Chapter 4: Of Duke Renaud the Crusader, and his first ten years as duke
The boy Renaud was raised at the court of King Philippe Augustus of France, alongside the King’s children. He was betrothed for sometime to Philippe’s eldest daughter Eustachie, but plans for such a marriage had to be abandoned when the Pope refused to provide the necessary dispensation for it. From a young age, he was treated with great respect and reverence, being valued not only as the King’s kinsman, and the heir to great lands, but also as a potential rival to Angevin rule in England.
In 1203, Renaud, aged seven, met his father duke Thomas of Savoie for the first time, for his marriage to Elizabeth, the thirteen year old daughter and heiress of King Richard of England. King Philippe was not told of the marriage, which took place in Turin. Despite being motherless, and lacking a true father figure (although it seems he modelled himself upon King Philippe) Renaud grew up a strong and forceful boy, although he was dominated by the headstrong Elizabeth, with whom he lived from the time of the marriage, and who did not fail to remind him of her own worth as heiress of the Angevin empire. After short stays in England and Brittany, Renaud and Elizabeth were installed in Boulogne, and their lands (the counties of Boulogne and the Vexin, together with Amiens which was held by one of Renaud’s vassals) were governed by capable administrators appointed by King Philippe. It appears that Elizabeth began to indulge herself with Renaud as soon as he was physically mature (or maybe even before such, although we have no way of knowing), and that the two were very content together.
In late 1206, probably before Christmas, Renaud would have learnt of his father’s death. In January 1207, he was in Paris, where king Philippe confirmed him as duke of Picardy, and formally recognised him as the new duke of Savoie and Mallorca, before going south to claim his inheritance.
Meanwhile, his father’s army had continued their campaign in south France, taking Périgueux, the chief stronghold of Perigord, on December 6th. At King Philippe’s behest, Renaud ordered the Savoyards to continue to march against King Richard, and he also disgraced several Savoyard nobles who attempted to pressure him to renounce his rights to Jerusalem (whose revenues now supplied the chief source of income for the ducal treasury), so that a Crusader state could be re-established there. On January 15th, Bordeaux fell, and Renaud and Elizabeth were installed there, whilst the soldiers marched into Agen.
On March 5th, Ghunayya, who had befriended the duchess Elizabeth, bore a daughter, who was called Beatrix, after the dowager duchess Beatrix d’Albon. On the same day, the sixteen year old Elizabeth announced she was now carrying the child, of her ten year old husband Renaud. Many princes who had never met Renaud were greatly surprised at the boy’s extreme youth, but those who had met him were not so affected, as by the age of ten he had already surpassed most men of twenty and thirty in height, strength, intellect, and strength of character, and had already become renowned for his extreme muscularity and body hair!
By May 22nd, the Agenais was fully conquered, and Renaud’s men went north to besiege Poitiers.
On June 20th, cathartic zealots at Renaud’s court disagreeing with catholic fundamentalists erupted into a full out riot, during which Renaud’s half-brother Aymar “le Hierosolymitain”, the Jerusalemite, was killed. It was said the murder of the child, who was thought of as blessed for having been born in the Holy City, by the heretic cathars, was intentional, and from then on Renaud was a staunch persecutor of all heretical beliefs.
In August, Boulogne fell to King Richard and his men, but soon after on September 9th Poitiers succumbed, and Renaud and Elizabeth hurried north to be installed in Poitiers as duke and duchess, although when they arrived no clergymen could be found who would anoint them.
On December 8th, Elizabeth gave birth, to a healthy male child, who was given the name Roger ‘the Poitievin’, after the Norman kings of Sicily of that name, and the place of his birth.
On January 12th, 1208, Renaud and his army met with King Richard at Angers, in Anjou. The cities of Poitiers and Bordeaux, together with Perigord, the Agenais, and the Limousin, together with Boulogne (which Richard had captured) were given to Renaud, who also received the earldom of Kent in England, as the dowry of his wife Elizabeth (although he had already received the Vexin as her dowry) and also as a safeguard for his future succession to England. In the meantime, Renaud renounced all his rights to the crown of England for Richard’s lifetime.
Triumphant, Renaud returned to Savoie, where he provided for the government of his realm. Bonifacio, husband of his aunt Eleonore, was finally given his patrimony of Montferrato. Two of Renaud’s household officials from Boulogne, Charles de Boves and Robert de Fontaintes, were forced to enter the clergy, and were made bishops of Limousin and Perigord respectively. Lastly, Renaud’s uncle Robert was given the Agenais, which he ruled with the assistance of his wife Violante, former lady of Zaragoza.
On January 18th, 1208, the Pope announced the end of the Crusade for Burgos, which had been recaptured by King Alfonso of Castille.
It appears that the Papal Nuncio, sent to tell Renaud of the end of the Crusade, was somewhat angered by the young duke, and exacted his vengeance on January 23rd when he excommunicated the heretical Agnes of Vaud, who in the short time following duke Thomas’ death had become a mother of sorts to the young duke.
On February 9th, 1208, Violante bore Robert of Agen a son, who was called Philippe (at Renaud’s urging) after King Philippe, but unfortunately the child died soon after.
On the 13th, Renaud appointed his governess, and rumoured mistress Almodis, to rule the city of Boulogne in his absence. It was not long before she was once again involved in scandal, this time with Renaud’s liegeman Raoul de Coucy, count of Amiens. Sometime after, perhaps in June, Renaud also elevated two highborn noblewoman and courtesans, Aliénor de Riencourt and Cécile de Saint-Valery, to rule Kent and Poitiers in his absence.
On March 30th, the duchess Elizabeth closest friend Ghunayya bore another child, who was called Guigues. Ghunayya’s family had fled back to France after the complete collapse of the principality of Antioch (only her uncle Bohemond remained in the East, as the independent ruler of Archa), where they were landless, although they were now held in much regard there, as they were connected by blood to a great many noble houses. In 1206, her sister Isabelle, in a bid to restore her family to greatness, was bestowed in marriage to Baudoin de Montfort, duke of Normandy, but then brought shame upon herself and her family by abandoning him and marrying Gerald de St John, earl of Hereford. Ghunayya was greatly distressed by this, and refused to have any contact whatsoever with the disgraced Isabelle.
On January 4th, 1209, Elizabeth bore Renaud his second child, a daughter, who was given the name Tiburge, which was also the name of Renaud’s foster mother during his youth.
On January 29th, Renaud’s great-uncle and ally Guillaume, brother of his grandmother Beatrix d’Albon, count of Macon, was attacked by the Emperor. Renaud, however, dishonoured their alliance, and did not come to Guillaume’s aid.
On February 15th, Ghunayya bore yet another child, who was called Ferruccio; he died on March 9th.
In April 1209, the fifth crusade was preached, to liberate Antioch. Renaud was greatly excited by the Crusade, as he was greatly envious of his father’s fame as liberator of Jerusalem, yet for the meantime he was forced to remain in Turin, with the domineering Elizabeth.
On April 2nd, 1210, Ghunayya bore another child, a daughter, called Sybille, who died soon after in August, and was buried alongside her brother Ferruccio.
On March 7th, 1211, Elizabeth, who was then twenty-one, bore the fifteen year old Renaud a second son, who was christened Philippe, after King Philippe, who served as the child’s godfather.
That same month, Livia Zeno, countess of Menorca (widow of Renaud’s great-uncle Peter) renounced her ties of allegiance to Renaud, and placed herself under the support of Pere, king of Aragon. Infuriated, Renaud at once sailed to Narbonne, from where he went south to meet with Pere. However, the ever-diplomatic Pere so impressed the young duke that on April 16th, before his return to Savoie, Renaud did homage to Pere for Savoie and Mallorca.
However, upon his return to Savoie Renaud returned to his former conniving self, and in June he formed a secret alliance with Pedro, King of Léon. Renaud was being increasingly drawn into Iberian politics, although he himself harboured no territorial ambition there. In 1211 King Alfonso of Castille and King Pere of Aragon, together with the Consul of Venice, were at war with the Almohad Empire, which had already conquered all of Castille (king Alfonso being confined once more to Cordoba) and swallowed whole Navarra. The Venetians had assumed charge of the Reconquista, taking Albarracin, Molina, Toldeo, Caceres, La Mancha, and America. Meanwhile, King Richard had been deserted by all his lords, and the kingdom of England was falling apart, with more and more nobles declaring independence, or transferring allegiance to King Philippe.
On July 16th, 1212, Elizabeth bore Renaud a third son, who was called John, after her uncle John, lord of Ireland.
On September 21st, 1212, Livia Zeno, the mistress of King Pere of Aragon, died, and the county of Menorca passed to her sickly son Hugues, who Renaud convinced to pay homage to him.
On November 7th, in Turin, King Philippe Auguste, who had once more been widowed, and had no surviving sons, married Eustachie of Savoie, daughter of Livia Zeno, and cousin of duke Renaud. The marriage improved relations to such an extent that on November 17th, Renaud renewed his allegiance to Philippe. With Renaud’s help, on December 11th King Philippe signed the Treaty of Aosta with the Emperor Engelbrecht (with whom he had been at war), by which the French people were forced to pay the Empire 590©, or 590,000 marks, an extraordinary sum in those days.
By the end of 1212, Philippe held all of the continental Angevin possessions, either by his own right (including Renaud), or through disaffected Angevin vassals, lead by Constance, duchess of Brittany, Guy of Thouars, duke of Poitou, and Baudoin, duke of Normandy. Only the obstinate duke of Anjou refused to acknowledge Philippe as lord, paying allegiance instead to King Raimundo of Portugal, as did the duke of Toulouse, who (having been mysteriously captured by polish crusaders during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land) now paid homage to the Polish Kings. Also, the strategic Pyrenean county of Bearn was held by the Emperor; yet nevertheless, king Philippe had more than quadrupled the size of his kingdom.
In January 11th, 1213 Renaud finally heeded the Pope’s call for a crusade to liberate Antioch, took up the cross, and declared war on Abdul-Haleem, King of the Ayyubids. To rally up support for the crusade amongst his vassals, Renaud went to Mallorca, to raise up a force of the island’s famed slingers and javelin throwers, where he learnt that Joan, who had succeeded Pere as King of Aragon, had attacked Pedro, King of Léon.
Renaud the Crusader
As Renaud’s main force marched through southern Germany and eastern Europe, over Asia Minor, smaller forces, lead by the famed Milanese condottiere Centule Terzi, sailed rapidly across the Mediterranean. Centule took Alexandretta on June 2nd, and the prized city of Antiocheia on September 1st, and was rewarded for his service by being given rule of those places.
On September 2nd, Renaud was met with envoys from the Ayyubids, and was able to make peace with the heathens, who were splintered. Meanwhile, he had already ordered his men to march against the emir of El-Arish. On October 21st, before leaving Jerusalem, Renaud had himself crowned Prince of Antioch.
By January 9th, El-Arish was in crusader hands, and Renaud celebrated by presenting, on the next day, to his host his bastard son Charles, by an Egyptian woman, who had followed his camp. Renaud continued against the Emir, taking Farama (February 10th) Pelusia (March 24th) Sinai (May 5th) Eilat (June 17th) and Darum (July 26th). On July 27th, the day after the fall of Darum, Renaud, now calling himself “Duke of Sinai”, declared war on the Abbasids. The duchess Elizabeth, who was pregnant once more, was installed in Darum alongside Violante, countess of Agen, who on the 28th bore a son, who was named Froilán.
Renaud took Monreal (September 28th), only to leave Jerusalem open to attack, resulting in the city’s capture by the Infidel, on October 10th. Unperturbed, Renaud took Kerak (November 3rd), and turned north toward Jerusalem, which he promptly besieged, and where he learnt of the birth of a daughter, Mascarose, to his wife Elizabeth, at Darum. In February 1215 Renaud made peace, which left him in control of Jerusalem, Monreal, Kerak, and Baalbek, and allowed him to return to Savoie.
On March 9th, in Bordeaux, the marriage of Renaud’s half-sister Jeanne (daughter of duke Thomas and Berenguela) to her great-uncle John, ‘lord of Ireland’, duke of Meath, and brother of King Richard, was finally solemnised.
During the crusade, Hugues the Sick, count of Menorca, had rebelled against Renaud. King Philippe, breaking the truce of God, at once attacked Hugues, and took Menorca for himself. Renaud forgave Hugues, and after the crusade made him count in Pelusia; yet he could not bring himself to forgive the dishonourable Philippe.
Renaud also appointed other, more capable, administrators, to rule his lands in the Holy Land. Chief of them was his half-brother Umberto, whom their father had intended to make King of Jerusalem and Prince of Antioch, was given the county of Baalbek (having returned to Renaud his fief of Lausanne). His grandmother, Beatrix d’Albon, was made countess, and awarded the revenues of Bordeaux, and Piemonte, and Monreal, and Kerak. She was also made lady of Jerusalem for her lifetime, after which the city would return to Renaud.
On August 13th, 1215, Renaud’s second surviving sister Adelaide, was married in Turin to Isnardo da Romano, Doge of Venice. Isnardo was the greatest of all the Doges; by 1215 Venice ruled not only Albaraccin, Molina, Toledo, Caceres, La Mancha, and Almeria in Iberia, but also Fes, Infa, Massat, Marrakech, Anti-Atlas, Ifni, and Tharasset in Morocco. He was also sovereign over Istria and Zadar on the Dalmatian coast, and of the Greek island of Corfu.
On December 6th 1215 Renaud’s cousin Eustachie bore King Philippe a son, who was named Thibaut, after one of his brothers-in-law. Nevertheless, Philippe admitted the child into the succession only after his eight year old grandson Ambrogio Parentucelli, Consul of Pisa, the son of his eldest daughter Eustachie.
On December 29th, 1215 Renaud formed an alliance with Isnardo da Romano, who had spent Christmas with him.
