CHALLANT. – A powerful and illustrious feudal family of the Aosta Valley, which probably traces its origins to the marquises of Monferrato (11th century); it received from the counts of Savoy the viscounty of Aosta (late 11th century) and the lordship of Villa C. (13 April 1200), from which the family’s patronymic derives, and from the abbots of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune the investiture of the lordship of Graines (13th century), both located in the Evançon Valley. It renounced the viscounty of Aosta in favor of Amadeus V (25 September 1295) and received from Amadeus VIII (15 August 1414) the hereditary comital title.
To this family are owed the construction of the most beautiful castles of the Aosta Valley and a large part of the works of art still extant in the Valley; it was a benefactor of the Church, not only in the Valley but also in the numerous fiefs it possessed in Piedmont, France, and Switzerland.
This family, which later divided into five branches, reached the peak of its fortune and glory in the 14th–16th centuries; thereafter, while always retaining a distinguished place among the nobility of the Savoyard states, it gradually declined until it became extinct in the early 19th century. Some of its members who exercised notable political and religious influence, rising to the highest offices of the Savoyard state and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, are recalled here.
Peter, son of Gotofredo I, canon and provost of Aosta (24 August 1253), canon (11 April 1255), archdeacon (24 February 1236), and elected archbishop of Lyon (7 April 1287), died on 10 November of the same year. Aymon, brother of the foregoing, canon and bishop of Aosta (from 1272 to 21 December 1273), then transferred to Vercelli (d. 27 May 1303). Ebalo Magno, brother of the foregoing, expanded the fiefs and gave active political collaboration to the count of Savoy (d. 1323). Boniface, brother of the foregoing, archdeacon of Lyon (1287) and canon of Aosta (15 November 1287), papal chaplain, bishop of Sion (15 November 1289), consecrated by Nicholas IV (18 March 1290), died on 18 June 1308. Aymon, son of Gotofredo, lord of Fénis, canon and archdeacon of Aosta, bishop of Sion (July 1308 – 19 July 1323). Gotofredo II, eldest son of Ebalo Magno, senator of Rome (late 13th century), governor of Genoa, married Beatrice Fieschi, niece of Innocent IV. Boniface, brother of the foregoing, prior of Saint-Ours, elected bishop of Aosta (26 October 1375 – 22 August 1376). Ibleto, son of John, statesman and warrior, accompanied Amadeus VI on the expedition to the East (1366), captured and held for a year in the castle of Monjover the bishop of Vercelli, John Fieschi (1277–78), counselor of Amadeus VI, whom he sent to the court of the antipope Clement VII in Avignon to negotiate a new expedition against Naples (1390), died on 21 September 1409. Aymon, son of Gotofredo II, man of arms and skilled politician, counselor to Amadeus VI during the count’s absence in the East (1366), and to Bona of Bourbon, and to Amadeus VII (1383), governor of the duchy of Aosta (1381). ANTONIO, son of the foregoing, born c. 1350, doctor of law, archdeacon of Reims (1388?–1403), chancellor of Savoy (1402–1404), created cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata by the antipope Benedict XIII (9 March 1404).
Challant — Courtyard of the castle at Issogne. Wrought-iron fountain in the shape of a pomegranate tree (early 16th century).
**CHALLANT** (French: *Challant*), noble family of the Val d’Aosta, which played a prominent political and religious role in the history of the House of Savoy from the 14th to the 17th centuries.
1. **Cardinal Aymon de Challant** (d. Aosta, 13 Sept. 1418), archbishop of Tarentaise (3 Aug. 1404), legate to the court of France to induce it to submit to Avignon; took part in the conference of Livorno (June 1408) with the cardinals of Gregory XII, accepted the proposal of a general council, returned to Benedict XIII who disavowed the work of his cardinals at Livorno; took part in the Council of Perpignan (15 Nov. 1408 – 26 March 1409), as president of the special commission proposed to Benedict XIII either to go to the Council of Pisa or to send ambassadors with full powers to resign; this provoked the anger of the antipope, but he managed to flee with his brother Guglielmo, bishop of Lausanne (Feb. 1409); in his capacity as metropolitan of Savoy, he summoned a synod and withdrew the region from obedience to Avignon; he appeared at the session of 6 June 1409 of the Council of Pisa, had to purge himself of the accusation of having supported Benedict XIII, after the convocation of the council he took part in the conclave for the election of Alexander V, was absolved from all censure and reinstated in his benefices (1 July), read the decrees and proclaimed the closing of the council (7 Aug.); took part in the conclave for the election of John XXIII, of whom he became an ardent supporter, was created cardinal priest of the title of S. Cecilia, chancellor and camerlengo; fled from Rome with John XXIII (June 1413), went with Cardinal Zabarella to the emperor Sigismund, who was at Lodi, to obtain protection, returned with the proposal for a council to be held at Constance, which John XXIII reluctantly accepted (July–Aug. 1413). The cardinal of Challant entered Constance with a sumptuous retinue of 80 knights (23 Oct. 1414); throughout the duration of the council he showed himself a supporter of John XXIII and of papal supremacy over the council, but was entrusted with bringing the act of accusation against John XXIII (24 May 1415) and the decree of his condemnation (31 May 1415); took part in the trial against Benedict XIII, condemned on 26 July 1417; participated in the election of Martin V (8 Nov. 1417), read the decrees of the council, including that which fixed the next council at Pavia (19 Apr. 1418). He accompanied Martin V to Lausanne, where he was received by his brother Guglielmo (19 June 1418), retired to Bulle, diocese of Lausanne, and died there on 13 Sept. of the same year, being buried in Aosta.
2. **Guglielmo de Challant** (d. Bulle, 12 March 1431), brother of the foregoing, chancellor of Savoy (1404–1406), bishop of Lausanne (13 Aug. 1406–12 March 1431); notable for his political and religious activity; founded the Casa degli Innocenti (1419), a kind of small seminary, and in his cathedral the chapel of the Innocents, to whom he left his library and sacred furnishings.
3. **Bovarello I de Challant** (d. Pierrechâtel, 26 Feb. 1426), brother of the foregoing, accompanied Amadeus VI in the enterprises against Naples (1382–83), marshal of Savoy (1384–1418), secret counsellor and familiar of Amadeus VIII (1405), delegate of the king of France to pacify the dukes of Berry, Orléans, Bourbon and the counts of Armagnac with the king of Navarre, the dukes of Burgundy and Brabant and the count of Nevers (Sept.–Dec. 1410), ambassador to Genoa (1358), to Avignon (1379, 1411), to Lombardy (1381), to Naples (1381), to Valais (1384, 1387), to Paris (1394, 1398), to Milan (1403), to France (1410, 1412, 1416).
4. **Amedeo de Challant** (d. 1423), brother of the foregoing, counsellor of Amadeus VIII and frequently his ambassador.
5. **Giacomo de Challant** (d. 14 June 1459), son of the foregoing, frequently ambassador of the duke of Savoy, met the antipope Felix V in the Val d’Aosta and accompanied him to Turin (1449), took part in the conspiracy against the favourites of the duchess Anna of Cyprus and was exiled (28 June 1451), later reinstated in his offices (1456).
6. **Gioncino de Challant** (d. 30 Dec. 1509), nephew of the cardinal and son of Amedeo, lord of Varzy, protonotary apostolic, archdeacon of Aosta, canon of Lyon (19 Nov. 1453), prior of S. Orso (c. 1468), governor of the duchy of Aosta, rebuilt the castle of Issogne (1494 ff.), great patron of the arts, died 30 Dec. 1509.
7. **Renato de Challant** (b. in the Val d’Aosta towards the end of 1503, d. Ambronay, July 1565), son of Filiberto, lord of the principality of Valangin (Neuchâtel, from 1518), as marshal of Savoy (1523–65) took an active part in all the critical political, military and religious events that made the reigns of Dukes Charles III and Emmanuel Philibert so difficult; he served them with noble loyalty to the point of enduring long imprisonment and paying a huge ransom (18 Nov. 1553–June 1555); negotiated the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559); established the Senate of Savoy at Chambéry (12 Aug. 1559). As governor of the duchy of Aosta he effectively contributed in 1536 to driving Protestantism from the valley. He first named his daughter Filiberta, then Isabella (married to Giovanni Federico Madruzzo of Trent on 1 Oct. 1557), his heiress in defiance of Val d’Aostan customs, sanctioned by the Three Estates, and of the family pact; this gave rise to a long and ruinous family lawsuit that ended with a ruling in favour of the Challant brothers (23 June 1696). By then the family was in decline. What remained of the immense fortune of the Challants passed, in the middle of the last century, to the Passerin d’Entrèves counts, who preserve in the castle of Châtillon the well-ordered archive (cf. the inventory of 1565 published by G. Boson in *Société Acad. rel. et scient. du Duché d’Aoste*, XXIIe bulletin, Aosta 1929) and the remains of the library of this illustrious family. Many papers of the same family are kept in the State Archive of Turin.
