Walter V. (Brienne)

Walter V. von Brienne (French Gautier, Italian Gualtiero) (* around 1275 in Brienne-le-Château ; † March 15, 1311 ) was the son of Hugo von Brienne and Isabella de la Roche, daughter of Guido II. De la Roche , Duke of Athens . He was the heir to the family's claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus , as well as the Principality of Taranto and the Kingdom of Sicily .

He spent his youth hostage in Augusta Castle in Sicily. When his father Hugo died in 1296, he inherited the counties of Brienne , Conversano and Lecce . Like his father, he entered the service of the King of Naples . In 1300 he was ambushed near Gagliano . It was only liberated in 1302 by the Peace of Caltabellotta .

The death of Guido II. De la Roche, a cousin of his mother, in 1308 made him Duke of Athens. Here he found himself under great pressure from the despotate of Epirus , the Byzantine emperor Andronikos Palaiologos and the Wallachians . In response, he contracted the Catalan Company in 1310 , which was devastating the Byzantine Empire , to attack the Greeks who were pillaging its territory. After the Catalans beat his opponents, he tried to get rid of them. The Catalans refused to leave, Walter put together an army of French knights from his duchy, the Principality of Achaia and Naples, supplemented by Athenian foot soldiers.

On March 15, they met the Catalans at the Battle of Halmyros on the Kephissos in Boeotia and suffered a devastating defeat. Walter and most of his knights were killed, the Duchy of Athens - with the exception of Argos and Nauplia - became the property of the company. They named one of the surviving knights, Roger Deslaur , as the new duke. Walter's decapitated body was presumably buried by Bonifazio da Verona in the monastery of Daphni . But his head was used by the Catalans as a trophy. His descendants managed to release the head and buried him in the cathedral of Lecce . Maria d'Enghien had a memorial for Walter erected there, but it was destroyed during renovations in 1544.

His marriage to Jeanne de Châtillon, daughter of Gaucher V. de Châtillon , Connétable of France , in 1306 resulted in two surviving children:

• Walter VI. († 1356), his successor as Count of Brienne and Lecce and Lord of Argos and Nauplia
• Isabella († 1360), successor to Walter VI .; ∞ Walter III. by Enghien ( House Enghien )

swell

• Ramon Muntaner : The Chronicle of Ramón Muntaner (PDF; 1.4 MB) . Hakluyt Society, London 1920/21 (2 vols., Translated by Anne Goodenough).

literature

• Ingeborg Walter:  Brienne, Gualtieri di. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 14:  Branchi-Buffetti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1972.

predecessor	Office	successor
Hugo	Count of Brienne, Lecce and Conversano 1296–1311	Walter VI.
Guido II de la Roche	Duke of Athens 1308-1311	Roger Deslaur