Otton de Grandson

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Otton de Grandson. Detail from his funerary monument in Lausanne

Sir Otton de Grandson (also Othon or Otto de Grandison ) (* around 1238, † April 1328 in Grandson ) was a nobleman and military man from Savoy who was in the service of King Edward I of England for many years . Because of his career at the English royal court and as one of the most experienced military men and diplomats of his time, he was already famous during his lifetime. There is hardly a character in English history who has had such a long life, traveled so far, and had such an adventurous and diverse career as Grandson.

origin

Otton came from the Grandson family , a wealthy aristocratic family in Vaud , whose headquarters were in Grandson on Lake Neuchâtel . Otton was the eldest son of Pierre de Grandson , Lord of Grandson († 1258) and his wife Agnes , a daughter of Count Ulrich III. from Neuchâtel .

Rise to confidante of the English king

In the 13th century, Vaud was under the influence of the County of Savoy . Otton's father, Pierre, was part of the retinue of Count Peter II of Savoy , who occasionally came to England from 1245 onwards as the uncle of Queen Eleanor of Provence . Before 1250, Pierre de Grandson received from King Henry III of England . an annual pension of £ 20. Otton, like his younger brothers Gérard and Guillaume ( English William ), came to England in the wake of their father, as did his cousin Pierre de Champvent , who later became a steward and then in 1292 Chamberlain of the Household . It is possible that the young Otton belonged to the household of the English heir to the throne Eduard as early as 1249 or 1250. Evidently, however, he is only mentioned in the service of the heir to the throne in October 1265, when he received possessions of the defeated rebels in London during the Second War of the barons . Grandson quickly became one of the heir's closest friends and confidants. From 1270 he took part in his crusade to the Holy Land . When Eduard attacked an assassin with a poisoned dagger in Acre in June 1272 , Grandson is said to have been the first to recognize the poisoning and to have sucked the poison from the wound. In fact, he was one of Edward's executors when he drafted his will after the attack. In 1273 he was part of the retinue with whom Eduard returned from the Holy Land through northern Italy to Savoy.

Coat of arms of the Grandson family. Stained glass in the Lausanne Cathedral

Service as military and diplomat for Edward I.

Role in the conquest of Wales

After Eduard returned to England and became king as the successor to his late father, he entrusted Grandson with military, but above all with diplomatic tasks. As Knight Banneret , Grandson took part in the king's first campaign against Wales from 1277 to 1278, during which he occupied the island of Anglesey together with John de Vescy . He then traveled in 1278 together with Robert Burnell to Paris and the Gascogne , which belonged to the English kings , to investigate the administration of Seneschal Luke de Tany . In addition, they reached a compromise with Gaston de Béarn , one of the most powerful but defiant nobles in Gascony. Grandson was also one of the negotiators who negotiated the marriage of the king's daughter Johanna with the Habsburg Hartmann , who drowned in 1281. From 1282 to 1283 he took part in the king's second campaign to conquer Wales . When the English suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of Menai Strait , he barely escaped. After the conquest of Wales, the king appointed him Justiciar of North Wales in March 1284 , where he had almost viceroyal powers. As justiciar, Grandson probably had an influence on the designs of the castles that the builder James of St. George, also from Savoy, built in Wales, but spent little time in North Wales due to his varied services to the king. He first appointed John de Bonvillars from Savoy as his deputy and, after his death in 1287, his brother William de Grandson .

Activity as a diplomat and another crusade

Grandson continued to serve the king as an important diplomat. In 1286 he first undertook an embassy to the papal curia , then he accompanied the king to Gascony. There he was one of the judges who deposed Seneschal Jean de Grailly in 1287 , and in 1288 one of the high-ranking hostages the king placed after the conclusion of the Treaty of Canfranc . From May 1289 to March 1290 he traveled again with William de Hotham to the Curia, where, among other things, he negotiated a dispensation for the marriage of the heir to the throne Eduard von Caernarfon with the Scottish heir to the throne Margaret of Norway . He protested against Pope Nicholas IV giving absolution to Charles of Anjou despite the breach of the Treaty of Canfranc, and negotiated with the Pope about a new crusade by the English king. While the king could not start the crusade due to the situation in Scotland, Grandson set out for Acre with a small English contingent in the summer of 1290 , which was joined by the former Seneschal of Gascon, Jean de Grailly, who also came from Savoy. On the trip he met Pope Nicholas IV in Orvieto . In 1291, Grandson took part in the unsuccessful defense of Acre against the Mameluks. Shortly before the conquest of Acre, he escaped to Cyprus on a Venetian ship. Then he visited Armenia and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He did not return to England until 1296. It is possible that Grandson was the author of a memorandum written between 1289 and 1307 about a new crusade to the Holy Land.