On February 22nd, 1216, King Richard renounced his throne to Guy, Archbishop of York. Guy, who claimed to be the bastard son of King Henry II, and thus Richard’s half-brother, now ascended the throne, although he did not use the style ‘King’, calling himself instead Archbishop. Supported by the Pope, Guy crushed all opposition to his rule, and set about uniting the English kingdom, even exacting homage from the prince John ‘Lackland’, lord of Ireland. Richard, disgraced and humiliated, was allowed to keep the city of Salisbury, and the style Duke of Oxford. Renaud was greatly distressed at this news, and disdained his wife Elizabeth, who was no longer the great heiress she had been, and who had grown even more controlling and jealous with time.
On April 14th, 1216 Renaud’s bastard brother Louis of Malta, married Eirene, the eldest daughter of the Emperor Theodorus. Eirene was thirteen years Louis’ senior, and had previously been married to Isaakios of Naxos, to whom she had borne three daughters: Helene and Eudokia (who died young), and Sophia (born 1212). The marriage was intended the strengthen Savoyard relations with the Byzantine Empire, and to secure a valuable trade monopoly for the Savoyard merchants operating from Bhengazi and Jerusalem in the Orient.
In 1216 Renaud met with King Philippe at Bourges, at a great assembly of the princes of France. Also there was Henri, duke of Bourbon (who had married Adelaide Hohenstaufen, daughter of Agnes of Vaud), the young Joseba de Montcada, duke of Bordeaux (his representative being his indomitable mother Gerberga, sister of Raimundo King of Portugal), Guy de Thouars, duke of Poitou, Constance, duchess of Brittany (widow of Geoffrey, son of Henry II of England), Hugues, duke of Bourgogne, Gaucher of Hainaut, duke of Luxembourg and Flanders (nephew of Philippe’s first wife Isabella), and Simon de Montfort, duke of Normandy. Also in attendance was Philippe’s seneschal, Einion ap Daffydd, count of Angouleme, and uncle of Felipe, the independent duke of Gwynedd and earl of Hereford, who also held the county of Saintogne. Ominous by his absence was Jean de Montoire, who had inherited the duchy of Anjou through his mother, Agnes de Preuilly, who paid liege service to King Raimundo of Portugal, and the Poleophile duke of Toulouse. By 1216, King Philippe’s personal demesne consisted of the counties of Artois, Arques, Avranches, Maine, Touraine, Bourges, Orleans, Auxerre, and Sens. He had his capital at Paris, in the Ile de France.
On June 28th, the Pope issued a papal bull launching the Sixth Crusade, to liberate Valencia from the heathen, encouraged by the success of the past few crusades. Burgos, the last goal, having been lost by the Castilians once more, now formed part of the sprawling Aragonese kingdom, which also consisted of most of historic Castille and Navarra.
On July 6th Renaud received a messenger from his ally Isnardo da Romano, Doge of Venice, asking for Savoyard help to conquer the emirates of Sevilla, Almeria, Valencia, and Constantine, and the sheikdoms of Denia and Algeciras. Renaud was not so eager about this crusade, and did not go to Isnardo’s aid, although he did give the Venetians much money to help fund the crusade (to which the Venetians replied with disdain that they did not need his gold and silver, they had plenty of their own).
On July 19th, 1216, in the Cathedral in Turin, Renaud’s sister Adèle married Henry, count of Mide, the only surviving son of John ‘Lackland’, Lord of Ireland, who had married her sister Jeanne, so that Henry might have a male heir, as by his previous unions he had only two daughters. However, in attendance was Basileios, prince of Trapezous, only son of the Emperor Theodorus, who had been sent as ambassador by his father to fully cement Byzantium’s friendly relations with Savoie. After the ceremony, Adèle, either willingly or by force, was kidnapped by Basileios, and fled with him back to Asia, where they were married according to Orthodox tradition. Renaud was greatly angered by Basileios’ treachery, as he would have willingly let him marry Adèle, and not gone through with the marriage to Henry of Mide. Basileios, either for love or for need of a male heir (he had four daughters but no sons), refused to return Adèle to her relations; on the other hand Henry of Mide refused to marry any other whilst Adèle yet lived. Renaud was not only greatly angered, but also humiliated by his half-sister’s conduct.
On September 2nd, Renaud’s daughter Mascarose died aged two, and was buried alongside the other dead infants of the Savoie house.
As if in divine reparation, on the 16th the princess Eirene announced she was with child by Louis. Renaud did not hold against her her brother’s behaviour, and gave alms to the poor for the health of her baby.
In his first ten years as duke, Renaud greatly expanded his duchy, adding to it the important cities of Bordeaux and Poitiers, together with Perigord, Limousin, and Agen, and the earldom of Kent in England. He also enhanced his own reputation by liberating Antioch from the Infidel, and conquering much land from the Moslems in the East.
