AMEDEUS V, Count of Savoy. — Second son of Thomas of Savoy, lord of Piedmont (in turn a younger son of Thomas I, Count of Savoy) and of Beatrice Fieschi, niece of Pope Innocent IV, he succeeded in 1285 to the inheritance of his uncle Philip I, Count of Savoy, who died without heirs. His accession met with some opposition from his nephew Philip, son of his elder brother Thomas, and from his younger brother Louis; but he indemnified them by ceding to the former his father’s Piedmontese possessions and to the latter the county of Vaud as a fief. The division of the Savoyard states into three groups, established by Amadeus, was a source of trouble for the dynasty. He nevertheless managed to enlarge his domains by marrying Sibylle of Bâgé, lady of Bresse, a territory that proved highly advantageous to the House of Savoy.
Unlike his predecessors, who had been strongly influenced by the English court with which they had close kinship ties, Amadeus drew considerably closer to the French monarchy, which was dominant in the territories of the old kingdom of Arles, between the Alps and the Rhône. Thus the Count of Savoy fought alongside Philip IV the Fair against the English in the Flemish wars, later seeking to act as mediator between the two parties. He nevertheless failed to derive any advantage from his French connections: King Philip IV the Fair behaved with great caution in the disputes between Savoy and the Dauphiné, seeking neither to support one side nor the other.
His second marriage to Mary of Brabant gave great importance to Savoyard policy when his brother-in-law, Henry of Luxembourg, became King of the Romans (1308). During Henry VII’s descent into Italy, Amadeus played a highly significant role, and the emperor expressed his gratitude by conferring upon him the title of Prince of the Empire and recognizing his (then merely theoretical) possession of Asti. After the death of Henry VII, the Count of Savoy again drew near to the French court, where he spent long periods, while his lieutenants governed the state. In Piedmont he pursued a policy of agreement with the Visconti, without however allowing himself to be drawn into the still open conflict with King Robert of Anjou, against whom he nevertheless permitted his nephew Philip of Acaia to conduct military operations. As regards his religious policy, mention should be made of his stormy relations with the Bishop of Geneva over the possession of the city, and of his journey to Avignon to negotiate with Pope John XXII the plan for a crusade. There he died on 16 October 1323 and was buried in the sepulchre of Hautecombe (q.v.).
AMEDEUS VI, Count of Savoy, known as the Green Count. — Son of Aymon, Count of Savoy, and Yolande of Montferrat, born on 4 January 1334 at Chambéry. He was left early an orphan of his mother (1342) and of his father (1343); until he came of age (1348) he was governed by two tutors, Louis II of Savoy-Vaud and Amadeus II, Count of Geneva. His minority marked a grave crisis for the Savoyard dynasty, for in those years the French monarchy succeeded in taking possession of the Dauphiné, thereby encircling the Savoyard state and threatening its very existence. The young Amadeus had to react to this situation, and he did so not by military action but through diplomatic and political means. By the Treaty of Paris (1355) he succeeded in regularizing the borders with the Dauphiné, removing any cause for conflict, while by the acquisition of the Faucigny he eliminated the danger of French interference in his domains. Prudent, he married a French princess, Bonne of Bourbon, so as to render his relations with the court of Paris cordial; but soon he placed in the forefront his ties with the Holy Roman Empire, as vassal and imperial vicar, with the aim of counterbalancing juridically the German influence against the closer and more dangerous influence of France.
He reacted against the disintegrating tendencies within the House by reabsorbing the domains of the Savoy-Vaud branch and firmly binding to himself the princes of the Savoy-Achaea branch, who were eager to create an independent state in their Piedmontese domains. Through skilful diplomacy he sought to detach the marquises of Saluzzo and Montferrat from the influence of the Visconti of Milan; then he did not hesitate to engage in a long diplomatic and military struggle with Galeazzo II and Bernabò Visconti to drive them from western Piedmont and wrest from them the last domains that the Angevins held in Piedmont. Thus he was able to reclaim for the House two highly important strongholds, Biella and Cuneo.
He had vowed to go on crusade to the East, and in 1366 he did not hesitate to organize single-handed an expedition to succour his cousin, the deposed Emperor of Byzantium, John V Palaeologus, fighting first against the Turks at Gallipoli and then against the Bulgarians. From his cousin he obtained the promise that he would abjure the Greek heresy and return to Roman orthodoxy. For this reason, in 1367, upon his return to Italy, he visited Pope Urban V and solemnly escorted him back to Rome, where the Pope was returning from the long Avignon exile. In reality, John V came to Italy in 1369 and at Rome celebrated the union of the two Churches. Amadeus had acquired such prestige in Italy that in the following years the Pope appointed him head of the papal-Italian league against the Visconti; thus later, in 1381, Genoa and Venice turned to his mediation for their eastern disputes. In 1382 he reached an agreement with Louis of Anjou for the reconquest of the kingdom of Naples, but he died during the campaign at San Stefano di Campobasso on 1 March 1383. His body was brought back to his homeland and buried in the ancestral sepulchre of Hautecombe (q.v.).
AMEDEUS VII, Count of Savoy, known as the Red Count. — Son of Aymon, Count of Savoy, and Yolande of Montferrat, born on 4 January 1334 at Chambéry. He was left early an orphan of his mother (1342) and of his father (1343); until he came of age (1348) he was governed by two tutors, Louis II of Savoy-Vaud and Amadeus II, Count of Geneva. His minority marked a grave crisis for the Savoyard dynasty, for in those years the French monarchy succeeded in taking possession of the Dauphiné, thereby encircling the Savoyard state and threatening its very existence. The young Amadeus had to react to this situation, and he did so not by military action but through diplomatic and political means. By the Treaty of Paris (1355) he succeeded in regularizing the borders with the Dauphiné, removing any cause for conflict, while by the acquisition of the Faucigny he eliminated the danger of French interference in his domains.
AMEDEUS VII – AMEDEUS IX
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cession of the county of Nice (28 September 1388) and gave the Savoyards the long-desired access to the sea. Amadeus died at Ripaglia on 1 November 1391 from an illness caused by a wound received in a fall from a horse; his sudden death gave rise to accusations of poisoning and thus to grave trials and innocent victims in the ignorance and grief of his family.