Gaucher de Châtillon

Gaucher de Châtillon , also called Gautier (German Walter ) (* around 1221; † April 6, 1250 near Fariskur), was a lord of Donzy , Saint-Aignan , Montmirail and Montjay .

Gaucher was the son of Guy IV. De Châtillon and Agnes de Donzy . After his mother's death in 1225, he was considered the designated heir of his grandmother, Mathilde von Courtenay , to the counties of Nevers , Auxerre and Tonnerre . On his father's side, Gaucher was a member of the glorious noble Châtillon family , but after his father's death in 1226, he did not take over his heir, the county of Saint-Pol , which went to his uncle Hugo I of Châtillon . In 1236 he became engaged to Princess Jeanne de France († January 1252), a daughter of Philipp Hurepel , whom he married in 1241.

In 1248 Gaucher took part in the sixth crusade under King Louis IX. (Saint Louis) from France to Egypt . In addition to his brother-in-law Archambault IX. von Bourbon , he was also accompanied by a distant cousin of his family, Gaucher de Châtillon-Autrèche. The Sire of Bourbon died in 1249 while the army was wintering in Cyprus . The two Châtillon cousins, however, took part in the landing of the army on the coast off Damiette in June 1249 , where the crusaders succeeded in building a fortified camp despite the attacks by the Saracens. When the army had settled in there, Gaucher de Châtillon-Autèche, in full armor, undertook an independent sortie from the camp and stormed the enemy with the battle cry "Châtillon". When he reached it he fell from his horse and was lying on the ground at the mercy of the spears and swords of the Saracens. The connectable Humbert V. de Beaujeu was able to rescue him alive from this distress, but the cousin had already died of his injuries that evening. King Louis IX then regretted that there were too many unscrupulous knights like this Châtillon in his army.

Gaucher then took part in the march on Cairo , which was stopped before al-Mansura . There he fought on February 11, 1250 next to the already seriously injured Templar Grand Master Guillaume de Sonnac , who was also killed, against an attack by the Mameluke warriors of the Sultan of Egypt.

On the retreat of the army to Damiette, Gaucher and Geoffroy de Sergines took command of the rearguard. They were surprised on April 6, 1250 near Fariskur by a superior Mameluke force. With his subordinate knights, Gaucher held up the enemy until Sergines could bring the king to a nearby hut to safety. Despite several arrow hits, he is said to have been the last to be overpowered by the Mameluks, by whom he was then killed.

Gaucher had no children from his marriage, which is why his sister Jolanthe and her children followed him in the inheritance .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baldwin von Avesnes , Chronicon Hanoniense , ed. by Johannes Heller in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica SS 25 (1880), p. 454
2. ↑ Joinville , II, §7, ed. by Ethel Wedgwood (1906)
3. ↑ Joinville , II, §12, ed. by Ethel Wedgwood (1906)
4. ↑ Joinville , II, §14, ed. by Ethel Wedgwood (1906) - The English chronicler Matthäus Paris reported in his Historia Anglorum, however, that Gaucher de Châtillon was captured and sent as a token of victory over the Crusaders to the caliph, in whose captivity he finally died.