Stephan I. (Mâcon)

Stephan I. called Tollkopf ( Étienne I. Tête Hardie ) (* 1065 ; † May 18, 1102 in Askalon ) was a count of Mâcon and Vienne from the house of Burgundy-Ivrea . He was a son of Count Wilhelm I of Burgundy and the Étiennette von Longwy-Metz. Although he was never the incumbent Count of Burgundy himself , he is mostly called Stephen of Burgundy in the chronicles . One of his brothers was Pope Calixt II.

Stephan married Beatrix von Lothringen, a daughter of Duke Gerhard von Lothringen . Your children were:

• Isabella (* around 1090/95; † after 1125), ⚭ 1110 with Count Hugo I of Champagne
• Rainald III. († 1148/49), successor as Count of Mâcon and Vienne, from 1127 Count of Burgundy
• William III. († September 27, 1155), Count of Mâcon, Vienne and Auxonne
• Clemence († 1164), ⚭ 1120 with Guigues IV. The dolphin , Count of Albon

The crusade of 1101

Stephan took over the reign of the county of Burgundy at the age of 32, after his older brother, Count Rainald II , went to the First Crusade in 1097 and died in the process. Stephan then decided to make an armed pilgrimage as well. He joined Count Stephan von Blois , who had already been a participant in the first crusade, but had broken it off prematurely and thereby brought shame on himself. With the so-called crusade of 1101 , the Count of Blois wanted to forget his shame.

In Asia Minor they united their troops with those of Count Raimund of Toulouse , also a prominent leader of the First Crusade, who was meanwhile in the service of the Byzantine emperor. Instead of following the path of the First Crusade through Asia Minor as planned, they had to move against the emir of the Danischmenden under pressure from the superior Lombard contingent of their army in order to free the captured Bohemond from Taranto . After the capture of Ankara on June 23, 1101, the army moved north towards the Black Sea . Stephen of Burgundy commanded the vanguard and with his knights withstood an attack by the Danish Mends, while his subordinate Lombards had fled. At Mersivan the crusaders were then captured by a large army of the Danishmends and Seljuks and defeated. Stephan, Raimund von Toulouse, Stephan von Blois and a few survivors of their army managed to escape to Constantinople .

In the spring of 1102, Emperor Alexios I arranged for her to cross by ship to Antioch . There they united with the crusaders around the Count of Nevers and the Duke of Aquitaine , who shortly after them also traveled through Asia Minor and were completely wiped out by the Seljuks. The Count of Vermandois and the Duke of Burgundy were killed in these fighting. Together they moved south and helped Raymond of Toulouse to conquer the port city of Tortosa .

They then separated from Raimund because he was not ready to move to Jerusalem with them. The crusader group arrived there in March 1102 and the Count of Blois was able to restore his reputation by fulfilling the vow made in 1097. In April 1102 it was decided to return home by ship. Stephen took a ship with the Count of Blois, but while that of the Duke of Aquitaine was reaching the open sea, hers was pushed to the coast of Palestine by a storm and was shipwrecked at Jaffa . Before the two counts could raise a new ship, news of the approach of a large Egyptian army arrived. The two Stephane then decided to assist King Baldwin I of Jerusalem in battle and fought in the second battle of Ramla (May 17, 1102). Count Stephan von Blois was killed in the battle. According to the chronicler Albert d'Aix , Stephan of Burgundy was captured by the Egyptians and was beheaded a little later in nearby Ascalon .

literature

• Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades