Amaury de Montfort, Lord of Montfort-l'Amaury, (1192 – 1241) was the son of
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester and
Alix de Montmorency Alix de Montmorency (died 24 February 1220/1221) was a French noblewoman. Her parents were Bouchard V de Montmorency and Laurette, daughter of Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut and Alice of Namur.
Life
In 1190 Alix married Simon de Montfort (c. 1175 – ...
, and the older brother of
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. Amaury inherited his father's French properties while his brother Simon inherited the English title of Earl of Leicester.
Biography
The Albigensian Crusade
His father departed on the
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown ...
in 1209. It is unknown when Amaury joined him in the south, but he could possibly arrive in spring 1210, when his mother came there bringing reinforcements for his father. He was knighted on 24 June 1213 in
Castelnaudary
Castelnaudary (; oc, Castèlnòu d'Arri) is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region of southern France. It is located in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world capit ...
in the course of a particularly solemn ceremony and continued to fight under his father's command until his death at Toulouse on 25 June 1218. As his father's successor, he inherited the
County of Toulouse
The County of Toulouse ( oc, Comtat de Tolosa) was a territory in southern France consisting of the city of Toulouse and its environs, ruled by the Count of Toulouse from the late 9th century until the late 13th century.
The territory is the ...
(that his father had taken from
Raymond VI of Toulouse as a reward for his role in the Crusade) and other titles and lands in Languedoc.
In 1224, he ceded his titles and lands in Languedoc to King
Louis VIII. In exchange, Montfort-l'Amaury was elevated to a county, and several years later, in 1230, Amaury succeeded his uncle
Mathieu II of Montmorency as
Constable of France
The Constable of France (french: Connétable de France, from Latin for 'count of the stables') was lieutenant to the King of France, the first of the original five Great Officers of the Crown (along with seneschal, chamberlain, butler, and cha ...
.
County of Leicester
His father inherited the county of Leicester from his mother, Amicie de Beaumont, daughter of Robert III de Beaumont. After his death, Amaury became count of Leicester, but, as a liegeman of the French king, he could not be a vassal of the King of England at the same time. By 1230, Amaury and Simon, his only surviving brother, decided to split their father's inheritance: Amaury would retain Montfort-l'Amaury in France, and Simon would receive Leicester in England. However, the affair lasted for almost a decade: only on 11 April 1239 Amaury officially renounced his rights in England, and King
Henry III recognised Simon as earl of Leicester.
The Barons' Crusade
In 1239 he departed for the Holy Land on a
Barons' Crusade
The Barons' Crusade (1239–1241), also called the Crusade of 1239, was a crusade to the Holy Land that, in territorial terms, was the most successful crusade since the First Crusade. Called by Pope Gregory IX, the Barons' Crusade broadly embodi ...
with
Theobald I of Navarre,
Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy and many other prominent nobles of the realm. The King
Louis IX did not go on crusade, but gave the expedition a royal character by permitting Amaury to carry the
Fleur-de-lys. On 13 November 1239, he was taken prisoner during a disastrous battle under
Henry of Bar
Henry of Bar (c. 1362 – October 1397, in Treviso, Italy) was lord of Marle and the Marquis de Pont-à-Mousson. He was the eldest son of Robert I of Bar and Marie of Valois.
Early in his life, he was betrothed to the daughter of John I, Du ...
at
Gaza, during which Henry was killed, and led to Egypt with six hundred other prisoners. He spent the next 18 months in the dungeons of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
where he was treated more severely than the other prisoners because he would not tell the sultan who were the other prisoners. He was freed on 23 April 1241, along with other French prisoners, after the crusaders under
Richard of Cornwall
Richard (5 January 1209 – 2 April 1272) was an English prince who was King of the Romans from 1257 until his death in 1272. He was the second son of John, King of England, and Isabella, Countess of Angoulême. Richard was nominal Count of Po ...
and the sultan of Egypt have concluded an alliance against the sultan of Damascus. He died in
Otranto
Otranto (, , ; scn, label=Salentino, Oṭṛàntu; el, label=Griko, Δερεντό, Derentò; grc, Ὑδροῦς, translit=Hudroûs; la, Hydruntum) is a coastal town, port and ''comune'' in the province of Lecce (Apulia, Italy), in a fertile ...
later the same year on his way home and was buried, at the Pope's order, in
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal en ...
; his heart, according to his own wish at his death, was brought to the Abbey of Haute-Bruyère near Montfort-l'Amaury where Aubry Le Cornu, bishop of
Chartres
Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as de ...
, enclosed it in an effigy.
Marriage and issue
Amaury was married to Beatrix, daughter of
Guigues VI of Viennois
Andrew Guigues VI (1184 – 14 March 1237), known as André de Bourgogne, Dauphin of Viennois, was the Count of Albon, Briançon, Grenoble, and Oisans from 1228 until his death. He was the son of Hugh III of Burgundy and Béatrice of Albon. ...
, and was the father of:
*
Jean (John) I (d. 1249), married to
Jeanne (Johanna), Lady of Châteaudun
* Marguerite (Margaret) (d. 1289 or 1290), married to
John III, Count of Soissons John III (died before 8 October 1286), son of John II, Count of Soissons, and Marie de Chimay. Count of Soissons and Seigneur of Chimay. John inherited the countship of Soissons upon his father’s death in 1272.
John married Marguerite de Montfo ...
* Laure (Laura) (d. 1270), married to
Fernando (Ferdinand) II, Count of Aumale (1239–1260)
* Adela (or Alix) (1230 – 28 March 1279), married to
Simon of Nesle (1220–1288)
* Pernelle (d. 5 December 1275
[Antoine Rivet de La Grange, ''Nécrologe de l'abbaye de Notre-Dame de Port-Royal-des-Champs'', 1723, 594 p., p. 454-455]), abbess of
Port-Royal-des-Champs
Port-Royal-des-Champs was an abbey of Cistercian nuns in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Vallée de Chevreuse southwest of Paris that launched a number of culturally important institutions.
History
The abbey was established in 1204, but became ...
Gallery
Amaury IV de Montfort.jpg, Amaury as he appeared in a window of Chartres Cathedral
Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Mostly co ...
References
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Amaury 06 of Montfort
1192 births
1241 deaths
Amaury VI of Montfort
Amaury de Montfort, Lord of Montfort-l'Amaury, (1192 – 1241) was the son of Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester and Alix de Montmorency, and the older brother of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. Amaury inherited his father's Frenc ...
People of the Albigensian Crusade
Christians of the Barons' Crusade
Constables of France