Jean I. de Grailly

Jean I. de Grailly († around 1301 ) was a nobleman from Savoy who served the English King Edward I as a civil servant, diplomat and military man. He was the progenitor of the Grailly family .

Origin and entry into the service of the English kings

Jean de Grailly came from Savoy, where he probably owned the castle of Grilly on Lake Geneva . He came to the English royal court in 1252 in the entourage of Count Peter of Savoy , who was related to the English queen Eleanor of Provence . From 1262 he belonged to the household of Crown Prince Edward, from whom he was appointed Seneschal of Gascony in 1266 . As a fiefdom of the French kings, Gascony was owned by the English kings. There Grailly received his own fief with the castle Bénauges , in the vicinity of which he founded the city of Cadillac in 1280 . In 1268 he was replaced as seneschal.

Participation in the crusade and work as a diplomat

From 1270 Jean took part in Edward's side in his crusade to the Holy Land . There he took over the office of Seneschal of Jerusalem between 1272 and 1278 , with which the military command over the Christian troops was connected. Back in France in 1278, he succeeded the hapless Luke de Tany again as Seneschal of Gascony. Together with William de Valence , he served as the English ambassador to Castile in 1279 , where they brokered an armistice between the pretender to the throne Sancho and his nephew Alfonso de la Cerda . Then Grailly was in the negotiations with the French King Philip III. involved, which led to the Treaty of Amiens in 1279 . In the autumn of 1281 he took part in a meeting with Edmund of Cornwall in Mâcon in order to conclude an alliance sought by the French queen widow Margaret , a sister of the English queen Eleanor, against her brother-in-law Charles of Anjou , but this failed.

Renewed work as Seneschal of Gascony

According to the Treaty of Amiens, the Agenais had returned to the English king. Against this change from French to English rule and especially against the jurisdiction of the English king, the local resistance, which is why they turned to the Parlement in Paris. Another dispute arose over the county of Bigorre , which Eduard wanted to move in as a failed fiefdom after the death of Count Esquivaut in 1283 . Esquivaut's sister claimed the Bigorre for herself and turned to the Parliament. In order to represent the position of the English king in this process, Grailly was appointed lieutenant by the English king Edward I in 1283 , while John de Vaux took over the office of seneschal. In Gascony, Grailly was embroiled in other disputes, including a dispute between Bishop Dominique de Manx of Bayonne and the citizens of the city. Above all against the jurisprudence of Grailly there was increasing resistance in Gascony, which is why the English king sent the lawyer Bonet de St Quentin to Gascony in 1285 to investigate Grailly's jurisprudence. The result of this investigation is not known, but after March 1286 Grailly was replaced as lieutenant when Edward I himself came to Gascony. Grailly, however, did not fall out of favor at first, but was sent to Aragón as an English ambassador . After his return in 1287, however, he had to answer for abuse of royal jurisdiction in a court chaired by Bishop William Middleton of Norwich and which also included Chancellor Robert Burnell , Otton de Grandson , John de Vescy and the Earl of Lincoln . Grailly was found guilty but did not appear to have been severely punished. However, his career in Gascony was over.

Another crusade and later life

Grailly left his property there to his son Pierre and accompanied Otton de Grandson, a confidante of the English king who also came from Savoy, when he traveled again to the Holy Land. There the attempt to relieve Tripoli , which was besieged by the Mameluks , failed. Grailly then traveled to Rome to receive support from Pope Nicholas IV for the Christians in the Holy Land. An appeal by the Pope to the rulers of Europe met with little response, only a few Lombard and Tuscan mercenaries could be won. On their arrival in Acre, however, they caused a massacre of the Muslim population, which served as a pretext for the Mamluks to besiege Acre in 1291 . Grailly was one of the city's defenders, along with Otton de Grandson and a small English contingent. Severely wounded, Grailly and Grandson were able to flee shortly before the city was conquered on a Venetian ship that took them to Cyprus. Grailly returned to England. During the Scottish War of Independence , he took part in Edward I's campaign in Scotland in 1296. Then Grailly returned to a homeland of Grilly. His descendants played a role during the Hundred Years' War and rose to become the high nobility of France.

literature

• Steven Runciman : A History of the Crusades. 3 volumes. Reprinted edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1951-1954.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 304
2. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 318
3. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 304
4. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 305
5. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 329
6. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 305