Gaston III. (Foix)
Gaston III. Fébus (born April 30, 1331 in Orthez ; † August 1, 1391 ) was from 1343 until his death Count of Foix , Vice-Count of Béarn (as Gaston X.), Marsan and Lautrec and co-lord of Andorra . He was the only legitimate heir to his father Count Gaston II and his wife Aliénor von Comminges.
The Prince of the Pyrenees
Gaston III. called himself Fébus (Phoebus), allegedly because his appearance resembled the Greek sun god Phoibos Apollon . His body was slim and athletic, with green eyes and blond hair. Gaston was later also called "Lion de Pyrénées" (Lion of the Pyrenees) because of his warlike appearance.
Gaston inherited an extensive country conglomerate from his father, which on the northern slope of the Pyrenees comprised almost the entire southern border of what is now France with Spain . For his eastern possessions (Foix and Lautrec) he was a vassal of the French king, but for his western ones (Béarn and Marsan) he had to pay homage to the English king, who was also Duke of Gascony . Gaston was supposed to take advantage of this double relationship of dependency, in that he achieved an almost sovereign princely position through skillful political maneuvering between the two kingdoms; in addition, his lands were spared major fighting during the Hundred Years War , as both sides were careful not to make the mighty Count of Foix their enemy.
In the Hundred Years War
Since Gaston was only 14 years old when his father died, his mother initially ruled. In the meantime he took part in the first battles against the English in the service of France, for example in an unsuccessful relief for Calais in August 1347. Nevertheless, he was rewarded for his service by King Philip VI. appointed Lieutenant-General of Languedoc . He also married Princess Agnes of Navarre, a sister-in-law of the king, in Paris in 1349 .
Gaston's loyalty to France was shaken after King John II's accession to the throne in 1350 because he favored the Armagnac family more. The Counts of Armagnac, however, were the greatest rivals of the House of Foix, as the Armagnacs had been claiming the Béarn for several generations . Gaston therefore refused the new king the required recognition and entered into an alliance with his own brother-in-law, King Charles II of Navarre , who was fighting against King John II. However, this battle ended in July 1356 with the capture of the two allies by the King of France. He was released from prison a few months later, after the king was captured by the English on September 19, 1356 after the battle of Maupertuis .
As a penance for his rebellious behavior, Gaston took part in a trip to Prussia by supporting the Teutonic Order in the Baltic States in the fight against the Pruzzen . After his return to France in early 1358, he freed the Dauphin's wife , Jeanne de Bourbon , and her family, who were locked in the castle of Meaux by the rebellious peasants of the great Jacquerie . For this act of arms the count was repeatedly praised in contemporary chronicles . In the Peace of Brétigny negotiated between England and France in 1360 , Gaston's position was also strengthened as France renounced its sovereignty over Gascony . The new sovereign England had Gaston but not for the Béarn homage which he himself virtually to a sovereign prince was.
Battle against Armagnac
Although in the next few years, among other things in July 1360 through the mediation of Marshal Boucicaut in Pamiers , there was again a rapprochement between Fébus and the ruling Dauphin Charles V , the count should now be in a long-term dispute with the rival counts of Armagnac advised. The reason for this was once again the dispute over the Béarn, but also the claim to the strategically important county of Bigorre , which was under royal administration, was fought. Gaston's opponent, Count John I of Armagnac , enjoyed the tacit support of the Dauphin, the support of the powerful Duke of Berry and most of the feudal nobility in southern France.
As early as 1358, Gaston had burned down two castles belonging to the Armagnac, Auterive and Sainte Gabelle, after which there was another armistice. But a few years later the war broke out again. After several skirmishes and sieges, the decisive battle took place on December 5, 1362 on the plain between Launac , Thil and Larra . With the help of English mercenaries, Gaston achieved a complete victory over the enemy army, whose most important leader he was able to capture. In addition to the Count of Armagnac, these were the Lord of Albret and the Count of Comminges .
This victory consolidated the supremacy of the House of Foix-Béarn in the south of France. In the peace treaty of April 14, 1363, which was negotiated in the Abbey of St. Volusien near Foix , the Count of Armagnac had to drop his claims on Béarn and Marsan, and Gaston was also given the ransom that the captive masters gave him for their freedom paid to one of the richest princes of his time. The wealth gained in this way, around 500,000 livres in gold, was invested by the count in the expansion of his castles, such as Sauveterre , Morlanne , Orthez , Pau and Foix.
Fight against Berry
Despite the peace of 1363, the conflict with the House of Armagnac was only finally settled in 1377 after the mediation of Duke Ludwig I of Anjou in favor of Gaston Fébus. Then this approached the King of France again, from whom Gaston was reappointed lieutenant-général des Languedoc in May 1380 . But this should be the cause of new quarrels with the royal family, since the Duke of Berry announced that the new King Charles VI was immature in the same year . exploited and was also confirmed in this office.