The arms of the Challants were: *d’argent au chef de gueules et à la bande de sable* (the five cadet branches have the bend charged with a different mark of cadency) with the motto: *Tout est monde et le monde n’est rien*, which originally must have been: *Dieu tout est et le monde n’est rien*.
previous article, the author was an agent of the Madruzzo); J.-B. de Tillier, *Traité historique du nom, armoiries et autres prérogatives des maisons et familles nobles du Duché d'Aoste*... 1733, pp. 77-156, ms. conserved in the archive of the Sorloy Castle (Aosta); L. Vaccarone, *I. C. e le loro questioni per le successioni ai fendi dal sec. XII al XIX sec.*, Torino 1893; F. Carta, *Di un messale valdostano del sec. XV*, Roma 1895; J. Beyssac, *Georges de C.*, Lyon 1899; F.-G. Frutaz, *Notes sur René de C. et sur le passage de Calvin en Vallée d'Aoste*, extract from *Musée neuchâtelois*, 1904; id., *Les marquis de Montferrat dans la Valle d'Aoste au XIe siècle* (*Miscellanea di studi in onore di A. Manno*, I), Torino 1912, pp. 187-98; J. Beyssac, *Les Chanoines de l'Eglise de Lyon*, Lyon 1914, pp. 57, 60, 80, 136-37; C. De Antonio, *Aosta al tempo di Em. Filberto* (*Biblioteca della Soc. stor. subalpina*, 107), Torino 1928; E. Dalio, *Le miniere degli C. in Valle d'Aosta*, 1919; F. Neri, *La contessa di C.*, in *Giorn. stor. d. letterar. ital.*, 98 (1931), pp. 225-54; M. Reymond, *Guillaume de C., év. de Lausanne 1906-17*, in *Société acad. rel. et scient. du Duché d'Aoste, XXIII-bülletin*, Aosta 1934, pp. 40-62; D. L. Galbreath, *Armorial vaudois*, I, Bouzy-sur-Carens 1934, pp. 106-107; id., *Inventaire des sceaux Vaudois*, Lausanne 1937, pp. 16, 31, 178; *Armorial Valaisan*, published by the cantonal archives, Zurich 1946, pp. 54-56.
For Cardinal ANTONIO cf. the following sources: Acts of the Councils of Perpignan, 15 Nov. 1408–26 Mar. 1409 (ed. Fr. Ehrle, in *Archiv. für Lit. und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters*, 5 (1880), pp. 388-492; 7 (1900), pp. 574-606) of Pisa of 1409 and of Constance of 1414-18 (*Mansi*, XXVI-XXVIII); Bull of excommunication fulminated by Benedict XIII, 20 Mar. 1410, in *Miscellanea Ehrle*, III (*Studi e Testi*, 39), Roma 1924, pp. 144-48; among the many chronicles of the period, we recall only the following: M. de Alparths, *Chronica acti-tationum temporibus Benedicti XIII*, ed. Fr. Ehrle, Paderborn 1906; *Acta varia de schismate Pontificum Avenienseum*, in Ed. Martène, *Thesaurus novus anecdotorum*, II, Paris 1717, pp. 1073-1753, (cf. pp. 1304, 1344, 1426, 1427, 1452-54, 1458-1459, 1481), where among other things is found at pp. 1435-1528 the *Tractatus pro defensione Benedicti XIII* by Bonifacio Ferrer, opponent of C.; Leonardo Bruni, called Arctino, *Rerum suo tempore gestarum commentarius*, ed. C. di Pierro, in the new ed. of *RIS*, XIX, III (Bologna 1926), pp. 425-58; *Chronicon fratris Hieronymi de Forolivo ab a. 1397 usque ad a. 1423*, ed. A. Pasini, ibid., XIX, v (ivi 1931); U. von Richental, *Concilium ze Costenz 1414-18*, pp. 204, 320, photographic reproduction curated by H. Sevin of the original manuscript of this chronicle, illustrated with witty drawings, conserved in the archive of the count of Königsberg at Au-lendorf (Karlsruhe 1880); S. Vesan, *Le card. Antoine de C.* in *Societé acad. rel. et scient. de Duché d'Aoste, XIXe bülletin*, Aosta (1906), pp. 315-408.
A. Pietro Frutaz