann went to Aquitaine to personally agree on a contractual reconciliation with Aymar von Angoulême and Guido von Limoges .

With the provisions of Le Goulet, however, Johann had again questioned his enfeoffment of the Lusignan with La Marche in favor of Aymar, which had only taken place a few months earlier. On August 24, 1200, Johann married Isabella von Angoulême in Bordeaux and, as Roger von Hoveden reports, with Aymar's consent, regardless of her previous engagement to Hugo IX. from Lusignan. Obviously, this marriage was decided at the personal meeting between Aymar and Johann and was probably politically motivated. In this way, Johann was able to assert a future inheritance claim both to Angoulême and to La Marche in the name of Isabellas against the claims of the Lusignan, a family that had already caused great difficulties for the Plantagenet family when it was ruling in Aquitaine. Their reaction followed promptly by turning to King Philip II August and accusing Johann Ohneland of the robbery in his court. Hugo IX. von Lusignan then married Mathilde von Angoulême, the daughter of Vulgrin III, who had once been inherited from Aymar. Through them he could also question Isabella's and Johann's inheritance rights.

Aymar died on June 16, 1202 in Limoges and Isabella was able to succeed as nominal Countess of Angoulême, since the trial against Johann Ohneland was not yet completed at that time. But because she was staying in England, her mother Alix de Courtenay temporarily took over the rule in Angoulême and paid homage to King Philip II August for this county in 1204, after Johann Ohneland was found guilty of the "bride robbery" and forfeited his rights in France and declared war.

literature

• HG Richardson: The Marriage and Coronation of Isabelle of Angoulême. In: The English Historical Review. Vol. 61 (1946), pp. 289-314.
• Fred. A. Cazel Jr., Sidney Painter: The Marriage of Isabelle of Angoulême. In: The English Historical Review. Vol. 63 (1948), pp. 83-89.
• Dieter Berg : Richard the Lionheart. Knowledge Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-534-14511-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ His name is correctly translated as Adémar. However, he is mostly called Aymar (Aimar) in the literature to distinguish him from his half-brother Adémar V. von Limoges.
2. ^ Ex Chronico Gaufredi Vosiensis §72, in: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France 11 (1867), p. 448; see Dieter Berg: Richard Löwenherz . Darmstadt 2007, p. 99
3. ↑ Wilhelm VII Taillefer died before 1186, because Aymar made a donation to the abbey of Saint-Amant-de-Boixe in memory of his two brothers at that time . Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Amant-de-Boixe , ed. by A. Debord (Paris, 1982), No. 253, p. 237
4. ↑ See Dieter Berg: Richard Löwenherz . Darmstadt 2007, p. 117
5. ↑ See Dieter Berg: Richard Löwenherz . Darmstadt 2007, p. 201
6. ↑ See Dieter Berg: Richard Löwenherz . Darmstadt 2007, p. 229
7. ↑ Dieter Berg: Richard the Lionheart . Darmstadt 2007, pp. 255f.
8. ↑ Layettes du Trésor des Chartes Vol. 1, ed. by Alexandre Teulet (Paris, 1863), no. 494, p. 201; Catalog des actes de Philippe Auguste , ed. by Léopold Delisle (1856), no.555, p. 131
9. ↑ Aymar's paternal grandmother was Pontia von La Marche from the Montgommery family. The Lusignans were able to justify their claims by descent from a sister of Count Aldebert II and Odo I of La Marche .
10. ↑ Bernard Itier , Chronicon , ed. by H. Duplès-Agier in: Chroniques de Saint-Martial de Limoges (1874), p. 66; Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi asservati , ed. by Thomas Duffus Hardy (1837), p. 58b
11. ↑ Isabella was born with Hugo IX, about forty years her senior. von Lusignan († 1219) and not engaged to his son Hugo X. von Lusignan († 1249). See Richardson as well as Cazel Jr. and Painter. The engagement was recorded by Ralph of Coggeshall ; see Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum , ed. by J. Stevenson (1875), p. 135. Roger of Hoveden also wrote that a “form of marriage” had already existed between Isabella and the Lord of Lusignan; see Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Hovedene , ed. by William Stubbs in: Rolls Series 51 (1868-1871), Vol. 4, p. 119. The assumption that Isabella was engaged to Hugo X. von Lusignan in 1200 comes from older literature such as Kate Norgate: John Lackland (1902), Pp. 76-77 or FM Powicke: The Loss of Normandy, 1189-1204 (1913), p. 209.
12. ↑ Layettes du Trésor des Chartes Vol. 1, ed. by Alexandre Teulet (Paris, 1863), no. 578, p. 218; M. Guizot: Vie de Philippe Auguste par Rigord. In: Collection des Mémoires relatifs a l'Histoire de France (1825), p. 151
13. ↑ Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi asservati , ed. by Thomas Duffus Hardy (1837), p. 97
14. ↑ Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Hovedene , ed. by William Stubbs in: Rolls Series 51 (1868-1871), Vol. 4, pp. 119-120
15. ↑ Hugo IX. von Lusignan did not come to an agreement with Johann Ohneland until 1214, when he recognized this in the possession of Angoulême. Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi asservati , ed. by Thomas Duffus Hardy (1837), pp. 197-198. Presumably he was re-confirmed as Count of La Marche in return. Mathilde renounced her rights to Angoulême in 1233: Cartulaire des comtes de la Marche , ed. by G. Thomas (1934), pp. 40-43. See also: Sidney Painter: The Houses of Lusignan and Chatellerault 1150-1250 , in: Speculum 30 (1955), p. 379
16. ↑ on the date and place of death: Bernard Itier, Chronicon , ed. by H. Duplès-Agier in: Chroniques de Saint-Martial de Limoges (1874), pp. 106-107, and Léopold Delisle in: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France 18 (1878), p. 226
17. ↑ Layettes du Trésor des Chartes Vol. 1, ed. by Alexandre Teulet (Paris, 1863), no.741, p. 272

predecessor	Office	successor
Wilhelm VII Taillefer	Count of Angoulême before 1186–1202	Isabella