Gaston was ready to fight for the office of governor, and he had most of the population of Languedoc on his side, a region that was marked by years of hard rule by the House of Berry . Gaston defeated Berry in the Battle of Revel on July 7, 1380, but he renounced the government of Languedoc after the House of Berry had agreed through the mediation of Pope Clement VII to compensate him with a large sum.
In 1389 the relationship between the two princes relaxed when the Duke of Berry married Countess Johanna II of Auvergne , whose cousin and guardian Gaston was. After King Charles VI. Having come of age in 1390, he disempowered his uncle Johann von Berry and took over the business of government himself. At a meeting of the king with Gaston on January 10, 1390 in Mazères , final differences between the count and the crown were settled.
Death and inheritance
Gaston Fébus died on August 1, 1391 in L'Hôpital-d'Orion not far from Sauveterre. He died after returning to the hospital for a meal on a hot, humid day after a hunt. When he put his hands in a bowl full of cold water to wash, he is said to have been hit: I am dead, God the Lord be praised , his last words are said to have been.
The Count of Foix was one of the most colorful personalities of the French late Middle Ages. In his residence at Orthez he maintained one of the most glamorous courts of his time, which attracted knights and artists from all over France, including the historian Jean Froissart , whose chronicle is an essential source of Gaston's life. He was popular not only with poets and chroniclers, but also with the people. In courtly surroundings of a happy and balanced nature, he was suspicious of political matters and at times cruel. His only son and heir is said to have fallen victim to this temperament when his father suspected him of attempting an assassination attempt against him. Gaston Fébus had his son locked up in a dungeon and, after he refused to eat for fear of poisoning, the count mistreated his son so badly that he wounded his neck and died a little later.
This act plunged the count into deep mourning and he retired to the castle of Pau , where he wrote the “Livre des Oraisons”. As the name suggests, it contains a collection of prayers in which the Count seeks forgiveness from God for the death of his son. But his second literary work, Le Livre de la Chasse , the book of the hunt , which Gaston wrote between 1387 and 1389, became even better known . Gaston dedicated the book to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold . This book is one of the oldest and most famous depictions of medieval hunting, it contains observations of various species of animals that were unusual for the time and was still in use as a textbook in the 19th century. This book was copied several times during Gaston's lifetime. The manuscript in the French national library, which is generally regarded as high-quality, is considered a top achievement in late Gothic book illumination.
Since Gaston died without leaving a legitimate heir, all his possessions fell to the French crown, but his feudal lord, King Charles VI. immediately forgave him to the Vice Count Mathieu von Castelbon , who was a second cousin of Gaston. This ensured the princely autonomous position of the countries around Foix and Béarn for another 200 years, until their last lord, Heinrich von Bourbon , ascended the French royal throne as Henry IV in 1589 and therefore reunited his lands with the crown possession .
Marriage and offspring
Count Gaston III. Fébus was married to Agnes of Navarre, who was a Capetian princess from both paternal and maternal descent . Her father, Count Philipp von Évreux, was a grandson of King Philip III. and her mother, Queen Joan II of Navarre, was a daughter of King Louis X. The marriage was contractually agreed on July 5, 1248 and concluded on August 4, 1349 in the Temple Church in Paris. The couple had a son:
- Gaston de Béarn (* around 1365, † around 1381), ∞ Beatrix, daughter of Count John II of Armagnac
In addition, four illegitimate children are known of Gaston Fébus:
- García (Gratien) († around 1399), Vice Count of Vallée d'Ossau
- Jean (Yvain) († burned on January 30, 1392 on the Bal des Ardents ), regent of Foix-Béarn
- Perarnaud (Pere Arnaud)
- Bernard (Bernal), follower of Henry of Trastámara , ∞ Isabel de la Cerda, great-great-granddaughter of King Alfonso X of Castile
swell
- Jean Froissart : Chroniques de France, d'Angleterre, d'Ecosse, de Bretagne, de Gascogne, de Flandre et lieux circonvoisins
exhibition
- 2011/2012: Gaston Fébus. Prince Soleil 1331–1391 , Musée de Cluny , Paris and then in the Musée national du Château de Pau .
literature
- Richard Vernier: Lord of the Pyrenees: Gaston Febus, Count of Foix (1331-1391) . Boydell & Brewer Inc, Woodbridge 2008.
- Exhibition catalog: Gaston Fébus. Prince Soleil 1331-1391 , rmngp, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-7118-5877-4 .
Individual evidence
Web links
- “Short biography of Gaston III. Fébus von Foix " (French)
- "Le Béarn terre d'histoires" (French)
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Gaston II./IX./II. |
Count of Foix 1343-1391.svg){kind=small} |
Mathieu |
| Gaston II./IX./II. |
Vice Count of Béarn 1343-1391 |
Mathieu |
| Gaston II./IX./II. |
Co-Prince of Andorra 1343-1391 |
Mathieu |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gaston III. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gaston X of Béarn |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Count of Foix |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 30, 1331 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Orthez |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 1, 1391 |