Further service as diplomat for Eduard I.

Back in England, Grandson immediately returned to the service of the king and was embroiled in the beginning of the Scottish War of Independence . He was present at the surrender of Dunbar Castle on April 28, 1296, which ended Edward I's first campaign victoriously. Then Grandson was with Walter Langton and Hugh le Despenser to the envoys who should seek allies for a campaign in the war against France . Grandson traveled to the Netherlands, Auvergne , Burgundy and Savoy. After the failure of the campaign, he negotiated the armistice with France in 1298. In 1300 he tried to settle the serious conflict between Bishop Antony Bek of Durham and his cathedral priory, then he was back with the curia from 1300 to 1301. Then he negotiated 1303 with the final peace with France . In October 1305 he was again a member of a high-ranking delegation that traveled to the Curia to seek the suspension of Archbishop Robert Winchelsey .

Edward I rewarded Grandson's services with numerous gifts, especially extensive donations of land in England, particularly in Kent and Ireland . In 1275 the king appointed him governor of the Channel Islands , and two years later the office was given to him for life. However, Grandson had constant quarrels and tensions with the islanders through the office. As Baron Grandison , Grandson became a member of the English Parliament .

Grave of Otton de Grandson in Lausanne Cathedral

Return to Grandson after the death of Edward I.

After the death of Edward I in 1307, Grandson left England and returned to his native Vaud. The fortunes he had made in England and his international relationships quickly made him a leading nobleman in his homeland. In doing so, he tried to bind Vaud more closely to Savoy. Occasionally he represented English interests at the Curia and at the French royal court until 1317, but he no longer traveled to England. In 1323 he visited the Channel Islands for the last time. He had Grandson Castle rebuilt, but above all he devoted himself to religious things. Between 1289 and 1298 he had founded a Franciscan settlement in Grandson . To this end, the priory church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Grandson had it rebuilt and expanded. In 1307 he took a new crusade vow. In 1317 he founded the Carthusian monastery of Saint-Lieu de la Lance at Concise . He remained unmarried, but he encouraged his relatives, including his nephew Otto , who became bishop of Toul and then of Basel, his nephew John , who became bishop of Exeter, and Guillaume II. De Champvent , Gerhard von Wippingen and Othon de Champvent , who were bishops of Lausanne between 1274 and 1312 . After his death, Grandson was buried in Lausanne Cathedral, to which he had donated an antependium . His heir was his nephew Peter II Grandson († 1345).

literature

  • Charles L. Kingsford: Sir Otho de Grandison, (1238? -1328). In: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 3rd Ser., 1909, pp. 125-195
  • Esther Rowland Clifford: A Knight of Great Renown. The Life and Times of Othon de Grandson. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL 1961.
  • Jean-François Kosta-Théfaine: Othon de Grandson, chevalier et poète (= Medievalia. 63). Paradigme, Orléans 2007, ISBN 978-2-86878-268-7 .
  • Robert Dean: Castles in distant lands. The life and times of Othon de Grandson . Lawden Haynes, Willingdon 2009. ISBN 978-0-9563257-0-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grandson [Grandison], Sir Otto de (c. 1238-1328). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  2. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 54
  3. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 78
  4. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 84
  5. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 303
  6. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 301
  7. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 317
  8. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 192
  9. ^ Arnold J. Taylor: Studies in castles and castle-building. Hambledon, London 1985, ISBN 0-907628-51-6 , p. 6
  10. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 207
  11. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 305
  12. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 325
  13. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 326
  14. ↑ Christopher Tyerman: England and the crusades: 1095-1588 . University of Chicago, Chicago 1988, ISBN 0-226-82013-0 , p. 237
  15. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 391
  16. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 542
  17. ^ Who's who in British History: AH , Fitzroy Dearborn, London 1998, ISBN 1-884964-90-7 , p. 541
predecessor Office successor
New title created Baron Grandison
1299-1328 		Title expired
personal data
SURNAME Otton de Grandson
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grandison, Othon de; Grandson, Otto de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION A nobleman from Savoy, military and diplomat in English service
DATE OF BIRTH around 1238
DATE OF DEATH April 1328
Place of death Grandson